Waco residents passing by a vacant lot at 10th Street and Webster Avenue in the past week or so may have seen a massive red truck — and probably thought it was a cross between a dinosaur and a tank, or even a farm truck on steroids.
Soon, the truck will travel to the Houston Ship Channel for transport to Russia for use in oil and natural gas fields.
For at least a few more days, though, it stays in Waco, said Ray Fritel, president of Diversified Product Development.
Fritel’s company has been running tests on the truck, making sure its systems work properly. It hauls a special sand that is forced underground to create fractures.
This fracturing creates a flow of oil and gas for wells.
The truck sports a Mercedes chassis, a hydraulically operated dump body and diesel-powered heaters that allow it to keep trucking even in Arctic conditions of 40 degrees below zero.
Houston-based Stewart & Stevenson assembled the chassis, the dump body, outriggers and controls. It then sent the truck to Waco for high-tech prodding and probing.
Crews on Friday filled its holding area with water from a city water line. This week, they will fill it with sand trucked in from the Kosse area.
The truck will return to Houston by 18-wheeler before leaving for Russia.
The truck holds 40 cubic yards of material compared with a gravel truck’s 5 to 7 yards. It weighs 130,000 pounds fully loaded and sells for about $800,000.
It can be driven, of course, but not in the United States because of its heavy emissions.
“Russia’s standards in that area are a little different than ours,” Fritel said.
Diversified Product Development maintains a low profile but is creating a stellar reputation. It performs engineering and design tasks, but also manufactures products in its 50,000-square-foot facility.
The company employs 26 people, including engineers, mechanical designers, shop technicians, welders and office staffers.
Fritel said employees in the shop area earn $15 or more per hour, while those in the office make $50,000 to $120,000 a year. He needs two to three more engineers, three designers, an assembler and a welder.
And he is hiring.
“We are growing. Last year was a record year, and we’re on pace to match it,” Fritel said. “We took a vote and decided not to participate in the economic slowdown. There is work out there.”
Fritel moved to Waco from North Dakota in 1985 to work for Time Manufacturing. He later served as president of Calavar, a maker of aerial lifts.
He started his own company in 1996 and moved to his current location in 2006.
“I would say we’re a well-kept secret, but the chamber of commerce knows about us,” Fritel said. “When they want a new company to know about resources available to them, they point them in our direction.”
Marvin Franklin, vice president of engineering, said he grew up near Valley Mills and worked for years in the Dallas area. He said he jumped at the chance to work closer to home at Diversified Product Development. He said the variety of work keeps the company hopping.
“A lot of companies outsource their work to us,” said engineer John Gibel, who is overseeing the Russian truck testing. “They get a project, turn to us for help and don’t have to hire their own staff.”
For the U.S. Navy and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the company designed a vehicle that can raise a wind-resistant antenna 50 feet into the air.
The antenna can move around and give off signals that simulate an attack by surface-to-air missiles.
Fighter pilots practice dealing with the threats.
It also has designed high-rise tree trimmers and high-tech lifts that can hoist people and cameras into the sky to monitor Texas-Mexico border crossings or crowds at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas.
The company also has designed a cart for use in carrying 150-foot-long wind-turbine blades around a manufacturing plant, and has done production and design for street sweepers made by Waco-based Tymco.
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