Lee Fulmer comes from a long line of native Aiken businesspeople, and it looks like he is about to break out and go country with his own business – to Nashville.
Lee’s father, Freddie Fulmer, owned a store in town and Lee “grew up behind its parts counter and I always dreamed of following in his footsteps.”
Fulmer owns and operates ROC Trucks and Design at 924 E. Pine Log Road, just half a block from Citizens’ Park and Banks Mill Road. Fulmer invented the ROC Truck along with Country Music singer Tylar Farr, another member of the Buck Commanders, and he’s pretty much got the market to himself.
ROC stands for, Ridge Off-road Concepts. But now that he is supplying trucks modified for deer (especially buck) hunting to the Buck Commander – a man and a TV show, it has become a huge brand itself.
“Everybody is ROC crazy,” he said in his shop in late November.
Buck Commander is a direct spinoff of Duck Dynasty, both headed by owner Willie Roberson, Lee’s good friend.
He’s made a lot of other good friends by outfitting trucks for Nashville stars, including Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Morgan Wallen, and Tyler Farr. Several retired Major League Baseball players are also members of the fun-loving group including Adam LaRoche and Tombo Martin, and Ryan Langerhans. They are all members of the Buck Commanders.
“All of those fellas have Buck Trucks and I’m regularly making delivery trips to Nashville,” says Fulmer.
“Tyler Farr came up with a package for the ROC Truck that we add to a standard truck and it’s now the Buck Truck, which will be sold through exclusive dealerships in the Southeast,” explains Fulmer.
A Buck Truck is customized through the addition of lift kits to lift the body above the extra-large off-road tires and wheels, step bars to reach your seat, a front end that can take a bump and so can the suspension and more details to help you get your buck.
But as soon as he was ready to catch the Buck Truck wave, Covid-19 swamped their plans because of supply chain problems, especially with computer chips. During the outbreak when people weren’t driving, or buying automobiles, they were working from home and buying computers, so the semi-conductor industry switched long-term sales contracts from vehicles to electronic devices. The semi-conductor supply, now about as important to vehicle manufacturing as wheels and engines, is expected to remain hard to find for car makers for another year, pickup trucks especially.
Buck Commander (the show), which shot its Covid interrupted 10th season in 2020 plans to go back into production next year.
“It’s nice to be able to work with all of these Nashville stars and major league athletes; they are a lot of fun and they are all really good guys. But it’s the Aiken people that keep our doors open every day. Our customers become lifelong friends, like family,” he says.
In spite of the chip delay, Fulmer is optimistic, even to the point of thinking about producing his own show in Nashville.
And when the truck manufacturing industry comes back, the hunters and outdoorsmen will still be here. Hunting is a much older business than making trucks.
See https://roctruck.com/, www.buckcommander.com, https://www.facebook.com/ROC-Design-108763263916368 – and (803) 226-0761.
