PHOTO BY CLAIRE FRANELL
Kent Madison of Echo has invented the Jack-E-Up, a device which allows the removal of A-frame trailer jacks after hookup.
About three years ago, Madison says, he and his wife, Laura, were pulling a trailer up to the mountains and bent their screw jack when crossing a railroad track.
“We decided that we would make a device that would allow us to completely remove the jack from the trailer,” Kent Madison said.
The Madisons designed a prototype for themselves and tested it for about a year before creating the Jack-E-Up company and pursuing a patent. The patent is pending in the U.S. and Canada.
The Jack-E-Up, made of solid steel with durable powder coating, supports a two-inch round A-frame jack during trailer hookup and then holds the trailer securely to the vehicle. Once installed, the device remains in place and improves the strength of the existing attachment. The jack, no longer necessary to secure the trailer, can be stowed safely in the vehicle.
Now trailer users don’t have to worry about denting their tailgates on jacks or bending their jacks on curbs or railroad tracks. The Jack-E-Up also makes trailers much more difficult to steal.
The Jack-E-Up can also be used for electric jacks, though it was designed mainly for top-wind and side-wind A-frame jacks.
“There’s literally millions of applications for it out there,” Kent Madison said. “Utility trailers, horse trailers, snowmobile trailers, travel trailers — anything.”
The Madisons manufacture the Jack-E-Up at a facility between Echo and Hermiston.
Laura Madison emphasized their goal to keep the business local.
“The only thing we’re not doing is powder coating them,” she said. Instead, the Madisons are using a local business, Columbia River Powder Coat.
“We know we could make them cheaper in China,” said Kent Madison, “but we don’t want to do that. We just take an attitude that we’re not going to make them if we can’t make them in the U.S.”
Laura Madison said that the manufacturers they approached about producing the Jack-E-Up felt the device would not be as profitable as cheaply made jacks, which would need to be replaced time and time again.
The Madisons value the quality of their product.
“If we actually go out of business because everyone’s got (a Jack-E-Up), great!” Laura Madison said.
The Jack-E-Up is available at Northwest Farm Supply, Comrie RV and Columbia RV in Hermiston as well as Thompson RV and PGG in Pendleton.
Soon Kent Madison’s invention will also be sold at Camping World, which has more than 100 stores nationwide.
If the product grows as the Madisons and Camping World anticipate it will, “we’re talking about needing anywhere from 15,000 to 25,000 (units) a year. We’ll make them all still right here,” said Kent Madison. “We’ve got an employee down there cranking them out. We can produce about 700 of these a week right now.”
He expects that, as the Jack-E-Up business begins to grow, the new manufacturing needs will produce family wage jobs for two or three full-time employees in the area.
To learn more about Kent Madison’s invention, to view an instructional video, or to order a Jack-E-Up online, visit the company website.
More Stories from Northeast Oregon Now:
District Seeks to Deliver Diploma to 1927 Grad
Chamber Event to Focus on Employee Wellness
