SVT_Aaron
Full Access Member
My apologies for lack of update.
As of now, it does not look like this is making it to production. The cost to outsource manufacturing is just astronomical. We've looked into several options (companies and procedure) for manufacturing our product to our exact specs, and none have turned up a figure that will make this affordable for 95% of raptor owners (even with massive bulk order discounts). I will not consider a overseas company to do make these as I value quality above all. We are not RCV that specializes in cutting gears, thus we have to outsource.
This does not mean I have stopped looking into having these manufactured. I currently still have schematics out with 2 other companies for a quote.
Overall it's unfortunate, as we finally had a breakthrough after I hired a metallurgical engineer to take a look at our designs. In layman's terms, we had finally achieved both a alloy and heat treatment that allows us to have super strong/hard teeth to keep from shearing, and a "softer" (relatively to the teeth) core to keep the unit from cracking under impact loads. We've been testing this prototype for over 10k miles, with about 1,200 of them in hard 4wd/off-road. After removal, we have observed zero excessive wear (within 0.00013 of our original specs, baseline OEM/dorman after 1500 miles averaged 0.00086 out of original spec, if not broken).
After the last 5 quotes, the lowest prices to have these manufactured are over $1k /pair with a bulk order of 100 units (at just my cost! Just absurd...). There's just no way I can market these until I get to a retail price point under $500/pair, which is still steep in my own opinion. At this point I don't know if these manufacturers just don't want to make these or if I am doing something wrong.
Sorry for the bad news guys, I'm just as disappointed as many of you are. I've sank a LOT of money into these....
Damn that is a bummer Joe, but the fact that you took the time out of your busy life and spent your own money to try and come up with a solution I can appreciate. so I thank you for trying and at least keeping us in the loop!!