About Us

1-27-10

Rod and Cindy Brakhage started the Wheeldock™ Co. in 2004 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  In the first year of business, Wheeldock™ offered one product: the original Wheeldock™ wheel chock. This original product was invented and developed by Rod and his buddy Mike Lyons. In 2005, a patent was awarded for the chock (Pat. #7,150,359).  Before founding the Wheeldock™ Co., Rod was employed by Oklahoma State University. For 23 years, Rod built research hardware for the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology. Rod previously owned and operated a machine shop and worked as a tool maker for Mercury Marine in Stillwater.

Originally, the Wheeldock™ Co. outsourced the wheel chock to another local company, which manufactured and shipped the chocks. This product was primarily marketed by setting up at trade shows and rallies and demonstrating the chock.  Rod and his wife, Cindy, travelled to numerous trade shows and rallies demonstrating the chock. Cindy continues to support the operation as the Vice President of Marketing and also keeps Rod happy and focused.  

After the first year, it became obvious that the wheel chock was not just a great design, but there was also a large market for this type of product. Sales were so good that the company which manufactured the product for Wheeldock™ had trouble keeping up with orders. Therefore, Rod made the decision to invest in the equipment necessary to start manufacturing the wheel chock in house. Because Rod’s background was in tool and die making, he was able to build all new tooling and the precision fixtures needed for manufacturing the Wheeldock™ wheel chock. He leased and set up a small manufacturing shop in Stillwater and was ready for business. In the first week of January 2005, Wheeldock™ shipped the first wheel chocks, which were built entirely by Wheeldock™ employees.

One year later, the company was at full speed and needed more space for production. On April 1, 2006, the company moved into its current facility. The custom-built facility, which was built in 2006, is an 8,000 sq. foot plant complete with a state-of-the-art powder coating operation. The Wheeldock Co is located at 502 Kinnick Rd in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Our second product, the EZ-Up™ drive-off center stand, was designed and developed in the fall of 2006 to address the need for a center stand for Harley touring bikes. This product has been successful from the beginning and in the fall of 2009, Rod went back to the drawing board when Harley redesigned and improved the frame on the new touring bikes. The Wheeldock™ Company now builds an EZ-Up™ center stand for the new ’09 and later Harleys in two heights as well as the original EZ-Up™ stand for 1979-2008 Harleys in four heights.  The EZ-Up™ center stand is marketed through a network of distributors, agents, and dealers throughout the United States and Canada with dealers in the UK, Japan, and Australia.

The original wheel chock is now sold directly to our customers in order to reduce the retail cost.   By removing the distributors and dealers margins, we are able to offer this great product at a lower price than when we started in 2004. Dropping our dealer network was a very tough decision, but it was the only way to compete with offshore manufacturers utilizing cheap labor and passing off inferior products to consumers in our country.

In the fall of 2008, another 2,500 sq. feet was added to the plant for R&D. This new shop facility is where Rod loves to hang out with his machine tools, designing and developing new products and building fixtures and tooling for current products. This addition allows the company to take any new product from concept to completion. The Park-n-Move motorcycle dolly is a product Wheeldock™ redesigned and now produces for the Legal Speeding Co., which is another great American success story.

Another way to reduce cost is to invest in new technology, which adds efficiency. In 2009, a new CNC vertical milling machine was added to our facility. It performs all the drilling, tapping, counter boring etc., necessary for our wheel chock production. This CNC also machines the spacers we use to change one size chock into a smaller one. This is another part that was once outsourced and now built in-house with the savings passed on to our customers.

In the winter of 2009/2010 we made a major investment in technology with our new Kuka robotic welding center. This machine is absolutely amazing and currently performs virtually all the welding operations on every item produced.

The Wheeldock™ Company is very proud of the fact that we are still manufacturing our products in the USA. All of our products carry a limited lifetime warranty to be free of defects in materials and workmanship, which is the way it used to be.

In this day and time, most companies focus on how cheaply a product can be made (usually in a foreign country) and then sold for the most profit possible. At Wheeldock™, we believe in building a great product in America, selling it at a fair price, and then providing great service after the sale. We believe this simple philosophy is why we have been successful and continue to grow.

Our toll-free number is posted at the top of every page on our web site, and we encourage our customers to call with any questions, comments, or complaints.  Rod is always available to visit with customers who need help or assistance in any way. We encourage you to take a few minutes and read what some of our customer’s think of our products and services: http://wheeldock.com/testimonials.shtml