Dan Decker is a creator and a designer. The Danko Manufacturing owner said making disruptive products is the kind of thing that gets him up in the morning.
In the 1990s, Decker created the Brake Buddy, one of the first portable supplemental braking systems. He sold the product in 2004 and began working on his next project—RVibrake. After 14 years with successful products, including the RVibrake 3 and the RVibrake Shadow, Decker sold his flat-towing operations to Lippert.
The deal closed Thursday. Lippert said RVibrake will be offered amongst its Curt brand products.
Shane McNallie, senior vice president of Lippert Automotive Sales, said, “We are excited about this opportunity to expand the Curt offering of flat towing products. RVibrake has wonderful brand recognition in flat tow braking, and their technology is far ahead of anything else in the market.”
Decker said the sale process began before 2020, when Lippert launched its Rambler tow bar line. The companies then talked about Lippert potentially buying RVibrake to pair Lippert’s tow bars with RVibrake’s flat-towing supplemental brake system. The pandemic intervened, and talks did not restart until last fall.
“There wasn’t a push to get anything done with the market still soft,” Decker said. “Then, in October, Jason Lippert reached out and said he thinks there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we would like to get ahead of it.”
The two sides worked out a fair deal, Decker said, and plans to share a transition process over the next eight months or so. RVibrake will continue making its brake systems and accessories for Lippert until the Curt brand team is prepared to take over operations.
“Curt and the Curt team, Shane and Tom (Mazur), they really did a great job getting us through the process,” Decker said. “The way we do design and the way Curt does design are very similar in style, so it is a good fit.”
McNallie said the RVibrake products will add to Curt’s flat-towing portfolio, which includes the Rambler steel RV tow bar. Curt will soon release a new Seeker tow bar with a 10,000-pound towing capacity.
Decker will work with the RVibrake team through the transition process. Up next for him is a company called 4 Mavericks.
Decker and Danko Manufacturing Vice President of Operations Jerad Burkhart are 4 Mavericks co-owners. The pair bought the GrabPad permanent jack pad and Tow-n-Glow safety light IP from Dank Manufacturing. Once the RVibrake transition is complete, Decker and Burkhart will build 4 Mavericks from the two products into a new portfolio.
“I am in my 60s now,” Decker said, “and I have another 10-year run in me. I like working. We will be developing new products—more RV products, but also some in other markets.”
Decker said the 4 Mavericks project will position the co-owners not as manufacturers but as those handling the product design, logistics and sales.
He said, “I get to really do the things I love.”
