is it wrong if i bundle and sell the a fan/tq mod

[zmw]

Alright, so here's the deal - my GSM fan/tq mod showed up like last week, never got around to installing it until Saturday...

Including the thermostat, the wire, the looming, and the relay it's MAYBE 25$ in parts and another 30-40$ to assemble/make it look nice (that's based on my hourly rate at work... so it's kinda high).

I am just torn whether or not it's wrong - I don't want to take money from vendors for our products but frankly - they are selling 11 feet of wire and a 6$ relay, 2 .75 cent switches, and a switch plate for 199$ - yes it saved me plenty of time and the install is a fair bit cleaner having used the kit than if i had done it myself, but it's still WAY over priced. BTW it works brilliantly

thoughts? What if i just post a complete part list and diagram the relay?

-Z

[JMatt]

Originally Posted by zmw

Alright, so here's the deal - my GSM fan/tq mod showed up like last week, never got around to installing it until Saturday...

Including the thermostat, the wire, the looming, and the relay it's MAYBE 25$ in parts and another 30-40$ to assemble/make it look nice (that's based on my hourly rate at work... so it's kinda high).

I am just torn whether or not it's wrong - I don't want to take money from vendors for our products but frankly - they are selling 11 feet of wire and a 6$ relay, 2 .75 cent switches, and a switch plate for 199$ - yes it saved me plenty of time and the install is a fair bit cleaner having used the kit than if i had done it myself, but it's still WAY over priced. BTW it works brilliantly

thoughts? What if i just post a complete part list and diagram the relay?

-Z

Go for it!! It's not rocket science, but a lot of people would appreciate the education.

[zmw]

no qualms with basically copying a commercial product? I mean i wouldn't distribute their directions or anything but seriously, it's one relay, 4 wires and a few splices to a couple switches...

-Z

[JMatt]

Originally Posted by zmw

no qualms with basically copying a commercial product? I mean i wouldn't distribute their directions or anything but seriously, it's one relay, 4 wires and a few splices to a couple switches...

-Z

Is it patented? No.

[zmw]

pretty hard to patent 4 wires and a relay :P

-Z

[rtr0id]

I think people understand that everyone in business has to make a profit. But they get upset when they feel they have been taken advantage of.

This has happened numerous times with GSM's fan/tq kit.

Convenience has as price, you just have to decide the cost of it.

[JimTurner]

A couple of thoughts:

1. Selling on this board requires some approvals (not sure exactly what...)
2. The selling of intellectual knowledge is what GSM may have a problem with.
3. There are numberous fan mods and a couple of ESP mods that are more elegant than GSM's. I have not seen the GSM mod, and did not use any hint of that for my fan mod. Some others have out-modded me in the Fan area, and that's really great.

Just my $0.02 + tax, title, license and dealer prep.

jimt

[zmw]

here's the deal with the fan/tq kit - if it was a bit more polished, i.e. had plug/play harness or something that required no splicing/no hacking - it'd be well worth the 199$ but it SERIOUSLY is some instructions (terrible ones at that) 3 11 foot wires, which are loomed, a 4 wire relay, a 2.50$ 180 degree thermostat that is so crappy i wouldn't use anyway.

I fully understand why GSM won't give you their instructions until you pay the 199$

-Z

[zmw]

Originally Posted by JimTurner

A couple of thoughts:

1. Selling on this board requires some approvals (not sure exactly what...)
2. The selling of intellectual knowledge is what GSM may have a problem with.
3. There are numberous fan mods and a couple of ESP mods that are more elegant than GSM's. I have not seen the GSM mod, and did not use any hint of that for my fan mod. Some others have out-modded me in the Fan area, and that's really great.

Just my $0.02 + tax, title, license and dealer prep.

jimt

The one thing I will disagree with here is that from what I have read and seen the GSM fan/tq is by the most elegant. All of the wires you have to tap are in the same general area, no need to remove the dash, or get to the ESP button, or use 4 relays, or this that and the other. - I think their switches are ghey, but they are just switches and with the GSM kit they are out of sight anyway.

I don't know that there is any intellectual property in dispute here, it's not as though any of the knowledge is proprietary to GSM, at least not that i can think of ... anyone with a basic electronics course knows how a relay works - it's just a matter of knowing which wires to tap and where to connect the relay.

-Z

[topfuel67]

If you search the SRT Q&A one of the SRT engineers comments on how they (the SRT techs at DCX) bought one of GSM's $699 Trans TCMs and found it was nothing more than an OEM Chrysler TCM with Chrysler's latest trans TSB flash. IT WAS NOT GSM's own work. They repackaged a Chrysler product and advertised it as their own. That with the fact that they charge something like $3000 for their ported and polished heads on exchange (I bet they have a local shop do it for about $500), charge $200 for another relay kit (the cat sim eliminator) and so on...

I wouldn't worry about infringing on their rights. They have 0 respect for the car community as far as I'm concerned and are obviously in this for as much profit as possible.