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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
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