As simple as they seem, trailers are a highly thought out piece of equipment utilizing high-tech manufacturing processes, materials, and designs. Taking it one step further, they also have to look as good as they perform. These are the reasons others seem to always compare themselves to Towmaster. Towmaster has a history of proven product, designs, and aesthetics.

IN THE BEGINNING

The Towmaster brand of trailers was started back in the early 1970’s by Harlan Palm, who owned a company called Palm Industries. The need for a quality trailer with a low deck height for moving skid-loaders was filled by the first Towmaster models designed to haul them. The Towmaster pan style trailers were the first ones to be designed for that market. There were 2 models to choose from; a 5000-pound capacity trailer and a 7,000-pound capacity. While sales continued to grow, a much larger line of trailers was developed and the Contrail was designed. The Contrail was originally a belly-dump trailer designed to haul asphalt. In the mid-1970’s during the oil embargo, sales dropped off, and the Contrail had to be discontinued. Harlan had sold Palm Industries and started farming and selling grain bins in the late 1970’s, but he always had ideas flowing and continued to think about the Towmaster.

THE RE-EMERGENCE OF TOWMASTER

While farming and doing sales, Harlan began redeveloping the skid-loader pan trailer and added a deck-over tag-a-long trailer to the mix and marketed them under the company name of Palm Manufacturing. The trailers had been built by a subcontracting welding shop, but soon were manufactured in one of the large machinery buildings on the farm, where equipment, jigs, and steel all came together. A few years later, skid-loader attachments were designed, developed, and built alongside the trailers. As sales grew, so did the number of models of both trailers and attachments that were being developed. Therefore, the need to split the company into two became apparent. In 1994, Palm Attachments and Towmaster, Inc. became two separate companies. Towmaster moved to Litchfield, Minnesota, into the old Palm Industries manufacturing building, still owned by Harlan Palm. The plant went through a huge makeover to bring in modern manufacturing equipment to continue the production of the Towmaster trailers. In 1998, Towmaster became an employee-owned (ESOP) company.

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