3/9/2005 – News

Savaloja stands beside a prototype TerraCarry. The plastic "boat" in the bottom of the trailer floats and can be used by search and rescue units to carry bodies recovered from underwater.

The TerraCarry trailers are designed for multi-purpose uses. One use is to recover human bodies in remote areas or in bodies of water where no roads are available. The body can be placed in a carrier and put in the lower level of the trailer to be transported to a road where it can be transferred to other transportation. The upper level can carry whatever equipment is needed. The dual axle trailers can be easily pulled by an ATV to the most remote areas.
Another use is by firefighters, who can put their equipment in the trailers and travel by ATV to fight brush fires. Law enforcement officials would have use for the trailers in all kinds of situations. With a portable generator installed in a trailer it could be used as a communications center in a remote area for searchers looking for a body or evidence, for instance.
The trailers could also be used for recreational purposes. One trailer he built two years ago is in use by an individual as a hunting trailer. All the other trailers he’s built are prototypes to show prospective customers.
But he’s concentrating primarily on the emergency rescue market because nobody else is making anything similar to these trailers. All kinds of governmental organizations, such as search and rescue units, Indian reservations, Border Patrol and law enforcement agencies are looking at the trailers which can be custom-built for the customer. The basic price is about $4,500.
The problem with concentrating on government is that progress is slow. "The agencies have to have the funding in place and they have to budget for something like this," Savaloja said. "It takes forever. That’s just the nature of the beast," he says.
But now that he feels he can come out in the open, he expects there’ll be some orders coming in the next couple months. The first public display of the TerraCarry was at Marketplace in Bismarck in January. Three weeks ago, he had the trailer on display at the annual convention of the North Dakota county emergency managers. Two weeks ago he displayed the trailer at the ND Fire School in Bismarck. Last week he displayed it at the Minnesota Fire School in East Grand Forks, Minn. There are lots of people interested.
The trailers have a steel frame, dual wheels, an aluminum body, insulation and plywood on the inside. The interior is custom installed over the plywood. The interior can be stainless steel, nylon, aluminum, carpeted, vinyl rubber mats or just plain plywood, whatever the customer desires.
In designing the trailers, Savaloja obtained stock car scales to provide perfect balance. This is something of an involved procedure utilizing geometry and physics. Fortunately, a computer does most of this work.
Anyway, the trailer is perfectly balanced with a low center of gravity so it won’t tip over on a sidehill, for instance.
The trailer is only part of the package he’s offering. The TerraCarry ATV transport trailer can be pulled behind a pickup, for instance. It’s 6′ wide by 19’6" long. On the trailer are the ATV and the TerraCarry. Once at a location where the pickup cannot continue, the ATV can be driven off the trailer and the transport trailer hooked to the ATV. The TerraCarry can then be hooked to the trailer and the ATV can continue to remote areas with the trailer and the TerraCarry. A unit like this would be invaluable in the event of an airplane crash in a remote area. The trailer could be used to transport four bodies with a fifth body in the TerraCarry. Cost of the package, ATV, TerraCarry and the transport trailer, would be about $15,000.

Jim Savaloja

A native of the Rolla-Hansboro area, Savaloja has a long history with law enforcement officials and search and rescue units. Among his first jobs was as Picton Township constable in northern Towner County. There was a poaching problem along the Canadian border and Savaloja held that job from
1971 to 1973. He’s been connected with law enforcement ever since. He was a special deputy under Ramsey County Sheriff Bert Roed in Devils Lake and later became a detective with the sheriff’s department.
He was a charter member of Lake Region Search & Rescue. He, Perry Horner, Bruce Burkett and Mike Hammond of Devils Lake attended a search and rescue diving school at Ft. Collins, Colo. in 1983. He went back in 1984 and obtained the certification as dive rescue specialist II. Although he doesn’t dive any more (he’s 59) he does occasionally get called out to help law enforcement officials. A pilot, he flew over the Wurgler National Wildlife Refuge in Knox Township in the spring of 2004, and found the body of a hunter who drowned there the previous fall.
The idea for an ATV trailer came to him when he was at the big motorcycle rally (he’s also a motorcycle buff) in Sturgis, SD, where he saw a small trailer behind a motorcycle. He built a trailer for dogs. Then he built a trailer to haul 300 decoys. That’s when the dual axle became a part of the plan. Because of his ties to search and rescue units and realizing the need for an all-purpose trailer, the TerraCarry sort of evolved from that.
He was living in Churchs Ferry in 2000, when he and most others in that town were bought out because of the threat of flooding. He was in the mobile home transporting business at the time and needed space to park his mobile homes, so he purchased five acres west of the Leeds Golf Club and an additional adjoining five acres from Terry Aronson of Devils Lake. Two years ago with the TerraCarry in mind, he quit the mobile home business and went to work full-time on his dream, with many 16-hour days.
Two steel buildings were constructed on the premises and Savaloja did all the finishing work. He constructed a third building himself and finished it. He plans to manufacture his transports and TerraCarrys in these buildings. When the orders start coming in he has a work force of local people lined up. He expects that at the beginning he will be able to turn out one transport unit per day and a TerraCarry every two to three days.
"I’m hoping we can provide a lot of good-paying jobs right here in Benson County," Savaloja says. "I think we’ve got a good shot at something big.
We’ve got a possibility of selling these things nationally."
He credits several individuals and organizations for getting as far as he has. "Without the $20,000 grant from the Benson County Job Development Authority, we’d never have this possibility," Savaloja said. He also got a $7,500 grant from the Leeds Economic Development Corp. and $10,000 for a market study paid for by USDA’s Rural Development and the Center of North America Coalition (CONAC) for Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP). The market study was very positive, indicating there would likely be significant demand for his products.
He also credits the Small Business Development Center of the ND Department of Commerce. "Donovan Wadholm sat down at my computer and wrote a business plan for me in three hours," Savaloja exclaims. Joel Bleth, owner of Pump Systems, Inc. of Dickinson, a manufacturer of equipment for fire departments and the oil business, has provided invaluable advice. "I can’t say enough about North Central Planning of Devils Lake," Savaloja says.
"They’re the best in the economic development business," he said, referring to Denise Hendrickson and Rick Anderson, who helped him obtain a number of loans. "Laura Every of CONAC has pulled all kinds of strings to get us going, and Bill Davis of Rural Development has shepherded us through many problems," he says. You can imagine all the paperwork involved in a venture of this magnitude.
Further information is available on the Web site handled by Orness Creations of Devils Lake. The address is www.jackalopeconversions.com.
Savaloja’s wife, Annette has been a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Devils Lake the past 30 years. They have three children, Lynnette Savaloja of Minneapolis, Minn., Janelle Hanson of York and Mike Savaloja of Virginia Beach, Va.
The past two years Jim hasn’t brought home much income, but he’s confident that’s going to change. He’s a true entrepreneur, gambling everything on a dream.
But with this product, it sure seems like he’s got at least a good shot at success.

Savaloja sits on an ATV with his prototype TerraCarry attached behind. This particular TerraCarry is outfitted as a communications trailer for use in remote areas. The TerraCarrys can be customized for many activities: recovering bodies, firefighting, communications, etc.