I know of this portable chassis dyno for sale..
My current employer insists that I could make money hand over fist running a dyno shop. It's true that I could charge a premium as being the "only dyno service in the county", but perhaps there is a reason there are no dynos in this county?
I would have to get a loan to start up, and be profitable enough to be able to pay back the loan and make a living. Anyone know of a basic business model for a dyno shop? I assume I would need insurance for the equipment, as well as liability insurance. And then there's advertizing, etc. Does this all work out to a easy money, or just scraping by?
And then there's the question only I can answer... Do I really want to run a dyno all day?
Full Version: OT: Dyno services
The dyno won't really make you money... It WILL get people in the door that will buy Performance goodies for their car though...
The ticket is the ricer crowd... They have HUGE mark ups on their junk.. Thats where the money comes from..
What brand is the dyno?? Keep in mind that its a necessity that the dyno be able to have quick set up and take off times for each car- your time is their money and if you spend hours setting the car up on the dyno you can get much done..
I know very little about chassis dynos, all my testing is done on an engine dyno and its a totally different arrangement..
The ticket is the ricer crowd... They have HUGE mark ups on their junk.. Thats where the money comes from..
What brand is the dyno?? Keep in mind that its a necessity that the dyno be able to have quick set up and take off times for each car- your time is their money and if you spend hours setting the car up on the dyno you can get much done..
I know very little about chassis dynos, all my testing is done on an engine dyno and its a totally different arrangement..
I think the biggest issue will be with the noise....
having the dyno and knowing what to do with it to help the customers would be a huge selling point, you get idiots like me that install a custom fuel injection and don't know what to do with it
How portable?
having the dyno and knowing what to do with it to help the customers would be a huge selling point, you get idiots like me that install a custom fuel injection and don't know what to do with it
How portable?
a dyno shop (ricer) just opened up next door to where I live. it's something like $65 for 4 pulls. they get a decent amount of cars in there, but I can't tell if they are their own or customers. I really don't see how you could get rich off the dyno.
it's funny how mueller mentions the noise. this dyno shop near me is smack in the middle of 4 buildings containing over 150 high $$$ condos. I am talking 20ft from the buildings! I don't know how they pulled that one off.
It's a Dynapack. It doesn't even mount to anything, you just bolt these boxes where the wheels would go and let'r rip. A pull takes less than 30 seconds. It's very quiet, but of course the car is what's loud. It all fits in a small trailer.
I have no interest in sales, so if the only way to make money with a dyno is with a parts markup, I don't think I'd be interested.
It seems like a good way to keep overhead low is to offer a portable service, letting the customer dictate the level site that can tolerate noise. No shop, no rent, no employees.
I have no interest in sales, so if the only way to make money with a dyno is with a parts markup, I don't think I'd be interested.
It seems like a good way to keep overhead low is to offer a portable service, letting the customer dictate the level site that can tolerate noise. No shop, no rent, no employees.
| QUOTE (vortrex @ Nov 29 2005, 03:43 PM) |
| it's funny how mueller mentions the noise. this dyno shop near me is smack in the middle of 4 buildings containing over 150 high $$$ condos. I am talking 20ft from the buildings! I don't know how they pulled that one off. |
the place I went to is at a small airport, the complaints are from the other shops in the plaza.....8,000+ rpm dyno pulls with motorcycles is his largest complaint...and that is with the doors closed and the place insulated
having a dyno that can put a load on the vehicle will be worth more and you can use that to your advantage to help people tune and troubleshoot...the acceleration type dynos are junk in my opinion....
| QUOTE (Mueller @ Nov 29 2005, 02:55 PM) |
| the place I went to is at a small airport, the complaints are from the other shops in the plaza.....8,000+ rpm dyno pulls with motorcycles is his largest complaint...and that is with the doors closed and the place insulated |
yeah it's loud. this place has no insulation. I am the furthest building from the dyno shop, on the 6th floor, and I can hear them do pulls with my windows closed.
| QUOTE (bondo @ Nov 29 2005, 03:55 PM) |
| It's a Dynapack. It doesn't even mount to anything, you just bolt these boxes where the wheels would go and let'r rip. A pull takes less than 30 seconds. It's very quiet, but of course the car is what's loud. It all fits in a small trailer. I have no interest in sales, so if the only way to make money with a dyno is with a parts markup, I don't think I'd be interested. It seems like a good way to keep overhead low is to offer a portable service, letting the customer dictate the level site that can tolerate noise. No shop, no rent, no employees. |
those are dynapaks are cool.....
Ulitmate Garage dynapak sales and info
this picture shows 4 of them being used (currently for sale for $85K, a savings of over $20K according to the ad)
At 85k that's 1307 customers or 5230 pulls before you break even.
@ $65 for 4 pulls...not counting maintance or the rent (etc.) for the shop.
@ $65 for 4 pulls...not counting maintance or the rent (etc.) for the shop.
I will agree that if all you offer are dyno runs, that you won't make much money, as you won't attract that many customers unless you offer the pulls at a really low price.
The money you make is off "consulting" (i.e., offering tuning advice), and parts sales.
I'll disagree pretty strongly that acceleration dynos are "junk". Many of the most expensive "load" chassis dynos offer computer controlled systems that allow them to operate in "acceleration mode", because a lot of real-world drivability problems only show up this way. The most expensive systems in the world, used by the F1 boys, essentially allow them to "record" and "play back" laps on any racetrack they come across, and apparently lots of other real-world problems show up in these systems than the old "brake" dynos, or they'd not be spending the zillions of dollars required to make this shit work.
The key to getting any dyno, but particularly an acceleration (aka "inertia") dyno to work is data acquisition. If you can record what the engine is doing during a pull on the dyno, then there's no real need to bring the dyno up to some set engine speed and hold it there while you tweak it. You'll have the data sitting there to be analyzed. You can even put someone else on the dyno while you're poring over the data from an earlier pull.
If you have all of this stuff, and know how to use it, and know how to interpret the data (very difficult), then translate it into actions that the customer can perform to improve their engine (turn this knob, buy this part, etc, which is even harder still), THEN you will make money with a dyno. You don't even have to sell them ALL of the parts, though you'll be more attractive to customers if you have the parts to sell, and even more attractive if you can install them, too.
Other shops AT AN AIRPORT are complaining about noise? That's pretty serious. Bikes can be very loud (and most now rev a lot higher than 8000rpm), but small aircraft are pretty noisy, too.
The money you make is off "consulting" (i.e., offering tuning advice), and parts sales.
I'll disagree pretty strongly that acceleration dynos are "junk". Many of the most expensive "load" chassis dynos offer computer controlled systems that allow them to operate in "acceleration mode", because a lot of real-world drivability problems only show up this way. The most expensive systems in the world, used by the F1 boys, essentially allow them to "record" and "play back" laps on any racetrack they come across, and apparently lots of other real-world problems show up in these systems than the old "brake" dynos, or they'd not be spending the zillions of dollars required to make this shit work.
The key to getting any dyno, but particularly an acceleration (aka "inertia") dyno to work is data acquisition. If you can record what the engine is doing during a pull on the dyno, then there's no real need to bring the dyno up to some set engine speed and hold it there while you tweak it. You'll have the data sitting there to be analyzed. You can even put someone else on the dyno while you're poring over the data from an earlier pull.
If you have all of this stuff, and know how to use it, and know how to interpret the data (very difficult), then translate it into actions that the customer can perform to improve their engine (turn this knob, buy this part, etc, which is even harder still), THEN you will make money with a dyno. You don't even have to sell them ALL of the parts, though you'll be more attractive to customers if you have the parts to sell, and even more attractive if you can install them, too.
Other shops AT AN AIRPORT are complaining about noise? That's pretty serious. Bikes can be very loud (and most now rev a lot higher than 8000rpm), but small aircraft are pretty noisy, too.
Dynapacks are the schiznit, We almost bought a set a few years ago, but economics kicked in.
We ended up buying The Racers Group Dyno when they decided to get out of the UniChip business for considerably less than the Dynapack set up
All that aside I dont think you do weel at all just offering dyno services. Like Jake mentioned you need to sell the bells and whistles... We have attracted a pretty steady supply of ricer drag racers, who bolt crap on there cars and have no idea how they work.we dyno the car give them suggestions, and usually end up having the car for a few weeks while we make right all the wrongs we find.
So you need to provide other services too.
We ended up buying The Racers Group Dyno when they decided to get out of the UniChip business for considerably less than the Dynapack set up
All that aside I dont think you do weel at all just offering dyno services. Like Jake mentioned you need to sell the bells and whistles... We have attracted a pretty steady supply of ricer drag racers, who bolt crap on there cars and have no idea how they work.we dyno the car give them suggestions, and usually end up having the car for a few weeks while we make right all the wrongs we find.
So you need to provide other services too.
If it's portable you could probably make money by travelling around with it and hitting up gatherings like car shows or west coast classics or anywhere kids and their cars meet.
| QUOTE (Headrage @ Nov 29 2005, 03:19 PM) |
| If it's portable you could probably make money by travelling around with it and hitting up gatherings like car shows or west coast classics or anywhere kids and their cars meet. |
Yeah, bring it to the WCC! We could have awards for all sorts of things - most power from a 1.7/1.8/2.0, most power from a six, worst air-fuel ratio, lowest overall power, etc. It would be a hoot. The most important award would be for lowest $/power ratio.
-Ben M.
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