Discovery 2 LS Conversion
I want to thank everyone for the support that this project has had from the community. It has been a long road bringing these kits to fruition. In the beginning this started just as a personal project and morphed from there. While getting this all together was a large task and there were several large bumps along the way, most every problem has been surmountable to this point.
However, it has lately become clear that I cannot proceed with making more kits. When I conducted our beta testing, most of the individuals using the kit were people with fabrication experience. From that experience, I was able to estimate a rough number of questions asked per kit to give us an idea of the tech support I would need to provide. I assumed that this number would go up when selling to the general public. However, it increased several times over what was expected.
This is a complicated swap – there is no way around that. There are a number of parts to the kit, and the electrical can be particularly difficult. Despite trying to simplify this as much as possible, it is easy to get confused. Likewise, it is also very difficult to provide technical support over the phone or email, especially without seeing the truck in person. Furthermore, the Discovery has some inherent challenges. There are a significant amount of model year variations in the Disco electrical systems, which can make virtually identical swaps behave differently, further complicating technical support.
I have run through a number of options to try to retain some level of production, but there does not seem to be any feasible options at this time. I have considered selling the mechanical parts of the kit separately, slowing production, or selling the kit stipulated with no technical support. None of those really seem like practical options since for most people, the electrical is the hardest part and where support is needed the most. I also looked into increasing the price to match the average amount of technical support provided per kit, but that unfortunately makes it financially impractical for the average purchaser.
While as a Land Rover owner and fellow enthusiast, I really want to see this continue, I just see no other way forward. As many of you know, this is not the only thing I do for a living. Keeping up with the kits in addition to my job and family has unfortunately become problematic lately. I don’t have the time to provide the level of support needed for this and continue my other obligations.
I intend to support the individuals that have purchased the kit and I will continue to answer questions as needed. Once again, I really appreciate all the support.
However, it has lately become clear that I cannot proceed with making more kits. When I conducted our beta testing, most of the individuals using the kit were people with fabrication experience. From that experience, I was able to estimate a rough number of questions asked per kit to give us an idea of the tech support I would need to provide. I assumed that this number would go up when selling to the general public. However, it increased several times over what was expected.
This is a complicated swap – there is no way around that. There are a number of parts to the kit, and the electrical can be particularly difficult. Despite trying to simplify this as much as possible, it is easy to get confused. Likewise, it is also very difficult to provide technical support over the phone or email, especially without seeing the truck in person. Furthermore, the Discovery has some inherent challenges. There are a significant amount of model year variations in the Disco electrical systems, which can make virtually identical swaps behave differently, further complicating technical support.
I have run through a number of options to try to retain some level of production, but there does not seem to be any feasible options at this time. I have considered selling the mechanical parts of the kit separately, slowing production, or selling the kit stipulated with no technical support. None of those really seem like practical options since for most people, the electrical is the hardest part and where support is needed the most. I also looked into increasing the price to match the average amount of technical support provided per kit, but that unfortunately makes it financially impractical for the average purchaser.
While as a Land Rover owner and fellow enthusiast, I really want to see this continue, I just see no other way forward. As many of you know, this is not the only thing I do for a living. Keeping up with the kits in addition to my job and family has unfortunately become problematic lately. I don’t have the time to provide the level of support needed for this and continue my other obligations.
I intend to support the individuals that have purchased the kit and I will continue to answer questions as needed. Once again, I really appreciate all the support.
Sent you a PM
Rock Crawling
Joined: Apr 2017
Posts: 467
Likes: 114
From: Redmond, WA
Well this is rather unfortunate news to hear.
I have to wonder, if there was a full installation youtube video walk-through, would that solve 95% of the tech questions? I would think, yes, especially if options were discussed verbally through the install process. Written instruction is VERY challenging with a custom hands on project such as this.
Granted there's some case specific stuff that is an issue but if those were the ONLY issues I think they'd be manageable in qty. Otherwise I can see how ACE is finding this to be overwhelming in a major way.
My thought is to force the buyer into buying a more complete kit if they want it to be more easily installed. Meaning at least there would be one or two very specific engine choices and routes to go for everything to work, otherwise you're in experimental land. This would up the price a couple thousand dollars but it would make things simply work. It's been difficult finding the little random parts and pieces that all work together.
In my case, I'm a few thousand over budget already and if I knew I was going to be in this deep and this long, I would have walked away from this quickly. Still, the promise and solution of the LS is the only choice that makes sense in my mind to own one of these. Otherwise there's so many vehicles that do what it does so much better and for reasonable prices.
-Greg
I have to wonder, if there was a full installation youtube video walk-through, would that solve 95% of the tech questions? I would think, yes, especially if options were discussed verbally through the install process. Written instruction is VERY challenging with a custom hands on project such as this.
Granted there's some case specific stuff that is an issue but if those were the ONLY issues I think they'd be manageable in qty. Otherwise I can see how ACE is finding this to be overwhelming in a major way.
My thought is to force the buyer into buying a more complete kit if they want it to be more easily installed. Meaning at least there would be one or two very specific engine choices and routes to go for everything to work, otherwise you're in experimental land. This would up the price a couple thousand dollars but it would make things simply work. It's been difficult finding the little random parts and pieces that all work together.
In my case, I'm a few thousand over budget already and if I knew I was going to be in this deep and this long, I would have walked away from this quickly. Still, the promise and solution of the LS is the only choice that makes sense in my mind to own one of these. Otherwise there's so many vehicles that do what it does so much better and for reasonable prices.
-Greg
as this swap appears to get closer and closer to $10k plus the above mentioned suspension concerns this makes emissions compliant diesels more and more like the way to go. I don't need a bunch of power but a little more pep and torque off road never hurt anyone.
Drifting
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 27
Likes: 0
It is unfortunate to hear, I've been accumulating parts to do the swap..and sad to have missed out on a kit.
That said, I used to run a performance parts/fabrication business for vintage Volvo/BMW/Mercedes...and honestly...the support and questions were the hardest thing to handle.
Ultimately we had to narrow exactly what our kits supported and told folks if they were using them outside of that specific model/feature set they were on their own using the documentation we had provided and the community forum.
It's a juggling act for sure.
ACE...interested in letting someone else pick this up and continue it on?
That said, I used to run a performance parts/fabrication business for vintage Volvo/BMW/Mercedes...and honestly...the support and questions were the hardest thing to handle.
Ultimately we had to narrow exactly what our kits supported and told folks if they were using them outside of that specific model/feature set they were on their own using the documentation we had provided and the community forum.
It's a juggling act for sure.
ACE...interested in letting someone else pick this up and continue it on?
Winching
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 623
Likes: 44
From: North Alabama
Thats not a fair assessment of what happened. He hasn’t once misrepresented this into being a simple install.
