User:Emilyasher4/sandbox

Hunter Engineering Company is an American manufacturer of passenger car and truck service equipment including computer-based wheel alignment systems, vehicle inspection systems, tire changers, wheel balancers, alignment lift racks and brake lathes. Founded in 1946 by Automotive Hall of Fame inductee Lee Hunter Jr. (1913-1986), Hunter Engineering Company's 26-acre headquarters is located in St. Louis, Missouri.

Hunter Engineering also operates four manufacturing facilities in St. Louis, Missouri, Durant, Mississippi and two in Raymond, Mississippi. Hunter Engineering Company employs about 1,000 people worldwide. In addition, Hunter fields approximately 800 independent contractors that provide support to customers across North America.

History
In the 1930s Lee Hunter Jr., an architectural student, often faced a dead car battery. In 1936, Hunter designed the Kwikurent, the first battery charger to reduce the charging time of a battery from days to hours. Lee Hunter Jr. founded Hunter Engineering Company in 1946 and introduced another invention, the Tune-In, the first on-the-car wheel balancer. In the 1950s Lee Hunter began assembling a large dedicated sales and service force and laid the foundation for global distribution. Hunter Engineering entered the field of wheel alignment in 1955 with the Lite-A-Line, a simplified light beam alignment system, using wheel mounted instruments and projected light beams to achieve correct wheel alignment.



In 1964 Hunter moved their global headquarters from Ladue, Missouri to the 26-acre St. Louis, Missouri campus it occupies today. The campus consisted of an 80,000 square-foot factory and 28,000 square-foot engineering, research and training building, including an 11-bay training garage. In 1973 Hunter opened the 18-bay St. Louis Training Center adjacent to the company headquarters, research and development center and manufacturing plant. Hunter's Super Service Center opened in 1991 to provide parts support to Hunter's sales and service team.

Present Day
Hunter is a primary supplier in major car and truck manufacturer dealership equipment programs.

Hunter's campus also includes the Research and Training Center containing fully equipped training and testing service bays and classrooms, along with a specialized facility for heavy-duty trucks used for research, product development and technician training.

Hunter’s main product line features computer-based wheel alignment systems for dealerships, general repair shops and tire dealers including the HawkEye Elite Alignment System, HawkEye Alignment System and ProAlign Alignment System. All Hunter aligners use digital cameras to measure the position of the wheel-mounted targets to measure alignment angles in comparison to OEM specifications. Hunter alignment racks are available in four-post or scissor lift style. Scissor lifts have a 10-, 12- and 16,000 lb. capacity depending on the model. Four-post racks have an 18,000 lb. capacity, 26-inch wide runways and are available in open- and closed-front configurations.

Hunter manufactures wheel balancers such as the Road Force Elite, Road Force Touch, SmartWeight Touch, QuickMatch, DSP9200 and DSP7705. The Road Force Elite and the Road Force Touch use a mechanical roller to apply up to 1,250 lbs. of force to the tire to identify vibrations and vehicle pulls.

There are two types of Hunter tire changers; center-clamp tire changers and traditional table-top tire changers. Hunter’s Revolution tire changer is an automatic, center-clamp style system. Hunter’s other center-clamp tire changers include the Auto34S, TC3700 and TC3300 tire changers. All center-clamp tire changers help prevent damage to the tire and rim. Hunter’s table-top, or conventional, tire changers include the TCX57, TCX56, TCX53, TCX51 and TCX50.

Hunter’s AutoComp Elite is a new on-the-car brake lathe with a 7-inch touchscreen and the QuickComp on-the-car brake lathe has a 1.5-hp motor. The BL500 series brake lathe is a bench brake lathe that can service rotors up to 23 inches and drums up to 28 inches.

Hunter produces inspection equipment including the Quick Check inspection lane and the Quick Tread drive-over tread depth measurement system. Quick Check and Quick Tread gather information about a vehicle’s wheel alignment, tire tread depth, tire inflation, battery health, diagnostic codes and braking balance.

Hunter also produces a line of products for heavy-duty trucks, trailers, buses and RVs. This line includes WinAlign HD alignment, ForceMatch HD balancer, TCX625HD and TCX640HD tire changers, RKHD heavy-duty lift rack, heavy-duty pit racks and the B400T brake tester.