Super Jet Homemade Handle Pole Project

[Mobile Chernobyl]

Hi all - Looking for some critiques from the more knowledgeable out there.

I'm working on designing a new pole for my friends RN Superjet and so far I've gotten a pretty basic design down - drawing inspiration from RRP, Star Bar and some other homemade models on here and PWCtoday.

The goals for my project are - Make a pole, obviously. Make it fixed length. Make it light weight. Keep fabrication simple - minimal machine time (since I do not have one, and will have to pay for their time). Everything else by hand tools i.e. jigsaw/Horz. bandsaw/holesaw/grinder.

Primary use for the pole is freeriding, with mixed surf and flatwater.

I'll be making new pole bushings for it to keep the design more open ended.

The current iteration is down to about 6.2lbs, may hit 6.5lb after welding.

Materials are 1/4" alu plate, the tubing is 2.5" OD X .075" wall, and there are inserts at pivot locations, the steering is .5" thick with a 2.5" OD, pole inserts are 1" deep and 1.25" in diameter (ID is spec'd to custom bushing size).

Let me know what you guys think this is a preliminary question on the design itself - afterwords I'll run some stress calculations (if you guys have any viable input stress load suggestions)

Construction on this probably won't start for another month or two. If it works out - and the welder feels like making some money there may be more!

 

[motozachl]

WOW very impressed with the design and models! If you haven't already, look up the 'goose' pole as its similar and I have personally made two of them.

Question about the stearing plate: why is the hole so large? Is that cylinder some sort of bushing?

 

[crfracr]

Awesome! This one should turn out great, Casey (the welder) will be happy as this takes out the guess work. Some slight mods and I see no reason it won't work on the 550.

 

[Mobile Chernobyl]

WOW very impressed with the design and models! If you haven't already, look up the 'goose' pole as its similar and I have personally made two of them.

Question about the stearing plate: why is the hole so large? Is that cylinder some sort of bushing?

We looked at a few designs goose included, and came up with a less goose-like alternative that could be fabricated from sheet and tubing with minimal lathe work needed. Aesthetics ultimately ruled out the goose design cause it looks too goose neck like - we're more into hippo legs I guess.

Yea the large hole accepts an insert of thicker material to allow the wide thrust washer on the steering assembly to ride against it. It also sort of makes it "universal" in the sense you can just bore it out to whatever diameter is needed for the steering pin.

 

[CANDYANDCHROME]

id buy one for the right price

 

[element3488]

^x2 any idea of the poles cost?
making lowered brackets also?

 

[Mobile Chernobyl]

We'll see! let's get this one produced and run through the ringer first and we'll see if our minimalist design is too minimalist.

Compared to a pole, a lowered bracket fabricated in a similar fashion would be easy, That's all I'm saying though lol.

 

[Ram- man]

Looks pretty good steve, should be a little nicer then the one I made for ryans super jet, thid will look good on the 4440.

 

[vomitspot]

is that the 2013 sj

 

[hornedogg79]

I like the hippo pole or hippole. Get to cuttin!

 

[Mobile Chernobyl]

is that the 2013 sj

2017 prototype actually. In order to comply with EPA regulations it's haul is made of seaweed glass and uses a prius drivetrain, all designed by Smart.

 

[icecoled007]

Man, im sure if you could sell it for a reasonable price they would sell like no tomorrow

 

[Tmart]

Man, im sure if you could sell it for a reasonable price they would sell like no tomorrow

x2! Make it a couple hundred less than the RRP pole and you'll triple the amount of RRP poles sold!

 

[Mobile Chernobyl]

x2! Make it a couple hundred less than the RRP pole and you'll triple the amount of RRP poles sold!

Can't say that I'm too familiar with the aftermarket demand in the stand-up handle pole market... would we be talking 3 poles, or 333 poles then if it's triple the RRP SJ pole sales? The later would be more favorable, fo shizzle.

 

[Mobile Chernobyl]

Double Post - Shoot me.

OK based on just the slight interest we've received here I'd like to pose a question:

If this pole were to be a DIRECT drop in replacement for the stock pole - meaning you would need no aftermarket parts to complement it (i.e. no lowered bracket, new chin pad, steering assembly, or specialized hood) except perhaps a new blowsion pole spring, how many people would be committed to buying it if it fell in the $300-$500 price range? It will weigh between 6 and 7 pounds at the heaviest. If we can get enough interest we will look into getting parts water jet cut to do a production run. Custom lengths would be an option for sure but this would be a fixed length pole - so you only get to adjust it once - when you buy it.

We will need at least 25-30 people saying they're very interested, expecting half of that to buy it if we're lucky to make this a viable production run investment.

Again this would be a direct replacement for your stock pole, which is something we've kind of aimed for all along to make it more appealing to people that don't want to commit $1K to a RRP pole in custom lengths. This will also be available for the JS Series from Kawi as a direct replacement if you know anyone interested - same price range - only they will need to buy a Superjet chin pad for it.

Attached is an updated render of what you'd be looking at for this pole. Take note the extended wings on the base plate for the chin pad bolts - these fared exponentially better in a preliminary FEA test of the design. Also is the finalized steering cable design which allows 100% compatibility with the stock setup.
as

 

[element3488]

I would be down for one around 300

 

[cspencer225]

I would buy one for 300 to 400

 

[hornedogg79]

I'm not tryin to be a dik but, I would need to know a little more about the fabricator's skills before committing to purchase. All we have is a render of some pretty simple objects. How about a working prototype?

 

[Mobile Chernobyl]

Your not a dik Hornedogg - Just remember your not committing to purchase at this point. And I wouldn't worry about his skills as he does quite a lot with aluminum aftermarket parts for the car world. I'll just say that I am very impressed with his welds and I held a boiler and pressure vessel certification for Tig'ing for a while before I went back to school as a Mechanical Engineer. To calm your worries I've attached a picture for proof of his abilities lol - The soda can weld is a classically a good indicator of a welder's skill with aluminum (Pictured is his).

All we are looking for is people that would be Interested! That's it right now - we need to know if there is a demand for such an item - if not we can concentrate on other things and just do a one off of this particular piece.

Like I said though we will need to do a production run of about 15-20 to make it financially feasible for us to offer it in the $300-$500 range, otherwise the losses for the time put into it aren't worth it. So that's why I said we need about 30 people interested - knowing that the attrition rate of of people interested to people buying is usually at least half.

We still have at least a month or so before we'd go into production with these and as I said in the first post - We WILL do some extensive testing in the surf to make sure this thing wont explode on you! I wouldn't put something out for sale that I designed if I knew it wasn't strong enough for its intended use.

 

[icecoled007]

For that price im in.

Your also only posting in the SJ section. Put up a feeler for sale thread in the for sale section maybe?