Hi there!
My name is Andrew Lapp, and I’m the CEO of Recreatives Industries. I invite you to follow our journey as we share with you the inside view of resurrecting MAX ATVs!
MAX ATVs were originally built by Recreatives Industries Inc. of Buffalo, NY between 1969-2013 and later manufactured by Mudd-Ox Inc. of Shipshewana, IN until 2016. Over the course of 47 years, there were over 20,000 vehicles produced, comprising of the MAX II, MAX IV, and Buffalo Truck models.
MAX ATVs have been a part of my life for 26 years. Growing up in Sarasota, Florida, my childhood neighbor was a prominent dealer/distributor for Recreatives Industries. I drove his demo vehicles on a daily basis and helped him work on some of his machines. I was hooked.
The obsession never left – such is the way of most six wheeler enthusiasts…
In 2021, I acquired the MAX ATV brand, IP, Tooling, and Assets from Agile Vehicle Technologies Ltd, a British company who owned the MAX brand since 2016. I merged it into another company that I acquired called Planet Resource Recovery Inc. Earlier this year, we changed the name of our company to Recreatives Industries, Inc. to tie in with MAX’s heritage and resurrect this American icon.
On September 1st, we loaded two tractor trailers with MAX tooling and assets, all of which were the remains of the original Recreatives Industries factory in Buffalo, New York, and we transported everything to MAX’s new factory building in Bradenton, Florida.
Picture of truck #1 leaving New York on September 1, 2023
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We have been working non-stop the past couple years with sorting through all the old company records, reconnecting with old MAX vendors/suppliers, finding new MAX vendors/suppliers, fighting inflation from every angle, shopping for a factory building (which took 4-5 months), placing orders for MAX specific parts such as T20 transmission components, axles, sprockets, etc. (with lead times of up to 4-5 months), finding a new vendor to build the a MAX 2 chassis prototype to original factory spec, testing new engines from Briggs & Stratton, working with a new wheel manufacturer to build custom rims, and the list goes on.
In March 2022, we hired Galen Reich to serve as President of our company. He was the General and Marketing Manager of the original Recreatives company from 1993-2013. Bringing Galen on board was one of most important decisions that we could have made.
Galen ran the general operations of the original company for 20 years and has the institutional knowledge that was needed to make the relaunch of MAX a success. I consider myself knowledgeable about MAX since I’ve been a part of the 6×6 community for over 20 years and have rebuilt multiple machines, but I often tell people that I had no idea how much I didn’t know until Galen joined us. To say he is a valuable asset to our company is an understatement.
The purpose of this blog is to give you an inside view of our journey as we revive the MAX ATV brand and bring it into a new era. You can sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of our website to receive MAX Announcements and Blog updates of our journey. Thanks for following along!
Cheers,
Andrew Lapp, CEO
Recreatives Industries, Inc.
