Headlight Upgrade Harness's For Sale (again!)

[bpilati]

Dave, in case you missed it on other threads and mailing lists, I finally got my headlight harness installed. Your product is nothing less than first class. Very well engineered, Dave. I have noticed a good increase in headlight intensity.

You might want to note that there are TWO ground connectors in your instructions. The instructions only mention cleaning the surface once. I also recommend adding an instruction to put a little dielectric grease on the end of the new female connector. The other connectors will already have a little in them, but the new female connector on the right side will not. Thanks.

Oh, also would you recommend covering the new female connector on the right side that ends up not having the OEM plastic weather cover? I'm sure they were put there to keep water from spraying into the connector assemblies.

[lww]

Dave,

I would like to say, after having used your headlight relay harness on my 240z's for the past several months, it is one of the best engineered OEM 'replacement/upgrade' parts I've come across in the automotive aftermarket world outside of heavy industry components like heads, manifolds, etc.

I'm glad to see you're 'Back in Business' and I think your current pricing is in line with time and cost of materials.

I hope things go well for you which ever way your life turns.

Cheers,

LWW

[bpilati]

SSHHHHHH, LLW! We don't want to encourage him too much on that pricing.

[Arne]

SSHHHHHH, LLW! We don't want to encourage him too much on that pricing.

Actually, yes we do. If he can't make enough profit on them to make it worth his time, they won't be available at any price.

[Zs-ondabrain]

Thanks a lot guys!! That means alot to me. Hey, who knew that being a pick S.O.B. would come in handy one day? But if you think about it, Being picky is what got me a beautiful wife, a pretty cool car and terrific friends.

Yes your right, the harness does seem a little pricey but in condideration of parts, labor, the fact that nobody else makes it and all the positive feedback I've recieved, it seems fair to me and all others who have bought the harness and written about it.

I'm working on a way to mass produce them for less but it's harder than you think. It's the prep work that slows me down. I have actually decreased the build time by over an hour but it still takes a while to build each one by hand.

The only problem with mass production and price reduction is it does'nt seem fare to those who just paid the current asking price of about $125. I'd like to reduce it to $100 or less but I would also have to be sure of orders before going that far. It has been suggested by another party to mass produce about 30 or so and sell them at a seriously reduced price to a Nissan dealer if they would take the deal. I'm still researching that and it's a tough one...

Thanks for all your support and praise, it's what keeps me going.

Dave.

[bpilati]

Actually, yes we do. If he can't make enough profit on them to make it worth his time, they won't be available at any price.

I'm just kidding, you know that.

[EScanlon]

...snip...

The only problem with mass production and price reduction is it does'nt seem fare to those who just paid the current asking price of about $125. I'd like to reduce it to $100 or less ...snip....

Dave;

Are you saying it WOULD be fair to charge $125, even though your costs/labor MIGHT HAVE gone down with "mass" production? Or that you should reduce your price because as you improve your productivity, it isn't as costly?

Both premises are fair.

That's just plain old capitalism at work. It's also a direct result of the "Supply - Demand" curve, and it's derivative functions of production and consumption.

You've established that at $125 you CAN sell SOME units. If you raised the price you'd probably sell LESS, and if you lowered the price you'd probably sell MORE. (Supply and Demand) But then you have to consider productivity....could you produce MORE - - FASTER; or would you then have a backlog of back-orders? Would your customer's wait? That there aren't any others producing a similar/like/identical item is a bonus to you. Don't confuse that with security. If your price remains high, and someone else determines that they can produce something that would be competitive for less, then...... That's when the real competition begins.

For now, any improvements in production, reductions in costs that accrue from that or from larger quantity purchases are .....profits. If you choose to lower your price to, in essence, make it more difficult for someone else to produce something for the same money, then that begins to secure your sales and production.

But don't forget that you are selling to a closed market. That is, it's not growing (no new 240 Z's are being produced), and once you've sold a harness to a customer their need is satisfied. (Let's not get into planned obsolescense).

So, if I were to toss in 2¢ of advice, use the extra time and money you profit and investigate how to provide a harness for the 260 and 280's. That's called R&D.

E

[jurven240z]

Before the H/L harness was installed the left H/L was dim (including the

high beam). Why? Over heating H/L and T/L fuses have melted away the right side of the fuse box. Down to the point that installing a fuse will cause

the metal plate underneath to move (grounding a big problem). Years ago

before Dave was into Zs I had a major meltdown caused by the P/L

wiring/fuse. Wires melted from the switch to the fuse box. I had to rewire

the P/L wires to an aftermarket fuse box for a temporary fix. Parking Lights

work fine now no hot fuse. But the H/L fuses were always overheating till

one of them went dim. The Z is my daily driver and before I joined a vanpool

was driven over 100 miles daily. Think the vanpool saved my electrical

system. Good thing Dave came around to save us.

My Z had a kiss in the Stone Age when someone installed an after market flat H/L plugs. Dave was able to provide a half harness with butt connectors. This allowed me to remove (aftermarket plugs) and attached harness plugs. Only took me 30 minutes to install this. Now I was able to install Dave's H/L harness in only 15 minutes. Results are day and night difference.

To install all you do is disconnect and connect the plugs. Hang the relays like Dave's example.The ground wires are the correct length to attach them to the center valance OUTER MOUNTING BOLT (make sure you have good

ground I found that out). Reinstall the fuse (if removed like Dave recommends) and connect the power wire.

Zip tie or use what ever you like to hold the harness. The P/L harness is next.

Is the price for the harness just? Yes, I was or am looking at rewiring the whole Zed. Dave eased my worries on when is the car going to shut down on my way to or from work. With this being my only transportation I could not afford the down time to redo the wiring. Now I don't smell the plastic burning and can install another fuse box in better condition and not worry about it melting also. Do you think you will get a quote of $100.00 from an auto electric shop when asked to fix your dim H/L? Will they come up with an easy fix like Dave's?

Again great product and you are the man Dave. Wish I meet you when I lived in Marysville.

[kinfish]

Dave's relay harnesses are designed to perfection and the quality of the product is top shelf. He is doing the Z-community a favor by putting them on the market. His time is valuable and he deserves to make a profit for the time and skills invested in each harness.

With all the positive feedback on his product he is in a position to raise the price on future orders. I have purchased both the headlight and the parking light harness and will be one of his first customers to buy his next electrical invention / improvement for the 240Z's.

Keep up the outstanding work Dave! Your products sell themselves without advertising.

[MikeW]

One more point to emphasize how compelling the relay harness is: the stock headlamp fuses are 10A. We all know that these fuses can get hot and cause the fusebox to melt. After installing the upgrade I switched to 3A fuses. Just now I went and measured the actual current through one of these fuses. Actually, it looks like only one of the fuses is actually needed now (the fuse that was formerly just for the R lamp).

low beams: 0.13A

high beams: 0.33A

That's with upgraded Silverstar 55/65W headlamps.

[Zs-ondabrain]

Dave;

Are you saying it WOULD be fair to charge $125, even though your costs/labor MIGHT HAVE gone down with "mass" production? Or that you should reduce your price because as you improve your productivity, it isn't as costly?

E

When I said "The only problem with mass production and price reduction is it does'nt seem fare to those who just paid the current asking price of about $125."

What I was saying is this; "If you just paid me $125 for a harness, then found out that you could have held out and only paid $100, You would most likely tell me that I was being unfair or unjust in my business practices."

PLEASE understand that I personally DON'T like charging the $125 for the headlight harness but with all the stress that they caused me last time, I promissed my wife that I would'nt consider doing it again for anything less.

Now that I have new suppliers, new process's of manufacturing, and a little more time on my hands, I then and only then decided to start making them again. I personally can not think of one single person who likes to work for pretty much nothing. And thats how I felt when I was charging $45 then $75 for the harness's.

Now that I might be able to "mass produce them" on a small scale of lets say "ten at a time", It would be easier to bring the price down closer to what it was before I stopped making them.

So my initial statement of "it doesn't seem fare" roughly meant that I feel bad offering it at a lower price to the new customers, when it was the recent customers that helped me get to this point.

Just now I went and measured the actual current through one of these fuses. Actually, it looks like only one of the fuses is actually needed now (the fuse that was formerly just for the R lamp).

low beams: 0.13A

high beams: 0.33A

That's with upgraded Silverstar 55/65W headlamps.

Thank you so much!! I've been waiting for these numbers for a long time.

To go from 10+ amps thru 2 fuses, down to ..13A and .33A on just one fuse is exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Just imagine or better yet, do the math, If your headlight switches contacts are supposed to last for 20 years at 10 amps for five hours a day (Thats really over over doing it but you get my meaning) Imagine how long they'll last at only .33amps max current.

By my math, at 10A for five hours is 50 amp hours (for example only

and .33A max flow (with high beams) at 5 hours is only 1.65 amp hours!!!

That's over 30 times less current flow thru your fuses and headlight switch.

Juan, glad to hear that the custom pigtails I made for you, worked out for ya.

This will obviously not last forever Enrique, I know this to be fact. and thats one of the reasons I was making per order. Cause you never know when it'll all come to a screaching halt.

Thanks alot guys, I deeply appreciate all the good things you have to say,

Much respect,

Dave.

[MikeW]

Thank you so much!! I've been waiting for these numbers for a long time.

To go from 10+ amps thru 2 fuses, down to ..13A and .33A on just one fuse is exactly what I was trying to accomplish. Just imagine or better yet, do the math, If your headlight switches contacts are supposed to last for 20 years at 10 amps for five hours a day (Thats really over over doing it but you get my meaning) Imagine how long they'll last at only .33amps max current.

By my math, at 10A for five hours is 50 amp hours (for example only

and .33A max flow (with high beams) at 5 hours is only 1.65 amp hours!!!

That's over 30 times less current flow thru your fuses and headlight switch.

I think there are two separate issues here. The reduced amperage through the fusebox and original wiring is the main benefit of using the relays - no question. This is turn gives you brighter lights due to less resistance and therefore higher voltage - another big advantage.

As far as the combination switch goes - and I ended up repairing my own - it's the actual switching on and off that's the problem, not the duration that the lights are on. With DC current, there's always a small arc when the switch is opened or closed and over time it damages the switch. Presumably the contacts would get damaged faster with higher amperage so using the relays should help there as well but once your lights are on leaving them on for hours should not cause the switch problems. My understanding is that this is the main reason that automotive manufacturers have not gone to 24V or higher systems. The big reason to do that would be to use smaller gauge wires for everything - saving weight and money - but the increased voltage would kill the switches faster.