Keeping the Boats Afloat

Cliff Hill saw an opportunity to do it better. With a career that began in 1979 servicing Lufkin and Falk gearboxes for marine applications, he’d had his share of frustrating parts shortages, technology issues, difficulties in getting quotes and ever-increasing pricing. There had to be a better way. So, in 2003, Cliff Hill founded Marine Industrial Gears (MIG). 11 years later, his son Clifton Hill joined the company. Today, Marine Industrial Gears is indeed doing it better, from its workshop on the Mississippi River just west of New Orleans, in Harvey, Louisiana, and a second repair facility strategically located in Paducah, Kentucky, a waterway hub where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers converge. From these two facilities MIG can cover much of the eastern United States, the Gulf of America/Mexico and, when the need arises, go anywhere in the world where a surface ship needs repair. This includes gearboxes of every make and model—Falk, Lufkin, Reintjes, Western, Twin Disc Gears and Haley—many of which have had to endure the harshest conditions that exist out on the open seas.