Thread: Isuzu MSA Gearbox to LT230

Originally Posted by Aussierover

Ok guys. I've let this go for more than long enough.

I've been chasing Sheldon now for four months. I haven't been able to get hold of him since I transferred $2k to his account as a deposit on an MSA box and adaptor kit.

I'm not interested in hearing from anyone who is going to tell me to keep trying to contact him cause he's a great guy.

If he was such a great guy I wouldn't be posting this.

I'm chasing an address - either home or business or both.

I will be calling the QLD Department of Fair Trading by the end of the week.

Can anyone help???

Aussierover, PM sent.

Guys, I wasn't going to do this because Sheldon does in fact seem a nice guy and mine is now working great so it was all water under the bridge. I do owe Sheldon some credit as if it wasn't for him, id probably just found a trusty lt95.

But...to be honest, I'm sick of seeing people let down.

The fact is that i had TWO of his adaptors fail. First one was on install, the spline for his custom shaft was too big and end up pressing the end plate of the center circular section. I paid for my local guy to skim off the shaft and Sheldon sent me a new "improved" housing".

New 'welded' housing had three spot welds to each end plate and failed a few months later. Sheldon was really good initially and prommised to replace the lot including my ruined rear tail shaft. Then it all got too hard, it was hard to get hold of him. I got my local engineer to re-align and fully weld the adapter housing. $1200 later. Sheldon promised to pay but never did. haven herd from him after that, nearly two years on now.

Ive not had any problems since, with ~50 000km on the adaptor. Im very happy with it now, but was a huge arse ache at the time, being my only car with a young family.

I'm not necessarily saying not to get this kit, but I'd be asking a lot of questions first.

Seems like the other adaptor is a better option even with the pile of aluminium chips on the floor. At least they are having a go at providing a product that some people want.

Its all good for us to say it should be this or that or its a waste to make it this or that way, but they are actually doing it. We can all build something better on the internet

Originally Posted by Aussierover

Ok guys. I've let this go for more than long enough.

I've been chasing Sheldon now for four months. I haven't been able to get hold of him since I transferred $2k to his account as a deposit on an MSA box and adaptor kit.

I'm not interested in hearing from anyone who is going to tell me to keep trying to contact him cause he's a great guy.

If he was such a great guy I wouldn't be posting this.

I'm chasing an address - either home or business or both.

I will be calling the QLD Department of Fair Trading by the end of the week.

Can anyone help???

Hello Aussierover,

I wasn't aware you have sent me $2k. Could you please tell me the date at which it was transferred and provide bank details so I can return the money (plus interest) asap.

PM is best way to contact me right now.

Originally Posted by Boof Ed

Aussierover, PM sent.

Guys, I wasn't going to do this because Sheldon does in fact seem a nice guy and mine is now working great so it was all water under the bridge. I do owe Sheldon some credit as if it wasn't for him, id probably just found a trusty lt95.

But...to be honest, I'm sick of seeing people let down.

The fact is that i had TWO of his adaptors fail. First one was on install, the spline for his custom shaft was too big and end up pressing the end plate of the center circular section. I paid for my local guy to skim off the shaft and Sheldon sent me a new "improved" housing".

New 'welded' housing had three spot welds to each end plate and failed a few months later. Sheldon was really good initially and prommised to replace the lot including my ruined rear tail shaft. Then it all got too hard, it was hard to get hold of him. I got my local engineer to re-align and fully weld the adapter housing. $1200 later. Sheldon promised to pay but never did. haven herd from him after that, nearly two years on now.

Ive not had any problems since, with ~50 000km on the adaptor. Im very happy with it now, but was a huge arse ache at the time, being my only car with a young family.

I'm not necessarily saying not to get this kit, but I'd be asking a lot of questions first.

Thanks Boof for your input.

To be honest I am sick of people being let down too.

Originally Posted by Boof Ed

....and mine is now working great ......

Originally Posted by Boof Ed

Ive not had any problems since, with ~50 000km on the adaptor. Im very happy with it now

Boof, some facts;

I remember you were the only one hassling me to bring down the already good price and paid $1500 for both a shaft and housing. You paid $1200 for repairs for a total of $2700 for an adapter you are happy with (plus you have a free starter motor minus the cost of a prop shaft). So other than sorting out some problems, given the only other alternative right now costs $3000, really what are you complaining?

Originally Posted by Boof Ed

I do owe Sheldon some credit as if it wasn't for him, id probably just found a trusty lt95.

Thanks. If only everyone knew how much money, time and hassle it has cost me to get a few people with these adapters behind their Isuzus... We all get there in the end though.

Some more facts;

You ordered right before Christmas and expected it before xmas. I don't know the exact date you ordered, but payment came through 21st Dec. I was getting ready to go home for xmas to see my family. Instead I stayed a few days and rushed trying to finish your adapter - in hindsight a bad move. You didn't end up getting it before xmas and due to leaving it so late, I didn't actually make it home to see my family for xmas that year.

You were only the 3rd person to order my adapter. Given I rushed it and it was only the 3rd (after mine and with a few changes were made), is it totally out of the question that something might of gone wrong? No. Am I annoyed and regretful for the failure? Yes, most certainly. Am I justifying selling you a product that you are not happy with? Certainly not - I am however only human and can make mistakes.

Hence the reason why I rushed another adapter too you (along with a free starter motor $300+ worth out of courtesy and gratitude for sticking with me) asap. In hindsight it was the lack of either weld or weld penetration on that batch of housings I did. Don't shoot me for being the first manufacturer to produce a bad batch... I was trying to produce a product to suit a need for a price that the customer was prepared to pay.

When the second one failed, yes I promised to pay for repairs and replace your prop shaft. However, I wasn't expecting the repair to cost $1200! Considering I sold you both housing and shaft for only $1500, even if the shaft only cost $300 (someone on here got a quote from a well known adapter company and they quoted $5000 for one shaft) - how could one justify a repair costing more than what it cost for me to make an adapter from scratch? From that same batch, I had another that failed in the same way and it cost less than $100 to fix - and it is going strong (even snatched a Toyota or two from the bog...).

Unfortunately, I felt I wasn't being shown the same amount of gratitude, in this case, at what I was trying to do - produce a product at a price worth paying to suit the need. I felt screwed over. Expected to hurry the job, pushed down in price and then complain when things don't go their way. I am not complaining, it was my choice to rush and reduce the price (I was trying to help a customer get their vehicle on the road as soon as possible and get a few adapters out there so as to create some interest in which then to be able to mass produce them, ie casting to be able to certainly keep the price down for all). In hindsight, I should of be charging at least $5K for each hand built complete adapter, to cover all costs.

If the repair costs had of been more as of expected and justifiable, then I would of certainly covered that cost and a prop shaft. In the end Boof Ed has paid $1500 to me, $1200 to the repair man for a total of $2700 to get a functional adapter and housing (still less then the $3K one that is available now), plus he has a free starter motor thrown in. How can he honestly justify being let down with that sort of pricing??

Originally Posted by Boof Ed

Ive not had any problems since, with ~50 000km on the adaptor. Im very happy with it now, but was a huge arse ache at the time, being my only car with a young family.

Sorry for the huge arse ache - the feeling is mutual.
I feel for you with a young family - perhaps instead of trying to rush an Isuzu Landrover build in which you are struggling to pay for and complete to carry your young family around, you should of bought something more practical and affordable like a second hand falcon wagon like a good father would.

In hindsight, I shouldn't of rushed. I should of stuck to my original pricing and not lowered it for someone complaining that they couldn't afford it. And Boof Ed could of perhaps allowed me some time and shown me some gratitude for trying to get a reasonable priced manufactured good to his door. In the end it wasn't my first adapter that held up his build - so there was no need to rush it. And he would of had an adapter and shaft (and maybe free starter motor) all for $2K.

Anyone want to guess what I got from this experience?

I am not necessarily saying never to complain about poor quality products or service, but please ask yourself lots of questions as to what you are trading your money for and remember that the vendor is just as human as you the customer. The vendor/customer is a trading of value relationship, you trade the value of money for whatever the vendor is offering in return. If the value in money you are offering is not fair value to what is expected cost then eventually something fails. It is all easy to hand over money (that's just as easy as building something better on the internet), it is not necessarily so easy to produce a hand built mechanical product, in a short time frame for minimal cost, whilst someone is hassling you.

Originally Posted by Ancient Mariner

Ordered some Gullwing windows 13/2/14 from the stuffu expedition center.Got an email last week after 4 months of being ignored to say ready for dispatch
Seems there are some extremely slack vendors on AULRO as well as some really great ones maybe after 4 months you may get a reply Hope you get some satisfaction as they are a good strong box

AM

I know you are not having a go at me AM.

I just like to clarify. I took my website down long long long ago.

Since then I haven't been a 'vendor' in fact from the very start of my MSA endeavors, my explorations have been purely for the challenge of designing and building adapters for fellow Isuzu enthusiasts. I was never out to make huge profits, just cover costs and help people enjoy their vehicles. Until when it started cost me $$$, hassles and way too much time.... I became hesitant and pulled back.

I like to think of it more of 'building adapters for a mate'. The website was looking for mates.

I was not aware anyone had sent me down payments and been waiting 4 months.

Originally Posted by uninformed

Seems like the other adaptor is a better option even with the pile of aluminium chips on the floor. At least they are having a go at providing a product that some people want.

Its all good for us to say it should be this or that or its a waste to make it this or that way, but they are actually doing it. We can all build something better on the internet

Yes, good on them for having a go

I hope they do well.

Taken from another post;

I'd be interested to hear how the Sheldon units have held up for everyone and how they are used ie touring, competition, work vehicle. I believe I am aware of two cases now where case welds may have failed on adaptor cases - maybe Sheldon units - maybe early models?

I am aware of two cases also. Not sure if they are the same two.

Please PM me if yours has failed.

Anyone else who is concerned with theirs please PM me also.

Thanks for coming back and clarifying a few things. There's always 2 sides to a story so its good to hear yours.

I can't help but feel that something is missing (possibly just a lack of communication), but from this end of things when your post last September talked of gearing up for production and hiring staff it doesn't fit with your description just now of only "building adapters for mates".

Once you made the decision to pull back, if you'd simply posted on here to that effect and been open about the reasons I think most would have thanked you for your efforts and everyone would have known where things stood. You probably wouldn't have ended up with people paying deposits without you knowing as people would have known it was all wound up.

Regardless of it all ending up a bit sour, I think you've done some great work on the adapters and provided good info for the rest of us to move forward with. Thanks!

Steve