Moses Lake residents go national with tire chain product

Chain Dawg partners hope for success

MOSES LAKE — A new tool on the national market for tire chain installation originated in Moses Lake.

About two years ago, Tim Woodworth, John Stowers and Dale Kingma got together to create a tool simplifying the installation of heavy duty tire chains, forming TC Tool, LLC.

Marketing for the resulting creation, a tool called Chain Dawg, recently began across the nation.

The tool is patented, and patent is also pending in Canada.

Kingma explained it took Woodworth half an hour to put chains on his tires on Snoqualmie Pass.

"He came to me asking if we couldn't come up with a system to make it easier to get his chains on, and to get them on tight," Kingma said. "The tighter the chains are, the faster you can go, really, because what wears chains out is when they're on loose. They slap on the road and it just breaks them."

The tool is used to get slack out of the chain, hook it up and tighten cam-locks. Kingma said a product is in the works to remove the chains as well.

"Really, after you run it down the road for a while, the chain will loosen up a little bit, so you can get it undone," he said.

Moses Lake-based LTI/Milky Way, where Kingma works as maintenance manager, was the first purchaser of the Chain Dawg product.

The ideal customers for Chain Dawg include trucking companies and truck stops. Chain companies might not be as interested, although one is producing the tool for Kingma and his partners.

"Because we get the chains on tight, therefore they don't break, so they don't sell as many," Kingma laughed. "The response that we've got from it is just phenomenal."

Kingma laughed and said he hopes to be successful enough with Chain Dawg to retire. TC Tool began selling the tool at such Moses Lake outlets as Ernie's Truck Stop and Dunn Auto Electric in December 2005.

"If it wouldn't be for them helping us market this, we wouldn't be where we're at today, I will tell you that," Kingma said.

He was anticipating a huge order for 1,000 to 5,000 tools Friday.

"I expect it to go national. Once it goes into Canada, the next thing will be overseas, hopefully," he added.