Hello and welcome to the Hammer Down website! The Hammer Down began as a monthly Trucking Department Newsletter for the Transportation Department of what was known back then as Better-Bilt Aluminum Products, Inc. The complete history of how the Hammer Down came into being and how it came to be here on the Internet can be found and read on our "History" page. This website, the Hammer Down name and domain name are NOT affiliated or associated with the current corporate owner of Better-Bilt Aluminum Products. This website is dedicated to the Drivers, Management, and fellow Better-Bilt Employee Alumni of the Hosea Magee/Cliff Logsdon era of this truly remarkable company.

Click on the LINKS below to browse and visit our website. Please sign our Guest Book.

Got these two photos from Gary Stazenski, former Traffic Manager and truck boss of the Prescott Valley, AZ plant. The photo at left was taken in 1981.

Ben Roberts, Renita Rice, Danny Colquit, ????????, Roger Duetsch, Bob Dean, Jim Pahl, Richard Surwall, Paul Denney, Bruce Knell, Gary Stazenski, Carl Irwin, Gary Jeranson, Joe Phillips, Jake Foust, Tom Mckinley.

With the death of Jim Pahl in 2010, there none of the original Better-Bilt drivers still driving for BB West. Jim was the last driver on their roster.

This photo had to have been taken sometime around or after 1985. We the new Logo and Paint Scheme came into being when the Smyrna Plant got the 1985 Peterbilt tractors.

Bobby Burt, Joe Phillips, Tom McKinley, Danny Colquit, Pete Roberts, Roger Duetsch, Carl Irwin, Bruce Knell, Jim Stephenson, Jim Pahl, Ben Roberts, Paul Denney

Drivers Squatting are:

Bob Hanson, Gary Jeranson, Bob Conway,, Fred Wagers, Ira Newman, Bill Gnagey

The October Driver/Alumni Breakfast photos are now up on the "Driver Happenings" page! Our next breakfast will be held in December! The date will be announced when it is finalized.

2008 has started off with great sadness for us former drivers of the old Better-Bilt Aluminum Products Company.

We lost our retired Traffic Manager Cliff Logsdon, shown at left, to Lung Cancer on January 2, 2008. He was carried on his last run on January 5, 2008.

Cliff was one of the first drivers hired during Better-Bilt's first days. Having been an owner-operator and knowing how to keep trucking records for the D.O.T, he was made Traffic Manager of Better-Bilt's Traffic and Transportation Department. He also helped hire the first drivers at the Prescott Valley, AZ plant when it opened in the early 1980's. Cliff was 76 years old.

He will be sadly missed by all who knew and drove for him.

Rex Smeltzer, shown at right, was one of the first drivers hired at Better-Bilt Aluminum Products back in the 1970's. Known to drivers all across the country as "Toilet Paper", Rex lost his battle with Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease on January 30, 2008.

Toilet Paper was one of 4 drivers who stayed with Better-Bilt in 1995 when Caradon, PLC downsized the jobs of the drivers at both plants, turning over all dispatching duties and driver personnel to Leaseway Driver Services. He was one of the original company drivers still working for Better-Bilt when Metal Industries bought the company from Caradon, PLC and hired the lease drivers back to the company payroll.

Toilet Paper made his last run on Saturday February 2, 2008. See photos below.

Hammer Down, Cliff and Rex!

We will miss you both!

The Hammer Down "News and Information" page is being re-named "Driver Happenings" and will be dedicated to the Better-Bilt Alumni, Family, and Friend's get-togethers and "happenings".