Some interesting products we saw at the 2025 GT show

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I'll give the Baby Blue one props for the retro lights. I was going for the vintage military look at first. Till I realized I couldn't afford it lol. I did stick with the old school KC dayliter bodies at least.

This is also what I find interesting. In China, it seems that the mainstream Jeep parts design is a lot of CNC line carving and carbon fiber decorative pieces. Such retro trucks are really rare.

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[HAMP]

I'm interested in the Winbo and Toso half height bed caps, do you have direct links to those?

 

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I'm interested in the Winbo and Toso half height bed caps, do you have direct links to those?

I'm sorry I don't know either. I don't even know if they sell it outside of China, because as far as I know the US seems to have patent protection for bed caps.

 

[Redfour5]

Small business 101 observations...

Sorry I don't understand what you mean

I was looking at it from a business standpoint. I do realize for many it is a "labor of love" in what they do and thank goodness they do it, but they might not be able to make a living off of it.. And do they want to?

"Some people have too much time on their hands when their TAM is like 200 people. That's a lot of R & D for expected ROI on some of it... Some interesting things though for sure."

The TAM is the total available market for a product. I once worked with multi-national companies on rapid testing for communicable/infectious diseases using immunochromatigraphic technology. ROI is return on investment and how do you assess what that means...

For this lesson, then you look and attempt to assess first that number the TAM and then what percentage of that number will buy your product. You do that by looking at your competition and what they have and how well they are doing.

Then you assess your costs to produce to estimate a price you could sell at and can you price below your competition. Is there anything you can do that is value added to your product that doesn't cost or costs little but might make a potential buyer buy yours instead of others. Then assess your market in terms of how to sell to them. This is a good place for Gladiator owners but what else you got? Can you sell to any local after market installers to test the market? JUst a few ways...

My mind tends to move in that direction as I see things like this. So, I see some of this really neat stuff and off the top of my head think wow that's cool but how many people would actually buy it. So I threw out 200 as the "total available market" for a few things. Fortunately there is NO real competition for some of them but is that what you want to do? It might be...

When I retired I made garden stuff like benches, plantars etc. started making custom shutters also as our housing market high end started heating up.

I didn't do it to make money, more just having fun using my tools. Made it as efficient as possible didn't count my labor really into it as I wasn't really doing a business. I was having fun. Was able to justify buying some new expensive tools and they were pretty much free. That would be about the only way some of these things could be done as I doubt one could achieve the economy of scales necessary to make a living doing it. Scaling up like that is a whole different ballgame.

My shutters took off and I started having more people want them than I could do myself. I live in the mountains. They were custom with cut outs like a bear, fir trees, etc. Well, word of mouth and suddenly I had people clamoring for them.

I'm retired, I don't want to start a business. I'm well off, but I could have easily made enough to rent a shop and hire a few carpenters and charge a whole lot of money. These were rich people's houses. So, I started, made a few, then like overnight I had more business than I wanted. It wasn't going to be fun anymore. The logistics of scaling up were going to be a bear and I did NOT want to supervise people and I'd have to buy more and more equipment to make it work, start thinking about vehicles, skillsets I needed, "assembly line" like logistics, how many people, buying a few vehicles, TAXES for employees and stuff, depreciation blah blah and on and on...

And then I had to start thinking of economies of scale the marketplace of housing, and its ups and downs and most of my initial market was new builds. I could also target existing homes and my mind started going there and how to market and sell like going to home shows, and so one and like overnight I started to get sucked in. When I was 30/40/50, I would have been in heaven. I"m not. I don't want to work that hard. Then, someone would likely come along maybe one of my employees and say, Hey I can do this and I'd have competition in a year and that variable to deal with.

So, I talked to one of the Home Builders I worked with who was a good guy and said I wasn't going to do it and we had some beers with a conversation around all this and he has the same issues.

I likely could have made a lot of money BUT with all the hassles associated with the above but I did NOT want to go there at 65 and already retired with a good income. I'm done with that. So, I asked him if he had a kid with the carpentry skills and the intelligence to do think about doing it and he said yes and had me talk to this young 25 year old kid and he started a business and took it on. He was ready for it. I gave him advice and he's still plugging but Covid really whacked all that. The builder also helped him out with first customers and business advice. I just have a couple of friends out of it and some really high quality expensive wood working tools pretty much free.

So, you asked. But anyone wanting to do something like build products like those for jeeps in this thread well, this is what you face if you want to be in business doing it. The shutters are nice and I got great tools out of it for...free and a year of tax breaks for business out of it. If you are young, this is how you make it in America.

The shutters that started it all. Just like the stuff at the show for Gladiators.

 

[PixieRockstar]

Some cool stuff for sure!

 

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Another Gladi, with a Fury engraver bumper, Geea design A-pillar spotlight bracket, KC light bar, toso bed cap and ADA RTT

I don’t remember anyone asking me the brand of these windshield light brackets. I wrote them as ‘geer’ by mistake. Actually, they should be from ‘Geea’. I have changed the original post. I hope I don’t mislead you.

 

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I don’t know which Volkswagen model this is, but the roof box with flowers looks very romantic!

I just realized that Americans would put flowers in the coffin...

If I think about it this way... this roof box is a bit scary

 

[GeneralMaximus]

I just realized that Americans would put flowers in the coffin...

If I think about it this way... this roof box is a bit scary

Hah! That reminds me of a time when I once optioned a car interior with cream colored leather. I quickly called the dealer back and requested a change to black interior, because the plush cream colored leather, suddenly reminded me of the inside of a coffin.

 

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Hah! That reminds me of a time when I once optioned a car interior with cream colored leather. I quickly called the dealer back and requested a change to black interior, because the plush cream colored leather, suddenly reminded me of the inside of a coffin.

Although we don't associate white interior with coffins, I personally don't like white interiors either. They always seem to have a leather smell that makes me carsick....
Speaking of this, I found an interesting difference before. If it is a burial, the Western cemetery will put the tombstone behind the coffin, while the Chinese cemetery is the opposite. However, the text on it is almost the same, including the name of the deceased, when he was buried, and who his descendants are.

 

[GeneralMaximus]

Although we don't associate white interior with coffins, I personally don't like white interiors either. They always seem to have a leather smell that makes me carsick....
Speaking of this, I found an interesting difference before. If it is a burial, the Western cemetery will put the tombstone behind the coffin, while the Chinese cemetery is the opposite. However, the text on it is almost the same, including the name of the deceased, when he was buried, and who his descendants are.

interesting observation. Perhaps in the East, they dont want people stepping on the grave? Whereas in the West, it appears the tombstone/headstone is like a bed’s headboard(taking a dirt nap?)

 

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interesting observation. Perhaps in the East, they dont want people stepping on the grave? Whereas in the West, it appears the tombstone/headstone is like a bed’s headboard(taking a dirt nap?)

LOL I like the idea of a headboard! Yes, we can't just step on other people's graves, even if I step on my grandpa's.
In my hometown, they used to make the coffin several years in advance and put it in the living room. They said that the wood needs some time to dry, and the pronunciation of coffin in Chinese is similar to "get rich", so they think it is auspicious to see the coffin. I think most young people can't accept this. I feel scared every time I see it... And I saw my grandmother's portrait ten years ago, but she is still alive now. They always prepare in advance.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Actually those are heated steps for those that live in snow and ice prone areas. Lol
I was thinking the same thing. After running a bit it would get quite hot I would think.

You didn't want to wear shorts when getting out of this car I had - or, when exiting, you stepped WAY out over the side pipe shields. Yes, those are shields that aren't even connected to the muffler/pipes below, but they got hot enough to cause crazy burns just being close to those long mufflers.

(my wife yelled at me more than once "why didn't you warn me about those things!")

 

[Jerhemi]

Come across an old Land Rover Defender outside, would you like this folding running board on your Jeep?

Are you actually thinking of making these?

 

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Are you actually thinking of making these?

I want to make a drop step that clips onto a heavy duty mopar side rail, but I don't know how many people need it.

 

[Jerhemi]

I want to make a drop step that clips onto a heavy duty mopar side rail, but I don't know how many people need it.

If it is just a step that attaches to the Rubi rail....there are a couple makes out there.

If you were making a style that folds up and drops down like pictured, well, that would be awesome.

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