Calkins Manufacturing Co., the longtime Spokane maker of boat trailers, plans to close its doors Dec. 31 and transfer the companys assets to its parent, Calkins Fluid Power Inc., also of Spokane.


Jim Calkins, president of both companies, says the closure of the nearly 40-year-old boat-trailer operation has been under consideration for the last couple of years. He says the operation is being shut down because return on investment is better in the fluid-power operation than in building boat trailers.


Calkins Fluid Power distributes hydraulic and pneumatic components and designs fluid-power equipment components for the mining, timber, farming, and manufacturing industries. That company, which is located at 5417 E. Broadway, also operates branch offices in Yakima and Auburn, Wash., as well as in Missoula, Mont., Calkins says.


Calkins declines to disclose how many people Calkins Manufacturing currently employs. He says that most of those employees wont be transferred to the fluid-power operation.


Calkins Manufacturing currently is trying to decide what it will do with the building the boat-trailer operation occupies at 3118 E. Ferry, Calkins says. Calkins Manufacturing bought the industrial building in late 1996.


Calkins Manufacturing was founded in 1923 as a maker of farm machinery, and began making boat trailers in 1960, Calkins says. The assets of the farm machinery product line were sold in 1996 to Coombs Manufacturing Co., of Spokane. Calkins Fluid Power was formed in 1958, and later became the parent of Calkins Manufacturing.