What Hendrickson makes

Hendrickson designs and builds suspension systems and running-gear components for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, trailers, and buses. The product line spans three suspension technologies: mechanical (steel spring and walking-beam), elastomeric (rubber-load-cushion designs like HAULMAAX EX and PRIMAAX EX), and air ride (AIRTEK NXT, COMFORT AIR). Alongside the suspensions, the company supplies integrated and non-integrated axle and brake systems, steerable lift axles (OPTIMAAX, INTERMAAX), the STEERTEK NXT integrated front steer axle and suspension, TIREMAAX tire pressure control systems, parabolic and multi-leaf springs, stabilizers, and bumper and trim components.

The engineering split follows the vehicle. The Truck Commercial Vehicle Systems division covers on-highway tractors, vocational trucks, fire and rescue, and buses. The Trailer Commercial Vehicle Systems division, headquartered in Canton, Ohio, builds trailer air suspensions and axle and brake systems. A Specialty Products group and a Brake and Wheel-End group round out the range, the latter expanded by the 2020 acquisition of the Stemco Motor Wheel brake drum and Crewson brake adjuster brands. Hendrickson has also moved into electrified running gear with ELECTRAAX, an electric drive axle for commercial vehicles, and into composite spring technology.

Because Hendrickson sells to vehicle builders rather than fleets directly, its parts reach the road as factory-fit and aftermarket options across most major North American OEM platforms. That position, a Tier 1 supplier whose components are specified into the OEM's own build sheet, is the core of the business.

Ownership and history

Hendrickson traces to 1913, when Swedish-born engineer Magnus Hendrickson founded The Hendrickson Motor Truck Company in the Chicago area, building trucks often fitted with cranes for hauling stone and building materials. In 1926 his son Robert introduced the first tandem truck suspension, a walking-beam design that mounted the axles on the ends of an equalizing beam and distributed load evenly across two rear axles. The walking beam became a standard on 6x4 trucks, and from 1936 Hendrickson supplied it to International Harvester.

The Boler Company acquired Hendrickson in 1978. In the years that followed the company expanded into trailer suspensions, auxiliary axles, springs, and metal bumpers, and around 1985 it sold off the truck-manufacturing operation to concentrate solely on suspensions and components. Today Hendrickson operates as a group within The Boler Company, privately held, with Matt Joy as president and chief executive officer (CEO since 2022) and Matthew J. Boler as president, CEO and chairman of the parent. The corporate office sits at 840 South Frontage Road in Woodridge, Illinois. As a private company, Hendrickson does not publish audited financial results; the revenue figure shown on this page is an unaudited third-party estimate band, not a reported number.

Global operations

Hendrickson runs a global manufacturing, distribution, and R&D footprint across roughly eighteen countries. In North America, plants and distribution centers operate in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Dakota, Missouri, Texas, and New York, plus Canadian sites in Ontario and Mexican plants in Piedras Negras and Querétaro. European operations include Austria (Judenburg), Romania (Sibiu), France (Châtenois-les-Forges and Douai), Poland (Toruń), the United Kingdom (Wellingborough), and Turkey (İzmir). Asia-Pacific covers India (Pune, including the TATA AutoComp Hendrickson joint venture and the former Watson & Chalin India operation), China (Jinan, Shandong), Japan (Yokohama), Korea, Australia (Dandenong South), and New Zealand (Auckland). This is a company built on a decentralized, multi-plant structure that its own materials describe as a corporate value.

Certifications and quality

Hendrickson states that its plants operate under IATF 16949:2016, the automotive-sector quality-management standard, with certificates held at multiple sites; the Watson & Chalin India certificate on the company's site carries a June 2025 revision date, and Hendrickson Mexicana and other plants report IATF 16949 as well. The trailer division earned ISO/TS 16949 certification in its earlier form. Hendrickson also runs a formal supplier-quality program of its own: through a supplier portal it scores its vendors on quality (measured in parts-rejected-per-million), on-time delivery, lead time, and fill rate, with an overall rating averaged across the four, the kind of discipline that underpins production part approval in automotive supply chains. These are the company's own claims and published standards.

Known customers

Hendrickson supplies most major North American commercial-vehicle builders as a factory option, so its full customer list is broad and largely unnamed. The programs below are documented in the company's own press releases and catalogs:

Sourcing evidence

Hendrickson's largest US importer of record, the Trailer Commercial Vehicle Systems division in Canton, Ohio, has 3,057 ocean shipments on file from January 2015 through September 19, 2026, with the most recent arrival in mid-September 2026. The import mix reads like a suspension maker's inbound bill of materials: forged and machined axle spindles, torque plates, camshafts, hubs, and axle bar tubing rather than finished goods. Six recorded foreign suppliers account for the bulk of it:

By origin country, Spain leads with 1,656 shipments (driven by the Comforsa forging relationships), followed by China at 578 and South Korea at 572, with Brazil, Germany, and India behind. The presence of Hendrickson's own Jinan, China plant in the supplier list is expected: it is an intra-group transfer, a sign of a manufacturer moving components between its own facilities rather than nearshoring them. Customs-derived estimates put cumulative ocean shipping spend at roughly $6.6 million across the window, with cost data covering about 73 percent of shipments, an order-of-magnitude figure rather than an audited one. Hendrickson imports under more than thirty US names and addresses, so this Canton entity is one slice of a larger footprint that also includes separate importer records for its Woodridge truck-suspension operation (703 shipments) and its Hebron auxiliary-axle unit (371 shipments).

Coverage caveats apply. These are US ocean-freight records only; air, truck, and rail movements, including most cross-border flows with Canada and Mexico, do not appear. Some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers, and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does Hendrickson make?

Hendrickson makes suspension systems and running-gear components for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, trailers, and buses: mechanical, elastomeric, and air suspensions, integrated axle and brake systems, steerable lift axles, tire pressure control systems, springs, stabilizers, and bumper and trim components. Product families include HAULMAAX EX, PRIMAAX EX, AIRTEK NXT, OPTIMAAX, STEERTEK NXT, TIREMAAX, and the ELECTRAAX electric drive axle.

Who owns Hendrickson?

Hendrickson is a privately held operating group within The Boler Company, which acquired it in 1978. It is not publicly traded and does not publish audited financial results. Matt Joy is president and CEO of Hendrickson, and Matthew J. Boler is president, CEO and chairman of the parent company.

Where is Hendrickson headquartered?

Hendrickson's corporate office is at 840 South Frontage Road, Woodridge, Illinois. The company operates manufacturing, distribution, and R&D facilities across roughly eighteen countries in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Who are Hendrickson's customers?

Hendrickson supplies most major North American commercial-vehicle builders as a factory-fit and aftermarket option. Documented programs in its own press releases and catalogs include STEERTEK NXT on select Kenworth and Peterbilt models, STEERTEK NXT and PRIMAAX EX at International (Navistar), and AIRTEK for Blue Bird buses.

What certifications does Hendrickson hold?

Hendrickson states that its plants operate under IATF 16949:2016, the automotive quality-management standard, with certificates held at multiple sites (the Watson & Chalin India certificate carries a June 2025 revision date). The company also runs a formal supplier-quality scoring program covering quality, delivery, lead time, and fill rate.

How old is Hendrickson?

Hendrickson was founded in 1913 by Magnus Hendrickson near Chicago, making it more than 110 years old. It introduced the first tandem walking-beam truck suspension in 1926 and has focused solely on suspensions and related components since selling its truck-manufacturing business in the mid-1980s.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.