A little over a year ago it looked as if the popular mini-dozer maker Struck Corporation was on its way out.
Thanks to Greg Linsmeyer, that didn’t happen. Not only that, but the new owner of the company, best-known for its do-it-yourself kits advertised in Popular Mechanics, has revamped and modernized the entire Struck lineup for 2025.
“I was looking at this company for seven years before I bought it,” Linsmeyer says. He had admired the company as a small kid, looking at its ads in Popular Mechanics and wondering how cool it would be to put one together and run.
His first attempt to buy the company about seven years ago failed after another interested buyer acted quicker. Last April, though, a vendor informed him the 66-year-old company was being closed for good.
“I found who was controlling this time,” Linsmeyer says. “We actually drove up there that weekend, met with everybody, made a deal to keep the place open.”
The owner of Niagara Fabrication had some concrete ideas of how to improve the line of mini dozers. With his metal-fabrication company, Linsmeyer also had the means and knowledge to do it. The first step involved closing the Struck factory in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and moving operations about 3 hours away to Niagara, Wisconsin.
“It's been a very busy year,” he says. “We closed the factory down, moved it all to here and then kind of simultaneously started redesigning the models.”
Three Lines of Mini Dozers
Now called Struck Compact Construction Equipment, the company under Linsmeyer’s leadership has rolled out two new series of mini dozers, with its third, and largest, series expected by the end of the year.
Here’s a look at the three dozer series and their improvements:
S-Series
Struck Compact Construction Equipment
Struck upgraded the drivetrain, offering a 6.5- or 10-horsepower Vanguard gasoline engine with the addition of a centrifugal clutch and foot throttle. It has a continuous variable transmission similar to a golf cart, snowmobile or ATV. It’s designed “to give you more torque when you need it, and higher speed when you don't need all the power,” Linsmeyer says.
It features rubber tracks, or optional steel, and zero-turn technology. The operator format has been improved so you “sit in” the dozer rather than “on it.”
“We're seeing a lot of traction from mobility-impaired people looking at them because they're so easy to get into and get around with them,” Linsmeyer says.
It’s designed to pull smaller logs, make a garden, grade a driveway, plow snow. Manual attachments include rippers, blades, rakes, box scrapers, drawbars and a 2-inch receiver hitch for towing wagons and self-propelled garden tillers. Prices start at $4,500.
Magnatrac B-Series
Struck Compact Construction Equipment
They come in either 20 or 23 horsepower, and the company is planning to offer an 18-horsepower engine to bring the price down some.
They have a working capacity of 500 pounds on the front-end loader and a max 2,000-pound pushing force. Drawbar pull is 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. It weighs 1,500 pounds.
The B-Series is hydrostatic powered and designed for work in compact spaces. It features dual zero-turn commercial hydrostatic transaxles. It can run hydraulic attachments front, like a six-way blade or front-end loader, and rear, including a backhoe. It has a quick-attach system that enables attachment changes within 10 minutes.
It is made for such tasks as moving snow, ripping hard soil, landscaping, pulling logs, digging out stumps. It comes standard with rubber tracks, and steel tracks are optional. Prices start at $12,655.
Magnatrac D-Series
The Struck D-Series is set for release by the end of this year.Struck Compact Construction Equipment
The D-Series has a working load of about 750 pounds. It has over 3,000 pounds of push force, and it has around 2,200 pounds of drawbar pull.
They are slated to hit the market by the end of 2025. Models have been produced and are undergoing field testing before release.
“The D is really going to be competitive against any skid steer that's out there,” Linsmeyer says. “I think what puts them apart from everything else is it's got the right weight and size to it being on tracks.”
They are a revamp of the MH4900 and MH8500 and get the “D” in their name because they have direct track drive.
“The D-Series is a direct-drive, high-track bulldozer,” Linsmeyer says. “We're kind of following what the whole construction industry did probably 15 years ago.”
It can reach travel speeds of up to 6 mph. “In the past, Magnatracs suffered in horsepower and the speed that they could move around,” Linsmeyer explains. “Now they're going to have good power.”
A lever on the side lets the operator switch between work and travel modes.
Long List of Attachments
Struck S-Series with dozer blade and ripper attachmentsStruck Compact Construction Equipment
In the past, owners had to go to third-party sellers for attachments, which were often designed for larger tractors and did not fit well or were over-sized, Linsmeyer says.
The new factory direct attachments include:
Front Attachments
- Two- four- and six-way dozer blades
- Front-end loaders
- Forklift
- Grapple buckets
Back Attachments
- Three-point hitch
- Live PTO
- Backhoe
- One-, three- and five-tooth ripper
New attachments coming in 2025-26
- Rear- and front-mounting tiller
- Landscaping power rake
- Rear- and front-mounted snow blower
- Rear- and front-mounted broom
- Rear- and front-mounted auger
- Rear- and front-mounted stump grinder
- Log splitter
- Trencher/plow
- Log grapple
- Screening buckets
- Front- and rear-mounted jack hammer buster
- Front- and rear-mounted finish/rough-terrain mower
- Flail mower
- 4-1 bucket
“We’ve got people that buy everything,” Linsmeyer says of attachments. “They buy a front-end loader, the six-way blade, the backhoe, the three point, and every attachment and every bucket that we sell. It’s amazing what some people want.”
“It's a very versatile machine that way,” he adds, “because you can be digging dirt and using it like a front-end loader one day, and then out grading your final landscaping with it the next day.”
Linsmeyer says he used one at his home on a rough, unfinished half-acre with a front-end loader and backhoe. He also used a three-point rototiller and landscaping rake. It took him less than an hour to turn it into a finished yard, he says.
“I couldn't believe it. I was able to go in there and rough bulldoze everything out, clean it up, put the rototiller on, loosen the soil up, kind of pulverize it all, and then come back with the finished landscaping raking. I'm thinking this could have been a two-, three-day job normally. I was really happy.”
Why Struck?
Watch the Magnatrac B-Series in action in the video above by Struck.
Struck has a loyal following of customers, as can be seen by the various Facebook pages set up by owners and fans. Their posts offer other owners repair advice and how to find parts, and they submit photos to show off their prized mini dozers.
“We're lucky,” says Linsmeyer. “We have a good customer base. They're all willing to show off their bulldozers.”
That also helps because Struck only offers direct sales from its factory, mostly through its website. That won’t change, Linsmeyer says, but he’s also considering trying to enter the rental market for the B and D series to give the new mini dozers broader exposure.
“The problem I have is, everything I have is new,” he explains. “This is the first year it's out there, so nobody can really see it unless they fly into Niagara. I've had quite a few of them fly in actually and take factory tours and run the equipment. And it’s worked out well that way. But that's where I think getting them in the rental markets will get them dispersed nationwide where people can actually get up and look at them.”
He believes he’s got a niche product that will offer a solid alternative to compact tractors and those who want a small dozer. The compact dozer market was left by major construction equipment manufacturers years ago.
“It's very rare to find a six-way-blade machine that small. That's what also helped bring the D-Series to light,” he says. “There's nobody making anything close to it anymore. So I really feel there's a niche that needs to be filled. I think once we get a little bit more market acceptance on that D-Series, and people start seeing what it is and what its capabilities are, it's really going to fill that little market.”
Other benefits of the mini dozers, they can fit in the back of a half-ton pickup. They’re also easy to use. Linsmeyer says his wife and grandchildren can operate them with no problem.
And they come at a much lower price point than the smallest dozers on the market, which are about 12,000 pounds and cost $100,000. The current starting prices on the Magnatrac MH4900 and MH8500, which will be revamped into the D-Series, are $24,800 and $32,200, respectively.
“I'm perfectly matched with compact tractors,” he says. “I tried to match the price point. I tried to match the lifting capacities, the horsepower requirements, just to make it an easier decision for people.
“And I tell everybody, if you're looking for speed, and you don't really care about how well you can move dirt, those compact tractors are the answer. There's no beating that. But if you really want to do a lot of dirt work, a lot of lifting, a lot of bulldozing, if you need to move a lot of dirt, our bulldozer will do it at the same price as a compact tractor of similar horsepower.”
What’s Next?
Jeff Malmberg's vintage Struck collection includes the company's former Mini Beeps: from left, the MBA80 amphibious, MB1600 tractor/mower and MB-750 articulating. New Struck owner Greg Linsmeyer is considering bringinb back the mini-Jeeps.Jeff Malmberg
“He actually had a zero-turn lawn mower that he released back in the early ’70s that he had designed,” Linsmeyer said. “The way he used the current technology of his time to build a product that everybody could understand and work on, I think that was a nice approach that he used, that he took with all of his products. And I think that's what made it so popular.”
Linsmeyer plans to bring back the mini-Jeeps and even the tractor, with steel construction and modern features. He’s also looking at adding climate-controlled, enclosed cabs for the mini dozers. Most recently, he added canopies for the models.
“As long as sales continue strong, and we can keep developing these dealership or rental relationships, we're going to just keep adding to the lineup of equipment,” he says.
His factory in Niagara employs about 25 people, uses robotics and the latest technology in its production process.
“We do everything in-house,” he says. “That's what really sets us apart from most manufacturers. … We do everything from raw sheet metal to finished machining parts, the powder coating, liquid painting and then full assembly.”
“One thing that's nice is it's still made in America,” he adds. “Every time a company goes down in this country, it's a good chance it's not going to come back. So it's important, as far as I look at it, just to keep stuff made in America.”
Check out the Struck S-Series in action in the video below:
