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Filling a Need in the Garage

Steve Davis, orthopedic surgeon at Ministry Door County Medical Center, has been rebuilding cars since he was 13, and six years ago came up with a way to make the work a little easier.

“I wanted a moveable platform that was easy to use, adjustable, that could fit most cars we had that one person could push around,” Davis said.

He invented the EZVJack, a sturdy platform that holds a car up by its axles and makes it easy for a single person to push a car around a shop.

“It makes [my workshop] a lot more organized,” Davis said. “If we get a vehicle in here we can move it all over the place.”

That’s a good thing for Davis, who takes his hobby seriously. He’s part of a group of car enthusiasts that meets in his workshop to work on classic and modern cars. There are three or more cars in the shop at any time, and the ability to easily move them around helps keep the place clear.

Davis said the EZVJack is different than other devices. It’s got larger wheels to make cars easier to push, a three-wheel design that makes the jack more stable, swivel wheels that make cars easier to steer. Most devices fit under car tires, but the EZVJack holds cars by their axles, which protects the tires of cars stored for long periods of time. It also lifts cars up high enough off the ground to make brake, tire and body repair easy.

Davis started designing the EZVJack when building a Factory Five Racing kit car with his son. The car didn’t have wheels for a long time, so Davis began drawing up plans for something that could allow him to push the car around the shop. Six years and five models later, the EZVJack is officially on the market.

A set of EZVJacks sells for $1,299, and Davis has sent some models to local auto repair shops so they can review it.

Dorsch Ford in Green Bay, where two of Davis’s children work, uses the EZVJack in its body shop and service manager Bill Allcox said the device works well.

“It’s a very, very common problem with collision cars to have one wheel that won’t roll,” Allcox said. “We can take the EZVJack outside and jack [the car] up in the parking lot, set it on the jack and move it inside and move it around the shop.”

Davis hopes to see the EZVJack in more garages, dealerships and body shops in the future – but not just so he can profit. He believes in the EZVJack and wants others to believe in it too.

“The bottom line is it just works so well,” Davis said. “There’s nothing like it out there, so why not give it a try? It was like ‘see a need, fill a need.’”