Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:25:46 -0600
Reply-To: Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: New transaxle options
In-Reply-To: <50B018E0.6010001@ip-solutions.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I can tell you that I had nothing but positives in my experience with Daryl
at AA. And I also echo Stacy's statement that, if you are close to one,
being able to drive on over is a pretty big factor to consider. But even
though I agree with that, I think that since I have past history with AA I
would be pretty likely to use them again even if I moved down the road from
another vendor. But if you're able to drive down with a core, pick up the
new one, and drive back, you can incur all of the "cost" in one trip rather
than two shipping bills. That's a nice advantage and worth considering,
also the "what if something goes wrong" angle as Stacy pointed out, argues
for proximity. (To really make that part of the calculation accurate,
though, you would need to have some idea how likely it is for something to
go wrong, which I'm guessing is "not all that likely" but I'm not privy to
data that can say one way or the other.) Also, it sounds like BD is
reselling one, not doing the work themselves, so that's a slightly
different wrinkle on the proximity value calculation.
I'll describe some of my experience with AA Transaxle below. It would be
nice to hear from others who have dealt with the other vendors as well.
The way AA did it with me [and you can visit their website or call them to
find out if it still works this way, I'm just sharing what happened with my
particular transaction], I paid for the transmission I wanted, and when it
shipped, I used their box and packing materials to send my core back. The
core refund was conditional on whether the ring and pinion in my used
transmission was good enough to re-use. The idea was that if it was good,
I got a core refund. If not, that's the way it goes some times. Maybe I
would be less pleased with my experience had my core not been worthy of a
refund :).
(The reason I'm going into detail like this is to point out that dealing
with a transmission at a distance is less hassle than dealing with an
engine at a distance, because you can use normal shipping options like
FedEx to ship a transmission, while with an engine you need to strap it to
a pallet and find a freight terminal to make arrangements with, etc.)
As far as options go, I ended up doing something custom to mine, maybe a
lower third to make hills easier and a higher fourth for highway (and I was
planning on a Bostig conversion, so that came into the conversation). I
don't remember for sure, but if you call up AA they will talk to you about
your needs.
I'm not trying to talk you into AA, just sharing my experience. Everyone
needs to come to AA on their own, or it doesn't work (kidding!).
mike
On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 6:46 PM, Harry Hoffman <hhoffman@ip-solutions.net>wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> So, I'm currently investigating new transaxles.
>
> Bus Depot offers one from Rancho Performance, which from their website
> seem to offer some options for better highway gearing. They also seem to
> do alot of racing rigs and prices seem fair starting around 1100.00
>
>
> There's Daryl (sp?) from AA transaxle, who from the mailing list
> archives is well regarded. His prices are also pretty fair starting at
> 1095.00
>
> And Gowesty, who refurb the transaxles themselves. They are a bit more
> expensive at 1400.00.
>
> Anyone have experiences with any of these vendors?
>
> All come with a core charge (refundable) and shipping costs. BD is
> driving distance from me so that would, presumably, save me some coin of
> crate/shipping.
>
> Cheers,
> Harry
>
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