Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 17:11:50 -0700
Reply-To: Brent Christensen <sbsyncro@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Brent Christensen <sbsyncro@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Volks Cafe Big Bumpers
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Yes, these prices do seem exhorbitant when you compare them to a Smittybilt
bumper for a Chevy truck. The big difference is the cost of producing the
jigs and plans, and then amortizing that over the number of units that you
will sell (as well as the cost of the materials in the bumper itself). As
you can imagine, the market for Syncro bumpers is a little smaller than for
Jeeps or Chevy trucks. :-)
When you are dealing with mandrel-bent large diameter steel tubing, you
either need a very expensive piece of equipment, or you need the services of
a shop that has one. These shops tend to charge about $20 to $50 PER BEND
for these jobs. Now, if you are building a double tube bumper, then you
have at least about 10 to 12 of these bends. Multiply that by $30 per bend
and you have $300 or so in just bending. Now add the material, welding,
and a little bit of profit, and it is pretty easy to see why these bumpers
get into the $1,000 range pretty easily.
This is one of the reasons why custom bumpers that are NOT made from mandrel
bent steel tubing are often cheaper. (they are made just from cut and
welded steel sections). But then you have the labor of making the welds,
grinding them so that they are perfectly smooth, then powder coating the
whole thing. (Oh yea, that costs about $100 too). Professional welders
usually charge $65 to $150 per hour for work, so...
This is one of the reasons I do not have spiffy bumpers on my Syncro - the
custom ones don't look good enough to justify the $$ in my opnion. I am
considering a rail road tie, but I can't figure out the winch mounting
setup....
Brent Christensen
'89 Syncro Westy
Santa Barbara, CA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stan Wilder" <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 4:44 PM
Subject: Re: Volks Cafe Big Bumpers
> I don't think the deal gets much better even if you deal with the
> president a the vice president.
> You can give it a try though, they are Ben Dover and C Howit Fields.
>
> Stan
>
> On Thu, 23 May 2002 18:15:58 -0500 Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM> writes:
> > I think the layman term for $1018.00 bumpers is *ripoff*.
> >
> > Stan Wilder
> >
> > On Tue, 30 Apr 2002 17:55:29 -0500 Chris Hinkle
> > <chris_hinkle@HOTMAIL.COM> writes:
> > > Folks,
> > > Does anyone have these bumpers?
> > >
> > > http://volkscafe.com/bigbumpers.html
> > >
> > > According to Volks Cafe, they were designed based on the
> > Projektwo
> > > bumpers,
> > > but don't have the diamond pattern step on top.
> > >
> > > They are $850, plus $100 for installation, and $68 tax.
> > >
> > > The tow hitch is class 3. Can sbdy please explain what that means
> > > in
> > > layman's terms?
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Chris
> > > '87 Westy Tiico
> > >
> > > _________________________________________________________________
> > > MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
> > > http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
> > >
> >
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>
> ________________________________________________________________
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