Breaking Barriers as a Diesel Mechanic

by Melinda Lavine

Krysten Linville climbs on top of a diesel truck tire. In steel toe boots, eye protection and coveralls, she examines the engine, steps down and walks over to her pink tool cart.

The South Range woman has been drawn to mechanics and finding out how things works since high school. “I’ve always wanted to take apart my car and put it back together,” she said.

Her interests fit well with her job — she’s been a diesel mechanic at Maney International in Duluth for more than a year.

She’s the first female to work in the shop, and she feels supported. Her co-workers mentor her and show her difficult jobs to expand her exposure. “They help me succeed…I never thought that they would be as good as they are,” she said.

Her supervisor agrees.

“I don’t think there are many (women) who go into the field — at least not around here that I’ve seen,” said Tim Faldet, shop foreman.

Faldet anticipated challenges. He was worried other employees wouldn’t be open to answering her questions, or that they’d help her too much — doing her work instead of their own. But that hasn’t been the case. He’s pleased with how smooth it’s gone, as is Linville.

“I was really worried when I was trying to find a job that the older men would be stuck in the old ways where that’s not a woman’s place,” she said.

Linville has studied and worked with supportive people, as well as ones who were discouraging or dismissive. They would say she didn’t belong in the field. Touring diesel programs at colleges, she was once redirected to nursing.

“To her that was being stereotyped,” said Mike Fitzpatrick, Linville’s former shop teacher at Two Harbors High School. “You could tell that that set her on fire even more.”

“They judged me because I was a girl,” Linville said. Linville, 21, has stubbornness on her side and a good support network.

“I’m a different gender and that’s really all there is to it. I’m a person, just like everyone else, and I can do what they can do, just as good as they can do it, if not better,” she said.

Support from her mother, Dawn Horne of Two Harbors, teachers like Fitzpatrick, and many others, has helped her succeed. Now, she’s happy where she landed.

“The guys have been absolutely wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with.”

Today, the 5-foot-1 Linville said her biggest challenge on the job is her size.

“This is rough, bull work, some of it,” said Faldet, the shop foreman.

That means heavy lifting. Diesel truck hoods can be tall, weighty and tricky to maneuver. “But I don’t give up because I can’t do something,” Linville said. “I try and try and try until

I know I can’t do it by myself and that’s when I get help.”

Faldet is an advocate for working smarter, using jacks for lifting, and using technology for diagnostics when possible. That saves on work, he said, and Linville is knowledgeable and willing. She’s embraced a lot of online training, and “she’s one of the very few who’s done it all,” he said.

There are also pros to her size.

“They drop bolts in the cab and (say) ‘Can you reach down in there and get it for me,’ ” Linville said, her coworkers chuckling good-naturedly in the shop.

Faldet said he hopes Linville likes it at Maney, and that she sticks around.

“I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else at any other job,” she said. “I’m just thankful I got into a really good place to work.”

Her tips for facing discouragement are: “Even though it’s hard, you just have to push through it. I know it’ll be better the next day, and if it’s not better the next day, then it’ll be better the next day.”

As far as women in the shop, Faldet said he hopes they can get more and that they’re willing to learn.

“Mechanic work, you always think of it as just guys, it always has been,” he said. “Now we have a woman working here, and it really hasn’t seemed to change anything. It’s still the same work, so she’s breaking down some barriers.” D