In this latest edition of the 2007 SEMA show, we feature the ever beautiful Lauren Jones interviewing various members of Hunter Engineering about their product line.
Hunter Engineering Company designs, manufactures and sells a wide range of passenger car and truck service equipment including computer-based wheel alignment systems, suspension and brake testing systems, wheel balancers, on- and off-car brake lathes, tire changers and vehicle lifts.
Hunter Engineering Company self-admittedly owes its beginnings to a discharged automobile battery. Lee Hunter, Jr., a 23-year-old St. Louis architecture student, found himself frequently confronted with car battery failure in his Packard convertible. In 1936, it took several days to recharge a car battery. Hunter was determined to find a better, faster way. With the help of a former Washington University electrical engineering professor, Hunter began experimenting and his efforts paid off. His quick-charge battery recharger was based on a diverter pole generator. He put this new product on the market and during the Great Depression, the Lee Hunter, Jr., Manufacturing Co. sold the $497 Kwikurent charger as fast as the company could make them.
Since that point, Hunter joined the military to fight in WWII, returned to the United States, and began a company manufacturing even more Hunter inventions. Such inventions include the “Tune-in,” which balances wheels while on the car; the “Lite-A-Line,” which used a light beam to align the wheels; and finally the “Tune-Align,” which compensated for lateral wheel runout, a major factor affecting wheel alignment precision. After that point, Lee Hunter had built a company capable of innovating and creating designs on par with himself, and Lee Hunter has since put the everlasting impression of his name on the automotive industry.
