Drake Off Road™ Hood Hold Downs
01-17-2010, 08:22 AM
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01-17-2010, 02:07 PM
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01-18-2010, 07:59 PM
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01-22-2010, 01:18 PM
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Drake Off Road have been watching this thread, but they are not forum sponsors yet... I will post some info I received from one of their engineers.
Lanyard issues-
We’ve had these Hood Hold Downs on a JK and a TJ for about 5 months now. We haven't noticed any marking on the paint around the lanyard at all. This was a concern of ours as well and we've watched this area closely. The lanyard seems to stay pretty still. It's not as "floppy" as it may look in reality. The length of the lanyard allows the pin to be installed in either direction.
In regards to the lanyard breaking, rusting, or fading. We use this exact cable as lanyards for hood pins that we also produce for a high end hood pin on another product line and have not had issues with any of this. The cable itself is stainless steel and is not supposed to rust according to the manufacture’s specs. The plastic coating is specificly UV Resistant. We did have an issue on an early prototype with the loop where it goes thru the push button pin fraying but trust me, it only took one poke with my actual thumb on that thing and I made sure to make a change in production to keep that from happening again!
Hood flutter and general function-
As far as the tensioning of the hood goes and the flutter that the stock setup experiences... The setup is pretty much personal preference. We've found while running these on our jeeps around here that we actually tighten up the turn buckle till it pulls the hood down into the rubber bumper that's on your stock setup pretty good. That rubber bumper gets transfered onto our part. At first it seemed difficult to get the pin in and out like this because of the tension it caused but we quickly learned that by just simply leaning down on the hood a little it allowed the pin to be pushed in and out easily. (yes I know that sounds bad but trust me, in reality what I'm talking about is nothing... My mom has no issues doing this on her personal jeep) The hood is firmly mounted and doesn’t move or flex. This setup takes out all the play in the hood mount!
Pricing-
Yes, they aren't free by anymeans… They are a heck of a lot cheaper then the $300 factory styled billet replacement ones I’ve seen in stores though. There's cheaper ones out there, there's also more expensive ones out there. There's not another one like ours though! Overkill? Sure, all they do is hold down your hood... Then again IMO reservoir shocks on lifted fullsize trucks at the mall that never touch dirt are overkill as well but you know what... I think they look kinda cool too.
Black Annodizing-
We tossed out the idea of doing an annodized black center in the very beginning of this project. We actually painted a set of them black just to get an idea of how they might look. We went against it thought for 2 reasons really. 1st, we really wanted that turn buckle piece to pop and stand out, the black one we did just didn’t stand out nearly like this does in the aluminum finish. 2nd, I’m sure you’ve all seen it… A lot of black anodized parts tend to fade over time when exposed to sun nonstop. The last thing we wanted was these things turning brown or even purple over time on people because of a poor anodizing job that we wouldn’t know about really until it’s too late. By the way, the billet turnbuckle piece is clear anodized. I'll bring the idea of black back up in discussion at our next product planning meeting though and see what the general thought is about making the change or offering it as an option.
Will these ever actually see the market?-
As for Pinch’s comments of hoping these actually get produced… Don’t worry, they’re on their way. The molds are already done and paid for on the brackets and we’re in production. We aren’t turning around now. You will see these 100% for sure on the market very soon! The time range that’s been mentioned in this thread multiple times is reality at this point! If something happens to delay it, I’ll update you guys but I don’t foresee anything…
Lanyard issues-
We’ve had these Hood Hold Downs on a JK and a TJ for about 5 months now. We haven't noticed any marking on the paint around the lanyard at all. This was a concern of ours as well and we've watched this area closely. The lanyard seems to stay pretty still. It's not as "floppy" as it may look in reality. The length of the lanyard allows the pin to be installed in either direction.
In regards to the lanyard breaking, rusting, or fading. We use this exact cable as lanyards for hood pins that we also produce for a high end hood pin on another product line and have not had issues with any of this. The cable itself is stainless steel and is not supposed to rust according to the manufacture’s specs. The plastic coating is specificly UV Resistant. We did have an issue on an early prototype with the loop where it goes thru the push button pin fraying but trust me, it only took one poke with my actual thumb on that thing and I made sure to make a change in production to keep that from happening again!
Hood flutter and general function-
As far as the tensioning of the hood goes and the flutter that the stock setup experiences... The setup is pretty much personal preference. We've found while running these on our jeeps around here that we actually tighten up the turn buckle till it pulls the hood down into the rubber bumper that's on your stock setup pretty good. That rubber bumper gets transfered onto our part. At first it seemed difficult to get the pin in and out like this because of the tension it caused but we quickly learned that by just simply leaning down on the hood a little it allowed the pin to be pushed in and out easily. (yes I know that sounds bad but trust me, in reality what I'm talking about is nothing... My mom has no issues doing this on her personal jeep) The hood is firmly mounted and doesn’t move or flex. This setup takes out all the play in the hood mount!
Pricing-
Yes, they aren't free by anymeans… They are a heck of a lot cheaper then the $300 factory styled billet replacement ones I’ve seen in stores though. There's cheaper ones out there, there's also more expensive ones out there. There's not another one like ours though! Overkill? Sure, all they do is hold down your hood... Then again IMO reservoir shocks on lifted fullsize trucks at the mall that never touch dirt are overkill as well but you know what... I think they look kinda cool too.
Black Annodizing-
We tossed out the idea of doing an annodized black center in the very beginning of this project. We actually painted a set of them black just to get an idea of how they might look. We went against it thought for 2 reasons really. 1st, we really wanted that turn buckle piece to pop and stand out, the black one we did just didn’t stand out nearly like this does in the aluminum finish. 2nd, I’m sure you’ve all seen it… A lot of black anodized parts tend to fade over time when exposed to sun nonstop. The last thing we wanted was these things turning brown or even purple over time on people because of a poor anodizing job that we wouldn’t know about really until it’s too late. By the way, the billet turnbuckle piece is clear anodized. I'll bring the idea of black back up in discussion at our next product planning meeting though and see what the general thought is about making the change or offering it as an option.
Will these ever actually see the market?-
As for Pinch’s comments of hoping these actually get produced… Don’t worry, they’re on their way. The molds are already done and paid for on the brackets and we’re in production. We aren’t turning around now. You will see these 100% for sure on the market very soon! The time range that’s been mentioned in this thread multiple times is reality at this point! If something happens to delay it, I’ll update you guys but I don’t foresee anything…
01-22-2010, 02:16 PM
#29
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Drake Off Road have been watching this thread, but they are not forum sponsors yet... I will post some info I received from one of their engineers.
Lanyard issues-
We’ve had these Hood Hold Downs on a JK and a TJ for about 5 months now. We haven't noticed any marking on the paint around the lanyard at all. This was a concern of ours as well and we've watched this area closely. The lanyard seems to stay pretty still. It's not as "floppy" as it may look in reality. The length of the lanyard allows the pin to be installed in either direction.
In regards to the lanyard breaking, rusting, or fading. We use this exact cable as lanyards for hood pins that we also produce for a high end hood pin on another product line and have not had issues with any of this. The cable itself is stainless steel and is not supposed to rust according to the manufacture’s specs. The plastic coating is specificly UV Resistant. We did have an issue on an early prototype with the loop where it goes thru the push button pin fraying but trust me, it only took one poke with my actual thumb on that thing and I made sure to make a change in production to keep that from happening again!
Hood flutter and general function-
As far as the tensioning of the hood goes and the flutter that the stock setup experiences... The setup is pretty much personal preference. We've found while running these on our jeeps around here that we actually tighten up the turn buckle till it pulls the hood down into the rubber bumper that's on your stock setup pretty good. That rubber bumper gets transfered onto our part. At first it seemed difficult to get the pin in and out like this because of the tension it caused but we quickly learned that by just simply leaning down on the hood a little it allowed the pin to be pushed in and out easily. (yes I know that sounds bad but trust me, in reality what I'm talking about is nothing... My mom has no issues doing this on her personal jeep) The hood is firmly mounted and doesn’t move or flex. This setup takes out all the play in the hood mount!
Pricing-
Yes, they aren't free by anymeans… They are a heck of a lot cheaper then the $300 factory styled billet replacement ones I’ve seen in stores though. There's cheaper ones out there, there's also more expensive ones out there. There's not another one like ours though! Overkill? Sure, all they do is hold down your hood... Then again IMO reservoir shocks on lifted fullsize trucks at the mall that never touch dirt are overkill as well but you know what... I think they look kinda cool too.
Black Annodizing-
We tossed out the idea of doing an annodized black center in the very beginning of this project. We actually painted a set of them black just to get an idea of how they might look. We went against it thought for 2 reasons really. 1st, we really wanted that turn buckle piece to pop and stand out, the black one we did just didn’t stand out nearly like this does in the aluminum finish. 2nd, I’m sure you’ve all seen it… A lot of black anodized parts tend to fade over time when exposed to sun nonstop. The last thing we wanted was these things turning brown or even purple over time on people because of a poor anodizing job that we wouldn’t know about really until it’s too late. By the way, the billet turnbuckle piece is clear anodized. I'll bring the idea of black back up in discussion at our next product planning meeting though and see what the general thought is about making the change or offering it as an option.
Will these ever actually see the market?-
As for Pinch’s comments of hoping these actually get produced… Don’t worry, they’re on their way. The molds are already done and paid for on the brackets and we’re in production. We aren’t turning around now. You will see these 100% for sure on the market very soon! The time range that’s been mentioned in this thread multiple times is reality at this point! If something happens to delay it, I’ll update you guys but I don’t foresee anything…
Lanyard issues-
We’ve had these Hood Hold Downs on a JK and a TJ for about 5 months now. We haven't noticed any marking on the paint around the lanyard at all. This was a concern of ours as well and we've watched this area closely. The lanyard seems to stay pretty still. It's not as "floppy" as it may look in reality. The length of the lanyard allows the pin to be installed in either direction.
In regards to the lanyard breaking, rusting, or fading. We use this exact cable as lanyards for hood pins that we also produce for a high end hood pin on another product line and have not had issues with any of this. The cable itself is stainless steel and is not supposed to rust according to the manufacture’s specs. The plastic coating is specificly UV Resistant. We did have an issue on an early prototype with the loop where it goes thru the push button pin fraying but trust me, it only took one poke with my actual thumb on that thing and I made sure to make a change in production to keep that from happening again!
Hood flutter and general function-
As far as the tensioning of the hood goes and the flutter that the stock setup experiences... The setup is pretty much personal preference. We've found while running these on our jeeps around here that we actually tighten up the turn buckle till it pulls the hood down into the rubber bumper that's on your stock setup pretty good. That rubber bumper gets transfered onto our part. At first it seemed difficult to get the pin in and out like this because of the tension it caused but we quickly learned that by just simply leaning down on the hood a little it allowed the pin to be pushed in and out easily. (yes I know that sounds bad but trust me, in reality what I'm talking about is nothing... My mom has no issues doing this on her personal jeep) The hood is firmly mounted and doesn’t move or flex. This setup takes out all the play in the hood mount!
Pricing-
Yes, they aren't free by anymeans… They are a heck of a lot cheaper then the $300 factory styled billet replacement ones I’ve seen in stores though. There's cheaper ones out there, there's also more expensive ones out there. There's not another one like ours though! Overkill? Sure, all they do is hold down your hood... Then again IMO reservoir shocks on lifted fullsize trucks at the mall that never touch dirt are overkill as well but you know what... I think they look kinda cool too.
Black Annodizing-
We tossed out the idea of doing an annodized black center in the very beginning of this project. We actually painted a set of them black just to get an idea of how they might look. We went against it thought for 2 reasons really. 1st, we really wanted that turn buckle piece to pop and stand out, the black one we did just didn’t stand out nearly like this does in the aluminum finish. 2nd, I’m sure you’ve all seen it… A lot of black anodized parts tend to fade over time when exposed to sun nonstop. The last thing we wanted was these things turning brown or even purple over time on people because of a poor anodizing job that we wouldn’t know about really until it’s too late. By the way, the billet turnbuckle piece is clear anodized. I'll bring the idea of black back up in discussion at our next product planning meeting though and see what the general thought is about making the change or offering it as an option.
Will these ever actually see the market?-
As for Pinch’s comments of hoping these actually get produced… Don’t worry, they’re on their way. The molds are already done and paid for on the brackets and we’re in production. We aren’t turning around now. You will see these 100% for sure on the market very soon! The time range that’s been mentioned in this thread multiple times is reality at this point! If something happens to delay it, I’ll update you guys but I don’t foresee anything…
If they go black i will buy them
Last edited by hiddenprey; 01-22-2010 at 02:30 PM.
