Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles Davis.
Hi Charles, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up right here in Vernon & Eureka. My journey started in the shop behind my childhood home, where my father taught me mechanics and fabrication at a very young age. By 14, I was already working down the road at Randles Service, doing odd jobs and learning the ropes.
After high school, I spent eight years in the mining world—five years underground and three as a surface mechanic. In 1986, with a family to support, I joined the Utah National Guard while working for Wheeler Machinery.
Following my deployment for “Operation Iraqi Freedom 2” (2004–2005), I returned to Wheeler until layoffs hit the industry. That’s when I took a leap of faith, bought my own service truck, and launched Charlie D’s Heavy Equipment Service in 2011. 🚛
By 2018, I expanded into the physical shop we know today: Charlie D’s Heavy Equipment & Automotive Repair. Since opening the doors, I have worked on everything from bicycles to locomotives and everything in between. When I say, “Big or small, we do it all,” I’m not kidding!
My heart is in Eureka. When I’m not in the shop, I’m giving back as:
🔹 President of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce
🔹 City Council Member over Parks and Recreation
🔹 Mentor to high school students and apprentices
I love Eureka and the people who live here—there’s nowhere else like it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge was transitioning from just doing field service repair on heavy equipment when I started my business to then expanding and opening the Heavy equipment and automotive repair shop. With field service it is just a set hourly rate for however long it takes you to fix it. With the shop I had to figure out profit margins with the selling of parts and following a specific labor guide to tell us how long a job should take, We also had to figure out shop business hours that would be the most profitable. In the shop it requires having employees with all the things that entails, compared to it just being me in the field. From the time we opened the shop we always had a high car count but we were barely breaking even. So I had to invest thousands to take courses to learn why. I learned my shop rate was to low and the spread between wholesale and retail was to low on my parts matrix . Any good, honest profitable shop uses a labor guide to give them the hours a job should take and be charged for. After getting our Tracs Operating Program we had acess to a great labor guide and many tools that we have been able to utilize. Another obstacle in running Eureka businesses is suppliers. In the beginning when a vehicle needed a part we would have to drive 30 miles away to pick up the part because no one would deliver to us. Now we have 3 parts suppliers that will deliver to our shop daily.
As you know, we’re big fans of Charlie D’s Heavy Equipmenand Automotive t Repair LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are proud to be a one stop shop. We are not a business that specializes in just 2 or 3 services, For example we replace transmissions but we are not a transmission shop, We repair and install tires but we are not a tire store, We service vehicles but we are not a jiffy lube, Our broad knowledge and experience lends us the ability to take care of all our customers needs whether its heavy equipment, automotive, lawn mowers, power sports, fabrication and welding we are able to help them with all of it. We also have the ability and technology to run diagnostics from automobiles to heavy equipment to over the road trucks and repair them whether they are gasoline, diesel or hydraulic components. We pay our employees an hourly livable wage and not commission, this eleminates the need to sell customers products they dont need. Some of our customers come from as far away as Ely Nevada, Utah Valley, and Salt Lake City because they know we will be honest and fair with them.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I highly encourage investing in education that specializes in your specific business. You need to have a passion for whatever business you decide to start if you want to succeed. If you dont love it its easy to get discouraged. I was fortunate to have a shop owner take me under his wing at 14 years old that helped instill the passion in me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.charliedsrepair.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/me/
- Other: charliedsllc@gmail.com
