105 years, five generations later Tripp's Tire still ticking

AYDEN, N.C. (June 6, 2016) — At 105 years old, Tripp's Tire Pros has been around long enough to repair tires and wagon wheels side-by-side, and in fact did so for a number of years.

The company — which has its roots in a blacksmith shop founded by Caleb Tripp Sr. in 1889 — claims to have repaired the first flat tire in Ayden at a time when automotive service was in its infancy.

“There were very few vehicles back in 1911, and we're a small town,” said Tony Tripp, fourth generation owner of his family's business. “When the business was a blacksmith shop, that's where the cars went to get tires fixed because nobody knew how to do it.”

As the story goes, Ayden's first doctor, Joe Dixon, established residency in the town in 1910 and became the town's first automobile owner. When his car suffered its first flat tire in 1911, he contacted the Tripp family's blacksmith shop.

After repairing the doctor's flat, N.C. Tripp, Caleb Tripp's brother, saw an opportunity to grow the business, setting up an automotive repair business in the back of the blacksmith shop, then hired his brothers Charlie and Hent Tripp to work with him.

In 1925, the company established its own identity, moving out of the blacksmith shop to a separate building nearby and taking the name Tripp's Garage. The repair shop, formerly the location of the Odd Fellows Lodge, still features the letters FLT prominently displayed on its front, representing the lodge's motto: Friendship, Love and Truth.

“When we painted the building my dad decided to paint those letters because he thought it was a good motto,” Mr. Tripp told Tire Business. “...He just liked it—he liked what it stood for and wanted to leave it there because it was part of the history of the building. That was the impression I got.”

According to Mr. Tripp, one of the most distinguishing features of the original building—which the company still owns and uses—was its two-story layout and a four-cable elevator used to carry automobiles to the second floor to be repaired.

“There was only one pit up there (mechanics) could work under,” Mr. Tripp said. “Most everything was done under the car back in those days. You didn't work under the hood—you worked under the car to access the engine.”

The two-story building was attached to a sewing factory, which Tripp's Tire Pros acquired in 1973, effectively doubling the size of the business and allowing the company's original building to serve as warehouse space for tires. The elevator was then relegated to a dumbwaiter role, transporting tires to the top floor for storage.

Although the elevator is no longer in use — and hasn't been for the last two decades — Mr. Tripp said it was operational when the company shut it off for the last time, and he said he believes that thing “probably could be made operational now.”

The dealership has evolved over the years, starting with tire repair before shifting primarily to automotive service in the 1930s and moving back towards tires and car tire retreading in the late 1960s. Today, the company is strictly retail and offers a mix of tire sales and automotive service.

“We were more tire oriented, but like everybody else, we've grown to be more tire and service oriented,” Mr. Tripp said. “More service has come along in the last 20 years.”

Tony Tripp's grandfather Larry Tripp joined the business in the mid-1920s. He helped steer the firm toward automotive repair and parts sales, even adding a homemade wrecker and changing the company's name to Tripp's Garage & Wrecker Service in 1934.

Larry Tripp died in 1968, leaving his son William “Burt” Tripp—Tony Tripp's father—in charge of the company. Under his direction, the firm changed its name again to Tripp's Tire Service Inc. and made a push to focus on tire sales and service.

“My dad actually went to college and became a school teacher and a high school coach, and he saw the opportunity to come back home and he kind of took it,” Mr. Tripp recalled. “It was a very small operation—mainly just auto service and some tires and different things they did—but my dad actually kind of took it to the next level with tire retreading.”

One of the first moves he made was to implement passenger tire retreading, a service it provided for customers through the early 1980s.

“We would have people that would bring their car that morning, jack the car up, retread their tires and put them back on,” Tony Tripp said.

Burt Tripp oversaw the company's expansion into the adjacent sewing factory, allowing the company room to rebuild its automotive service business while continuing its growing focus on tire sales. During his tenure, the company built a NAPA Auto Parts business next door, which it still owns and operates.

Tony Tripp, who began working at his father's store when he was seven years old, became a full-time employee at the shop in 1985 and took over ownership from his father in 2001. In 2005, his own son Matthew Tripp began working alongside him, marking the fifth generation at Tripp's Tire.

Since Tony took over, Tripp's Tire changed its name one more time — adding the Tire Pros moniker after joining the franchise program about five years ago — and added a second location in nearby Winterville, N.C., in 2009. The company shut that location last year.

“I ran it until last year, and then a key employee who'd been with me for 15 years, his wife got transferred,” Mr. Tripp said. “He moved to another town far away, and it left me with a void in a key spot....

“I just never found the right person that I wanted to represent what we try to do, and I finally decided just to go back to one (store) because the other location was so close.”

With the closure, Mr. Tripp said he was able to bring his entire staff under one roof.

“It's actually been a good thing,” he said.

Though Mr. Tripp said his business has had its share of trying times, it has continued to perform well—something he attributes to “honesty, integrity and customer service.”

“We have a lot of people, we're dealing with a lot of family members, who are kids of family members who did business with my dad,” he said. “And our reputation of being able to be someone you can trust has probably been one of the main keys.... We've just been known to be a trustworthy place to bring your vehicle.”

It all hearkens back to that original Tripp's Tire location and long-ago motto that still stands tall and true: Friendship, Love and Truth.

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To reach this reporter: [email protected]; 330-865-6148; Twitter: @Will_Schertz