Shed Geek Podcast
Celebrating 40 Years: Woody's Journey in Trucking and Shed Hauling PART 2
Do financial struggles and unforeseen accidents point to something deeper than just bad luck? Join me as I recount a particularly challenging summer in the shed business, where financial woes and strained relationships led to a profound realization about the importance of divine blessing. Listen to my heartfelt reflections on selling my house to pay off debts and ultimately closing the business, highlighting that success requires more than just hard work and meticulous management.
As we turn the page, discover the transformative journey of acquiring King Transport and the birth of Woody's Transport. From purchasing new trucks to restoring a wrecked truck named "Second Chance," the story underscores persistence and community support. Reflect on 40 years and nearly 4 million miles in the trucking industry, exploring the evolution of societal perceptions of truck drivers. Finally, get inspired by an unexpected shift from carriages to sheds, showing that adaptability is key in any business venture. Don't miss these compelling stories of perseverance, faith, and transformation.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Do financial struggles and unforeseen accidents point to something deeper than just bad luck? Join me as I recount a particularly challenging summer in the shed business, where financial woes and strained relationships led to a profound realization about the importance of divine blessing. Listen to my heartfelt reflections on selling my house to pay off debts and ultimately closing the business, highlighting that success requires more than just hard work and meticulous management.
As we turn the page, discover the transformative journey of acquiring King Transport and the birth of Woody's Transport. From purchasing new trucks to restoring a wrecked truck named "Second Chance," the story underscores persistence and community support. Reflect on 40 years and nearly 4 million miles in the trucking industry, exploring the evolution of societal perceptions of truck drivers. Finally, get inspired by an unexpected shift from carriages to sheds, showing that adaptability is key in any business venture. Don't miss these compelling stories of perseverance, faith, and transformation.
For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube at the handle @shedgeekpodcast.
To be a guest on the Shed Geek Podcast visit our website and fill out the "Contact Us" form.
To suggest show topics or ask questions you want answered email us at info@shedgeek.com.
This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Union Grove Lumber
Welcome back to part two of a two-part episode. Be sure to go back and listen to part one. You might've missed something. Hope you enjoy the conversation today.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And throughout the summer. It was just. I don't know, I can't describe it, I can't explain it.
SAM BYLER:Everything was hard.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It just didn't work out. We were always $1, $100, $1,000 short, it just didn't matter what. And then we said, oh, here we got a nice check, but it was all swallowed up in bills and it was just I don't know, I cannot explain that. And it took me. Well, we went to August I believe it was of that year and I finally I said, well, I pulled my guys together and told them. I said I'm digging a hole. I said I cannot keep going like this.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I was already in the hole now and I did not. And I kept watching my house. I knew if I would sell, it would have enough of collateral oh yeah, we could, yeah, pay off yep. So at that point, that's when I decided I'm not going to go further than this. So we sold the house, probably about a half year later. About a half year later, we sold the house and then we used that money to pay off the remaining debt, the dead horse.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:However, things happened that summer and one of the guys got hurt. It just I don't know. Like I said, it just did not work out.
SAM BYLER:So you know why.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:now, like I've heard you say why, Well, I figured that out a long time later I shouldn't even say a long time later, I shouldn't even say a long time, but I cannot point back to when I realized that it did not work out because I did not have God's blessing on the business, but everything I did, because with Johnny Boom I was his driver, this was his dealer, and I ran off with one of his best customers against his wishes and against his blessing, off with one of his best customers, against his wishes and against his blessing. And during that time, you know well, our phone conversations were not always nice.
SAM BYLER:Yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It was argumentative or finger pointing. I did this and you did that, and I said you said this and you said that, and it was just, it was just not the way it should have been. The bottom line is is uh, I, I, uh my eyes and my realization my eyes were open, my realization in my mind that how, how god's blessing works in in in our daily lives, our daily things, we do our job or whatever it is, it's a pretty phenomenal thing if you really sit back and think about the whole thing.
SAM BYLER:This is the part where, when you said that at the banquet, I wanted to just stop and I wanted everybody to just sit there and think about that for a minute, because I see so many guys that are doing it right, they're struggling along and we wonder why. So you know, you could have said well, you know, maybe I'm just a bad business manager, maybe I don't know what I'm doing. You know, you can come up with all kinds of excuses and stuff or legit reasons. I shouldn't say excuses, but reasons, and I've been there many times that. I've been there and when you said that, I could see it across the audience and I knew. For me personally, it's like how many times have I tried to do something when I knew I didn't have God's blessing on it and then the next time it's like what? It just happens.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Yeah, and I don't know how this is at the bash, I wasn't sure. I wish I think back. I wish I would have said do you guys follow me? Are you guys following here? What?
SAM BYLER:happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that would have, yeah, nine years later. Yeah, so we'll get to that, yep.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So when I was at that point, I'm like you know what? I'm going to leave the shed industry. I'm done. I did not see myself. I did not like my truck anymore. I did not. Well, we were out of money. We were in the hole. I did not have the resources to go and invest in a bigger truck. Hold my fancy air brake trailer, if you want to call it that way. I was out. I was done. At that point I was thinking I'm going to go into construction and I didn't even. We just simply closed up. What was interesting to me and, could I say, mind-boggling a little bit, in the last shed that we made was my own shed and that was a 14 by 24. On a Saturday morning I went back to the shop all by myself. Nobody was around anymore. We pretty well Friday.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I think was the last day the shed was done it was sitting there. I went through the shed and counted Every piece of wood, added up my costs, including the time and labor, of what we put in and what I paid the guys, and it did not make sense. It simply did not make sense If I bigger the costs and what I actually have in that shed and what— you should have been making money.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I should have been making money. It did not make sense and I just like—I just closed it and I just like I just closed it and I just I don't. When did I take the shed home? Maybe it was on a Monday evening.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I had one more week left in the building so I did not have to take it out. I don't think I took it out that day because I did it later, but either way I just in the clothes shop, my brother and my dad came and we loaded up the tools that were left over and took everything home. And I can't remember how that was. But the neighbor man right beside me had a dump truck and I called him. I said could you bring me a couple of little stone?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So we leveled out an area for that it was a little bit of a grade, so powered up a little bit. That shed still sits there no way, that's awesome anyway.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Um, it just didn't make sense. So when I was calling around to sell my, my equipment, my equipment was sold very quickly. The pickup I held on to that for while, but eventually I did sell it out and left that go. But the trailer, the 48 foot trailer. I called King and he goes I want the trailer. He goes what are you going to do? I said I don't know yet. He goes come drive my F800. And I said, well, I said I'm not expecting that, but I said I might consider that. And then I told him I would do it short term and one of the terms or one of the how do I say? A statement that he made struck to me. He goes there's still a buck to be made in trucking, that's what kind of led me?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:on because at that point that was my interest. I needed to make a buck. Really seriously I did, and he had this F800. Not a bad little truck, 240 horsepower, it was a 10 speed. It was a dog, it was all on there.
SAM BYLER:Especially in these hills. Yeah, yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:We'd go down like 83, which is south of York downshift three gears.
SAM BYLER:Yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And now with our Pete's? We don't you don't even shift. We don't downshift nothing, Not on any of those hills. Yeah Well your.
SAM BYLER:Pete's. We don't. You don't even shift, we don't downshift nothing, not on any of those hills. Yeah well, your Pete's might be a little special too. I don't think they're standard either.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I drove the F800 for about 10 months, put just right at 100,000 miles, and then he upgraded me to a Ford Aeromax which was like a larger. It was an 8,000, but it was just a little bit different from the 9,000. Again, it had a little Ford motor. And that truck came from. There was an upfitter in Kentucky, I believe it was, that was building the hotshot rigs.
SAM BYLER:Yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And he bought it from them. Okay, and that was not a bad truck. Again, it was just a little on the low horsepower side. The motors was definitely pretty much the same thing, only it had a 270 instead of a 240 horse. I drove that truck for maybe two years and that's when Ivan King was steering towards the Pete. He had a 91, I believe it was. That would have been a 90. Okay, let me think of it towards the Pete's. He had a 91, I believe it was. That would have been a 90.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Okay, let me think of it Now it's 92, 93. So this truck was only a couple of years old. It was actually a really sweet Pete. It had a 3176, a 350 horse. Oh yeah. And what a difference. Now you had the lower RPM, higher torque engine versus the, the little ones had the higher rpms with the low torque. It was just night and day different you could grab your gears and lug them out and go that's cool and uh, ivan rode out the f800s till they were.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Well, not just the f800, both fords till they at 400 000 miles, everything just the F800, both Fords till they at 400,000 miles. Everything started going wrong with those trucks. And he just threw his hands up and said get these trucks out of here. And he ordered a 94, and a year later the 95 came and the 95 was mine and I put about 600,000 miles on that. Here's what's interesting Tomorrow, that 95 is going to be here in my driveway.
SAM BYLER:Tomorrow.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Yes, wow, no, not tomorrow, today, today.
SAM BYLER:Today yes.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:He's bringing it. Yes, so that truck's still hauling sheds.
SAM BYLER:Campbell.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Miller is the proud owner of that truck and he's going to bring it over.
SAM BYLER:Wow Much fun.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:The truck is still in its original finish or its paint.
SAM BYLER:No way.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It looks a little rough, yeah, needless to say mechanically-wise, it's been rebuilt and kept on the road.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Wow, so in 99, let me think a little bit here. In 1999, on a Saturday morning, I got a phone call from a guy named Ben and he said I would like for you, or what level of interest do you have in buying your own truck and hauling for me? My first answer was and it didn't take me long to get this answer out I said I'm interested only if I can have Ivan's blessing, because this was Ivan's account. I was Ivan's driver and I did not want to be a driver running off with an account against his wishes and without his blessing. I was not about to repeat myself from nine years earlier and Ivan did not agree to it. And I told Ivan. I said, hey, don't worry about it.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And at that conversation, that meeting, he tells me well, he goes. I wasn't going to tell you this now but I will. He goes. I have a brand new Pete ordered for you and at that time when you ordered a Pete, you had to wait like 10 months and that was. It was right about 10 months. So that truck came in at the end of 99.
SAM BYLER:Okay.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And just before Thanksgiving, ivan tells me he sold King Transport. I'm like what? And I had just gotten the brand new trailer and the Pete was still sitting in Lancaster. And he told me he wanted to wait till after Thanksgiving to do anything with the Pete. Well, now I knew why. And so now the Pete was still sitting there. There was no owner, no title nobody had bought the truck yet.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And while we went and did our Thanksgiving, and when I came back from Thanksgiving back to work, I went in there in his office on Monday and I said I would like to buy the new Pete. And he says, well, you're going to have to talk to the new owners, yeah, which was Sam Stolfsfus. And so I went to talk to Sam and Sam said, oh, you can have it, you can have it. Then I said I'd like to buy a trailer. Oh, we'll sell you a trailer. Are you following me here? It was like, oh, you can have it. Oh, yeah, we'll sell you a trailer, but nine years earlier everything was a fight.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Everything was like no, you're not. No, no, no, yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes. It was everything. Oh, you can have it. We'll sell you a trailer. Everything was opposite.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, it was just Even from what Ivan had said just a little before he sold it, that he didn't want you picking up that account. Oh, that was over when he sold those accounts were not locked in.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Everything was wide open, and Ben told me a year earlier that he was going to let the door open for me anytime when I wanted it.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:He wasn't going to close that door. Ben and I had well, we knew each other from little up and he just thought that would be a good deal, and I did too. But I wasn't going to do it without God's blessing. And, needless to say, I knew then that I was going to need more trucks. I knew right away I was going to need two. When I did get the second truck Furnace Road. Even in 2000 was my first year I wasn't able to keep up. I hired guys.
SAM BYLER:Oh yeah, to help.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Zook, probably my number one. There was another guy named Mel Mel Stolzfus but did some loads. So we were in, you know, all in the same community and yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll help you out, we'll take a load out for you, and that worked out real nice. But I had a neighbor guy. He goes I want loads for you Saturdays and he did that a lot of that, and so we kept the truck rolling. It was amazing what we did there. And by the time the second truck was done, the neighbor man came over. He was probably 23, 24 years old.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And he was full of energy and he called himself Mustang, and he wasn't Mustang. Oh my word he was yeah. Again, he was probably in a similar situation where he needed to get out and make some money.
SAM BYLER:Yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And again, you know there was a buck to be made and he did that.
SAM BYLER:Yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:He gave it all. He ran the wheels off that truck and so did I because Funnest Road, we just everything that they had, we just scrambled to get it out. So right away the plan went on we're going to get the third truck. That's when Second Chance came with total wreck.
SAM BYLER:How do I say?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:that Totally demolished truck and this was sitting in a junkyard north of Dallas somewhere in Texas. And I bought the two-year-old truck with 200,000 miles on for $10,000.
SAM BYLER:Oh wow, it was in bad shape. Yes, it was in bad shape, wow.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So we had the truck hauled back to Ohio and there was a guy there in Ohio that was rebuilding trucks. It didn't matter what the condition was, I'll rebuild it. So they rebuilt that and that's where the second chance came in, because we felt that was a good name for the truck, it is To give the truck a second chance.
SAM BYLER:Yep.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And Del Mar, which is Mustang, rode that truck and that's when the third driver came in and the ricochet he's going to be here tomorrow.
SAM BYLER:Mustang obviously could not make it today. Today is today now.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I keep saying tomorrow.
SAM BYLER:Well, it's because it's always been tomorrow. Now it's today. It is today, oh my word.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I'll get it together.
SAM BYLER:Oh no, you're good.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So anyway, yeah, that's where Woody's Transport we just ran and ran, ran and ran. Yes, yes, and so when 04 came along, I made an agreement with my dad for having some land where we are today, and at that point we started pursuing the building permits, which is pretty much two years in process.
SAM BYLER:Oh my.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So we started that process probably in 2000. And as long as the bills, there was an attorney. I guess you could call it attorney or land planner, I think that's what the? It was called a planner or something. He was a local guy from here and as long as I kept paying his bills, he kept moving forward oh nice and one time he says hey, you're ready for your perk tests and your permits, and so, of course, as we kept, for your perk tests and your permits, and so of course, as we kept going the perk tests are for sewage I had to get a sewage permit before I could get a building permit and the sewage permit officer was a local guy.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Here he goes. You can come out to my house tonight, I get you a permit. So I went to his house and went right in his kitchen. I sat there on his kitchen table and he wrote me out his permit. I came home. I went to the township office the next day and came home with my building permit With your building permit.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Oh my word, that was amazing. And what was really amazing during this time I was calling my loan officer and I knew this loan officer. I was borrowing money along the way to buy these trucks and trailers and he said I told him, I said I needed money to order my basement walls. I used precast concrete walls.
SAM BYLER:Oh, yeah, yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Which were sitting in my basement right now. We used precast country walls and I had a friend, a personal friend, that was the weaver of the weaver precast was the owner of that, or part owner anyway. And he told me where to go for the local rep and it was in this guy's basement and he said, yeah, you just go in, pull up to his house garage store and you go through the garage store and go down his basement. And he was sitting in there. Yep, yep, I called him. You know, he knew.
SAM BYLER:I was coming.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And I had a blueprint and we ordered the walls. I had to leave a check there.
SAM BYLER:Oh yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And the banker said oh yeah, just write the check, he goes. When I get that check, I'll cover it for you. And so, of course, now we needed another one once we had the wall set and now we wanted the local lumber yard to come in with the lumber he goes. Yeah, just keep writing checks. I did well over $100,000 in checks before we ever met and signed papers, oh wow. That's awesome and because I was like the general. I could get the 10% discounts if I paid within 10 days.
SAM BYLER:Oh, yeah, yeah, All the bills from the lumber yard that ended up being thousands and thousands. Oh yeah, that makes a big difference, so I made phone calls.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I got electricians recommendations. My neighbor next door to me was a plumber slash farmer at that point and he worked his butt off. I mean, we went through this in here in the basement door in the stone dug little ditches put little drain pipes and stuff in for, like, the kitchen sink and all that stuff. All those pipes were laid and a mechanical room in the back bathroom.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Everything did all that in the evening, when, after yeah, yeah and uh yeah, so everything was just went together and I had plumbers, electricians grouper was a friend uh, small family business um the siding. I came the siding and the shingles came from Furnace Road at cost no way that's cool at cost an ex shed hauler which would have been Pickers' brother was doing siding, a one man show, and he did the entire house all by himself, wow. So all he had to do was bring his equipment, his jacks, his scaffolding, and it didn't matter how long it took him. He did a very nice job.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, you have an absolutely beautiful place so everything was just.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:it was really amazing how everything came together, and by the time we were done we went over a little bit, and so we sold our other house in Farmersville. We used that to get back up to where we were in our quota, and the bank that we were dealing with was supposedly merged with another bank, and so that made it a little bit more difficult.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I was no longer dealing with the local as many local guys as I was in the beginning, and so, instead of because of the property unique property that we have here the value of the property was way more than what I spent.
SAM BYLER:Oh yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And so we went with a home equity loan. Okay. All we had to do was just sign paperwork and we had a home equity loan and we never actually had an official mortgage.
SAM BYLER:Official yeah mortgage.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And the home equity loan. I could save a little interest if I ran automatic pay every two weeks.
SAM BYLER:Yep.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And so, to make that work, we set up a separate checking account for that. All we had to do was just make sure there's money in there you know, for that mortgage.
SAM BYLER:And that worked out fine.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It worked out good. We had the place paid off in 12 years.
SAM BYLER:Nice yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:That was huge for me, but it worked it is that's awesome and it worked.
SAM BYLER:It is that's awesome and it is it's phenomenal. I love coming and hanging out here your basement kitchen and stuff is you got the little booths and all that. I love it, it's cool.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So in the end of I think it was in 17, when I became overwhelmed, we had six trucks here at Woody's and I was like I can't say I was burning out. But there was many times I was working on trucks to midnight.
SAM BYLER:Oh my, and 5 o'clock the next morning I was out with the rest of the guys running down the road.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It didn't matter where we went. I was right there and we were always running together. We ran 10 loads a week up to Connecticut every week and to the same place. We went to Virginia four loads. We had New Jersey, we had New York, we were all over the place, wherever whatever we did it, and in 17, at the end of 17, I said you know, I had enough and I made a hard decision and a tough decision to pull out from Furnace Road pull my trucks out of Furnace Road.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Ben didn't think I was making the right decision, but I told him. I said you have more work than what I want.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And he knew that. Yeah. So road got out and guys jumping out of the woodwork hey, I want that, I want one of your trucks. And it didn't take long. I sold three trucks in a hurry real fast. And yeah, ben and I we still call each other up and hey how you doing, where are you at today, and yeah, so it's been good Ben will be here tonight.
SAM BYLER:Oh good, and he's going to celebrate with us.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Yeah, and it's going to be great. I wish for any one of you guys out there. Man, if you get this podcast before tonight, come on out.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, I wish you would Don't miss it. It takes a little while for us to get our act together and get it. By the time they get this they'll be like that was two months ago.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Anyway, 40 years went by and it's hard to believe I'm just shy of 4 million miles. The reason I'm shy of 4 million in 40 years is because my first seven years with the little pickup I did not get the miles. There was a lot of local and New Jersey, a little bit New York and a little bit of Connecticut with that little truck, but Jersey all day long. Jersey and Delaware, yes, delaware.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:There was a couple guys in Delaware maybe, yes, so just a lot of local stuff. We just didn't get the miles, like I do today, yeah, like yeah yeah, and when I went with King I'm like, oh, my goodness, this is nuts. I was not programmed, quite like that. But I survived, could I say, and I made it and I stuck to it and we did. Yeah, king was great. We made a buck, we did, and then we were able to bring in.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:We bought a house again after a couple years from, uh, after the hauling, yep, so we did fine, and then we were able to upgrade our family vehicles and so forth so, yeah, we did fine and I I can't say nothing bad and wish I had some of the skills Could I say, if I call it skills or management that King had. And how did he do that? We often talk about it. How did he do that? How did he get us guys to do what? We did and to sign up the trucks and to watch them every week. It was just amazing. We kind of like urged each other along, oh yeah.
SAM BYLER:Each other along. However, you want to say that.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And the King drivers. I think they will all be here today.
SAM BYLER:Oh, that's cool.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So that will be a little bit of a oh yeah, they still got a little bit of that.
SAM BYLER:Oh, that would be good, absolutely yeah, so any surprises today.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Not, really, not, really, not, really, not, really, not really Okay.
SAM BYLER:No announcement of like. So by the time this comes out, the day will be over. So no worries there. But how much more is in the tank?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:What tank?
SAM BYLER:Your tank.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I don't know that. Somebody asked me that question the other day. You still feel good. I have no plans on a given year or age to retire. I enjoy what I do. It's not hard to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and go trucking.
SAM BYLER:It's not hard, but you didn't, so it sounds like when I listened to what you said at the beginning of at the banquet and here, it doesn't sound like you grew up wanting to drive trucks Like, or did you have a thing for diesel back then?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Yes.
SAM BYLER:My dad told me when I was like probably 11 or 12 years old he's like you need a steering wheel. It was just a given. I grew up building houses and sheds and all kinds of stuff I was not able to talk about that well, that's true as much as I love big trucks so you did have the big truck thing going on, so that was there yeah, well, okay me.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:As a kid. We had bicycles, so that was my motorcycle. So I didn't have anything to be my big truck. I didn't have nothing. Now, when dads pick up, we would try to act like we're driving shift them like that, that kind of thing.
SAM BYLER:Jake breaks all that.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It was not a thing that a Christian or a family man should do. Yeah.
SAM BYLER:We did have that. I even remember as a young adult. There in Kentucky there was a couple guys that drove trucks and they were kind of looked down on.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:It's not a good thing, you know. Excuse me.
SAM BYLER:It's not a good thing.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I can say this now my dad told me when I started buying and hauling Little Red Barns, he goes just don't buy one of those Peterbells, oh boy.
SAM BYLER:Yep, we've kind of heard that.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Nobody had Peterbells. My mom, I said no, I had Peter Bell. I said no. I said Dad, I said we all should.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, we're going to use Forbes, because that's what we have to have.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And we didn't. Nobody knew what was going to happen. We didn't know that it was going to go to where it did today. We didn't know we were going to be running Canada, and you know 600 miles across multiple state lines. We didn't know we were going to be running Canada, and you know 600 miles across multiple state lines. We didn't know that that was not going on 40 years ago no.
SAM BYLER:It was not and now you know we talk about how many semi-trucks run out of Lancaster County every day.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Well, one of the biggest things that lit that whole thing was a guy named Keith Cloder. Keith Cloder was from the Is that Cloder Farms? Oh yeah. And he went to the Big E, which is the state expedition show for the state of Rhode Island, connecticut and Maine. It was combined the three states into one in Springfield Mass, which is just north of Hartford yeah, straight north of Hartford. And Keith Clodagh was a dealer in big carriages, buggies with the big wheels, and he thought it would be cool to be at this biggie show with the carriage in a shed.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Oh, in a shed, yeah, so he bought a shed here at Lancaster from Land Structures and had it chucked up by a guy named Tiny who was Tiny, I'm not sure. But he trucked it up with no permits, nothing. That's how Tiny was.
SAM BYLER:Oh yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And he got it there. And at the show there was more people interested in the shed than the carriages. The light came on and Keith began to realize I'm promoting the wrong product. And Keith began to realize I'm promoting the wrong product. And that's when Keith and that was pretty new to be at that- time for someone to buy wholesale and sell retail.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And Sam Stolster was one of Mel. Well, that was not Mel, yet it was Eli Lance Lance Structures.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, okay.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Drivers. And so Sam had a friend, claire Beiler, as a welder. So Sam and Claire were friends and Sam could say, claire, I need for you to build a trailer like this, like this, yeah. And so it was Claire and Sam that they banged their heads together.
SAM BYLER:That's where the customization stuff started.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:That's where this whole thing got started, where David Fisher got the idea well, I can make a trailer like that.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, true.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And that's where it got started. So Sam would go up to Connecticut there and show Keith and his son Jason how to deliver sheds. And he actually took trailers up and said this look, this is how. And so Sam overstepped. Well, he did not overstep, but he went over and beyond to help them and show them the ropes, show them how to do it, yeah.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And a lot of people saw what's going on there and followed after it. People saw what's going on there and followed after it. Yeah, and when the Clotel thing when they started getting three loads a week, they thought this was mind-blowing. Clotel grew really fast, yeah, yeah, I mean very fast. And when I said earlier, what year would it have been? 2000? Well, it wasn't 2000 right away. It would have been that 2000. Well, it wasn't 2000 right away, it would have been by 2004. We were on 10 loads a week.
SAM BYLER:that was only the vinyl sided sheds yes, that was not the gazebos, that was not the other wood stuff and we were still on a lower percentage.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So they were getting 20 and 30 loads of uh, semi loads of stuff every week. Oh my word, it was unbelievable. You could be in there and there was as many as eight and nine trucks yeah, waiting there at once, all from lancaster unloading at once. The place was so big you couldn't see each other. Yeah, or you didn't know the other was there because he might have been around the corner. Yeah, so we didn't have to talk to nobody. We pulled in backed up and we were gone. 20 minutes later.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Yeah, and so yeah, it was that was amazing.
SAM BYLER:So who? Who knows where this is going, where this journey goes?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:that's an interesting question?
SAM BYLER:yeah, it really is. I don't. I don't personally. Um, my grandpa told me oh my, let me think back in the early, probably the early eighties about time you were getting started. I was helping him on the farm. I was out of school, um, and uh, he had, he had a Amish small, very small dairy farm, um, new order. So we had electric and stuff like that and tractors, you know, had rubber tires and stuff on it. But we did custom hay work too, and and I remember one day, I don't know, we were out doing something with hay. I remember that, um, and I asked him, I said how long are you going to keep doing this? Cause we would put up five, 6,000 square baleses I don't know if that's a big number or not, it seemed huge to us at the time, you know square bales of alfalfa hay, and it was work and he was this in tennessee.
SAM BYLER:This was in kentucky yeah, in guthrie, and he, he told me he said as long as you do what you love, you'll never work and you'll never have to retire. And the older I get, the more I grab on and I embrace that philosophy Every decision I make. Right now, people look at my life, especially on Facebook because I like to poke the bear. People look at my life and they're like what in the world is he doing? Well, all my decisions for the last five years are made on the fact can I do this the rest of my life and be happy doing it? And that's what I see in you. You're happy, like you said, you get up at 3 o'clock in the morning, you go haul sheds and you get to drive your gorgeous truck around. Why not? Who cares about retirement?
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Well, it's like I'm going to do something.
SAM BYLER:Yeah, so you might as well do what.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I'm not just going to go sit down somewhere. Yeah, I can't do that.
SAM BYLER:That's the hardest thing for me to do, and you got some projects you're working on.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Yeah.
SAM BYLER:That you want to get done.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I got projects. I've got projects waiting, yeah.
SAM BYLER:I'm with you the whole way. Anything you want to add in closing, as far as Something for the shed industry out there. Word of encouragement, a word of advice. Your whole story is encouragement and advice. I get that.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:I have told guys already If you want to haul sheds, get the right equipment. If you want to haul sheds, get the right equipment. If you want to start out with a little bitty car trailer and block them up, that's fine. But don't wait. You're just wasting time, yep. If you want to, if you're serious, if you have loads, if you have work waiting on you, it's much better to get the right truck and the right trailer.
SAM BYLER:And the right trailer.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:That's good. The trailers there's a wide range in there and price Trailers are high price.
SAM BYLER:We talked about that last night and it's just. Can you even imagine? Starting right now no no.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:And we see guys just jump in head over heels and they buy three big pieces and I'm like Well, I mean, well, now you got to have a mule.
SAM BYLER:I mean, nobody's going to deliver sheds without a mule. So I can go buy a couple of pieces of a four inch pipe.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:The big, the big for me was the pickup Believe it or not in 84, when I ordered that pickup that was in 84, I still had the handwritten invoice. It was $16,000. Wow, wow.
SAM BYLER:I had air conditioning.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:That was an option, but I did not get the electric windows. I felt the electric windows At $600 was a little excessive.
SAM BYLER:But it's a little. It's a little excessive.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:So I just remembered I was like I can crank windows. Yeah, you know, and so I can say I was, I thought about it that Don't spend that money. You know it was. Could I say it was money I didn't have? So that's, that's a tough decision for somebody starting up today.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:You're going to spend money you don't have, but don't spend money that you don't need unless you think like oh well, that's just going to be a small hill, or don't spend money that you don't need, unless you think like oh well, that's just going to be a small hill, or it's not going to be a burden to you, or something like that $600.
SAM BYLER:That was two payments. It is tough. It's where we're at today. It's like wow, so well, thank you. Thank you for being open, for sharing your heart, your story. Life is about ups and downs. I mean, life is ups and downs. It's what we do with them. It's what we do with them. We've had good days.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:We've had hard days. We've had years that we had much more financial struggles. Other years it's like, well this worked out. But yet overall as Woody's transport, we can look back and say wow really. Wow.
SAM BYLER:But like I said, yeah, there was times that we were scraping the bottoms and we all did that, and I love the way you bring it all back around full circle in the fact that it's all honor and glory to God. It's the blessing that he's given you when you do it.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:the right way. Well, that was truly amazing and as I continue to look back and things happen, I didn't realize what was going on until you came back.
SAM BYLER:Oh, yeah, yeah, I get that.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Really that? Was amazing what you think about it. Oh, I get that. Really, that was amazing. What a blessing. That was yeah, blessings happening around me, or it did, but I didn't realize what it actually was. So years later, you look back and you begin to understand things and see things through a different way of seeing things.
SAM BYLER:Well, anyway, we're going to wrap this one up. It's been an honor, it's good. I consider you one of my best friends, so it's always good to get to chat with you and hang out with you.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Thank you, Sam, because it's always a pleasure to sit down and chit-chat and talk about things.
SAM BYLER:Sometimes I just want to carry the mic around with me and catch some of the conversations we get at different places. It's that good. So anyway, thank you all for listening today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Catch us next week. It's Ambassador Friday Fun Days. That's where it's all at. And don't forget to listen to Susan on Mondays and the ever-famous Shed Geek on.
WOODY MAHLON STOLTFOOS:Wednesdays Y'all have a great day.
SAM BYLER:Hey, this is Mo Lunsford in sunny Union Grove, North Carolina, and we want to say thank you to all the guests and listeners.