The need for exploring off-road is a notion that we feel we can find across the entire United States. That’s the drive behind our new column, Stateside Shop Tour. Come with us as we tour the nation looking at shops that build capable off-road machines of all shapes and sizes.
Kicking us off is Extreme Options Fabrication in Enumclaw, Washington. Owned and founded by Anthony Diss, the 4,500 square-foot shop has been in business for about six years and services customers from many sides of the off-road spectrum. Diss’ background goes back to his childhood and having been raised in the off-road culture, and was added to over the years with work in mechanic and fabrication shops. He started EOF to offer the best of both worlds to his customers.
“We have some guys with Jeep JKs that roll in and want something simple,” said Diss. “They’ll go for wheels and tires, a small lift, a soft top, that kind of stuff. The other side is all-out builds with customs chassis, bumpers, axles and so on.”
No matter the customer, Extreme Options Fabrication is well-equipped to deal with extra measures thanks to an array of technological machines, including a CNC plasma table, hydraulic tubing bender, CAD design, MIG and TIG welders, and more. Which is all great because when customers come in with something as wild as a monster truck – more common than you might expect, as Diss explained – EOF is ready, willing, and able to take them on.
“We’re pretty big in the monster truck scene,” said Diss. “We’ve serviced trucks with names like Captain USA and Playing for Keeps. As a matter of fact, we have our very professional circuit monster truck that we’re in the process of building. It’s called ‘The Destroyer.'”
As you might imagine, working on monster trucks is no small task. “Working on the monster trucks is all the same stuff as you find on a normal custom 4×4,” Diss explained. “The thing is that everything is 10 times the size, and is a lot more heavy and expensive.”
“When these 4x4s come in for work, they have custom-fabbed stuff that we have to take care of. To take off the tires, you have to have a really big jack so that the tire is a quarter-inch off of the ground, and you can kind of rock the tire off of the truck. We also use forklifts for a lot of the work we do, since these trucks normally weigh about 12,000 pounds.”
Looking toward 2016, Diss said that EOF is preparing to manufacture roll cage kits and bumpers for all types of applications. His vision is to have these products go onto rigs across the country, making them safer and more capable in the long run.
For a business with just three employees (including Diss), EOF certainly looks to be on a path for bigger and better things. Keep it locked here on Off Road Xtreme as we continue our Stateside Shop Tour, and keep an eye out next week as we make our next stop in Idaho.