Thread: Best Price on a Safari Snorkel Wanted..

I assume thats fitted???

In the box you should be able to get for more around the $500 -$550ish mark.

Originally Posted by LOVEMYRANGIE

I assume thats fitted???

In the box you should be able to get for more around the $500 -$550ish mark.

x2.

Paddock Spares in the UK are able to buy the Safari Snorkel from Australia ship it to the UK then sell it to you and ship it back to Australia to your door for $480 AUD at present.

I asked the local and East Coast suppliers to match this and they refused. Surprise surprise.

Welcome to the world of 4WD'$.

It urks me massively, but as the owner of a prototype engineering company...I do understand.

Your 1st cheapest choice is to go and buy some poly pipe, with appropriate bends, and then make, say out of fibreglass, an adaptor to the exisitng airbox. I reckon, from scratch, that would cost you about $100.00 in materials (pipe and basic fibreglass kit), and you have your labour for free. Look ****, but it does work. I see them every weekend.

Next, you could try stainless steel pipe, mandrel bend at your local exhaust shop, and if you have the skills, fab up an adaptor. Lets say $100 in materials....and prob $150 in labour from the exhaust shop, plus 2 hrs of a fabricators time at best $80 an hour (if you dont have the skills)....lets call it $410. Same shape as above, but shiny...

Or....you could ask a prototype engineering firm, to design and build one for you. A company out there could invest time in research and development, calculating airflows either in a 3d modelling tool, or in physical form. Lets give them a week to do that. 2 engineers, at $1000 a day - $10,000.00. Software licenses, just for the week, for 3d design tool, and fluid dynamics modelling - lets call it $2000.00. Then, having got that sorted, they develop a rough concept of how to get the right shape for an injection mold....lets say another 2 days - $4000.00. They then get custom made, and injection mold, and do a one off plastic piece....$12,500.00. Allow another $5000 for consumables, and redesign, and being able to refurbish your car if it doesnt work....what are we at: $33,500.00. Add Mark up and Profit....call if $40k.

And that has to be done for each and every engine type, every new model.

Yep, $500-$550 for a snorkel is OUTRAGEOUS! How dare that company try and make a profit!

Thats true Hamish, however having been in the industry for a number of years, Safari only offer the seller around a 10% margin between what they pay and what the dealer pays for them.
Development costs are only a small factor in the overall product cost. The ongoing cost of materials and manufacture is the factor that determines the physical item costs and what the margins are calculated on.
HDPE is not by anymeans an expensive product neither is the method of injection moulding by which they form it. Mass produced, cost would be very hard pressed to be beyond $120 for a full snorkel.
Safari have always been relatively difficult to deal with and really dont offer distributors much in the way of flexibility or profitability.
Making a profit is one thing, stepping on those who help you to make it is another.

Cheers

Andrew

I got mine here:
Famous Four - Snorkels and Wading
Great to deal with!
Cost less than $480 to my door in about a week.
We don't pay tax (VAT), so prices are cheaper.

Try a wrecker for 2nd hand, big savings made there and they are used as soon as you open the box.

Try TRS in Adelaide or ebay.
I had lots of success like that.

Thanks all round!

Tried TRS tooo many times, but they are gone before they hit the shelves...

Guess its a round the world trip for my purchase!

So wish I had realised I would go back down the landy route before I came over so I could have just filled the container with 'useful' items!!

Cheers James