Thread: KAM diff lockers

can u buy this lockers in aus,,, if there the rite price im keen to give em a go

Hi Again All,

I will try the best I can to answer the various Questions, but please understand when I say there are some bits of information which are "Business Critical" and things we have spent vast sums of money designing we don't release as to what we have done exactly, the world we are in means many will unscrupulously copy, nick at a stroke what has taken us years and $sssss to get to, so bear with me....

However, as to if shafts CVs etc are made from cheese or Unobtainium this IMHO is somewhat irrelevent - make the shafts for instance from seriously hard / strong metal and they can shatter as there is no twist, and in simple terms I guess what I am saying is that a product whatever it is made out of is only as good as how the final user feels it works in the real world.

So, on that basis back to the Santana 5,100 Difflock systems, in those 3 years we had NO warranty claims on ANY of the 5,100 DLocks, and NON warranty claims on the 10,200 shafts - Period.

The proof of any pudding is how good the product is and how it last performs or er "Doesn't". KAM were requested by Land Rover (Driving Authority) for imperical data on testing of our products, which we duly supplied. We had a Land Rover Std shafts tested to destruction, some of our competitors done as well, (and no I will not disclose competitors breakage points either - not decent fir or reasonable behaviour from us so don't ask - but no-one beats us !) and then our HD shafts and the new Aerospace Shafts. The testing was done at a cost to us of around £10,000 by an ISO 9000 specialist company and was done so we can give customer hard independant facts, I have a A4 sheet which shows LR Std, Vs KAM HD vs KAM AS shafts along with how much they twist, and then at what point they go pop, we also now have a ludicrously strong "Jumbo" shaft, just exiting pre production and we have limited stick, the twist and breakages on these is frankly insane but we were requested by some challenge competitors to produce them.

We are also revamping our website, yes its out of date, yes it should have been done earlier, but its like many things in life, not enough hours in the day, we have to make tough choices sometimes, do we do production work, new pre production work, finish production idea into saleable products or tidy my office, or update the website, my office is prob job 10,456 and the website is about No 3, and we do about 5 things at once at any one time.

If I can work out how to link up the PDF of the test data at the end of this post I will do, if its not here its cos I am a PC Muppet and can't sort it, but could e-mail it to a IT Grown up to do for me ??

I spoke with Kevin the MD about breakages over the years, his view is wind the clock back a few years and the trucks out there were very less capable than today, now 35" simex are common here, add the torque multiplying effect of Lower CWPs to compensate for huge tyres and pop something in the front mit big BJP and Torque and things go "Pop"

Again, talking to Kevin Re HD shafts old system and new yes we have had breakages, warrnaty claims over the years, less so by far now techonogy improvements allowed us to go to the Aerospace shafts, but, and its a big but, he cannot recall a KAM diff locking unit EVER failing, as in maybe one, but he seriously cannot in 18 years rememebr a Locker breaking, shafts yes, locker no, my question is in a nice way anyone know different over this ?, and now think of other systems and their breakages, yes the Flange having to be welded on is a issue, I would be daft to say otherwise, I am sure it does put some people off, and yes I can see and agree that factually a glued on ring however nice the glue cannot be as good as a welded on ring, but this is a- partly down to how a user feels about doing this work / being capable of doing the work / wanting the extra expense, b- a issue for yourself as I understand it vs legalities re modifications, which I don't understand but have a glimmer that its a prob for you and c - how much the customer likes our product / wnats our products / decides what to buy and from whom and what the compromises are in that final choice. I was and so were other here hugely respectfull of Maxidrive and there products, I think the off road enthusiasts lost a great company there - for all the 4x4 suppliers out there there are some right cowboys and only a few "Good Uns" Maxi drive was defo IMHO one of the very good ones, and many companies could learn a thing or two from how they were percieved and dealt with customers - and there products were top notch too

We don't ever profess to get things right, we do make cock ups here and there as any compnay will do from time to time, but our philosophy is that on the odd occasion we do we try to be fair honest and resonable, say sorry, and try to resolve, often its when things go wrong you find out the true worth and ethics of who your dealing with....

So, Hope the above gives food for thought, I will have a go at uploading the test data sheet now, so wish me luck

Nige