Sterling Coach to display product at national rodeo

Thursday, December 6, 2007
Tribune photo/Jason E. Silvers Sterling Coach, 324 E. 20th, builds horse trailers that are nationally marketed to equine professionals. The company sent three of its top-quality horse trailers to Las Vegas, Nev., this week for display at the National Finals Rodeo that begins Friday and continues through Dec. 15. The coaches are not only designed for transporting horses, but also have room for living quarters.

A relatively new horse trailer manufacturing business, which rode into town late last year, will show off some of its products in grand style this weekend.

Three brand-new aluminum horse trailers, built by workers at Sterling Coach, 324 E. 20th St., hit the road last week for Las Vegas, Nev., where the trailers will be displayed at a trade show during the National Finals Rodeo that begins Friday and continues through Dec. 15.

Company owner Phil Tearney, who traveled to the rodeo this week, said he was proud and honored that three of his company's products would soon be more recognized on a national level.

Each of the 30-foot-long trailers, which retail for between $180,000 and $250,000, can accommodate up to four horses and also feature living quarters for the constantly on-the-go horse professional, including ropers, barrel racers, trail riders, trainers, and cowboys. It takes about three to four weeks for workers to build each trailer, Tearney said.

The trailers are built specifically for horse professionals who live an active year-round lifestyle, and not for those people who only plan to use the trailers on a periodic basis, Tearney said.

"We build a very specialized product for the true horse professional," he said. "We build rugged trailers for people who are going to put significant miles on them on a yearly basis."

These trailers aren't just marketed locally in Fort Scott and Bourbon County, Tearney said.Sterling Coach horse trailers are marketed nationwide in some larger cities. For example, the company conducts a lot of business in Texas, a state that consists of a higher concentration of equine professionals, he said.

Tearney said he moved the business to Fort Scott in December 2006 from its previous location in Lawton, Okla., to be closer to his home in the Overland Park area. The business first began in Lawton in August 2004, Tearney said.

Tearney maintains a staff of 10 employees at the local production facility, who work to build and sell the finished product -- the aluminum shell of the trailer -- wholesale to other area manufacturers that design the high-quality living quarters inside each trailer. These manufacturers then sell the trailers at retail prices once they have been converted.

One local company that adds campers and living quarters to Sterling Coach trailers is Cactus Conversion, which is located at 4100 Liberty Bell Rd., in the Fort Scott Industrial Park.

Although he has only been involved in the horse trailer industry for a few years, Tearney said he is no stranger to the business world. Tearney said he has also helped his business partner operate a coal company that conducts several strip mining projects in Linn and Bates counties. That company has operated since 1995, Tearney said.