C & C Equipment
Owners Bridgette and Clinton Chitwood.
C
& C Equipment has a YouTube channel that draws nearly 2 million views a month.
Its owners buy, sell, and recondition heavy equipment and decommissioned military vehicles ranging up to nearly 100,000 pounds. Often, they use sophisticated equipment to make custom parts for those big units.
Their customer base stretches around the world, with only about 20 percent coming from Indiana.
One time, they bought a Ford pickup truck at a government auction only to discover it had been a“ spy truck,” still loaded with computers, cameras, and other surveillance equipment. After a YouTube video showed the technology stuffed inside a camper shell, the government came calling to recover what remained of the equipment.
Among the biggest vehicles they have sold is a 96,000-pound bulldozer, 30 feet long and more
~ story and photos by Bob Gustin
than 12 feet tall, with a blade measuring more than 13 feet wide.
It’ s not a typical Brown County business. Yet it too contributes to the tourism industry, based on the number of visitors and customers who find their way to Needmore, Trevlac or other nearby spots in search of heavy equipment, then wind up shopping, eating, or spending the night in Nashville.
The headquarters for this operation is a squeaky-clean office, shop and yard tucked into northern Brown County west of Helmsburg on State Road 45.
It’ s a family-style operation headed by Clinton and Bridgette Chitwood.
Inside the shop, a large CNC( computer numerical control) machine cuts custom pieces from ¾-inch steel. Spare parts are neatly organized. Smooth concrete floors are surprisingly free of dirt and grease. Outside,
16 Our Brown County • May / June 2024