DF,

Do the front wheels actually sit on the purple rails or do the wheels sit on the outside of each purple rail?

If they sit on the rails, how do the rear wheels get up on the rails?

If they sit on the outside of the rails, how much distance from the inside of the wheels to the rail.

I ask these questions for tracks or street races that require you to cock outside on the ramps.

JJP

The outside width is 24" so you can angle. It has holes so you can anchor it to the ground. Will be great for street race as far as keeping it fair ( no ramp race that takes out the bigger kids). I hope New Castle and youngstown take a look at these as it will help their race. They've had a lot of fighting over racers position in their car on scale and ramp being different. Take that element out and let them run as tail heavy as they want ...it will not help. Don't get me wrong I raced on elevated ramps for years and dominated. Sometimes its just a part of derby.
Derek

Derek,

It would be great to just fasten them to the street so to speak but I'd be concerned about potential cross bind? Have not seen alot of flat streets around. Then again it might be the best an area has to work with??? They'd be very happy with this.

Just a thought here - could you offer a drawing of sorts showing how to add an adjustable rail system this would fit with. Complete set of drawings showing exact bolt locations so that the locals could build locally and attach this to?
Obviously shipping an entire rail system would be difficult and expensive. Having it all thought out and designed properly could help locals.

Price - Anything you can do to drive the cost down would be looked upon favorably by all Locals I'm sure. As we look across the country many locals battle the Money concerns. I realize you are a business and making a profit is what it's all about. Not a thing wrong with that. I'm simply thinking about how to cut production and material cost to reduce the sell price not the profit? Is there any way to eliminate the Starters stand and have a hand held switch of sorts where the guy sits in a lawn chair with a hand held unit and pushes the button. Would that cut production cost or impossible to do? Just an idea.

Have a great day

Roger Van Waart

Derek,
They look great. I'm glad to see others picking up on the electromagnet idea. I cant claim all the credit though. I got the idea from Winchester VA's ramps.
Our ramps have a hand held on/off switch I made that works well. We use a heavy duty marine deep cell battery and have never had a problem with the power supply. I tested the battery power with a masters car in the ramp. I let it sit to see how long the battery would keep the paddles up before it lost power. I think I gave up after six days because they were still holding strong and couldn't be broken loose with a hard hit.
We had the battery donated to us by the local Interstate distributer 3 years ago and it still works fine. We just slow charge it before and after every race weekend.
Actually our races are run on 12 volt marine batteries 5 total. The ramps, timers and wireless PA system. We can set up a race anywhere regardless of power.

Jim Hagan

Roger I've done so much work designing this that I'm not real favorable about redesigning. As far as crossbind goes its not as big of a factor since you start from the racing surface. What is a problem is when the rail system has bind And is not in plain with the race surface. I can design a rail system but will all my efforts pay off? I doubt it. This was designed for the novice race and anything extra is icing on the cake. We had way to many manhours in designing this 1st unit so it is what it is and I'm really not interested in redoing it.
Derek

Youngstown has looked at these new starting gates. They look great, and the magnet is very strong. We will talk about using them at our next meeting in April.
I would like to use them for our rally on April 19th & 20th. I will keep everyone informed what the board decides.

Derek,

What's the cost of materials in these ramps? I know you need to cover your design and manufacturing costs. But does anybody besides me think that $1800 seems like a lot of money?

Paul Workmaster

Paul ...first you need to understand business and overhead. I am not a backyard business. I have machines and employees on top of all the normal expenses rent,electric etc...... I built it for the novice race and then people asked if it was going to be available for sale. That is the only reason I put it up for sale. Go pay a fabricator to design an electromagnet starting system out of billet aluminum with aluminum welding and see what kind of # you will get. I do not need a bunch of opinions as it is what it is or I'm not interested.
DEREK
PS...my company's hourly rate is $100 an hour and I'm packed.

DF,

Tell them how much just the magnets costs.

Tomasello bought the magnets and I believe they were $300.00 each plus shipping. This ramp can easily be bolted to a set of channels.
DEREK

So the magnets alone are $600 of your $1800. Will you sell the units with just the ramps and wiring? No starter switch platform, just a hand held switch? How much less?

Jerry ....not interested in breaking it down. That price included battery and warranty in working order. I give away more stuff and money than anyone individual in this sport. It is what it is, besides that one can build and design it themselves. Between magnets and parts there was over $800 into it. Welding was $100. We had a week into it 40hrs x 100 per hour = $4000.00. I do not break even until this # is made up. Can I build all parts in less than 13 hours I doubt it. This ain't no Value Mart!! My customers want a finished part in my opinion. Quality is what my company's reputation is all about. I saw on Paul's site where one can buy products of lesser quality so maybe one should HUNT for derby ramps.
Signed,
The Innovator not the Imitator
Derek

I completely agree with your approach to this, Derek. Your design and mfg time went to a complete product. No need to devalue it when the quality is obviously there.
Stan

Yes,

How many other websites or companies put the effort and time into this sport and at a loss.

He does it, because he loves it. But I can also tell, we need to show a little more appreciation to Derek.

They look awesome and i bet they work even better !

I think $1800 is a decent price.

Just building angle and steel ramps, design, cut and assembly, weld.

You can very easily add in 40 hours of labor. It takes alot to even get back that initial design and build cost. If ever, if not alot of them are bought.

I would enjoy seeing more set up tools, but I think derek, also has to not loose money at it either.

I would enjoy seeing and buying a cable tension reading tool !! for the steering cable tension !

Thanks for this forum Derek and all that you do !!

Sporty

No need to get defensive. I simply asked a question about the costs involved. Certainly didn't mean to suggest that you are overcharging for what you provide. After all if people want a quality product they will pay for it if they think it's a good value for the money. This is America and profit never has been a dirty word. I'm in business too and I understand that you need to cover your costs and generate a profit or you can't stay in business. However, I believe that your initial post asked for opinions about your product. I was simply asking an honest question in response to your post.