The seat came first

Before CCE sold parts for construction machines, its owner ran them. Austin Klinesmith spent six years in the Marine Corps as a 1345 Heavy Equipment Operator: graders, dozers, front loaders. Building roads and shooting ranges, moving cargo, from Twentynine Palms to Camp Roberts and plenty of places in between. Some of it was 24-hour days in desert heat. Some of it was rebuilding a pistol range nearly four football fields long, a hundred-some berms, with hand tools, because the machines were not available that week. He does not recommend either.

But that seat teaches you something no parts catalog can: what it costs a crew when a machine is down and the schedule is not moving. This company is built on knowing that firsthand.

A thread that starts in 1995

Our roots go back to a small-engine shop that opened its doors in California in 1995. For decades it was the classic counter shop: generators, rammers, plate compactors, trowels, chainsaws, professional landscape equipment, and a whole lot of Honda. If it had a small engine and it mattered to your livelihood, it came through those doors.

Austin walked into that shop in 2020, fresh out of Marine Corps training, green as they come, hired on by a friend. He learned the trade at that counter and worked his way up: mechanic, manager, and in time, owner.

Those were the good old days. A tight crew: the old owner, Austin's little brother, a couple of close friends. Swampy summer heat in the shop, arguments and laughter in equal measure, and late nights catching up on the workload that turned into a standing ritual: Italian food, wine, and cigars while the work got done. Ask anyone who was there. It was like living in a TV show.

Then California pulled the ground out

In the early 2020s, California regulators banned the sale of new gas small engines. No vote. A regulation. Our entire business was built around selling and servicing small-engine equipment, and the ground was taken from under our feet with no recourse. We were not the only ones. A lot of good shops went under completely.

Ours did not. We rebuilt the company from the studs as an online supplier of parts and equipment for light construction: Multiquip, Wacker Neuson, Bartell, and the machines this trade actually runs on. Rammers, plate compactors, trowels, rollers, saws, generators, and the tens of thousands of parts that keep them working.

Why construction? A nation that cannot build cannot do much else. We keep the machines running for the people doing the building.

Parts we would stake our name on

We carry more than 58,000 OEM parts across the brands we support. But the heart of this company is the line we build ourselves.

It started with a rammer shoe kit. We had sold plenty of them at the OEM price, until one day Austin sat looking at one on the bench and saw it plainly: two pieces of steel, wood, and some nuts and bolts. So we had it manufactured to our own spec, same materials, and we torture-tested it before we would put our name anywhere near it. Every one is inspected twice: once when it reaches us, once before it ships to you. Since early 2024, around four hundred of them have gone to work on job sites across the country. It is our best seller, and it set the standard for every house part that followed.

And when the honest answer is that the OEM part is the right part, that is the answer you will get from us.

The Sweden call

A while back, a customer called with his Rammax roller down and the part he needed on factory backorder everywhere. We spent two days on the phone: the original manufacturer, then an asphalt plant in Sweden, then dealer after dealer across the country, until we found the one who had the part. Then we put the customer directly in touch with that dealer.

We did not make a dime on that machine. That is fine. If we can get you running, we will get you running, whether or not the sale is ours. That is the whole reason to pick up the phone.