A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

[sportinwood]

A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

by sportinwood » Tue Jun 15, 2010 2:50 am

sportinwood

White Belt

 

Posts: 11

Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:52 am

Hello All

I bought a Jeep CJ7 a couple of weeks ago and it has a spring over lift on it. One of the problems with a spring over lift is that the drag link interferes with the leaf spring so what the previous owner did was he bent the drag link into an S shape to clear the spring. From what I've seen this is fairly common but not the right way to fix the problem. The problem with doing this is that it changes the geometry and creates what the jeep guys are calling bump steer which is every little bump you hit the jeep wants to turn sharply and you loose control. I have spent hours on goggle and on jeep forums to find the solution to this problem. I came up with two solutions one being a crossover steering which was Jeeps solution on the newer Jeeps, and the other is a high steer kit which is a very expensive and laborious way to go. There are several high steer kits available but only a couple for the older CJ7's. Some of the kits replace the entire steering knuckle which is a big job and some of them are just a bracket that bolts onto your stock steering knuckle which requires you to drill and tap four large holes in a thin piece of cast iron. I don't like that idea because I think it would greatly weaken the knuckle itself. So I decide to build my own high steer bracket that only requires me to open up the original hole in the steering knuckle to allow a large bolt to thread into the bracket from the underside of the knuckle and drill and tap one hole in a much thicker part of the cast knuckle. I think that my design will be much superior to anything that is on the market right now in price, durability, and ease of installation. I have been trying to get some feed back from the jeep guys on how marketable they think it would be but I am being asked for exact descriptions and pictures of my bracket for them to look at. Should I give them the pics. in return for valuable feed back and risk giving up my intellectual property or should I try to protect my idea first? I don't want to file for any patents of any kind yet because I need to find out just how many people like my idea and would buy my bracket first. Is there a cheaper and easier way to get some protection than a provisional? What do you guys think???? Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks
Ryan

Top

[Roger Brown]

Re: A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

by Roger Brown » Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:24 am

Roger Brown

Black Belt

 

Posts: 1208

Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:53 pm

Location: USA

• Website

You don't want to be showing your idea to everyone publicly because then you have one year to file for a patent. If you go with a provisional you have one year to file for patent. Use a NDA for anyone you show the idea. It sounds like you would be better served to go after the after market auto parts companies to license your idea. They will need to see a prototype and if you made a sell sheet showing your ease of installation would help.

Top

[JoeWaisman]

Re: A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

by JoeWaisman » Tue Jun 15, 2010 7:26 pm

JoeWaisman

Green Belt

 

Posts: 234

Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:10 pm

• Website

You have a new idea for an older (not in production anymore) product - the CJ7 model. In other words you'd be trying to sell into a shrinking market...not good.

Unless your solution is superior for the present market as well then it will be difficult to make money from the idea.

Top

[sportinwood]

Re: A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

by sportinwood » Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:03 am

sportinwood

White Belt

 

Posts: 11

Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:52 am

You have a new idea for an older (not in production anymore) product - the CJ7 model. In other words you'd be trying to sell into a shrinking market...not good.

I see your point about the shrinking market and agree with that to a point but my high steer bracket is not geared towards the average daily driver. This is a product that is geared towards the extreme rock crawlers who build their jeeps from scratch to go anywhere and over any obstacle. This is not a shrinking market it is actually a growing sport. My jeep for example says its a 1985 on the title however the only original part on it is the frame everything else is aftermarket and less than two years old or rebuilt and modified stock parts.

Thanks for your input Joe

You don't want to be showing your idea to everyone publicly because then you have one year to file for a patent. If you go with a provisional you have one year to file for patent. Use a NDA for anyone you show the idea. It sounds like you would be better served to go after the after market auto parts companies to license your idea.

I probably will go after the after market rock crawler companies to try to license my idea if I do anything with it at all. I'm still trying to decide if this is even worth putting the effort into I'm just not sure yet. Another thing that jeepers commonly do is upgrade their axles to the Dana 44 which the high steer kits are readily available for and sometimes they do this largely due to the steering problems that my bracket solves. My high steer bracket may make some people reconsider the axle swap if it works out like I think it will. I would really like to get an idea of how many people would even be interested in it before I spend any real time or money on this invention. The only way I can see to get the feedback I'm looking for is to talk to the guys that are hard core into this stuff.
Would an NDA and a sell sheet be enough to go ahead and show my idea to some after market companies and just see how things play out or should I spend the $100 on a provisional and get some feedback from the jeepers???

Thanks for your reply Roger

Any other ideas on how to get some feedback on this to see if it will be worth pursuing would be appreciated!!

Thanks
Ryan

Top

[JoeWaisman]

Re: A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

by JoeWaisman » Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:08 am

JoeWaisman

Green Belt

 

Posts: 234

Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:10 pm

• Website

This is a product that is geared towards the extreme rock crawlers who build their jeeps from scratch to go anywhere and over any obstacle. This is not a shrinking market it is actually a growing sport. My jeep for example says its a 1985 on the title however the only original part on it is the frame

Are the number of vehicles that would benefit from your invention increasing or decreasing? Is it useful for other models as well? If the answers are increasing and yes, then it's definitely worth looking at.

Top

[sportinwood]

Re: A new idea.. How do I get the feedback I need??

by sportinwood » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:58 pm

sportinwood

White Belt

 

Posts: 11

Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:52 am

Are the number of vehicles that would benefit from your invention increasing or decreasing? Is it useful for other models as well? If the answers are increasing and yes, then it's definitely worth looking at.

Joe

These are both good questions. The answer to the first one is they are probably decreasing due to the fact the you stated in an earlier post that CJ's are not being made anymore. However the second question has a more positive answer to it. This bracket as is can be used on any vehicle that has a Dana 30 axle under it. The bracket may also be adapted to fit other axle's such as the Dana 44, Dana 60, etc. The Dana axle has been used buy most of the major manufacturers and is still a popular brand due to their quality. They are also being copied by several aftermarket companies now. With that being said I am still not really willing to dump a bunch of time and money into this product for the simple fact that it is a limited market. I think maybe Ill just use it myself for now and show it to a few buddies here and there. I have quite a few friends that are into rock crawling so maybe I can just build a few of them here and there for some quick pocket money call it good enough and move on to the next big idea.

Thanks for all your thoughts
Ryan

Top