Rhino's Truck Accessories opens in Poplar Bluff

Busines Today

POPLAR BLUFF -- Ryan Brooks has combined his experience of working on race cars with his training as a heavy equipment mechanic and opened Rhino's Truck Accessories at 953 North Westwood Boulevard.

Brooks had a 6,000-square-foot metal building with two work bays and a showroom constructed at the location.

He and employee Greg Smith, who has 10 years experience building trucks, both work on trucks. They sell and install suspension lifts, bedliners, nerf bars, body lifts, tires and wheels.

"We'll do anything, raise them or lower them. Whatever we sell, we can install too," Brooks said.

Smith added, "If it bolts on or sticks to a truck, we can get it."

They have a photograph book of jobs they have done for clients to preview.

Although the business is geared to trucks, they also work on cars.

Most of the installations can be done in 30 to 45 minutes; larger jobs take longer.

Brooks, 29, of Kennett, worked for two years as a heavy-equipment mechanic after graduating from Nashville Auto Diesel College, and he worked seven years as a castor operator at Nucor Steel in Blytheville.

Brooks and Rick Hardy of Kennett have owned and raced drag cars for six years. They were joined last year by Lance Sharp of Jonesboro. Currently they drag race a 1969 Nova and a 1979 Malibu Wagon. Brooks has a collection of die-cast miniature race cars at the business.

When Brooks was too young to remember, he was given the nickname Rhino by his grandmother. "I have a Rhino tattoo, a Rhino shirt. Everybody calls me Rhino," he said.