Utilimaster, a subsidiary of The Shyft Group, manufactures multi-stop trucks. It was founded in 1973 in

Wakarusa, Indiana Wakarusa is a town in Harrison Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, Harrison and Olive Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, Olive townships in Elkhart County, Indiana, Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,758 at the 2010 United ...

. In 1996, Utilimaster was bought for $65 million from

Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with i ...

by senior management and an investment group which was led by Kirkland Messina. It had been owned by

Holiday Rambler Holiday Rambler Corporation is an American corporation which primarily manufactures recreational vehicles. It was founded in 1953. In 1961, Holiday Rambler's introduction of aluminum body framing ushered in a new era of lighter, stronger and more ...

before Harley-Davidson. On November 19, 2009, Spartan Motors (now The Shyft Group) acquired Utilimaster for $45 million in an all-cash transaction. Spartan sold the Road Rescue division to Allied Specialty Vehicles in 2010. Utilimaster bought Union City Body Company, a competitor from Union City, Indiana, for an undisclosed amount on November 16, 2005. Union City Body bought the

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

chassis and commercial truck business in 1998.

Products

In the 1980s and 1990s, the company manufactured the aerodynamic Aeromate on an in-house, front-wheel drive chassis. The original model was introduced in August 1988 and used

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

's 2.5-liter

inline-four engine A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...

known from the K-car. Later models used either the

turbocharged In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into the ...

version of Chrysler's 2.5-litre four cylinder engine or their 3.3-litre V6 engine; the V6 was introduced for the 1991 model year. With a

GVWR Vehicle weight is a measurement of wheeled motor vehicles; either an actual measured weight of the vehicle under defined conditions or a gross weight rating for its weight carrying capacity. Curb or kerb weight Curb weight (American English) or k ...

the vehicle's payload was with either engine fitted. In mid-1990, Utilimaster introduced the larger Aeromaster Z2000 for the 1991 model year. The aerodynamic walk-in van was also built on a proprietary front-wheel drive chassis, and came in GVWRs ranging from 10,000 to 12,500 lb (4,540 to 5,670 kg). The engine options were a Ford gasoline V8 or a Cummins' 4BT four-cylinder diesel. In 2011,

Isuzu , commonly known as Isuzu (, ), is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. Its principal activity is the production, marketing and sale of Isuzu commercial vehicles and diesel engines ...

and Utilimaster announced plans for Utilimaster to assemble the Isuzu Reach in its

, plant. It is a commercial step van with improved aerodynamics and a more fuel-efficient engine than other walk-in vans in the class. On February 14, 2012, Utilimaster announced that it would move from Wakarusa to Bristol, Indiana, 17 miles away. In 2012, Utilimaster and Smith co-developed an integrated walk-in van design using Smith's Newton chassis platform. The Newton Step Van was available in configurations of 14,000 to 26,000 lbs. GVW and 650 to 1,200 cubic feet and provided a range of approximately 100 miles on a single charge. In 2015, Utilimaster introduced the first walk-in cargo van, which they named Velocity. The van was developed on the Ford Transit chassis, available in gas, diesel, or CNG/LPG configurations. In 2020, at the NTEA's Work Truck Show, Utilimaster announced the Velocity M3, a walk-in cargo van built on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis. In 2020, Utilimaster announced the Velocity F2, a sub-10,000 lbs. GVWR walk-in cargo van built on the Ford Transit chassis. On 6 March 2023 Utilimaster announced the deployment in 5,860 walk-in vans of its Rapid Driver Cooling System.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.utilimaster.com/ Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Indiana Automotive companies of the United States Companies based in Elkhart County, Indiana Contract vehicle manufacturers