Expressions of Interest in a wheel bag kit?

[zoiks]

Whilst $200 is beyond my budget to mount a rubbish bag I'm interested in following your process. Curiosity killed the cat.

What problems have arisen from your current design and did you manage to find a manufacturer for the covers?

[nj swb]

Hi zoiks,

The underlying metalwork was relatively straight-forward. Most metalwork shops told me part of my original design wasn't manufacturable, but one company managed to do it as designed, at a competitive price.

I obtained pricing for a much larger production batch of the metalwork, and the price dropped a couple of dollars. Taking a leap of faith to manufacture this product in large volumes doesn't add up.

The biggest issue with the metalwork (other than the feature that most shops say isn't manufacturable) is matching the thread pitch of the factory bolts (on the catch side). My drawings specify diameter and pitch for the nuts to be welded on, but every manufacturer that has made metalwork, every time, has welded on "normal" metric coarse pitch nuts - not the pitch specified on the drawings. I think I need to highlight on the drawing that it isn't normal metric coarse. The hinge side is comparatively straight-forward.

Attempting to match the cover profile through measurement has proved to be a frustrating and time consuming process - I need to find somebody who can scan the factory covers to create an electronic base for creating the fill pieces going forward. I think I know the solution, but I need to pay for some tooling, and I currently have another project that is monopolising my cash flow - banks!

I could continue to print covers, but each cover set takes days to print, there is a ridiculous failure rate, and they need to be painted for UV resistance. Material, machine time (at my cost, much cheaper than commercial rates) and labour costs kill this option. This is for the NS - NW cover profile - NX profiles are larger, and will cost more to print.

Metalwork and covers are the largest part of the kit. Even if the new idea for covers works out I'll still need mounting brackets, and the kit needs to be shipped with nuts & bolts and instructions. Then there's packing and shipping, customer support, warranty claims - which all takes time & money, and I don't have the volumes to achieve the economies of scale of some of the big players in the market.

As much as we might love our Pajeros, we are a small minority. There aren't that many Pajero enthusiasts out there who are interested in purchasing this product, at any price.

[glsgls]

bugger nj so it wont be moving forward atm would have like one for my next trip are well

[nj swb]

Finally! Kits are for sale! See here.