First off with a post count of 5 I think you are doing a lot of fingering pointing without holding a full deck. We are all customers here of vendors and all have opinions and different experiences with these vendors.
Second, I understand your frustration with your product/investment and not finding parts for replacement. But seeing how you did not even make your original purchase from AT, I do not see how they even have a hand in this except for they wouldn't help you with said replacement parts. Just my opinion but it sounds like a whole lotta butt hurt going on.
Third it seems with due diligence and expanding your horizons on the ol inter web the parts are out there or at least manufacturers willing to make the requested part albeit for a price since it now a custom part.
Good luck in procuring your parts. And have a good rest of your weekend.
#nodrama
Second, I understand your frustration with your product/investment and not finding parts for replacement. But seeing how you did not even make your original purchase from AT, I do not see how they even have a hand in this except for they wouldn't help you with said replacement parts. Just my opinion but it sounds like a whole lotta butt hurt going on.
Third it seems with due diligence and expanding your horizons on the ol inter web the parts are out there or at least manufacturers willing to make the requested part albeit for a price since it now a custom part.
Good luck in procuring your parts. And have a good rest of your weekend.
#nodrama
I'm sorry but your logic on this is no where to be found. It still goes back to them being a distributor only, with nothing to do with a company that went belly up. AT does not "owe" anyone anything. And neither does FRP that went kaput. Your frustrations on a flawed product are noted as with others' as well, but once a company goes bust, you're on your own. No need to point fingers at a distributor because there's no one else to blame.
I don't believe I have enough facts to really weigh in on this.... If the distributor continued to sell this product that they knew was flawed and had "reservations" about the supplier for years.. then I would be remiss to let said distributor burn me again. On the other hand if they were honest and said something along the lines of .. this is a great product but here are the issues, or if they quit selling the product once issues arose, I would understand that it was out of their control.
This ^
I purchased mine from AT at considerable extra expense to ensure I wouldn't be forced to deal with the well documented communication issues and poor production management. AT didn't offer me any expressed warranty at the time of purchase, so if my torsion bar goes, I will modify and delete it.
I purchased mine from AT at considerable extra expense to ensure I wouldn't be forced to deal with the well documented communication issues and poor production management. AT didn't offer me any expressed warranty at the time of purchase, so if my torsion bar goes, I will modify and delete it.
I had not heard FRP was in danger - just the Flippac was not their main product and they made them when slow, the other stuff (pipes?) was the bread and butter. I was really hopeful when AT started selling them, it would help promote and develop a great product idea... think if someone had "saved" the Wildernest back in the day.
I bounced over here from Expo after reading that FRP is closed. I have mixed feelings about the issue, but at the end of the day, what's dead is dead. I did just complete an interior build on my truck borrowing ideas from Dave's first design and Trump's setup, so I am happy with my flippac, but I do worry about catastrophic failure at some point.
Dave, it sounds like you know "Curry" well and have spoken to him about the Torsion bar. Grumon, do you still have your old Torsion bar? If Dave can give you an intro to Curry, I would be willing to split shipping costs to get your torsion bar out to him and buy one if he can mfr a replacement.
Dave, it sounds like you know "Curry" well and have spoken to him about the Torsion bar. Grumon, do you still have your old Torsion bar? If Dave can give you an intro to Curry, I would be willing to split shipping costs to get your torsion bar out to him and buy one if he can mfr a replacement.
Casey Currie was driver for one of the pro teams at the BF Goodrich 36 Hours of Uwharrie in NC last weekend where we both met and tortured, rather, led the teams during their experience.
Casey is a member of the Currie Enterprises family, and is in their advertising/racing division. As Dave and I were talking about the FRP issue, I mentioned why not check with Casey... I've used Currie Enterprises "Anti-Rock Off Road Sway Bar" in the past for different builds and it comes in a wide variety of lengths. Dave took that information and asked Casey who said, "Yeah, we make about anything."
My recommendation is for you to take the information I linked here and call Currie Enterprises, with details of your torsion bar, the potential market demand, and see about getting a replacement. The best representative for your interests is you.
Casey is a member of the Currie Enterprises family, and is in their advertising/racing division. As Dave and I were talking about the FRP issue, I mentioned why not check with Casey... I've used Currie Enterprises "Anti-Rock Off Road Sway Bar" in the past for different builds and it comes in a wide variety of lengths. Dave took that information and asked Casey who said, "Yeah, we make about anything."
My recommendation is for you to take the information I linked here and call Currie Enterprises, with details of your torsion bar, the potential market demand, and see about getting a replacement. The best representative for your interests is you.
I am certainly willing to contribute my old bar and cost for shipping and some prototype development costs. - presently my Flippac has a nonfunctional bar and needs to have replacement pivot points if I take this bar out. On Exp Po the same topic has garnered an offer from a fellow named Brian Skipper who said he can build bars. This needs some followup and I sent him a message.
I just think it's important to find a solution, the Flippac design given all the flaws is a very appealing adventure vehicle shelter. It fits my needs and goes on trails that a full sized truck just can't. Now the Habitat is very appealing but I'm just not ready yet to start a new build.
If someone has bar in the area and could have Currie look to see if they have interest/capability, I would be interested in supporting that effort.
I just think it's important to find a solution, the Flippac design given all the flaws is a very appealing adventure vehicle shelter. It fits my needs and goes on trails that a full sized truck just can't. Now the Habitat is very appealing but I'm just not ready yet to start a new build.
If someone has bar in the area and could have Currie look to see if they have interest/capability, I would be interested in supporting that effort.
I thought I should jump in here. To clarify, for every single Flippac that was sold through AT that had any warranty problem, and there were a few, we 100% went to bat for those clients to source replacement parts and make repairs in house. We also helped out countless others who did not purchase from us or bought used units and called with questions or advice when they could not get answers from FRP. One would think that as a dealer we would have some leverage with FRP but this was not the case as they were a very dysfunctional organization. The very last unit we sold was in 2013. From time of order to delivery was 7 months (it was quoted at 10 weeks). We decided at that time to no longer work with FRP but kept our web page about the product live to serve as a knowledge base until we took it down this year when we released the Habitat. When our last Flippac client's torsion bar broke 16 months after delivery (in Italy no less), it took significant effort and 3 months to get a replacement from FRP. At that time we decided to move forward with the Habitat design that solves the torsion bar problem. By building the Habitat in house, we are 100% in control of product support. The concept of a torsion bar delete for the Flippac has been one that we have discussed internally but there simply has not been a solution that we are comfortable putting the AT name on.
To answer to Grumon here: If you purchased a Flippac directly from AT and want to upgrade to a Habitat, talk to me and we will ease the path for you. We have already done this for others who decided to switch.
To answer to Grumon here: If you purchased a Flippac directly from AT and want to upgrade to a Habitat, talk to me and we will ease the path for you. We have already done this for others who decided to switch.
Hallelujah,
We have a source for our Flippac torsion bar. Sway-A-Way, the manufacturer of automotive and racing torsion bars informed me through Brian Skipper the company President that they are interested. He said they made a bar for a Tacoma size Flippac in the past and he has the documentation for that bar. Check out the Sway-A-Way website to see what they build.
I ordered my bar today to show my interest. Brian said he is doing a run of 5 bars until he can see what the interest is. The retail will be $299, so you can see the price is fair.
He also is able to make the supporting brackets if anyone needs them.
If you are interested give him a call or send him an email, brian@swayaway.com
Tom
We have a source for our Flippac torsion bar. Sway-A-Way, the manufacturer of automotive and racing torsion bars informed me through Brian Skipper the company President that they are interested. He said they made a bar for a Tacoma size Flippac in the past and he has the documentation for that bar. Check out the Sway-A-Way website to see what they build.
I ordered my bar today to show my interest. Brian said he is doing a run of 5 bars until he can see what the interest is. The retail will be $299, so you can see the price is fair.
He also is able to make the supporting brackets if anyone needs them.
If you are interested give him a call or send him an email, brian@swayaway.com
Tom
