Rear bumper options for 2016+

[Markuson]

Yep! Jason gets bored easily. He is always up to something. I was the same way in the classroom. I despised guiding multiple groups through the same design or session. Even if it was great...Would rather mix it up and find new ways of doing things. If the instructor is bored...not good.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Yep! Jason gets bored easily. He is always up to something. I was the same way in the classroom. I despised guiding multiple groups through the same design or session. Even if it was great...Would rather mix it up and find new ways of doing things. If the instructor is bored...not good.

I do, but it keeps new products coming to market for guys. Some last longer than others. It's the nature of the beast for me. It's all good, I honestly do this to keep myself busy and its fun to meet the guys and BS a bit.

 

[Sedalia]

My business model is quite opposite of most others. I hate making the same bumper over and over. Most of my bases are the same but the customer dictates the final design. So therefore I might have a handful of shells tacked up but that is as far as I go for an "inventory" bumper. My 200 bumpers are similar but I don't think I've made the exact same one twice after build 37 to date.

Now I have the new design about to be released in a couple of weeks and I have a list of 18 guys interested and 14 of them have completely different wants and orientations for their arms and attachments.

I said it when @benc first came on the scene with his modular 100 series bumpers that he was ahead of most other builders. Still to this day no one to my knowledge has the innovation devotion that Ben does and not to mention he is a great guy. Ben's welds are pure beauty.

I come from an oil and gas, industrial welding background and a guy would be fired for trying to make welds like he does. Burn hot and fast within stringent parameters and pass x-ray or you're out of a job. I don't possess the patience to even try anymore new techniques, I'm an old dog after 34 years of welding and inspecting. I know what a solid weld is in my spectrum and my personal preferences.

Even US companies that farm out their parts for cruisers pay a premium; almost to the point they are not marketable to compete with others that sell similar items and make and build in-house.

Also, cruisers are a very niche market. I've spent countless hours and funds bringing parts to the guys for 14 years now and I know that there will be a feeding frenzy and then parts sit for weeks, months, and even years before they finally sell. Talk to others that make cruiser parts and they will say the same thing. First few runs are guaranteed to sell and then if your not careful you will end up with dead inventory and wasted space to put new products.

I'll release my new design and I'll bet that only 2-3 will want to buy, this is the normal ratio for 200 buyers. If that's the case I'll probably deny and move on to something else.

IMO, bumpers take too much time and space for the return received.

J

I empathize completely and understand serving the Cruiser community is a labor of love with no possibility of serious wealth, so thank you for what you do. Please just remember that most people don't have time to get involved in the depths of cruiser forums and such so if your website does not offer a specific product, for a stated price range, then you will lose potential customers and/or the opportunity to sell at higher prices.

 

[Markuson]

Please just remember that most people don't have time to get involved in the depths of cruiser forums and such so if your website does not offer a specific product, for a stated price range, then you will lose potential customers and/or the opportunity to sell at higher prices.

I dunno man... Slee commands a high end price with huge demand...for a bumper that isn’t even mentioned on his site.

That’s the power of forums and internet word of mouth. Every mod I’ve done (besides my own little home-made ones) on both my long-driven 100 series and now my 200 were only because of forums like this one, and primarily this one.

Try finding the TJM T13 bumper on their US site. It isn’t mentioned at all there, even though you can search for bumpers with the correct make, model etc. Nothing.

-But it’s on my 200 anyway because of this forum.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

I empathize completely and understand serving the Cruiser community is a labor of love with no possibility of serious wealth, so thank you for what you do. Please just remember that most people don't have time to get involved in the depths of cruiser forums and such so if your website does not offer a specific product, for a stated price range, then you will lose potential customers and/or the opportunity to sell at higher prices.

Once again, I'm completely opposite of most. While others want as much as they can get, I don't. When I get too busy I scale back. When I feel overworked I scale back. I purposefully don't put bumpers on my website anymore because they are fully customized and to place a price range on a custom product causes more emails and phone calls. Custom products can go days back and forth before establishing a final price and design. I also have learned unless its in an email and confirmed, I won't build it.

I had a simple front 80 bumper with 3 options ( non bar, center bullbar and bullbar with head light bars) full description, pricing and pictures of each. I got an average of 8 emails and 3-4 calls a week on that one product. 90% of the questions were in the description if the person would read. I was closed from Dec 14th to last week to take time off and rebuild some of my inventories. On the websites front page and on the contact page it said I'd be closed until Feb 1st and would not be accepting any online or custom orders until Feb 1st. GUESS WHAT..... I had 229 emails just from the website contact page in that time frame asking when "xyz" product would be back in stock. Plain and simple no one reads what the website says.

Approx. 85% of my sales come from word of mouth on the forums and the remaining from IG and Google.

 

[fireball]

I'll release my new design and I'll bet that only 2-3 will want to buy, this is the normal ratio for 200 buyers.
J

Those are interesting numbers... Is this an exaggeration or actually not far from the truth?

Did you mean 2-3 out of 200 will be buyers, or did you mean that the close ratio is low for "200-series buyers"

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Those are interesting numbers... Is this an exaggeration or actually not far from the truth?

Did you mean 2-3 out of 200 will be buyers, or did you mean that the close ratio is low for "200-series buyers"

2-3 out of the 18 I have on my list. Ratio for me has been 10-15% of inquiries turn to orders on 200 bumpers.

 

[benc]

whoa, chill! Your welds are beautiful and lots of people, including myself, would like to see you succeed. All I really was trying to convey was a law of nature: supply and demand. If there is unmet demand, there is need and opportunity. So what I meant by "response" is "response to demand", i.e., a bumper that I can buy today. Sorry for not making that clear. My voice is only single consumer seeking a solution.

Speaking theoretically, the definition of consumer demand and how overall consumer demand is met is neither your nor my decision, although you as a supplier can follow your path and hope that consumers will agree. I happen to agree with much of your stated philosophy but it does not affect consumer demand. None of us buy finely crafted American made "everything". We pick and choose according to our desires, needs, and budgets.

I simply didn't know that Slee had them right here and was being impatient and a bit boorish in that post. Hopefully I will be posting photos of my new bumper in a few weeks. I am sure my eyes watered a bit when he told me the price but if he had been so verbally defensive then I would have lost respect. Better to just deliver quality products, take good care of your consumer base, and let the consumers decide if the solution and price is right, along with the other considerations like the nationality of the fabricators. I too have to follow these general principles in my own business.

Sorry for riling you. I truly wish you and your company the best and will support you accordingly.

You asked a question and i answered. Like everyone has said, a quality product takes time, it's not as simple as seing a demand and meeting it. There are countless hours invested in cad design, r&d and testing before a product can be released, if these steps are not taken things can go bad for everyone involved.
I have a 2016 Tacoma at my disposal that would honestly make me way more money than any of the landcruiser platforms, I also have manufacturers that can pump out 10 bumpers a day but that's just not what I want for my business. I am definitely working on getting lead times down and and have spent a lot of time and money over the last year getting the shop set up for all in house manufacturing but I'm taking it slow and growing at a pace that is manageable. My vision is to never put quantity over quality just to meet demand but to be able to look at every product we build with pride and know that we put out the best product we could.
Like @TRAIL TAILOR said, us small shops sometimes intentionally don't list things in places to held manage to much of an overload, what I have found in doing this is you really eliminate a good chunk of the tire kicking and the get down to the customers that I prefer to work with, they have done their research, know what they want, know there is a lead time and and are willing to wait.
So far we have been a consistent 8-12 weeks out so it seams to be working however there is always room for improvement.
Not to sound rude but to be frank, when I get the potential customer that is complaining about price and lead time I will send them elsewhere.
I totally understand that not everyone is willing to wait 8-12 weeks and that is fine. I'm not to patient myself. if everyone was we would likely be 50-60 weeks out

Again, no hard feelings here just giving an explanation for the questions that were asked.

 

[Mendocino]

Paging @Mendocino

I'm completely happy with my Slee 200 rear bumper. It was very expensive, but they have a well thought out and engineered product. The installation was superior as well.

 

[Markuson]

I'm completely happy with my Slee 200 rear bumper. It was very expensive, but they have a well thought out and engineered product. The installation was superior as well.

A nice extra on the Slee is the ability to attach things to both sides, but especially the ladder. Both sides comes pre-drilled and more than strong enough to attach just about anything to it with strength to spare. The “ladder” on mine really became a mod platform.

Here it shows the option of storing two mzxtrax behind the spare...

 

[Markuson]

Some alternate configurations I’ve run on it...

Here is the ladder with a Slee 4+4 gallons Rotopax Mount that can swing away allowing use of the ladder.

Also notice that this configuration has an additional 4 gallon Rotopax behind the spare instead of Maxtrax.

 

[Markuson]

And more.

Super flexible platform to add what you want:

Dune buggy whip flag is mounted to the top of the ladder here with a quick-release Mount. Just drilled a hole in the top. Super strong hole, zero movement...

Outlets for camp access...behind ladder...

Another combo of cans/roto/maxtrax...

 

[Sedalia]

I'm completely happy with my Slee 200 rear bumper. It was very expensive, but they have a well thought out and engineered product. The installation was superior as well.

Yes, and thank you for conveniently parking there while I was talking to Ben about the bumper, sliders, etc. Sorry I didn't meet you then.

 

[civil offroad]

You asked a question and i answered. Like everyone has said, a quality product takes time, it's not as simple as seing a demand and meeting it. There are countless hours invested in cad design, r&d and testing before a product can be released, if these steps are not taken things can go bad for everyone involved.
I have a 2016 Tacoma at my disposal that would honestly make me way more money than any of the landcruiser platforms, I also have manufacturers that can pump out 10 bumpers a day but that's just not what I want for my business. I am definitely working on getting lead times down and and have spent a lot of time and money over the last year getting the shop set up for all in house manufacturing but I'm taking it slow and growing at a pace that is manageable. My vision is to never put quantity over quality just to meet demand but to be able to look at every product we build with pride and know that we put out the best product we could.
Like @TRAIL TAILOR said, us small shops sometimes intentionally don't list things in places to held manage to much of an overload, what I have found in doing this is you really eliminate a good chunk of the tire kicking and the get down to the customers that I prefer to work with, they have done their research, know what they want, know there is a lead time and and are willing to wait.
So far we have been a consistent 8-12 weeks out so it seams to be working however there is always room for improvement.
Not to sound rude but to be frank, when I get the potential customer that is complaining about price and lead time I will send them elsewhere.
I totally understand that not everyone is willing to wait 8-12 weeks and that is fine. I'm not to patient myself. if everyone was we would likely be 50-60 weeks out

Again, no hard feelings here just giving an explanation for the questions that were asked.

Yikes, when I read this I feel pretty S***ty for leaving @benc a message today and wondering if its ok to drop my rig off. I guess Im just anxious, but please dont send me elsewhere...

V

 

[Union]

Who makes a rear steel bumper with the spare tire carrier on the left and a ladder on the right?

 

[Markuson]

Who makes a rear steel bumper with the spare tire carrier on the left and a ladder on the right?

Pretty sure Trail Tailor would build one like that for you...

I would actually love it my my Slee swingouts were flipped (ladder on right, tire on left).

 

[Steve1]

These rear bumper racks/track/tires/etc. look great, but aren't you giving up all of your rear mirror visibility with these setups?

 

[Markuson]

These rear bumper racks/track/tires/etc. look great, but aren't you giving up all of your rear mirror visibility with these setups?

Not all visibility, but s lot when fully loaded for the trail.

So I added a full-time rear view camera (switchable, but usable any time).

When fully loaded on trips, the rear interior gear blocks the rear view anyway.

 

[benc]

Yikes, when I read this I feel pretty S***ty for leaving @benc a message today and wondering if its ok to drop my rig off. I guess Im just anxious, but please dont send me elsewhere...

V

Didn't mean it that way at all.
You are already a customer, you get to call as much as you need I'm talking about potential customers that are not happy with the wait and want something next week. At this point we are not able to do that so I send them to someone who can or recommend an off the shelf item. With that said I'll call you today.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Didn't mean it that way at all.
You are already a customer, you get to call as much as you need I'm talking about potential customers that are not happy with the wait and want something next week. At this point we are not able to do that so I send them to someone who can or recommend an off the shelf item. With that said I'll call you today.

Well get ready for more calls Ben..... I decided to postpone accepting custom builds another 60 days....

J