Crozzer

Hey all - I'm looking for others who might be interested in collaborating on "open manufacturing" various bits for the platform.

As I'm facing the $ to equip skid plates, and am thankful for EuroWise for all their development on the platform... $4K for some underbody bits has me wondering if we can do this much cheaper, with open-source plans, local materials, and local fab (CNC or otherwise).

They have done some excellent CNC and fab, as well as the design work, so those are an excellent option. However, the cost of the materials in that kit is roughly $300, maybe $400 to do it out of 1/4" aluminum.

Some of the joy of the open maker community is in the endless customization, mass-sourcing of expertise and creativity, etc.

The thinking is this would involve roughly:
- Identifying key projects / parts to develop
- Basic measurements of the platform (3d scan would be awesome, but cardboard and tape measure is great too).
- Sketchup or other free but powerful design platform (or even just hand-drawings and tape-measure measurements, whatever floats your boat).
- aim towards being able to source materials and fab and finish locally
- some means of community communication (either here on rennlist, or discord, or something)

If you would be interested, please PM and/or reply here.

Experts welcome - I have no business attempting to take this on, but my "crack project" (this car), has my creator-brain swimming and I need friends to keep me out of the deep end!

cheers

matthew.a.tanner

Private message inbound.

notthd

What I have noticed. Wrangler stuff is everywhere and alot cheaper. Probally both in quality and volume but I think alot of things could be slightly modified to fit our Cayennes. Just a thought, alter not totaly fab. Wheel spacers come to mind, bumpers maybe not but skid plates maybe.
Just my 2Cs
Cheer,s Mike

charsiuboar

Depending on the quality of facilities/people/processes involved and the capital investment requested for R&D I could be persuaded. Send me a PM with details and happy to consider a ROI case.

Having said that, Eurowise can charge the money folks (and frankly I) are willing to pay because they’ve gone and tested in the field and likely ‘failed fast’ a number of times (hopefully not catastrophically). Question is how much money and time does that take.. and is it better to simply just pay the money for a tried and tested offering. Competition is good, so lets figure it out!

Crozzer

Undoubtedly, Eurowise provides value with the pre-designed and tested solution.

Does anyone have a 3d scan of the underbody, or a technical drawing or similar?

matthew.a.tanner

I honestly don’t think they have a huge profit spread on their pieces, so the thought is being able to scale to reduce cost would be the only way that makes sense without starting a race to the bottom.

i don’t have any experience with them, but they get high praise, and Ive seen what they are putting out on the internet machine and I think they’re doing great. At the end of the day, I think I just hate spending money on things I can do…but then I have to be realistic that I don’t have the luxury of time like I once did.

turbo23dog

I realize that this suggestion is only tangentially related to the OP… I wish someone would design and sell a “hood prop rod” for the rear hatch for the early Cayennes. I’ve replaced the rear hatch struts twice on my 06 CS in the last eight years and now need to do that again. At this point, I’d rather a prop rod for the simplicity.

Jamescoop

Subscribed. Was talking with buddy who is a fiberglass expert about this the other night, he went to a Jeep aftermarket mfg but it didnt go as planned - theyre 90% apparel, but still wants to make stuff.