SSS and soft tops, etc.

["Chris and Ranae Procyk" <procyk19@domain.elided>]

Let me make a few observations re. the SSS thread.

Somebody gave a pretty good profile of list members earlier.  I'd like to
add two more traits, which are of IH owners in general:

1) We tend to be very self-reliant, but I think one bad aspect of that trait
is that it tends to make a person very suspicious of people who offer help
@cost.
2) Maybe cheap sh*ts is too strong a characterization, but we are pretty
careful with our money.

Those two characteristics have shown up in a lot of vendor-related posts,
like the GUS posts particularly.

A few observations:

1) I've dealt with Quadratec for some Jeep parts- they sold me a top,
coincidentally enough, a really crummy bumper (not their fault), and goofed
up an order.  But I think they're generally OK.  HOWEVER- you're not going
to be able to buy as much as a brake pad for your IH from them EVER, let
alone be able to call them up and BS about some problems.  So you bought a
top, but made no investment in future Scout support.  Dead end strategy, I
think.

2) Kayline has apparently blown us off on the Terra top, didn't anybody
notice?

3) SSS especially has always sold regularly available parts for as cheaply
as the big warehouse operations.. for instance, a set of Rancho shock
absorbers.  This amazes me because, my experience has been that the big guys
get one out of 4 IH things just plain wrong.  Sure, you can send it back.
Mine time is worth a fair amount of money, though.  But when you order from
a Light Line dealer you're on the phone with a guy who has a complete mental
image of what you're doing and what you need.  Yet you get that service for
NO charge.

4) And they are motivated to fix problems.  JCW listed-and probably still
does- TA rear qtrs. that were Traveler/Terra only.  Lynn Faeth ORDERED them
and tried to put them on.  They weren't right.  He saved me from ordering
some.  And now the Light Line group has developed new ones.  How do you
think JCW would have attacked the problem?  Right... they would just have
deleted the listing.

So if you really enjoy complaining about vendors and their prices, start
your own Scout shop.  Then you can compete with LL on the high-volume,
easy-mover parts, eventually cannibalizing each other until you both fail.

Or just go buy a Jeep.


In Use: 70 1210 4x4 TE, 73 1210 WM
Project (2nd time) 67 1000B PU
Parts: 67 1000B TA   68 1100 4x4 TA  72 1010 TA