Checking In With Jason Curry—CTS Custom Trailers Rising – Speed on the Water
Starting with the hires of powerboat trailer industry veterans Ronnie Moran and Jon Smiley in early April, CTS Custom Trailers has made big moves—and big news—this year. Later that month, the Muscatine, Iowa-based company introduced its first custom tilt trailer, carrying a new MTI 390X catamaran owned by Arizona-based Mark Rios, at the Desert Storm Poker Run. By late August, the company had a variety of trailers on display at the Waves And Wheels-sponsored Shootout On The Strip Street Celebration and Exhibit ahead of the 35th annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri.
CTS Custom Trailers principals Jason Curry and his daughter Lakin Curry-Thoren have made strong inroads into the powerboat trailer segment of the marine industry.
One of the CTS trailers on display that evening carried a new MTI 390X catamaran belonging to Jason Curry, the owner of the 25-year-old company. Curry also owns an MTI-V 42 center console and owned an MTI 340X catamaran before he bought the 42-foot V-bottom.
That Curry is a longtime performance-boat enthusiast and current MTI client helps him understand what’s needed in trailers for the segment on a first-person, real-world level. As part of our ongoing “Catching Up With” interview series to end the year, we interviewed him earlier to learn more.
CTS debuted its first tilt trailer in April and has continued to build tilt products.
You’ve owned a few MTIs now, which has to be pretty useful for a guy who also owns a company building trailers for MTI and other brands. How did you come to get involved in the go-fast boating world?
I have been a boating enthusiast for most of my life. I grew up boating on the Mississippi River and have spent most of my later years boating at the Lake of the Ozarks. And I have owned several high-performance MTIs through the years.
What prompted you to bring CTS trailers into the go-fast powerboat market?
What got us into building high-performance boat trailers was pandemic-related. At the time, other vendors were jacking prices through the sky and giving out super-long lead times. I decided that there was a need for all-aluminum, fully welded trailers and that’s when we got into it.
Curry displayed his own MTI 390X on a CTS trailer this summer at the Lake of the Ozarks.
We also had help from a couple of OEM boat companies were talking to me about not being able to get trailers. After meeting with them and discussing it, my daughter, Lakin, and I decided that that was something that we could help them with.
High-quality boat trailers are not inexpensive. Why is that?
Making world-class trailers for world-class boats takes a very skilled team of engineers, fabricators and builders. We use only the highest quality parts and materials during our assembly process to create truly the best trailers industry, which give our customers many, many years of trouble-free performance.
What have you found lacking in the high-performance powerboat trailer market?
One of the biggest things I found frustrating in the trailer industry was the inability to customize your trailer the way that you want it—to have it truly custom-built to fit your boat, your needs and even your personality. That is something we strive for at CTS Custom Trailers. We pride ourselves on building and customizing each trailer to meet the needs and desires of each customer.
A number of high-performance powerboat builders and their clients have embrace the CTS Customer Trailers line.
What will CTS focus on in the near future?
We are in the process of expanding the Muscatine production facility to meet the growing demands of our customers. We have already contracted the expansion and we are just waiting for construction to begin. From building a custom trailer for a 16-foot raceboat to building one for a 65-foot offshore fishing-boat trailer, we can do it all.
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