Brenthel Industries: Where Trophy Trucks Are Born
If you guys follow us on Instagram, you’ve probably seen that I recently picked up a 6-speed manual Toyota FJ Cruiser as a project car. While it’s a fun rig to go camping and over-landing in, that’s not my intention for the truck. I am building a media chase vehicle that will allow me to follow and photograph desert and off-road racing. There was a problem however, as I know nothing about building an off-road vehicle.
My newbie status must have shown through on social media as Jordan from Brenthel Industries contacted me asking if I needed help with the truck. Of course, I wanted to check out what they were about before I let them do anything to my FJ, but as it turns out they are full-on off-road race rig builders who actually race as well. It also turns out that I’ve seen plenty of their trucks, and even shot some of them over the years too. I sat down with Jordan Brenthel and his brother Jonathan to learn a bit more about their operation in Anaheim, California.
Larry: Let’s start with the obvious question: how did it all start for you guys?
Jonathan: I was working mortgages and Jordan was still in high school. I wanted to do something different that required my hands. Unlike some off-road racers, we didn’t grow up financially wealthy. I was looking into buying a transmission shop, and mentioned to Jordan,”Hey, let’s start a company and build race cars.” He had just come out of high school, was 18, and told me I was crazy and that it wasn’t a good idea. Both our parents were self-employed and struggled along the way, and they were also against it. Jordan said, “I’m going to have a job. I don’t care if I make $4 an hour.” The next day he came up to me and said,”Let’s do it!”
We went to work for about 12 different people in the beginning. It started with the both of us working for some really low sand car builders for minimum wage, and we learned from everyone around us. We also took night classes for welding, machining, marketing, and pretty much everything else at a local community college.
Jordan: We had our shop in Santa Ana but had other jobs in San Diego and Hesperia. I’d drive to Hesperia and it would be snowing down the side. I’d eat all of my meals in my truck on the drive there. Jonathan did the same on his way to San Diego. We’d get back to the shop late at night around 10:00pm and get as much done as possible.
We were both designing at the time. He was doing more fabrication and I was kind of bolting stuff on, but we both did everything.
