There have been multiple discussions here about the Weber kit sold by Alpine Innovations (http://alpineinnovations.co.uk) in the UK (see http://forum.sunbeamalpine.org/index.php?threads/weber-conversion-manifold.29686/ for the most recent one) and I have been convinced that it represents a better option than the existing log manifolds. Still, I am very happy with my 38DGEV and wasn't really interested in going back to a 32/36. So, I contacted Jerome at AI and started a conversation with him about buying just the manifold. The discussion has morphed into a wider discussion about a group buy for other SAOCA members. My timing was very good, as Jerome had just had a large batch of manifold produced and is, for the first time, in a position to talk about selling just the manifold.
Jerome is still gathering some of the information he will need for exact pricing, but here is what we know at the moment:
We need at least a rough count before we can attempt to finalize costs and Jerome is open to discussing further discounts if there is enough demand here to make it worthwhile. So, I am not asking for a commitment yet, but please let me know if you are interested in buying a manifold(s) and/or kit as part of a group buy. I will finalize and start taking orders once we have a firm price for buying them and getting them here.
Jerome is still gathering some of the information he will need for exact pricing, but here is what we know at the moment:
- He would sell us just the manifolds for £185. That is about $262 at the current exchange rate.
- He would sell his kits at a 5% discount. The basic kit currently sells for £527, so figure it at about £500 even, or $710. But, Jerome told me that he sources the filters in the US and it certainly doesn't make sense for him to send them back to buyers here, so he would sell us the kits without the filters, which would save some on both the costs and the postage. I don't have exact prices yet, but SS sells the Weber filters for about $40, so use that at the moment for a quick estimate for the base-level filter.
- The big unknown right now is shipping. Jerome estimates insured shipping to my zip code for the complete kit at about £75, $106. He has never shipped just a manifold, so he needs to get a little more information before giving me a cost, but it should certainly be less.
We need at least a rough count before we can attempt to finalize costs and Jerome is open to discussing further discounts if there is enough demand here to make it worthwhile. So, I am not asking for a commitment yet, but please let me know if you are interested in buying a manifold(s) and/or kit as part of a group buy. I will finalize and start taking orders once we have a firm price for buying them and getting them here.