Andrew Sickler moved his trailer-making business to Blue Earth’s Golden Spike Business Park in October of 2022. He and his crew have been busy making and shipping custom-made HeavyLite Trailers all over the United States. He eventually hopes to expand his business in Blue Earth.

HeavyLite Trailers, LLC, began as a business in 2021. However, they did not move to their location in Blue Earth’s Golden Spike Business Park until October of 2022.

“We needed to move to a commercial property to obtain a commercial dealer’s license,” owner Andrew Sickler explains.

Sickler is no stranger to building and designing trailers and working with metal. Before starting his business, he had worked for Winnebago Industries in Forrest City, Iowa, Jones Metal of Mankato and had helped build semi trailers for 12 years.

“One of the places I worked would actually purchase semi trailers that had been in a wreck,” he explains. “Examining the wrecks gave me a good opportunity to learn what design elements on the trailers were better than others.”

Sickler, who says he moved to the Easton area when he was about 12 years old, expresses his satisfaction with getting his new business off the ground.

“We have basically achieved our 3-5 year goals in the first 3-5 months,” Sickler says. “We already have 14 dealers located throughout the United States.”

And, he mentions, he is booked out for over a year on orders.

“As soon as we have enough trailers built for delivery, they are gone,” Sickler notes. “The guys at Yeager Implement have been great about loading our trailers for shipment. Over 90 percent of our trailers leave the state.”

Sickler mentions HLT, as the business is referred to, builds pretty much any kind of trailer someone wants.

“Except semi trailers. We don’t do those,” he comments. “Most of our trailers are custom orders.”

Different colors are one of the options HLT offers. While most of the industry paints their trailers black, HLT will paint their trailers whatever color the customer wants.

“We have some purple trailers heading out to New York,” Sickler notes.

Painting their trailers different colors is not the only custom option HLT offers.

“Some customers want different heights on the sides of our dump trailers,” Sickler says. “Others want the sides built out of a heavier guage metal.”

One thing which is standard on all of their trailers is the ability to adjust the height of the hitch.

“Not every pickup is set up the same,” he points out. “This gives people the flexibility to match our trailer to their needs.”

The trailers are built from start to finish right in Blue Earth. Most of their metal comes from a company in eastern Minnesota.

“We have not had too many problems with materials we need being available,” he comments. “However, we have had some delays in getting some things shipped to us.”

The trailers HLT produces are used by a wide variety of businesses, whether it is farmers, cities, construction companies, or people with a lawn mowing business.

“We manufacture dump trailers, utility trailers, car trailers and equipment trailers,” Sickler says. “Because we offer custom options, the weight on the same trailer could vary by as much as 2,000 pounds based on the different options someone chooses – such as the thickness of the metal.”

Most of the trailers they build have wood decks, according to Sickler.

“But, we will make the deck out of diamond plate steel if that is what someone wants,” he adds.

HLT also does repair work on any model of trailer.

“We will repair about anything that needs welding,” Sickler shares. “We have fixed snowblowers and lawn mowers.”

The company also owns a plasma cutter and Sickler says they plan to offer custom signs in the near future. “I’m just not sure how near,” he says, smiling.

Sickler credits his vast experience with a variety of companies to helping get his business off to a good start.

“I was able to see what works and what doesn’t work,” he comments.

Though his business is still in its infancy, Sickler is already thinking about expanding at his current site.

“I would like to see interest rates come down first,” he notes. “And, I need to be able to find more workers.”

Sickler is already looking for more help and is in need of someone who can wire up the trailers along with helping to build them.

“I have three full-time workers besides myself,” he says. Brenden Duer, Tyler Bromeland and Jason Zempel are the guys working with me.”

As the business grows, Sickler says he would like to build a rental fleet at his business in Blue Earth.

“I would put the rental fleet together from trade-ins we would take in when people bought new trailers,” he explains. “I am also looking to possibly do some consignment selling for customers who are looking to sell their old trailers.”

He says the name HeavyLite reflects their goal to build heavy-duty trailers but keep them as light as possible.

“I don’t really have an end goal,” he mentions. “I really believe that by producing quality trailers the sky is the limit.”