Alltrax and D&D Motor Systems are launching several domestically manufactured AC controller and motor kits, built around D&D’s new AC motor and Alltrax’s controllers. The companies are calling them the first truly U.S.-made AC conversion kits in the golf car market: a controller built in Grants Pass, Oregon, and a motor built in Syracuse, New York, developed together and sold together as one system. D&D Motor Systems will sell its full AC and Permanent Magnet product line through the same “Choosing A Motor” online tool it has used for the last 20 years.
There’s a version of this industry’s story that gets told a lot: American brands design the product, then ship the hard part overseas for manufacturing, and call what’s left “assembly” when it comes back together stateside. It’s such a common pattern that when a company does the opposite, it barely gets noticed anymore.
Alltrax and D&D Motor Systems didn’t get the memo. For 25 years, both companies have built their core products, controllers on one side, motors on the other, in their own U.S. facilities, largely from U.S.-sourced components. Not final assembly of parts made overseas, not slapping their name on an imported part, just building from the ground up, in-house.
There was one gap. Alltrax’s AC golf conversion kits paired its Oregon-built controllers with a Chinese-sourced AC motor, because until now, no one was building a comparable AC motor in the U.S. That gap is closing. Alltrax is dropping the imported golf motor in favor of D&D’s new domestically built AC motor.
“We tried to source a U.S.-made motor from the beginning of the process. The few companies in the U.S. that could make the motors to our specs, wouldn’t even talk to us on the phone unless we were committing to buying 250,000 or more motors a year.”, said Damon Crockett, founder of Alltrax, when asked why he went with a Chinese motor.
Two decades of import pressure have hollowed out a lot of domestic small-motor and electronics manufacturing. Plenty of brands that still call themselves American have quietly moved the parts that actually require tooling, labor, and capital overseas, keeping only the final bolt-together and testing step at home. That’s a legitimate business decision for a lot of companies. It’s just not the one Alltrax or D&D made, and neither company has ever made much noise about it. They just kept building.
TWO COMPANIES, ONE INSTINCT
Alltrax traces back to 1996, when founder Damon Crockett was building motor controllers for EV drag racing out of his garage in Bellingham, Washington. By 2001, he had moved to Grants Pass, Oregon, and Alltrax Inc. was officially born. Twenty-five years later, Alltrax still manufactures its controllers at two facilities near Grants Pass. It operates its own surface-mount and through-hole assembly lines, performs urethane encapsulation for weather protection, and power-tests every controller before shipment. It grew from a small racing-controller outfit into a supplier trusted across golf cars, NEVs, forklifts, aerial lifts, and marine applications, but the in-house philosophy never changed.
D&D Motor Systems’ origin is more personal. Brothers Eric and Mike Dieroff grew up around their father Gary’s company, Advanced DC Motors, watching him build a business on engineering and customer service rather than the lowest possible cost. In 1998, Gary and his three partners got an offer to sell that was too good to refuse. The new owners, Jordan Industries, made Mike president and put Eric in charge of engineering. In 2001, Jordan Industries decided to move production overseas. Mike refused to sign off on the move and was fired for it; Eric left alongside him. Working out of a rented basement office, they founded D&D Motor Systems that same year, Eric running engineering, and Mike running the business side. The goal was simple: build the best DC motor in the industry, in the U.S., and never compromise on quality to chase a lower price tag. Eric retired in 2023, and the company has since added engineering expertise on the AC and Permanent Magnet sides of the business. A quarter century later, D&D is still based in Syracuse, New York. In July of this year, it moved into a newer, larger facility to support manufacturing of its DC motors along with the new AC and PM lines. With large OEMs looking to mitigate supply chain risk from events such as COVID and tariff wars, D&D Motor Systems and Alltrax are among the few options left.
“We want to keep the quality high and be able to quickly react to any issues that might pop up. Having worked for companies in the past that offshored parts, it was always a chore to deal with an issue, so I kept everything in house.” said Damon.
Mike echoed the idea: “The experience and leadership training I received while graduating from West Point and serving in the military always taught me to make the decision to do the harder right over the easier wrong. Moving those jobs overseas was their choice but not something I could support or live with and that is why I was fired.”
DECADES IN THE MAKING
Alltrax controllers and D&D motors have been running together in the field for years, not through any formal arrangement, but as the pairing techs and installers reached for because it worked. The two companies have known each other for decades. So when D&D first told Alltrax it was developing an AC motor, Alltrax didn’t wait for a finished product to start working with D&D.
That was over a year ago. Since then, parts and prototypes have gone back and forth between Grants Pass and Syracuse, with engineers on both sides working through how the motor and controller needed to match up and tuning the system to run optimally. This isn’t two companies bolting existing products together after the fact. It’s a controller and a motor developed with each other in mind since day one of D&D’s decision to build AC motors.
D&D is naming Alltrax its preferred controller for the new AC motor line. It’s less a partnership than the formalizing of a relationship that already existed, now extended to a whole new line of products.
“This was a no-brainer decision. We are the only ones left truly manufacturing in the U.S., and we have loved working with Alltrax over the last 25 years. We both focus on great engineering, quality, and customer service, all while being competitively priced. Win-win,” said Mike.
Pricing and exact launch timing are still being finalized. D&D Motor Systems’ timeline for the full AC motor release is September/October 2026, with the Permanent Magnet line expected in January 2027.
THE BET
For dealers and owners, the 650A 5kw kit will be getting a new motor. In addition, there will be a 450A 4kw option for customers who want a bit more speed but don’t want to break the bank. They’re a controller and motor engineered for each other, built in the U.S., and backed by two companies with a combined half-century of building electric-drive components here.
After 25 years of taking the harder manufacturing path, Alltrax and D&D are betting that performance, domestic production, and long-term support can still ship in the same box. For more information, visit alltraxinc.com.
