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MMW Dana 300 waiting list

benw said:
It seems like that from an outside perspective but if that were true why hasn’t AA scaled to meet the demand? They certainly have the product and experience to do it if there was a reason to do it.
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I bet it’s because it would cost millions to expand. New buildings on land, employees, overhead. What they’re doing now is profitable and they aren’t suffering any inconvenience because of high demand. Every t-case mfg I know of other than AA has suffered from an inability to meet acceptable timelines on cases or parts. Word gets around quick that someone is sitting on many customers many thousands of dollars and if by some miracle they get squared up it’s too late to not have the tarnished reputation.
 
JR4X said:
I bet it’s because it would cost millions to expand. New buildings on land, employees, overhead. What they’re doing now is profitable and they aren’t suffering any inconvenience because of high demand.
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This is probably right on the money. Usually this situation works itself out after a few years and the company scales to the next plateau or a competitor enters the market to fulfill the demand. It is surprising to me that this situation has existed for so long without much progress. Maybe the problem is the competitors that have tried so far have just not been up to the challenge. Maybe there is still opportunity there if someone can match AA’s execution.
 
I think a lot of manufacturing is hesitant to scale up after 08 crash.

AA is also dependent on a third parties ability to supply castings. I’m surprised that haven’t offered a billet case as an upgrade. Be an easy way to possibly bypass what may be the bottle neck and get an upgrade. Seems there’s a market for it.
 
Rangerrod said:
I think a lot of manufacturing is hesitant to scale up after 08 crash.
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Absolutely. Then at some point they'll have saturated the market, with only minimal sales to equip new builds. Like from thousands per year to dozens or hundreds.
 
There's more people making aftermarket cases now than ever before. Not sure AA needs to ramo production up.

What they could do is corner the market on D300 gears and ratios. They have the power to make that happen. They fact they haven't tells me the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Also ot keeps them looking good instead of supporting a 35 year old case.
 
JR4X said:
I bet it’s because it would cost millions to expand. New buildings on land, employees, overhead. What they’re doing now is profitable and they aren’t suffering any inconvenience because of high demand. Every t-case mfg I know of other than AA has suffered from an inability to meet acceptable timelines on cases or parts. Word gets around quick that someone is sitting on many customers many thousands of dollars and if by some miracle they get squared up it’s too late to not have the tarnished reputation.
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Not to mention that their existing manufacturing facility might be grandfathered in under old rules.

It's one thing to build a new facility next door or across town. But AA is in a business-hostile shithole state. They'd have to either spin up a second facility in another state or pack up and move. God knows how many people would quit or retire in the latter case.

Sure they could expand their foreign manufacturing but there's a good chance that'll just result in their IP getting stolen and cheap knockoffs hitting the market...


94toytruck said:
There's more people making aftermarket cases now than ever before. Not sure AA needs to ramp production up.
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Yeah but how many of them are making them and how many are just taking money. :flipoff2:
 
94toytruck said:
There's more people making aftermarket cases now than ever before. Not sure AA needs to ramo production up.

What they could do is corner the market on D300 gears and ratios. They have the power to make that happen. They fact they haven't tells me the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Also ot keeps them looking good instead of supporting a 35 year old case.
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Not one of those little guys passed the test of time. Too dependent on outside forces, bad business models or mfg. None of them worked out.

And yeah i think you right, theres a reason noone has gone full tilt boogey on d300's even though its been talked about for decades.
 
Good luck to all of the people with outstanding MMW orders, i hope everyone gets a resolution.
I dont have a dog in the hunt but I am hearing the whole situation is going to get extremely ugly.
 
MMW update

I had to relocate my rear output shift fork in order to have my collar land properly on detents.
I shimmed the detent housing and that fixed the rear output, but threw the front fork out of wack. So I scrapped that plan and moved the rear output fork.

I couldn’t simply drill a grub screw hole next to the existing one. (Too close) I had to flip the shift rail over and get hole indexed properly (luckily there’s detents both top and bottom).

Hopefully this is ready to go now.
We will definitely find out.
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bunk said:
Not one of those little guys passed the test of time. Too dependent on outside forces, bad business models or mfg. None of them worked out.

And yeah i think you right, theres a reason noone has gone full tilt boogey on d300's even though its been talked about for decades.
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The D300 is a shit platform. AA was smart by designing their own case.
 
I was through Sheridan last week and talked to Rob. I stopped by his place on Saturday and he happened to be around. Introduced myself and expressed concerns over the business and getting product. On my way back I stopped by his shop, he wasn't there but did let me know he was at his house. Swung by and he was pumping out a flooded basement. Met his wife and his 2-3 year old. Helped him get that sorted and then drove over to the shop and he showed me around.

No speedboat or lambo's in the front yard. Now granted the below won't get anyone a case sooner but it's an overview of our discussions and some of the issues he's working through. They seem to be normal business issues that alot of places are also dealing with.

Staff - He's the only one running the shop now. There have been a variety of personnel issues that can't really comment on all them. One example he had issues with an employee that was running the CNC machines but was not verifying tolerance as parts came out but stated he did. Leading to a pile or parts he had on the floor that he can't use.

Material - He has stacks of cut material that he ordered from a vendor that came out of spec. 1.0" aluminum plate that was supposed to be 1.5". 7.0" round bar that was supposed to be 9.0". Slabs that he had someone cut that they butchered on the bandsaw, one side was in tolerance and the other side was 1/8" undersized. Apparently aluminum is a bit tough to get right now as well? I haven't checked on any of that stuff so can't say but Rob said he's tried 3 different vendor and something has been screwed up on each. Some of this was for output covers which he's still trying to sort out the supply issue.

Gears - JB I believe was his supplier and they have recently outsourced their gears overseas and there have been issues getting parts and some of the parts don't fit. That may or may not hve been a JB part but he had a splined shaft that looked nicely made but the spline where off and it won't interface.

I was pretty blunt in that he needs to setup some type of communication method with his customers so they know what's going on and he can provide info. He agreed that he can understand the issue there and was gonna work on some sort of way to improve. He said he has been calling folks as he's assembling their case or getting ready to ship to ensure everything is completed as expected.

He said he did disable the website until he can get caught up. He's not trying to screw anyone or jump ship.

Anyways that's just talk right, still doesn't make cases but I guess I didn't see anything different then what I expected to see. A very small shop guy with a cool product that is running into the normal small business owner issues. I deal with the same issues daily on much bigger level in managing a health care facility.

I ask if I could take pictures and Rob said sure. I also said I would be posting them here. I didn't take any of his machines but there were several CNC vertical milling and lathes that he's using. So whatever it's worth.
 

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He shouldn't be assembling cases. Too much of a time suck / low profit.

Just work on making parts and sending them out to people.

If someone doesn't want to assemble their case, I'm sure someone else would love to take their spot in-line.
 
Yeah i mentioned that but there are 2 sides there and I've seen both of them from other local shops.

A) It's a time suck but it's done how you want the product assembled. If there is an issues you know it's something you did.
B) the end user does the assemble, misses something and then blames it on the case or the design. And it leads to additional time in troubleshooting with the vendor.

So not sure what's the better solution. If it was me I'd probably continue to assembly until I was caught up as I'd not want to create additotnal issues. Going forward there could be an assemble yourself option. Or maybe another way is these are the parts I make you need to source your own gears from these other vendors.
 
Bebop said:
He shouldn't be assembling cases. Too much of a time suck / low profit.

Just work on making parts and sending them out to people.

If someone doesn't want to assemble their case, I'm sure someone else would love to take their spot in-line.
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that would awesome, directions would be easy enough to print out and send with the case. or in a PDF. its all big parts not like a automatic transmission so i would be fairly straightforward to assemble. all the machining is done.

i like that idea,,, :beer:
 
Weasel said:
I was pretty blunt in that he needs to setup some type of communication method with his customers so they know what's going on and he can provide info. He agreed that he can understand the issue there and was gonna work on some sort of way to improve. He said he has been calling folks as he's assembling their case or getting ready to ship to ensure everything is completed as expected.
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I messaged with Rob April 12-13. My word was "communicate". Clearly that hasn't sunk in.
 
94toytruck said:
Negative but I think LII Tim has one in his 4400 car. Maybe The Freeak would know since I believe they are friends.
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I have the same understanding. No feedback from anyone.
Not very confidence inspiring honestly.

Weasel said:
Yeah i mentioned that but there are 2 sides there and I've seen both of them from other local shops.

A) It's a time suck but it's done how you want the product assembled. If there is an issues you know it's something you did.
B) the end user does the assemble, misses something and then blames it on the case or the design. And it leads to additional time in troubleshooting with the vendor.

So not sure what's the better solution. If it was me I'd probably continue to assembly until I was caught up as I'd not want to create additotnal issues. Going forward there could be an assemble yourself option. Or maybe another way is these are the parts I make you need to source your own gears from these other vendors.
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I get that. But obviously when you look at SteveJenkins experience, he's not above making mistakes either.

The solution of only providing the case and not the guts would allow him to focus precious time on making parts and solving supply chain issues for his own material vs having to deal with JBconversion QC problems and the time suck that building cases is.
 
chaplinfj60 said:
that would awesome, directions would be easy enough to print out and send with the case. or in a PDF. its all big parts not like a automatic transmission so i would be fairly straightforward to assemble. all the machining is done.

i like that idea,,, :beer:
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I did a replacement case since I had a built 300. And he told me about a thread on rockcrawler.com woody had started and it was great. It’s now linked on his site. A YouTube video with bleepinjeep is up with some info too.

Getting in business with jb conversions was their first mistake. You need to be able to source the gears yourself. Otherwise you’re at the mercy of a shitty vendor.


www.rockcrawler.com

Midnight Metalworks D300 Transfer Case

https://midnightmetalworks.com/ https://www.facebook.com/MidnightMetalworksUSA The stock Dana 300 works decently enough....but mine has always been a bear to shift, and even with the portals reducing the load to the case, they aren't known for strength. So, in comes the Midnight Metalworks...
www.rockcrawler.com www.rockcrawler.com
 
posts like this bum me out and why people like geiger are important to our community. i didnt like the guy, but he had a skillset that improved the industry.

i can think of another company that has a good product, but just sucks at communication and production making people not want to buy their things.
 
Rangerrod said:
I did a replacement case since I had a built 300. And he told me about a thread on rockcrawler.com woody had started and it was great. It’s now linked on his site. A YouTube video with bleepinjeep is up with some info too.

Getting in business with jb conversions was their first mistake. You need to be able to source the gears yourself. Otherwise you’re at the mercy of a shitty vendor.


www.rockcrawler.com

Midnight Metalworks D300 Transfer Case

https://midnightmetalworks.com/ https://www.facebook.com/MidnightMetalworksUSA The stock Dana 300 works decently enough....but mine has always been a bear to shift, and even with the portals reducing the load to the case, they aren't known for strength. So, in comes the Midnight Metalworks...
www.rockcrawler.com www.rockcrawler.com
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i saw the vid on bleeping and kick ass woody for doing a good write up.
 
I get sucked into the communication issue. Get busy on working and don't want to stop working to chat. But you have to chat. Have to force myself to do that.
 
Bebop said:
I have the same understanding. No feedback from anyone.
Not very confidence inspiring honestly.


I get that. But obviously when you look at SteveJenkins experience, he's not above making mistakes either.

The solution of only providing the case and not the guts would allow him to focus precious time on making parts and solving supply chain issues for his own material vs having to deal with JBconversion QC problems and the time suck that building cases is.
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I would’ve much rather received a box of parts, than have to troubleshoot and figure out what was done wrong.

My experience with JB conversions was good. He wanted my MMW rear output (so he has a fix for all the cases about to fail on the trail. There’s problems with MMW rear output) , so we did a partial trade for one of his speedometer outputs.

I ordered my MMW box with speedo output. It arrived with the MMW one.
 
Bebop said:
Only one ?
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one specifically comes to mind from a recent transaction, they are everywhere.

set expectations, meet expectations and keep people informed. people complain about AA lead times but no one ever takes the internet about being screwed because if they tell you 9 months they are close to hitting the nine months. spidertrax approach it will ship next month is a prime example.

its hard to start a business that takes a significant cost up front, but losing a day to keep customers updated on whats going on will pay dividends in the long run plus its good for your personal sanity.
 
chaplinfj60 said:
all the machining is done.
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By a guy who wasnt checking tolerances. I would imagine the bearing bore centerlines are done on the same operation but who knows? They aint machining that thing in one operation and the more operations done the more chances of fucking it up. What needs to be done now is a good dimensional inspection of the machined cases. IMO.
 
Weasel said:
I get sucked into the communication issue. Get busy on working and don't want to stop working to chat. But you have to chat. Have to force myself to do that.
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The key is to schedule communication time into your day. "as needed" kills your productivity. Letting your customers know that your phone call/email time is from 1p to 2p daily keeps you on task.

I've been chatting with a business owner friend in CO recently, on Messenger. Avoiding the call, since I KNOW he will chat for 2 hours and get nothing done. Awesome guy, but gets caught up in the "now" and not the "schedule' and ends up behind. (tho, he has far improved from a few years ago)

Even with my websites, I try to manage my admin time so I don't get sucked into the black hole. Customers have this 24/7/365 mentality and that doesn't work with a small business...
 
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