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Two hunting buddies invent and market
a small hand winch with unlimited reach
By Yvonne Prater
M
ore than a century ago, Ralph Waldo
Emerson said if you build a better
mousetrap, the world will beat a
path to your door.
However, in this age of instantaneous advertising via the Internet or television, new gadgets face plenty of competition.
Dave Messersmith of Colfax and Tone
Kubik of Ritzville have teamed up to
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invent a portable, hand-operated winch they
call the “RopeAlong,” which should haul the
customers in.
Tone explains the RopeAlong is a third hand
for people working alone.
“And we haven’t
found an industry that
can’t use our tool, in
one way or another,” he
says.
Unlike other small hand-
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Above, Tone Kubik measures rope and mule tape for one of the
RopeAlong hand winches he and a friend, Dave Messersmith,
invented. On the opposite page, Tone shows off the “Big Brute.”
operated winches, the RopeAlong’s range is limited
only by the length and type of the rope you use with it.
You are not limited to a built-in spool of wire cable.
At Tone’s farm shop just outside Ritzville, he has a
display and assembly area where he shows off the product.
Dave can’t be here, Tone explains, because he is at a
rodeo in Las Vegas, demonstrating the RopeAlong, and
has 15 more shows scheduled to late spring.
Tone and Dave are longtime hunting buddies. Dave
is a logger and Tone a hay farmer.
Four years ago, Dave visited Tone at his shop and
told him a hunting story.
“Dave bagged an elk just behind his house, but,alone,
he couldn’t carry it up the steep hill,” Tone recalls. “So
he went to his junk pile and found an old winch device
with a frayed cable, which he removed, welded on a
couple of fence stretcher ends, replaced the wrecked
cable with his own longer rope, anchored the device
and easily pulled the elk up the hill.
“As he’s a kidder, I replied, ‘Right!’ And I kind of
laughed. But to prove it, he drove back home, brought
the unit back and showed it to me. Then he asked what I
thought of it, as I’ve invented several things and like to do
research and development. I told him we should probably
get this made and patent it.”
Within a week, they hand-whittled oak “grabs,”
redesigned the winch device and changed its name to
RopeAlong.
They drove to Spokane to visit a metal-casting company, redesigned the body of the device and took it to a
patent attorney in Spokane, who patented it for them.
“We selected a machinable steel for the bottom
plate, used a grade 8 steel for the pin and the thumb is
core 10 iron,” Tone says. “So we basically built a bulletproof unit.
“When the spool is full, with the grabs locked you
can empty the spool or attach more rope, and continue
pulling the object,” Tone says. “That’s a big advantage
with this unit. You can use it with one rope, two ropes,
or any combination of ropes, and pull it any direction.
“Our main advantage is its continuous pull. Once
you’ve hooked in, you can pull a thousand feet without
re-hooking—if you have a thousand feet of rope.
“Our key point that we make is that we’re using
rope, not cable. If you’re on a hard pull and a cable
breaks, it could come at you, and it’ll always coil back,
while rope doesn’t—it won’t hurt you. Cables fray, and
there’s nothing worse than getting cut by frayed wires
in cable. If rope wears, all you’ll get is one or two little
soft hairs.”
In addition to their original invention, the “Little
Brute,” Tone and Dave created a unit for heavier jobs,
the “Big Brute.”
And not only did create their tools, a sales brochure,
instructions and the package for their product, they also
have a Web site, a video of instructions and a toll-free
phone number. They even sell custom-cut rope and
mule tape for tehir winches.
“Pretty much what you see here, we put together in
15 months,” Tone says.
Dave says a key to the success of their company is the
board they formed of investors from around the
Northwest.
“We handpicked people who would help us with our
business due to their backgrounds,” Tone explains. “For
instance, one of our members is an importer-exporter,
and connected us to companies in Taiwan to build the
parts for our product. This allows us to be competitive.”
The two entrepreneurs have other ideas for expanding their product line, including an even smaller version
of the Little Brute.
As a hay grower, Tone says he doesn’t have enough
time to promote the product as widely as it should be.
He believes their product could be as useful on the East
Coast as in the Northwest, and in fact has worldwide
potential.
“Words from a friend—a very successful anonymous
inventor—will always remain with me,” Tone says. “He
says anyone who has a good idea, write it down and
pursue it. If you don’t, in six months to a year you will
see your idea or invention on TV, or on the shelf.” ■
For more information on RopeAlong, phone (509) 3979226, or visit the Web site at www.ropealongllc.com.
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