Doyle Knight has grown accustomed to taking the road less traveled, both literally and figuratively.


For about 10 years, the Deer Lake, Wash., man has been negotiating unexpected switchbacks and detours while seeking to develop and bring to market a patented track system for small all-terrain vehicles.


A company called Arctic Trax Inc. that he formed about two years ago now is preparing to move ahead with the production and sale of the steel, aluminum-and-rubber assemblies based on orders he hopes to receive from ATV dealers.


To see something that youve developed and worked on for so long come true is almost unbelievable, Knight says. By the end of this year, we should be going. Theres a lot of interest in it.


So Knight is gearing up to spend more time on well-traveled roads, journeying to outdoor shows in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada to demonstrate ATVs that have been fitted with the tracks. He participated in a March show in Coeur dAlene and has another one coming up next month in Grand Forks, British Columbia.


His company hasnt received any orders yet, but he says he expects it to soon, since he just now is launching his marketing campaign. He says several off-road publications have expressed interest in writing about his invention, and he hopes that publicity will generate additional interest in the product.


The triangular-shaped track assembly is designed to turn standard four-wheeled ATVs into year-round vehicles, eliminating the need for many people who use such vehicles extensively to buy snowmobiles. The assembly includes a cleated rubber track that glides around a metal framework in much the same way a snowmobile track system works.


Arctic Trax plans to offer its product, through dealers, in two packaged configurations. One will include two skis, for the ATVs front axle, and two track assemblies, for the rear axle, and will retail for about $2,500. The other will include four track assemblies, so they can be installed on both the front and back axles, plus a set of skis that can be interchanged with the front track assemblies if desired, and will retail for about $4,700.


Knight claims it takes only about half an hour to remove the four tires from an ATV and install four track assemblies, and even less time if skis rather than tracks are installed on the front axle. The track assembly is designed to fit any make or model of ATV and requires no other alternation to the vehicle, he says.


At least for now, Arctic Trax wont be doing any of the manufacturing. It has worked out agreements under which Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will make the tracks, the Spokane branch of Seattle-based Olympic Foundry Inc. will provide most of the aluminum components, and Applied Industrial Technologies, of Spokane, will supply the bearings, with various vendors providing the other miscellaneous parts, Knight says.


Initially, Custom Construction, of Palouse, Wash., will assemble the track systems, he says, but he adds that he expects to bring that work in-house within a year or two in a new building that Arctic Trax will develop at Loon Lake. That building would be constructed next to a structure that houses two businessesNite-Bird Towing and Nite-Bird Auto Partsboth of which are owned by Knights wife, Sharon.


The couple moved to Deer Lake from Moses Lake about 16 years ago after Doyle Knight retired from a supervisory position with the Washington state Department of Agriculture. Knight says he and his wife wanted to live in an area where there were lots of trees, and also chose Deer Lake because of a nearby Nazarene church district camp, since they are strong members of the church.


He says his wife bought a tow truck and started the towing business at Loon Lake in 1986, and he and a son-in-law drove the tow truck. He didnt own an all-terrain vehicle, but he owned a metal lathe, and when an acquaintance asked him whether it would be possible to put tracks on an ATV, he was enthused by the ideas potential as a business venture.


I grabbed the idea and went with it, I guess, he says. Ive always been a tinkerer. Ive made other things, but Ive never patented them.


Knight says it took him about a year to develop a satisfactory prototype, largely though trial and error and by thinking constantly about ways to improve his design. Id run into a problem and wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, he says, laughing at the energy he devoted to the process.


The person who planted the idea in Knights head didnt buy a set of tracks from him, but that didnt stop Knight from seeking to refine and to begin commercializing the prototype system he had developed. He says he sought start-up financing from recreational-vehicle dealers and a number of Spokane-area lenders, but all were reluctant to back him.


He eventually was referred to Rick Thorpe, a business development specialist at the Spokane Small Business Development Center, operated by Washington State University at Spokane. He says Thorpe convinced him he would need a detailed business plan to secure financing for his venture. Knight produced the business plan over a number of months, letting Thorpe review it.


Even after he completed it though, Knight found conventional lenders unwilling to finance a new company such as his that was launching a new, untested product. Pursuing a more creative financing strategy, he negotiated line-of-credit agreements with Olympic Foundry and Goodyear, reducing his startup capital needs by about half.


He also was able to secure two loans from the Colville, Wash.-based Tri-County Economic Development District, whichtogether with the line-of-credit agreementsallowed him to put his business plan into motion.


He says he expects Arctic Trax, which currently occupies space in his wifes Loon Lake building, to grow quickly, once his marketing efforts begin to pay off, and to have 10 employees within two years.


However, for someone who has trod such a long and circuitous path in dogged pursuit of a business idea, Knight seems surprisingly cautious when speculating on his products future, and he says his companys board members are much more bullish in their forecasts than he is.


They say we can sell 10,000 (track systems) a year, he says, adding, I say if I sell 1,000 a year, Ill feel lucky.


Knight says he intends to give half of the companys profits away to worthy religious causes.