8174 Old Highway 12, Walla Walla, WA 99362 
The Don Johnson Story
Three generations on, with a fourth already underfoot — one family business in Walla Walla since 1977.
Nearly fifty years of trailers
Don Johnson Sales began the way the best things do: with people doing what they love. For Don and Sharon Johnson, that was horses: trail riding and racehorses, ranching and long days in the saddle, a life they lived fully. Don came to know trailers the way you only can when you’re the one hauling in them week in and week out, so when he started selling them, it was never really a business plan. It was a horseman passing along the trailers he’d come to trust. In 1977, Don bought four Hale horse trailers and sold them right next to his plumbing shop in Walla Walla. Four turned into more, and more kept coming, until the trailers won out and Don closed the plumbing business to sell them full-time.
Don had a way with people. He’d sit at the window and watch the driveway, and when somebody pulled in, he’d read them before they ever stepped out. Ball cap on the driver? Don reached for his ball cap. Cowboy hat? On went the cowboy hat, and out the door he’d go to meet them. That is how it was from the start: meet folks where they are and treat them the way you’d want to be treated. It’s how strangers pulling onto the lot so often drove off as friends, and came back for years.
That spirit still runs the place three generations on. In 2001, Don and Sharon stepped back and handed management to their son-in-law, Gary Aichele, who’d come up through sales. In 2013, Gary and his wife, Dixie, bought the business outright, and in 2017 they built the home we know today, a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility out on Old Highway 12. They added Polaris off-road vehicles and a full service and fabrication shop along the way, all while doing exactly what Don did: matching folks with the right trailer and standing behind every one. Today the third generation helps lead the way, with Gary and Dixie’s daughter, Nicole, and her husband, Uriah Kallstrom, part owners now. And the fourth generation’s already underfoot, the granddaughters you might find dusting in the shop or interacting with customers in the waiting room.
We’ve carried a lot of brands across 49 years, but we only keep the ones that earn it. Trails West and Featherlite are our two mainstays, chosen for their quality and how far you can customize them. Snake River, Aluma and Air Tow have earned their spot right alongside them, well-built trailers that widen the selection without ever cutting a corner. From horse and stock trailers to utility, flatbed, dump, snowmobile, and cargo, if we sell it, it’s because we’d haul it ourselves.
Today, that is still the heart of our business: we use what we sell. Our family has ranched, ridden, rodeoed, and hauled for three generations, so when we help you find a trailer, we’re drawing on a lifetime of doing it ourselves. That’s also why so many of our customers don’t stay customers for long, they become friends, the kind who come back for their second trailer and their third, and send their neighbors our way. Straight talk, a fair deal, and service that goes above and beyond, for the folks who ranch, ride, build, and haul, whether it’s their weekend or their livelihood.
Come see us out on Old Highway 12. Say hi to the steers out front, take your time, and let us help you find the one. We invite you to become part of our family.
