Quote:
Originally Posted by cnavarro
With all due respect, you do not know what you are talking about. Yes, our bearing races and cages are made by IJK out of Japan. The balls themselves are made by SKF for our bearing supplier who custom assembles these bearings for us and only for us. They are not cheap but I'm not going to discuss specific bearing cost with you, and no, you can't buy these specific bearings from anywhere else.
Furthermore, the issue of price has been hashed out years earlier on several forums- there is more than just material cost that goes into a product. You have many pricing levels for resellers from the wholesaler to the shop to the end user, and you have to provide margins for everyone along the way. If we didn't have a worldwide distribution network and sold direct, we could sell the kit for less than what you charge for yours.
Now, since we are talking about bearings, let's talk about your bearings - you supply a Romanian URB bearing, part number NUP 204E:
Cylindrical roller bearings KFB/URB NUP 204 E (new machine offer).
Even though you took some effort to remove the part number off the bearing, it was still visible. I asked our bearing engineer about this bearing and their consensus is that "URB is sort of the “Harbor Freight” of roller bearings." You advertise this kit as made in Germany on eBay, but the bearing is not German at all.
You could easily find the same size and type of bearing made by FAG or SKF, but of German origin in the $30-40 range. The rest of your kit consists of a cheap bolt, a few nuts, and spacer. There really is no reason why your kit should be any more expensive than the Pelican Parts kit which is also designed to use the original flange. Your kit also comes with no instructions whatsoever. Wayne wrote a book and has a whole section in there and on the Pelican website about installing their bearing kit. And we have the Bentley Publisher's video that Tony Callas helped make along with very detailed instructions (albeit without any pictures).
And speaking of roller bearings, the other commercially available roller bearing kit offered also uses a URB bearing (and they also claim made in the USA), but their bearing is much larger, so comparing apples to apples, their bearing has more load capacity. Also, their kit has seen several revisions, adding provisions for extra oil to the bearing, which yours does not, since their kit comes with a new flange.
Forsche-Land's bearing kit is shown left - the EPS kit is shown right.
Furthermore our European agents, even one from Germany, has never seen or heard anything about your roller bearing kit. So again, like many before you, you can say there are thousands of these in service and that everyone uses them, but where is the proof? |
If you'd read the description in our Ebay listing it says:
"This set is produced in Germany, most of independent Porsche repair shops use this exact set to update IMS in Europe."
We get the whole set from our partner shop in Germany. Nowhere it states that this bearing is made in Germany. It says the
whole set is made in Germany. Same as your set is made in US, it doesn't say anywhere that you use a Japanese bearing. You, or we might as well use German, Polish, Romanian or any other bearing produced out there. Porsche factory does the same.
In the end, it doesn't matter where the bearing is produced, it's the quality that matters. The globalization has it's rights, companies search for cheaper labor costs around the world, but still keep the same quality of materials.
Even factory Porsche parts are produced all around the world, Ukraine, Poland, Chech Republic, Portugal, and Italy.
The IMS kits we sell have been tested in Europe for many years, and the retrofit concept has been been around for many years before your patent.
You're stating that IMS kit we sell is not good, let us repeat again, our partners in Europe have been using it for MANY YEARS, and never has a problem with them.
The truth is, that your bearings, and our bearings are very similar to the Porsche quality from factory.
How do you explain the fact that many IMS bearings have been used for many miles, and are still good. Whereas, some give up after as little as 15k miles? It depends on the series of bearings which the factory was using at the time. Porsche used bearings from Japan, Poland, and Germany at the time, doesn't matter which one it was, some gave up after low mileage, and some worked for years without any problems.
Therefore, your or our factory made bearings are not better or worse than the original ones used by Porsche. The only difference is that you cannot purchase a Porsche bearing by itself, you have to buy the whole shaft set for $1800 plus tax.
The only problem with Porsche bearings is that the load capacity is too low, and RPM's are too high. In the long run (ie:200k miles), same thing will happen with your or our bearings.
That's why Porsche wouldn't take the risk anymore, and changed it to the bigger shaft.
You business is based on the fact that dealer doesn't sell new bearings by itself, you ave found the niche in the market, and have taken advantage of it.
You overdid it with charging your customers too much for a product that is not worth as much. People didn't have the choice before, now they do.
Now, you and Mr. Raby cannot stand the fact that someone else sells IMS bearings. You research every competitor out there to prove your bearing is the only good one. We sell the bearings, and also rebuild Porsche engines. We use our bearings, and put our name on it. We wouldn't do so if we had any doubts, we're not suicidal.
Maybe you have some tests run by an independent research facility that would conclude your statements? If you do, please forward these to the forum, pretty sure everyone would love to see that.
If you don't , please let us know and we will be able to get it done for you.
As to having your bearings custom assembled, do you really think that nobody else can find a company that will produce and assemble these as well? We are working on it to prove you within a week that it's possible. Even though it sounds like a bunch of lies.
If you claim that you have another supplier producing your balls for the bearings, please provide the proof of that, we don't believe you on this one. Please send a video on YouTube of that process, and then we will believe in your claims.
Since you have been open about your production process, please see it through, and we will take our hats off to your invention if you can prove it.