Just A Car Guy: Michigan landscape company owner Gow Litzenburger has 36 vintage trucks in his fleet, including models from the 1930s, which have helped his landscaping business stand out in a crowded field.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Michigan landscape company owner Gow Litzenburger has 36 vintage trucks in his fleet, including models from the 1930s, which have helped his landscaping business stand out in a crowded field.

Litzenburger started the company after college in 1985 with a 1939 Chevy 1-ton that he had bought from a friend and restored in his high school’s auto shop class.

The fleet, comprised mostly of GMC and Chevy trucks, includes a 1934 Chevy 1-ton stake bed, 1946 Chevy 1-ton utility, 1949 Chevy 1 ½-ton, 1953 Mack Model A 1-ton, 1960 Chevy 1-ton utility, 1966 Chevy 3/4-ton, and 1972 2-ton stake. Trucks from the 1980s and 1990s made the cut, too.

Litzenburger, 51, said his loyalty to Chevy and GMC can be traced back to the 1939 Chevy truck that he rebuilt in high school. The truck is still in use.

The business closed after 31 years, because Litzenburger hired 48 seasonal laborers from Mexico, and only a dozen locals for year round. Hiring seasonal labor from Mexico also meant higher profits. However, when federal H-2B work visas went from 2 weeks to 10 weeks to get processed, Litzenburger no longer was able to stay on schedule

Paul Mendelsohn, vice president of governmental relations with the National Association of Landscape Professionals trade group, said that landscaping makes the largest use of H-2B guest workers of any U.S. industry