Awww man you done thought of everything! You are right...I should have known better
Yep, we've been working on these a long time to get them right.
Some people - not saying you - don't understand our process and see pictures of product that ins't 100% production level and don't understand that we want to let you in on the fact that we have something we are working on or that is about to go into production. But we may be showing you a prototype level product that we have had on the truck for a while to test or that has been cut apart a few times to get the manufacturing processes correct. We aren't a big rich OEM that can just put together handfuls of product in the build process. Instead of making things pretty from day 1 we focus on making them right and testing them to the fullest extent our budget allows. I have worked for some fortune 200 companies in testing and validation so i put a lot of focus in that area before we ever get to the point we are willing to let people know we have something. By the time we put up picture of something, we're pretty confident in it, even if its got hammer marks in the pictures. The aesthetics will come as part of a sound manufacturing process. But we don't get to the point of production without having people that want to buy the product. That would just be us wasting money.
So that said, what is pictured is our final prototype. It is the final design shape, structure and mounting. All of which have gone through re-designs. All of which have been tested until we were happy. It is not a production level piece and production level pieces will have a couple of changes in the manufacturing process, not the design, as that has been locked.
Things like
-the step being fully welded to seal out anything from getting inside. The current piece has ~2" stitch welds to test "worse case scenario" loading and provide the appropriate factor of safety.
- panels being bent instead of all welded together
-panels being cut on a CNC plasma table instead of hand cut. This will make everything much more repeatable, shapes and lines cleaner, and superior fitment for stronger, more consistent and more aesthetically pleasing welds.
I'll just say this, they are damn nice.