I met Marlin on Sledgehammer in 1994 while he was still running the extra long crawler, he also had his short crawler in the bed of his truck to show off his new design...........needless to say I was amazed at his idea and how he made it work under the truck.
I had been dreaming of some kind of gear-reduction solution for a while and I was so happy to meet Marlin and hear about his great idea's.
after many moons of scheming and planning my own crawler purchase, I bought a crawler in 1996 and installed it in my 1980 Nissan 4x4 V6. I machined my own billet trans-adapter & coupling sleeve to mount a toyota T/case behind my FS5W71C transmission. ( shoulda owned a Yota, lol ) anyway...........
I was not pleased with the single coupler bearing and the resulting noise when coasting at freeway speeds, and I am afraid I gave Marlin some grief complaining about it on a Stone Cyn. run at PVD in 99.
and again at HDR.
I also complained to AA about the way they made so many manufacturing changes to Marlin's original design. during manufacturing, I dubbed it the "Marlin growler".
Later I purchased a competitor's cralwer ( JP eater ) I listened to all the hype and banter but it was no better than Marlin's crawler, louder noise as a mater of fact and alot more involved to assemble, sigh.
well, I have been watching and I am pleased to see the change made to the crawler design. I had hoped this would be the way the original design would be...........I am extremely happy to see all the improvements.
I just purchased an MC07 & 23 spline input shaft and will be replacing that POS JP eater asap.
I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Marlin for any grief I may have caused with my big mouth and all my complaining in the late 90's
I sincerley hope I have not caused Marlin any embarrasment at his expense, especially from the manufacturing team at AA that changed his 1st design that I complained about so much......................
Marlin you have demostrated a tenacious ability to "not compromise" after all these years you have found a way to incorporate all your design elements into the crawler without letting anyone change it during manufacturing.
I would like everyone to know that after seeing all the design changes Marlin has made to his crawler, I am here to eat a big ol' slice of huimble-pie and say Marlin, you have always been a gentleman and one of the most technically minded guys I have ever met, I want to say to you "I am truly sorry" for any grief my big mouth may have caused you in the past few years, if any.
I apologize and I congratulate you on your well deserved success, WTG.
If the 4x4 God's smile on me, maybe we will meet on the trail agian and I can shake your hand, no more complaints..............this design ROCKS !!
