The present company's roots began in 1913, with Magnus Hendrickson. Magnus, an innovator of his time, designed and manufactured custom truck chassis. In manufacturing these custom trucks Magnus realized the potential of two rear axles on a truck. Magnus's developments of two rear axles lead into the manufacturing of suspensions for his applications. Hendrickson Suspension today manufacturers suspensions for several truck and trailer applications.

In 1978 the Hendrickson companies were sold by the Hendrickson family to Boler Investments.

The Boler Group decided to maintain a posture as a supplier and vendor to the truck industry and early in 1985, the Mobile Equipment firetruck product line was sold to Kovatch. In September of 1985, the remaining assets of the Mobile Equipment Division were sold to the present owner's. Under the new ownership the first design project was to develop a custom conventional truck. The result was the VT-100. A Class 8 conventional truck chassis designed and developed for the rigors of construction applications. Some of the custom applications that this chassis has been used for are:

• Ingersoll-Rand Drill Rigs for mineral and geothermal exploration drilling
• G.E. Failing for water well drilling
• NASA Shuttle Operations
• Gravel hauling (160,000# GVWR in Michigan)
• Heavy Wreckers
• Waste Management for recycling and waste collection and transportation
• Firetrucks for 3,000 gallon tankers

HME's other products lines include heavy drill rig chassis utilizing "I-beam" fabricated frames, chassis for medical coaches, transit buses and tour buses.

In 1988 the company's manufacturing facility relocated from the Chicago area to a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In 1989, HME began design and production, under private label, a series of firetruck chassis for Grumman Emergency Products of Roanoke, Virginia. The basic chassis design for the firetruck was developed as a variation of the VT-100 conventional truck chassis. These products known, by Grumman, as the Panther II (Pumper) and Panther I (Aerials) chassis were manufactured into the year 1992. HME produced almost 300 chassis for Grumman during three year period. With the announcement of the closure of Grumman's Emergency Products Division in 1991, chassis to other manufacturers. Until HME's entrance into the industry's independent apparatus builder's, the 1871 Series firetruck cab and chassis were not available to any other apparatus manufacturer in the U.S. and around the world.