From Horse Drawn Graders to Massive Crawler Cranes

Thu July 16, 2009
Zoie Clift

M.D. Moody & Sons is one of the oldest family owned construction equipment distributors in the nation, according to Stephen Moody, an M.D. Moody sales manager.

“M.D. Moody opened in 1913, and is still going strong 96 years later,” he said.

Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., the company currently has several locations in Florida and Georgia, including Fairburn, Ga.; Pompano Beach, Fla.; and Fort Myers, Fla.

However, it provides service wherever a customer needs it.

“We will service a machine anywhere in the world, at any time,” said Moody.

Putting Parts in

Their Places

The company has a very large parts inventory.

“We can get many parts to our customers within 24 hours,” Moody said.

Doug Stone, parts manager of the company for the past three years, said M.D. Moody is able to supply a quick delivery of crane parts for a variety of cranes, including those no longer produced.

“M.D. Moody & Sons has relationships with a vast variety of manufacturers, vendors and dealers to source parts from,” said Stone. “We have been in business since 1913 and have made those connections so the end user doesn’t have to spend a day sourcing parts for their equipment. We have done the homework for them.”

As a distributor for many makes and models of cranes, the company offers the latest models and newest machines as well as quality used cranes. The cranes have capacities ranging from 30 to 450 tons (27 to 408 t) available, in rough-terrain, all-terrain, truck, telescopic, boom or crawler cranes. The company has provided cranes for some of Florida’s biggest lifts and road and bridge construction across the Southeast.

“M.D. Moody will do whatever it takes to keep our customer’s jobs on time, and under budget,” said Moody. “The second president of the company had a motto. He said our customers are ’customers for life.’”

From Horse Drawn Graders to Crawler Cranes

“Over the last 96 years, M.D. Moody has sold everything from horse-drawn road graders to man-lifts to cement trucks to our all time popular cranes, the American crawler cranes,” said Moody.

The company is in its fourth generation of family leadership.

Business began in Jacksonville Max Moody Sr. launched a construction machinery distributorship known simply as M.D. Moody. The purpose of the company was to “sell construction equipment to road builders.”

In 1942, the company was appointed as the Florida distributor for American Hoist & Derrick Company, which produced American cranes. It is now a part of Terex Cranes. American cranes and draglines became a signature part of Moody’s inventory. It even distributed them internationally.

Max Moody Sr. died in 1949 leaving his son, Max Moody Jr., in charge of the business. Max Moody Jr. remained president until his death in 1987, when Max Moody III succeeded him. Lisa Moody was appointed president in 2005.

“The future plans of the company is to rebuild our rental fleet with more new, modern machines, and begin to phase out the older ’friction’ cranes,” said Moody. CEG