What do you need for your Jeep?

[El Cid]

Worse thing I can think of for any company is to uplift their own product by stepping on another.

It was something to see. He (GetLost4x4) angrily went on and on about how completely superior his mounting system was -- something these pictures don't exactly confirm -- and then after some pressure he admitted that he had never seen the 4xGuard mounting system. He knew absolutely nothing about the thing he was attacking.

Sigh.

It's an easy temptation to pop off about your own product. I understand that. But you're absolutely right, Holaday, that it's not generally wise to talk down about other products at the same time -- especially if you don't actually know what you're talking about. That sort of thing almost always backfires. Add in the anger with which he approached the situation and ... well, I felt (and feel) truly sad for him. I have to think he was going through something tough personally to do that kind of thing.

I think he was indeed banned around then, cico. His first banning, anyway. He came back under some other name later and would rail against anything I said. At one point in his second incarnation I remember him all-caps screaming that I was lying about the fact that I have Aries tail-light guards ... in a thread in which I detailed the mounting process with pictures. His second banning wasn't long after that, I think. Like I said, it was pretty sad.

It was also unfortunate since despite the problems his products caused he was a strong figure in pushing the platform out there on the trails. A real pity.

All this to illustrate not only how very differently some businesses behave, but also how important it is to get the engineering right. I'm suspecting that when it comes to the mounting system, at least, Steel Armadillo is going to zig where Get Lost zagged, if you know what I mean!

How much for the plans or prototypes. I feel there is a better need for these than the rear sliders

I disagree about the relative worth of Corner Guards (that's what we were going to call them, of course) compared to the 4xGuard Rear Sliders. I've been in serious love with the Sliders since we first started mock-ups years ago. At the same time, I do think that the Corner Guards would be pretty useful. Combine them with Sliders and 4xG's Rear Guard 2 and you effectively have all the benefits of a steel rear bumper replacement without as much weight added on. You'd be protected in the same problem areas, it would look waaaaay cooler (I think), and there's very little damage done to the vehicle itself if you were wanting to strip it off in order to sell the vehicle or something like that.

As I said, we never went to prototype on them, though: I came up with the design -- it's a bit like the Matrix in terms of its complexity -- and I executed a basic proof-of-concept mockup, but then other things took precedence in the production queue and they got put on the backburner. Then the business sold.

As it happens, I was actually talking today with another manufacturer about dipping into my pool of unborn designs. He was specifically after two other products -- also cool things, one for the XK and one for the WK/XK -- and I haven't had time to even contemplate where it all might lead. So give me time ... or give me an offer I can't refuse.