Rodrock

The video says March 18 2016

shabbernigdo

when they first came out i did not see much wrong with the price point. They were the first to have it. They had to design it and go through all the R&D / setup / production. So its understandable to want to make some proffit and try to recoup all the costs associated with its production while maintaning a good quality product.

Others have coppied the design so they have not had to do any real r&d so the costs for them were much less. ITs a ton cheaper to copy some ones product after they have done all the work for you.

With that said i do belive the cost should come down a little to try and stay compeditive. I paid like 450$ when they first came out but i dont regret it at all. it has worked very well over the years.

erickeahey

I have a TeraFlex carrier- which came with a basic build my dealer had put on my Jeep. After seeing the alternatives, I am very glad to have it.

I would pay a bit more for the original, TeraFlex's big mistake here was not patenting a clearly superior product.

aermotor

Hmmmm.

Chinese pot metal or American Steel and fabrication? I'll give you a hint. #NotTeraflex

lloydsmale

I bought the M.O.R.E. unit. Don't know how quality compares to the tf because ive never personally saw a tf. But I will say this is built like a tank. Fit and finish were excellent. It has greasable hinges and if a hinge ever did wear out its rebuildable and for some reason it took a hit and bent one of the hinges youd only have to replace that hinge not the whole system. that and MORE seems to be able to still make a decent profit at a 100 bucks less. Some hear might have a 100 bucks to donate to the poor underprivileged people at TF but I don't.

lloydsmale

with that mentality wed have only one brand of cars and trucks. One brand of guns. We still be using rolling block single shot rifles in the military. there would only be one airline and one brand of plane and you would be at there mercy for the cost of a flight. Free enterprise and competition is the rock this country was built on. Now if someone went so far as to pick a unit made in china because it was cheaper id be the first one to bitch. But as far as I know all of these units are made in America by americans. If one company can make them just as well built for less money that's the company that will be around for the long haul. Bottom line is you can about bet TF didn't invent these things. they too copied some home built unit or idea and improved on it. Most likely the man who deserves credit I some guy who had an idea in his garage and whipped out a prototype to try. I don't think anyone here is questioning TF quality or the fact they stand behind them. What is being questioned is having TF stamped on it is worth 1-200 bucks.

Rednroll

From my experience with Patents, they are trickier to enforce than you would think. The company I work for owns quite a few different patents where we are often considered a technology leader in our industry. It's on the order of thousands of patents filed. However, what tends to happen is that other companies can change the size/shape and although the technology and function is the same, it ends up not being a patent infringement unless it's a blatant exact copy. When I look at the Rugged Ridge vs. the Teraflex HD hinge carrier that is kind of what I see going on. It looks similar, and serves the same purpose but it's not an exact copy and unless TF filed a patent which includes a drawing that looks just like the Rugged Ridge, then they would have a difficult time enforcing their patent. A lot of these companies that are technology followers, invest resources in finding ways figuring out how they can change their design just enough to avoid patent infringement. My company, when filing a patent often spend time in trying to figure out how someone else might try to work around the original design intent and end up filing multiple variations with the patent which includes potential copycat designs which may never see the light of day. So it ends up being quite a lot of effort playing the guessing game.

On top of that, you need to have patent attorneys working around the clock to interpret if a patent infringement was made or not. It's really an area that takes quite of bit of specialty knowledge to enforce as well as defend against. The company I work for is a multiple billion dollar company. They're one of the Fortune 500. We have on staff attorneys where alls they do is look into patent infringements as well as defending against patent infringement claims and we also have to often hire outside contract attorney firms on top of those resources. These attorneys are often working with our design engineers. So it ends up being very costly as well.

Rednroll

As well, just because someone copied and made a similar product, that doesn't necessarily mean that Teraflex made a mistake and didn't file a patent for their design.

See Here:
Teraflex Hinge Carrier patent and associated design patents:
Tailgate hinge - TeraFlex, Inc.

Patent image document:
Tailgate hinge

Dynatrac

NO, the ProRock 44 is NOT a copy of the Dana axle. The center section of the PR44 was specially designed with improvements in oiling, strength, and shape, along with beefier axle tubes, much more robust end forgings, and our specially designed diff cover. You can learn about all the special features on a ProRock 44 at https://www.dynatrac.com/axle-assemb...k-44-axle.html

Invest2m4

I wasn't saying it was a copy, I meant you took an axle that existed and found a way to make it a lot better. It is still a Dana 44 that uses parts designed by Dana and others. Nothing wrong with that. Extending that logic, there shouldn't be an issue for someone taking an existing product and making it better or increasing the value.