Jerry Renfro Relies On The Ironpeddlers, SANY America

Wed May 21, 2025
Eric Olson - CEG CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Small, family-owned and operated businesses like Jerry Renfro's contracting business in the western North Carolina mountains put a great deal of trust in the people from whom they obtain their equipment.

Unlike larger construction outfits that have the financial resources to better absorb the costs of equipment repairs or replacements, similarly sized companies like Jerry Renfro Inc. in the Mitchell County town of Bakersville, northeast of Asheville, rely on their preferred dealerships to provide them with great value and help keep costs down.

In Renfro's case, he has been lucky enough to buy many of his machines from The Ironpeddlers, including two recent purchases of excavators made by SANY America.

The Ironpeddlers is based just east of Charlotte in the city of Monroe. Its other Tarheel State locations are in Asheville, Raleigh and Wilmington. The company also has branches in the South Carolina cities of Greenville/Duncan and Florence; its Savannah, Ga., and London, Ky., locations focus solely on aftermarket OEM parts and other used components.

Renfro's Hard Work Propels Him to 35 Years of Success

A self-made person of great faith and drive, Renfro has been running his own business for 35 years, beginning in March 1990. Prior to that, he was employed by another contractor during the weekdays.

At the same time, each night and on Saturdays, he worked for himself.

"I did that for about five years so I could do things my own way and get enough business to where I felt like I could go on my own full-time," he said. "I started with nothing more than a Lowe's riding lawn mower, a Ryobi weed eater and an old beat up pickup truck, but I just kept going at it."

Today, though, Renfro oversees the company, leaving the day-to-day operations to his two sons, Heath, age 30, and Hudson, age 23, as well as a crew of six. To complete the family enterprise, Jerry's wife, Tammie, expertly runs the office.

"We do everything from mowing to working on driveways to doing hardscapes and building retaining walls — pretty much whatever our regular customers need," he said.

The contracting company's hardscape work is managed by Heath Renfro and involves constructing paver patios, outdoor kitchens with fire pits and retaining walls, he said.

Jerry Renfro Inc.'s crews are usually kept busy installing housing pads and walls for a number of high-end residential developments scattered across the region. Many of them are ridge-top homes, which afford residents with breathtaking views of some of East Coast's highest peaks.

In Renfro's neck of the woods, a lot of homes are constructed on a slope, meaning that strong retaining walls are essential. The wall structures are engineered to hold back earth or water to create level areas and reinforce soil to lessen the likelihood of a landslide.

Beyond that type of work, Renfro's company also performs landscaping, does tree work and installs gravel for driveways.

"My youngest son, Hudson, runs the mowing crew, and we have about 115 to 120 yards that he is in charge of maintaining," said the elder Renfro. "In the winter time, we'll do a little carpentry work, but mainly any more, we're working with excavators, skid steers and pavers on small grade work."

Two New SANY Excavators Takes Renfro's Work Higher

In 2024, Renfro purchased two new SANY excavators from The Ironpeddlers to handle his growing construction output: a behemoth, yet well-balanced 13,500-lb. model SY60C machine he bought last spring; and a powerfully built SY35U mini-excavator noted for its powerful lift and dig performance. He took possession of the latter piece of equipment just before Christmas.

Together, they are the first SANY production models that Renfro has ever owned.

"That SANY 60 excavator has almost 700 hours on it already," he said.

Both machines have been put to good use by Renfro and his crew to perform clean up after the remnants of Hurricane Helene scoured the highlands of North Carolina last fall, felling countless trees and washing away homes, roads and driveways.

When asked if he has ever mounted a thumb onto his SY60C, a useful attachment when cleaning up damage from the storm, Renfro said, "Oh yeah, I wouldn't own a machine without a thumb because of all the different work we do."

With the SY35U mini-excavator, Renfro said that his guys also have used it to install hardscape patios, dig footers and perform site prep. The machine, he added, has proven very handy in tearing out old or damaged retaining walls before building new ones.

"With our tree work, we're taking the machine to load and move brush and logs before feeding the chipper. It is also used to cut driveways, clean ditches and put in new culverts."

Heath said that his hardscaping crew also runs the SY35U on much more than just digging applications.

"We've invested in multiple clamps and attachments for that machine to allow us to set stair steps, big slabs and move rock that three or four men together couldn't even do," he said. "So, not only does it let a smaller hardscaping crew do the work of six or more people, but it also allows us to take on a lot of creative projects that we most likely wouldn't be able to do."

New SANYs Help With Hurricane Cleanup

Predictably, the hurricane damage ramped up the amount of work that the family-operated company has gotten over the past several months, said Jerry Renfro.

"Well, we've always been busy, but the amount of work has certainly changed since the storm," he said. "We had several planned patio and hardscape jobs that we lost due to the hurricane, but we were able to replace that work with all the storm cleanup from fallen trees, damaged ditches and landslides, as well as needing to build new retaining walls."

Heath added that just the day after the weakened storm passed through the mountains, almost all roads in the region were completely impassable.

"Nobody could get out and emergency services were halted, but we just went out with our machines and started cutting roads and driveways," he said. "We were even working with some local companies and law enforcement in trying to locate people in some small developments; in fact, we found a lady here in Mitchell County that emergency services missed, and we spent two days cutting through her driveway to reach her three or four days after the hurricane moved on."

Hudson Renfro said that the woman, a widow in her 70s, lived at the end of a 3-4 mi.-long driveway through dense woods; he, his brother and other crew members had to create a new road to her home.

"We got her a portable stove because she had no electricity and no generator," Jerry said. "She was almost completely out of food and water when we got to her. But, you know, we saw several things like that because of the storm."

"During the first two weeks after the storm, we were doing just pure recovery, and, without a machine, there would have been no way of cutting these roads," added Heath. "I ran the machine, and Hudson cut trees. Many were not even safe to cut without first taking the pressure off them with our SANY 60 excavator."

If the seemingly endless task of cleaning up from the hurricane were not enough, he said, at one point Renfro's crews ran out of fuel to complete the work.

To alleviate the problem in the short term, Jerry Renfro said he drove to the local Vulcan Materials Co. gravel quarry in Bakersville, where he was generously provided with enough gas to run his SANY equipment.

The closest area that had available fuel was in the Catawba County city of Hickory, normally less than a two-hour drive to the southeast in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Yet, Heath Renfro said, due to landslides, downed trees and heavily damaged roads, it took "about three to four days before we could even get out of Mitchell County and down the mountain" to get the amount of gas the contractor needed to properly carry out its operations.

Attention By The Ironpeddlers as Good as ‘Gold'

Jerry Renfro Inc. not only has a solid relationship with Vulcan Materials, but with The Ironpeddlers, which, he said, also has led to an outstanding association with SANY America, based in suburban Atlanta, Ga.

Jerry also was quick to point out the great service and personal attention his company receives each time it works with the folks at The Ironpeddlers; in particular, he was especially effusive in his praise for Chad Stevens, the Asheville branch's sales manager.

"Having Chad is like owning a gold mine," Renfro said. "That guy puts his whole heart and soul into his job and into this business. He is one-of-a-kind. I've been in this business for 35 years and that man is dedicated to his work."

Whenever an issue with one of his machines crops up, he added, The Ironpeddlers's service technicians are always willing to come out to the job site or to Renfro's Bakersville yard to diagnose and fix the problem.

"They will even come over here to repair the little stuff like a messed-up joystick," Hudson Renfro said.

"We had an air conditioner clutch that went out and they came right away and fixed that," said Jerry earlier in the spring. "They're actually coming this afternoon because I've got a vibration behind the SANY mini-excavator's seat that needs fixing."

The Renfro family also has come to realize over the past year what fantastic production equipment SANY America manufactures. In addition, they have learned that, like The Ironpeddlers, SANY is dedicated to making sure that the people buying its construction equipment are completely satisfied with their purchases.

"You don't have to buy the $200,000 machine for them to treat you right," said Jerry, who, along with his two sons, was invited down to the OEM's Peachtree City, Ga., facility for an all-expenses paid tour of the plant.

"We had not even bought out second SANY yet — just the SY60C excavator at that point," added Hudson Renfro. "Even though we were not buying a larger, more expensive machine, it was awesome what they did for us on that trip."

At the end of the day, according to Jerry, he and his sons are extremely pleased with the expert service and attention they get from The Ironpeddlers, as well as SANY's well-engineered equipment.

Renfro understands he has made a good life and a prosperous business for himself and his family — due in large measure to the companies and other partners with whom he has worked — but his most heartfelt thanks, he said, go to God.

"Without the good Lord, we would have never gotten to where we are. I give God the credit for everything that we have accomplished. Without Him, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere." CEG

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This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.