GReddy said:
In the end you're still driving an Integra. :lol:
Kevin...
GET BACK TO WORK! :lol:
-
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Why the TCS Xtreme is so expensive.....
- Thread starter kevinlongisland
- Start date
In the end you're still driving an Integra. :lol:
Kevin...
GET BACK TO WORK! :lol:
FrankyRizzo
I wanna be Dave
Kevin......Keep up the good work. I will be contacting you shortly regarding one. PM me with leadtime etc.
LIKES2CRAWL
I wanna be Dave
I'm a NEWBY just getting into crawling, and if you check out my first post it had to do with THE STICK and the GEKO. I chose the GEKO for backyard crawling and bashing, But if I ever get serious into the comp scene the STICK is the first on my list. Everything I hear about the produt and customer service has been A+++ top notch, and for those who don't like it........ 
it's as simple as that!
it's as simple as that!
spookyseven
Rock Crawler
i like it (even tho i dont own a clod) because it is rather simple
it has everything a crawler needs, its light, good artic.
it is a damn good product, nuff' said
(i only wish they would hurry up with thier gmade axles and maybe sell an rtr truck, then i might get one)
it has everything a crawler needs, its light, good artic.
it is a damn good product, nuff' said
(i only wish they would hurry up with thier gmade axles and maybe sell an rtr truck, then i might get one)
kevinlongisland
The Wheels Keep Turning
spookyseven said:
yeh, i wish gmade would hurry up too! But i can understand gmade also, it's allot of work getting molds up and running. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they will be available sooner rather than later.
Sorry, no RTR trucks yet. Hopefully i will have more time in the future to offer RTR rigs. Take care and thanks for all the positive input guys.
I know that this post is really old but I couldnt resist....I really like this design, and I think there are three schools of thought as to the price.
1.) About $45 in parts and 3 hours in a machine shop at $60 an hour = $225
2.) About $25 in parts and 1/2 an hour in a machine shop at $60 an hour = $55
3.) $50 in parts $100 in labor $50 in R&D $100 in bribes $100 for your time $100 for odds and ends $100 for advertising = You are taking a huge hit and should be sainted for "giving" us this miracle
I think Im somewhere in between. I think its a bad idea all together to make rc crawling into an off the shelf RTR hobby. However this is one of the only ways to make money in this or any buisness. Capitalize on the lazyness of others for personal gain. I was attracted to crawling by the need for alot of money up front and alot of knowledge. That keeps the fluff down. Obviosly you arent doing too bad on the sales of the xtreme, but my question is, how much is your TIME worth? I.E. how much does the truck actually cost YOU to make? If the truck really does cost $55 and you think that your idea and time is worth that much, then I think you bumped your head, however if the cost of parts and labor was closer to $150 then I compleatly understand as a $75 profit per unit will barely cover the expence of all the time you have in this crawler, if for some reason I am way off and you fall under number 3 then I am very sorry to have wasted your time Your Royal High *** I understand for obvious reasons that you arent going to say how much each unit costs you, but I thought it would be a good point to bring up. I really do like the design, and I am going to try to build something along the same lines as this but, if you see me buying one then you fall into catagory three.:lol:
1.) About $45 in parts and 3 hours in a machine shop at $60 an hour = $225
2.) About $25 in parts and 1/2 an hour in a machine shop at $60 an hour = $55
3.) $50 in parts $100 in labor $50 in R&D $100 in bribes $100 for your time $100 for odds and ends $100 for advertising = You are taking a huge hit and should be sainted for "giving" us this miracle
I think Im somewhere in between. I think its a bad idea all together to make rc crawling into an off the shelf RTR hobby. However this is one of the only ways to make money in this or any buisness. Capitalize on the lazyness of others for personal gain. I was attracted to crawling by the need for alot of money up front and alot of knowledge. That keeps the fluff down. Obviosly you arent doing too bad on the sales of the xtreme, but my question is, how much is your TIME worth? I.E. how much does the truck actually cost YOU to make? If the truck really does cost $55 and you think that your idea and time is worth that much, then I think you bumped your head, however if the cost of parts and labor was closer to $150 then I compleatly understand as a $75 profit per unit will barely cover the expence of all the time you have in this crawler, if for some reason I am way off and you fall under number 3 then I am very sorry to have wasted your time Your Royal High ***
I understand for obvious reasons that you arent going to say how much each unit costs you, but I thought it would be a good point to bring up. I really do like the design, and I am going to try to build something along the same lines as this but, if you see me buying one then you fall into catagory three.:lol:
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Most machine shops charge about $60 an hour, I don't know of ANY machine shop that could survive with a shop rate of $20 an hour. ;-)
sp4mike said:
What's your point?
sp4mike said:
I agree, but Kevin has no obligation to tell us that. In my honest opinion, he can't be making that much per chassis.
The general public USUALLY has no clue how expensive it is to manufacter something like a chassis. You have to factor in the price of material, machine shop rates, hardware cost, time put into assembling each chassis, shipping, advertising.......etc.
Oh I agree completely. As stated in my first rant, "I understand for obvious reasons that you arent going to say how much each unit costs you" But with the cost of a full "normal" chassis like the NN being $70 less and clearly has more machine work done to it, It makes a person wonder. I am by no means trying to discredit anyone. This is just my observation. If it was about $100 less then nobody would question the price. Also consider the fact that there is nothing like this on the market anywhere. I am trying not to believe that the rare factor isnt included in the price.
kidcurry73
Rock Stacker
I doesn’t cost Carls Junior $4.99 to make my burger but I pay what they ask because I don’t care to make my own.
Any ideas how much it cost Ford to make an f150 in parts? No where near what it sells for, but they do sell.
You think it takes anywhere close to a hundred buck to make a Super Rooster? Hell no!!
If no on ever buys a "Stick" they will go down in price or be discontinued. Supply and demand...pure and simple. Do you really think I cherry 69 Camaro is worth $50,000 hell no but they sell for that price because that’s what people are willing to pay.
The seller sets his price and the market dictates if the price is fair. People are buying them, so the market (at least for the time being) has spoken.
That’s life and very simply the way things work. END OF STORY.
The stick is not for me, but if it was I'd either pay or not have a stick no b itching and complaining...now the NN...I will have one someday.
Any ideas how much it cost Ford to make an f150 in parts? No where near what it sells for, but they do sell.
You think it takes anywhere close to a hundred buck to make a Super Rooster? Hell no!!
If no on ever buys a "Stick" they will go down in price or be discontinued. Supply and demand...pure and simple. Do you really think I cherry 69 Camaro is worth $50,000 hell no but they sell for that price because that’s what people are willing to pay.
The seller sets his price and the market dictates if the price is fair. People are buying them, so the market (at least for the time being) has spoken.
That’s life and very simply the way things work. END OF STORY.
The stick is not for me, but if it was I'd either pay or not have a stick no b itching and complaining...now the NN...I will have one someday.
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kidcurry73
Rock Stacker
Yes but when the RAM Hemi came out they marked them $5,000-10,000 just because the maket allowed for the mark up. When sales went down, so did the price. Same with the "Stick" when something else comes out to top it or people no longer buy it, the price will come down.
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Fishmaxx
I wanna be Dave
Kid, I promise I am not picking on you, but these are common misconceptions regarding price
What someone is willing to pay is exactly what something is worth.
Supply and demand are not the only factors. There are fixed costs that affect pricing also. If Kevin could not keep up with his orders then S/D would come into play. The biggest factors determining price now are materials, production costs and Kevins time.
If the price the customer is willing to pay doesnt meet the price a manufacture needs to sell then no transaction will take place.
kidcurry73 said:
What someone is willing to pay is exactly what something is worth.
kidcurry73 said:
Supply and demand are not the only factors. There are fixed costs that affect pricing also. If Kevin could not keep up with his orders then S/D would come into play. The biggest factors determining price now are materials, production costs and Kevins time.
If the price the customer is willing to pay doesnt meet the price a manufacture needs to sell then no transaction will take place.
kevinlongisland
The Wheels Keep Turning
sp4mike said:I know that this post is really old but I couldnt resist....I really like this design, and I think there are three schools of thought as to the price.
1.) About $45 in parts and 3 hours in a machine shop at $60 an hour = $225
2.) About $25 in parts and 1/2 an hour in a machine shop at $60 an hour = $55
3.) $50 in parts $100 in labor $50 in R&D $100 in bribes $100 for your time $100 for odds and ends $100 for advertising = You are taking a huge hit and should be sainted for "giving" us this miracle
I think Im somewhere in between. I think its a bad idea all together to make rc crawling into an off the shelf RTR hobby. However this is one of the only ways to make money in this or any buisness. Capitalize on the lazyness of others for personal gain. I was attracted to crawling by the need for alot of money up front and alot of knowledge. That keeps the fluff down. Obviosly you arent doing too bad on the sales of the xtreme, but my question is, how much is your TIME worth? I.E. how much does the truck actually cost YOU to make? If the truck really does cost $55 and you think that your idea and time is worth that much, then I think you bumped your head, however if the cost of parts and labor was closer to $150 then I compleatly understand as a $75 profit per unit will barely cover the expence of all the time you have in this crawler, if for some reason I am way off and you fall under number 3 then I am very sorry to have wasted your time Your Royal High ***
actually, one of the biggest costs of the stick chassis is the headache. I can produce NN chassis' easier with less time and less of a headache than the stick. the stick has been for sale for about 10 months, the NN one month. It took me 1/8 the time to do the NN R&D. Each stick chassis takes more time to assemble and bring together compared to an NN. The stick is just a pain in the butt because nothing is symmetric. The front and rear lower shock mounts are different. The front and rear link attachment points and upper shock mounts are at different points. Change one thing and it throws everything out of whack. Also, the backbone is difficult to manufacture.
But i guess i only need to say one thing, i sell the least expensive chassis available, the NN. That really wouldn't make any sense if my intention was to rip people off? Also, the NN has allot less machine work. No offence taken and good luck building your crawler.
PS: If we compare prices, the stick is actually not that costly:
CX chassis $200
VPrime $185 with no steering parts
Gecko Pro $285 (with adj. motor mounts, $30 value)
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Why is it that people feel Kevin needs to "justify" or explain why the stick costs what it does?
I don't get it.
When Kevin first showed pics of the stick I looked at the pics and thought "Wow! That's so simple!"...even though I knew the design was more complex than what it appeared.
I could also tell by the design that it'd work very well on the rocks. I PM'd Kevin the minute I saw it tell him I was ready to buy one when they were ready.
Does it work? Yes it does...and it took a good bit of design time and engineering to produce what you see.
No...I don't see what you're "getting at".
You're comparing full-size trucks to mid-size trucks.
You need to figure out what you want.
As far as I know, the Stick has the lowest center of gravity, the highest center chassis clearance, and the lightest overall weight of any production Clod crawler chassis on the market. (Feel free to prove me wrong.)
As far as I'm concerned, this joke explains everything:
There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.
Several years later, the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone to get the machine fixed, but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, "This is where your problem is."
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The company received a bill for $50,001 from the engineer for his services. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
When the invoice arrived there were only two items listed:
Chalk mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1
Knowing where to put it . . . . . . . $50,000
I don't get it.
When Kevin first showed pics of the stick I looked at the pics and thought "Wow! That's so simple!"...even though I knew the design was more complex than what it appeared.
I could also tell by the design that it'd work very well on the rocks. I PM'd Kevin the minute I saw it tell him I was ready to buy one when they were ready.
Does it work? Yes it does...and it took a good bit of design time and engineering to produce what you see.
sp4mike said:
No...I don't see what you're "getting at".
You're comparing full-size trucks to mid-size trucks.
You need to figure out what you want.
As far as I know, the Stick has the lowest center of gravity, the highest center chassis clearance, and the lightest overall weight of any production Clod crawler chassis on the market. (Feel free to prove me wrong.)
As far as I'm concerned, this joke explains everything:
There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired.
Several years later, the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi-million dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone to get the machine fixed, but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, "This is where your problem is."
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The company received a bill for $50,001 from the engineer for his services. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
When the invoice arrived there were only two items listed:
Chalk mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1
Knowing where to put it . . . . . . . $50,000
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JasonInAugusta said:
My thoughts exactly!!
WRMorrison
Rock Crawler
This dead horse has been beat until its legs have fallen off. The simple truth is: If you think it's not worth the money, then don't buy it. I'm sure it won't hurt Kevin's feelings at all. And when/if you should ever have to compete against one of his chassis' in a comp, just blame it on driver skill when you get your as$ handed to you. At least that way you won't have to admit to yourself that the design is worth every penny.
In the early stages, I manufactured a lot of these for Kevin, and I can attest to the fact that it's a pain in the butt to produce. It looks pretty simple until you actually make it. What he mentioned earlier is absolutely true: Change one small measurement ever so slightly, and the whole thing is out of whack. Everything has to be right-on for it to function properly.
I made a couple of these for myself, but have since retired them. Mainly, because it was almost no fun... :lol: I mean, this chassis would go places that shouldn't even be possible...and that's no lie ;-) It pretty much drives itself, and crawls over damn near anything. Besides, as far as I know, the stick has never been beaten here in a local comp. NEVER (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here PARC)
To me (and everyone who's purchased this chassis), it's worth every cent. ;-)
In the early stages, I manufactured a lot of these for Kevin, and I can attest to the fact that it's a pain in the butt to produce. It looks pretty simple until you actually make it. What he mentioned earlier is absolutely true: Change one small measurement ever so slightly, and the whole thing is out of whack. Everything has to be right-on for it to function properly.
I made a couple of these for myself, but have since retired them. Mainly, because it was almost no fun... :lol: I mean, this chassis would go places that shouldn't even be possible...and that's no lie ;-) It pretty much drives itself, and crawls over damn near anything. Besides, as far as I know, the stick has never been beaten here in a local comp. NEVER (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here PARC)
To me (and everyone who's purchased this chassis), it's worth every cent. ;-)
