Aftermarket 4.3 gal Monster fuel tank ready for Carb'd models

[sleepyhead]

I was kind of waiting on the fuel flange plates we were having made ... and they came in today. I am block-sanding the molds to try and improve the finish. Both sides are finish sanded, one of the sides is mostly machine polished. The top mold hasn't had any work done yet at all.

You actually have Intuit and Micro$oft to blame for the current delay, though... we use quickbook$ for accounting and payroll (their payroll is super easy) ... well, they are discontinuing the use of QB06 for payroll this month, forcing us to upgrade. So as to continue shipping items and earn money, I bought a new computer and XP pro SP3 license to do the QB09 stuff to... Our setup didn't work. So I worked on it for over a week. Then fired the AMD and ran out and bought a Lenovo 3GHz Core Duo, which we were able to make work (and using now). The lenovo is a great computer and is surprisingly faster than the old P4 and the Quad Core AMD we were trying to make work. Best of all, it was a return, so was $379. I have got to say I'm really tired of watching windows restart. Holy crap it's bad. Linux is so amazing. I believe I can have a linux web server completely set up faster than it takes to install XP Pro and QB09.

Soooo? I'm back on it and hope it'll be ready sooner than later.

Thanks!
Chris

I used to admin MS web servers but for the past 4 years I've been using linux/apache and I agree its much straightforward getting everything setup and running.  You just have to be willing to get your hands dirty and use a command line.

Thanks for the update.

[krista]

I bought a 1/3-hp foredom tool today to help with the grinding... I'm using all sorts of rot-o-loc conditioning discs to relieve metal in various places. Wow, some of the pitting was really bad, so I'm busting it down to just the normally expected porosity that is present almost everywhere.

[krista]

The MTT43 is ready to sell for the carb'd bikes.
Once I get an ETA for the compounded red and yellow for us, I'll actually add them to the catalog.


For the injected models, we're still working with flange rigidity. Right now, the o-ring pushes the plastic out of the way and fuel seeps out between the flange bolts. Once we find a reliable fix for this, we'll sell the efi variant of the tank, too.


Wow, has it really been a month and a half? *groan* I killed 2 foredom tools. Oops. They don't understand how it's possible. Ah well, so back to the pneumatic die grinders and I finally got the top of the mold done and to the plastics plant. If anyone with a carbureted Monster wants a tank, let us know and we can brew a production batch of these before the EFI type is sorted out.

Chris

[red baron]

We're still going to give it a try. I'd love to learn HOW to make these paintable. There's a racer in the midwest that has a good paint guy he's working with, so we'll get him a tank and see what they come up with. Ducpainter, you're welcome to try, too, just let me know. My goal is to have a painter who is motivated to make it work do the prep, etc, instead of someone who could quickly be defeated by failure (like the typical folks near me).

Chris

pm sent

[krista]

We really appreciate the great feedback from those of you who visited us at our vendor booth at Laguna Seca MotoGP!!

We are ready and starting to sell the MTT43 tank for carbureted bikes now. Available for shipping: black, white, and natural colors. In the near future, we will have red available. Yellow and other colors will be available once demand has been established.

Why not the efi tanks?!! I'm personally disappointed that we're not ready with the efi version. Rather than the typical method of simply setting the inserts individually (like we do on all the other tanks), we tried a pre-formed ring insert to put the inserts perfectly in place. While this seemed to be the best precision and the way to go, it ultimately is making too much trouble for the fuel pump flange. To fix this and get the mold to work means cutting it apart, making a new entire flange area, and re-welding it. We're already too much money into trying to make the efi flange work. With the impending move, we don't have the time to work on the mold. With the next few projects in the works, we won't have the time or extra money to spend on the mold. So we're going to get the mold working for us and run tanks for carb'd Monsters. That will help justify the $$$$ needed to tweak it for the efi version.

Thanks!!
Chris

[knightrider]

out with the old, in with the new

[krista]

Sweet!! 

Thanks, man! It's great to start seeing these on customers' bikes!

Chris

[NAKID]

FI tanks please, thanks...

[Triple J]

Chris - you should make standard shape ones to replace the crap expanding Monster tanks...then sell them to Ducati NA so they can replace them with a part that won't just expand again! 

 

[kopfjäger]

out with the old, in with the new

That thing is huge. Any pics on a bike?

[knightrider]

I should have noted lol, the old tank is sitting on the ground while the new one is on a stool, but it is definetly bigger, jus not as much as the pic shows.  Chris took a couple pics after I got the tank thrown on, I try to stay away from taking pics cuz all I have is my phone for a camera couldn't resist the teaser shot though

[krista]

FI tanks please, thanks...

Yes, we have to re-do the mold on the bottom where the inserts are. We re-did it once already to use some specially made circular spacers, but we couldn't get them working. So the mold gets re-done again. That's not going to happen until after we've moved. Probably.

Chris - you should make standard shape ones to replace the crap expanding Monster tanks...then sell them to Ducati NA so they can replace them with a part that won't just expand again! 

I have plans for that, actually. I need capitol funding for that and/or 100 really serious buyers. It's not as easy as one would think.

That thing is huge. Any pics on a bike?

Yes! In our updated MTT43 web photo gallery: