Our History
The founders of Detroit Chassis, Carlton and Michael Guthrie, fabricated a new concept in vehicle assembly that broke the mold for this intricate type of operation.
The plant facility, formerly known as TruMack, was constructed in 1998 in Detroit's Renaissance Zone. The bright, expansive, high technology facility enabled the company quickly to establish a reputation as one of the nation's pre-eminent chassis assembly operations as measured by meeting the manufacturer's performance and quality objectives.
The facility has become a beacon in Detroit's technology renaissance; a masterpiece of process design coupled with lean and sophisticated assembly techniques
Major manufacturers, like Ford Motor Company, take pride in displaying their nameplate on vehicles built through Detroit Chassis systems.
The facility's first line of vehicles was Ford's F-53 motor home chassis, which had been assembled in Mexico. Detroit Chassis, which began producing the F-53 chassis in 1999, was a lower-cost alternative for assembly and proved itself to be a much more efficient operation than those in Mexico. While continuing the F-53 run in ensuing years, the Detroit Chassis Plant had the agility to begin production in 1999-2000 of the Ford Explorer postal truck, followed in 2001-2002 by Ford's Think Neighbor electric vehicle.
Detroit Chassis developed measures that saved more than $13 million on producing these vehicles through reductions in warranty repairs and inventory, use of flexible machinery and equipment, employing top-level quality systems and numerous other measures.
Detroit Chassis today maintains the capacity, the flexibility, the technology and the vision to continue to enlarge its leading role in the industry.
Learn about our facilities and its history