By Andrew Ayres
Blaine Schacher (pronounced Shocker) took time from his busy schedule of building custom rigs at Shocker Mechanical to answer a few questions from 4WDrive’s Andrew Ayres.
4WDrive: So Blain, what's this I hear about a mud fling in your backyard? -When did you start doing this, and how did it come about.
Blaine: We needed a place to test off road vehicles so we bought an acreage and turned the back half into an off road testing area. Our customers and friends would come out and throw some mud around.
Each year, when we got bored we would build some more difficult shit. We now have a 30 foot deep mud hole that gives us a good 100 feet of mud slinging and damn near vertical walls to try and climb out of. That’s in addition to the other obstacles. We call it “THE PIT”. Check us out on FaceBook to see video on what our King of The PIT is all about.
4WDrive: How does a guy get an invite to this?
Blaine: The event has grown each year and is by invitation only to our VIP’s.
4WDrive: You were a heavy duty mechanic before making the switch to automotive right? What made you change?
Blaine: What I do here at Shocker Mechanical is my passion; working on heavy duty rigs—not so much. The whole thing started out in the garage at my house. I started by doing stuff for friends and family. We quickly outgrew the garage and then 2 other commercial locations. And that’s how we landed where we are today, 7 bays, 8000 sq feet, 6 techs and 4 sales/admin staff.
We cover a solid scope of work. We do everything from general mechanical - like Diesel diagnosis, brakes, front end work and alignments; gear & locker swaps, superchargers and diesel performance; to stuffing Hemi’s into jeeps and creating one of a kind show stopping builds. The kind of quality that landed us in the Ford booth at SEMA.
Most days you will find anything from a few CJ7 jeeps; to an old International Scout; or a Land Cruiser, Dodge Viper or Corvette. Right now in the show room there is a sweet Factory 5 Cobra. We have also built about a half a dozen or more of the biggest, baddest dually diesels on the planet. My personal favourite this year was the 2012 Ram Runner.
For info about the team at Shocker Mechanical and to see what they can do for your rig, visst www.shockermechanical.com or call 877-679-0111