Koenig Iron Works

Emil and Meta Koenig came to the United States in 1911 and, with few material resources, Emil started a blacksmith shop in Houston; RKI, the present company, dates itself from that year. Their son Herbert Koenig (1915-2011) worked there from an early age and under his leadership Koenig Iron Works became a major manufacturer of winches, cranes, truck bodies and toolboxes, with O. H. Stelter as long-time sales manager and Conrad 'Buddy' Carroll as its Houston distributor.

King Power Winches were made by Koenig Iron Works of Houston, Texas, which was also known for its all-steel Jeep cabs and body extensions. The winch was originally one used on oil derricks and was rated at 8,000 pounds continuous load. Koenig offered it for the Land Rover in production from the late 1950s to the mid or late 1960s, in crankshaft-driven form (the LR-100 and LR-591/592) and a rarer PTO-driven version (the LR-621) that needed a modified front exhaust pipe which Koenig supplied; it was specified for many Land Rovers bought by the Canadian government in the early 1960s. The same King models, driven from the front, rear or centre power take-off or the crankshaft, were catalogued for Jeeps in a 1960 catalogue. Koenig later made an almost identical hydraulic winch and no longer holds parts for the mechanical type.

Herbert Koenig remained with the firm until shortly after it was sold in 1978. In 1987 Koenig Iron Works merged with Rawson Industries to become Rawson-Koenig Inc., owned and run by the Rawson family, and the company was renamed RKI in 2001. RKI, Inc. of 2301 Central Parkway, Houston still makes commercial truck bodies, truck boxes, cranes and winches and describes itself as manufacturing in the United States since 1911.