Okay, stroker-heads, while the prospect of bi-coastal, virtual drag racing
is mildly appealing, here's a few notes.
Parts designed for low rpm and low stress applications may have serious weak
points that short term/high stress (spin VERY fast) and long term/normal
stress (1000's of thermal cycles, and others) may illustrate. The reality
of 'shaking force' of rotating parts and a fully weighted crank balancing is
one of many.
That being said, lots have used various stroker configurations successfully.
I've heard of no reports of 'weird vibes' at XXXX rpm (although still
waiting for Victor's famous 50,000 rpm test), or absolutely shattered/burnt
lower rod bearings at 12,000 miles.
As far as the economics vs quality, if a manufacturer realizes that normal
usage is wearing particular parts quicker than projected, they may spring
for a large-number run of parts, which dramatically drives down the raw
material price, spreads the tooling and set-up charges, making the price
very low. Let's have 200 of us all call Les today and ask for pricing on a
one-piece fiberglass tilt front end.
(just kidding, no phone campaigns) we all know the price would go down
dramatically.
In addition, the forklift component supplier may realize that if folks
aren't pleasantly surprised at the low price of parts when they were
unpleasantly surprised at the look and duration of their removed part,
they'll junk that forklift and buy a (insert other name here). This leads
to many years of lost revenue on other ancillary parts. So, they may
discount particular parts, drastically, to the point that it seems
ridiculous to the rest of us.
Parkin' my soapbox now, Fergus O'Forklift
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