Local inventor builds a better rigging boom

Every invention starts with a problem. 

For Dave Balcom he’d been a rigger for 35 years, loading and unloading heavy equipment from trucks. The problem was that there was not a rigging boom with a quick release that could be added to fork trucks. (For those not familiar with the utility, think of how snow plows are attached to trucks.) 

Adding to the problem was that any improvised solution would void all warranties on the equipment. As a result, rental business and manufacturing plants had to purchase a rigging boom already attached to a vehicle, making that vehicle essentially a very expensive one trick pony.

The solution for this problem is the Rig Ready, a quick release rigging boom that has been certified by an independent, third party engineering firm so as not to void any warranties.

Now, instead of a rental company having several traditional rigs attached to trucks that are used for only one purpose, it now can have a Rig Ready boom in stock that can be used interchangeably with its truck fleet.

“Instead of 10 trucks with booms, you now can buy one boom for use with 10 trucks,” explains Balcom.

The opportunity, according to Balcom, is tremendous. “We had GVSU do a job review and there are between 120,000 and 140,000 potential customers,” he says. 

Rig Ready, which has both a U.S. and an international patent, is being manufactured in Michigan, which he hopes will add jobs to the local economy.

Balcom credits the Grand Rapids Inventors Network (GRIN) as an important resource that helped him in his journey from idea to market. 

To learn more about Rig Ready, you can contact Balcom by visiting their website here.

Source: Dave Balcom, Rig Ready
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor,