Tracy Gallaway with Ron Hatton
Who am I and Why am I here?
Hello, my name is Tracy Gallaway. In case you don’t know me, I was a close friend to Ron Hatton. I first met Ron in February 2012, when I went to Mesa (Arizona), to train in the Gadgetman Groove with Ron.
Ron taught me the fundamentals of the Groove technology and many other things, too. At times, being and learning with Ron was like drinking from a fire hose! He was really energetic and excited about so much. He had a motorhome he was preparing to travel cross-country in, and seemed to have a LOT going on at once. In that garage in Mesa, is where I got convinced of the potential of the Gadgetman Groove. Ron had just done the Groove on a Hyundai and it was showing zero HC and CO on his emissions analyzer. Ron told me to get down under the rear of it and smell the exhaust. I did this, and the exhaust was just moist hot air like a dryer vent! No parts had been replaced, nothing else was done to it, just the Groove. It was amazing, to say the least.
After a week there working with Ron, training and helping him with a few other vehicles, I came back to Reno, Nevada. Ron had doubled the Miles per Gallon on my friend George’s Subaru who lived in Mesa, with the Groove. I got busy and Grooved several friend’s cars. The second or third one was an ’89 Nissan Maxima, and that car’s highway Miles per Gallon went from 20 to 39 Miles per Gallon. I kept going and applied the Groove to whatever I could get my hands on.
Time went by, and Ron wound up in Montana. He got into trouble there, it’s a long story, but I wound up helping Ron out in different ways during that time. Sending money for living expenses, etc, just to help him cope. We wrote back and forth, and he shared some of his ideas for new techniques to improve outcomes on vehicles. Meanwhile, I did what was needed to keep the gadgetmangroove website up and running. When Ron finally got out of trouble in Montana, his business and website was alive and waiting for him. Ron was grateful indeed.
Ron moved to Illinois, and in fall 2019 he came out with the SnakeOil friction proofing treatments for engines. In October 2019 he hired me to take over the production and distribution of what became 6 different concentrated anti-friction products. In 2020, Ron came back out West, going to California, and buying a motorhome in Reno. He was in California driving his minivan and stopped to give a hitchiker a lift. That guy assaulted Ron, and Ron wound up being dragged alongside just under the driver’s door as this guy took the wheel. Ron wound up in hospital with serious injuries but got his now damaged minivan back. Weeks later he came up to Reno towing the minivan on a dolly behind the big motorhome. He stayed at my place several weeks. There was never a dull moment with Ron! Before Ron decided to go back to Montana in fall 2019, he hired me to take over the mail-in Gadgetman Goove jobs, as he was going to pursue new ideas in Montana.
Ron took his motorhome up to Montana, but after awhile it broke down. He got it to a retired mechanic’s shop in a small Montana town, and he and the old mechanic worked on that engine for weeks. It didn’t work out, so he bought an older smaller motorhome, and came back to Reno in it in November.
Ron stayed at my place again until just before Christmas. I never understood why he decided to go back to Montana, but he did. I never met anyone else like him, and I never will. He was completely unique, a “hillbilly Genius”. He would give you the shirt off his back. He as deeply spiritual in his own way, he called God “Poppa”. He spoke of going back home to “Poppa” several times. He had mechanical and scientific insights he would share with me, as well as philosophy. As I said, there was NEVER a dull moment with Ron…
So Ron went back to Montana, I would never see him again. He was in the awful wreck late at night outside of Great Falls Montana, driving a borrowed pickup. As far as I could piece it together, he was hit in the drivers door and ejected. He suffered terrible injuries, and was taken to hospital in Great Falls. A friend of Ron’s in the area was on the phone with Ron (Ron was on the phone with people a LOT) and heard the wreck as it happened. This friend called me later that night, January 29th to tell me of it. Ron was in ICU there for the rest of his life. He was paralyzed, and had to be kept alive on life support.
There are questions about this wreck, if it was an accident or otherwise. Ron did make at least an enemy or two in Montana, one held office. Then there are the powerful Vested Interests in the auto and oil industries who tried to buy Ron out years before. The owners of the borrowed truck Ron was driving when the wreck occurred were not allowed to see the other vehicle involved when they went to claim or view their truck. I doubt we can ever know for sure just what did happen that night.
Nine days later, I got a phone call from the hospital in Great Falls. It was a nurse, and she said Ron wanted to speak to me. Ron was barely able to speak, but he said he was permanently paralyzed with broken ribs and a punctured lung. His breathing was ragged as he told me he had no quality of life remaining, and did not want to go on this way. I said “Ron I love you and I understand”. I asked him what he wanted done with his business. He said, “It’s yours!”
Those were his last words to me, he was out of energy to speak. The nurse came back on the line and said they were going to take Ron off life support as he wished. I asked to be informed when he did pass away. An hour and a half later, the same nurse called me again and told me that Dear Ron has passed away peacefully.
So this is the story of why I am here today, and why Ron is gone. I miss Ron Every Day.
Tracy Gallaway
