Alabama Off-road/ Mods/ Meets Thread

I am still waiting to hear back from Rigid. I am trying to become an authorized distributor for our area.

 

In case you didn't notice, the Great American Park (AKA GAP) was closed on September 1st. It is up for sale.

 

Well let's put our pennies together! What's it selling for, 20, 30 bucks? We'll skip pizza.

 

never have understood the need for rigid stuff? not throwing trash or anything, I just have always seen it as when it gets that bright(like 10,000 lumens or whatever) then an extra 100 lumens is kind of insignificant isnt it??? or is it really that obvious? I also know that they say the rigids are "bullet proof" and "indestructible" and so on. But the hanma lights seem pretty tough as well and I have never had the desire to unmount my bar and run over it just to test it. again not being confrontational, just trying to ask questions to understand reasoning for paying typically triple for what appears a similar light to my untrained eye. and bill, perhaps you could educate me on this since you are looking to become a vendor.

 

My only Hanma complaint so far is that the annodizing has faded to the point that the chromate conversion coating is showing through. Now its a nice bronze color. oh well, still cheap

 

Who me? I just know that sometimes going big is more fun. But then again I don't have kids, so yes I have less responsibilities than most here.

So does that give you some discount or something? I know it means that you would just sell their products but you get them at a way cheaper price right?

I'm still learning my light bars and lift kits and that stuff. I have 2 weeks of metal fab which means no homework! But also means once I hit the fleet I could start making my own stuff. I will get corrosion classes and certified, welding classes and certified in all of welding, I get composite classes and certified, and hazmat and hazardous waste certified and chemical certifications. Hope fully though I can get my commercial airline certificate class thingy. I forget what it is called.

 

my roommate travels around teaching corrosion classes. He uses virtual reality to teach. It's actually pretty cool, maybe he'll be the one teaching you.

 

well won't get it till the fleet but it is a small world in the military life so i'm told. i'll wait and see. i get asked all the time if i have family in the Marines and the only one i know of was my uncle but her got out.

 

just ordered a roof basket for the truck. i have a roof rack from a member in Auburn getting picked up sunday from my dad. gonna look at light bars next pay check. UCAs coming right after my tag gets on the truck. having issues with that. stupid jefferson county won't allow my dad to get the title even though it has his name on it as well so that i wouldn't have to be present to get the tag. well they don't like that so.

 

As mentioned above, a lot of the other lower cost light bars have had a problem with their reflectors hazing or "bronzing" over due to the heat. This eventually decreases their effective lumen output. I haven't secured anything for sure yet, but I am always looking for products that are in need of vendors!

Rigid is pretty stoic on pricing, but before I do anything I will have to find out what kind of cost it is to me. Right now I am still waiting to hear back from them.

 

Gotcha.

 

its not the reflectors that are bronzing. it is the case itself. and honestly it doesnt hinder any light output. it just makes it look like your truck has bling on it until you repaint it.

 

I have actually seen some pictures of the other brands where the reflectors themselves are dull and discolored. I am not convinced for sure either way to be honest. I am still researching products before I make a final decision.

When it comes to products the common buyer simply does a little research, then buys what he likes and is done. For me, as a resale company, if I have too many complaints, then my sales go to crap and I lose money. So I have to do a LOT of heavy research before I pick something.

 

but you know yourself 90% of those found on this forum are not the typical buyer and do just diligence in our research. i personally have 3 of the hanma lights in question. and if i had to do it over again would make the same decision over rigid. bc even though i can get rigid at cost (bc one of my best friends is a distributor) i still cannot justify the extra money to buy a rigid. i just cant see the couple hundred dollars worth of difference. and i have had 2 of the lights for well over a year and the lenses are still as clear as when i first made the purchase.





edit- Just wanted to clarify that this is in no way an attack or me being mean, just trying to be helpful and possibly offer insight to your decision.

 

hazing or not. even if i lose 30% light output, it will still be bright as the sun and I got a hell of a deal. I really don't even use it in the summer anyways since it stays light so much later.

However, I also keep my jeep in the garage so it's not in direct sunlight. I'd have to see kyles to make a better judgement about how daily sun exposure changes these things.

 

No worries, I get that you are just giving information. That is all we are doing is trading our info and insight. Also remember, I sell to more than just TW members. I do have a full-fledged auto shop and 4X4 facility. I get a lot of local customers.

As for Hanma lights, if they would have returned an email reply when I sent them a request I would consider them more. I don't have a list of everyone I contacted, but I sent out about 5-6 inquiries when I started looking at selling the LED bars. Rigid was the only one that actually replied that was willing to consider me for distributorship. Others wanted ridiculous first orders (to the tune of $5000 or more) to even consider me. I'm by no means saying that Rigid is the best deal for your money. Just that they were the only ones that were being reasonable. I still have yet to make a final call. It may be a couple more months. I don't jump into the fray too easily. I was 2 months into the planning before I even started selling these hubs.

 

mine is exposed to the elements daily... never parked in a garage unless it was brian's and we were working on my truck, and it probably sees a harsher environment on a daily basis than a lot will ever see(parked in the open at a rock quarry so no shade and high content silica dust sand blasting it when the wind blows.) and honestly the lens still looks brand new.

That is why i mentioned something about the rigid idea. I figured your target market would be primarily your local customers and I figured to make hardly any sells with a rigid price you would have to sacrifice ROI and NP in order to make the sell. Not saying anything bad about marion, but the average household income is like $30-35k a year for combined households... do you think they are going to be the type to spend a grand or more on an offroad light?? again not being condescending, just coming from a marketing and operations standpoint. and i know i may be looking to far into it, but it is what i am about to graduate with a degree in so I have a tendency to nerd out on this.

 

It's all good. And as far as median income for this area, try cutting that number in half. Lol. But yeah, I get ya. Just when you contact a company to sell their product, and they never return the contact, what can ya do?

 

O i dont blame ya... its funny because I contacted hanma over a year ago just trying to see if I could order a small quantity directly from them and not have to be a supplier and you would have sworn if we would have ever met in person they were gonna hump my leg! so that is odd they dont still go after vendor opportunities.

 

I'll try again, just to see. Give them a second chance.


Guess what I will be doing this week.......end