The perfect backyard setup

D@n.

D@n.

Member
Hey NS, my name is Dan and I am a Master's student in Technical Entrepreneurship here at Lehigh University. I am currently researching the potential for manufacturing a legit backyard rail setup for use by skiers like yourself on the off-season. If you wouldn't mind taking just five minutes to fill out the following survey, I would truly appreciate your help.

https://docs.google.com/a/lehigh.edu/forms/d/1iiUEKV5tZdI0SyD-n2rkRNPXe8Tc-T7eksEiRCK1W9s/viewform

If you would like me to keep you updated on this project, just hit me up with a PM and I would be more than happy to share the results of the survey or fill you in on the details.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Finished. This could save lives. Not enough speed on the inrun of the sketch setup is the fucking scariest thing ever. That and when your rail falls over due to lack of support..
 
Thanks for the responses so far guys, they really help!

@ willskiforfree I heard Banshee Bungee went out of business recently, know anything about that?
 
Lehigh?! No shit! I don't go there, but live right down the road. That's all I have for this thread. Oh, did your survey too :)
 
Sounds like a cool idea in theory, but I cant see there being a large enough market for this, not to mention you really would need to know most peoples yard layout to be able to build anything for them. Unless you are going to be coming to everyones houses around the country, I dont see much point other than maybe providing people with plans.

On a second note, I think the reason most peoples summer setups look really sketchy is because they use anything they have lying around to make it, because that stuff is free. For 50 dollars or so and some really, really basic woodworking knowledge, you can build a killer 12 foot backyard rail that is solid as hell. I dont see how you can beat price on that.

There are already companies that manufacture rails and will gladly ship you a park quality rail if you have the cash to pay for one.
 
I like the concept to an extent but is it practical? You're talking about pre fabricated setups? How big will your drop in be to give you enough speed? How much will something like that cost to ship in addition to building?

You also have some competition in the backyard rails department at this point, as well as many people being happy with their basic pvc creations and slightly ghetto drop ins.

That said I wish you the best of luck.
 
I feel like rather than selling pre-built setups, you should build them for people, as they often turn into permanent structures.

Take a look at my pictures if you want drop in ideas. I just think a really solid drop in can't be pre-built. Mine took forever to build it the way I wanted it
 
Thanks again guys for the feedback, keep it coming!

@NH_OPERATOR We've definitely talked about this hurdle, and we have some ideas for acquiring yard specs. You're definitely right about the price point on the homemade jibs, and that's exactly why we're doing this survey, to see if there is interest for anything a little more solid at a little higher of a cost. We do understand our customers and would price competitively

@Wanker_Tanker Any chance you can point me towards the competition you're talking about? We are trying to gauge what's out there and if we have a fit in the market.

@Rparr Sick drop in. What were some of the specifics that took time to figure out?
 
I made a thread about this earlier this year https://www.newschoolers.com/ns/forums/readthread/thread_id/746277/

might help you in some way
 
The problem you have with aquiring back yard specs, is that then you are either planning on flying out to someones yard to get them, or relying on the person buying to be able to give you area, change in slope, ect, which is not something that is particularly easy to do. I would argue that its harder than building the stuff yourself really unless your yard is perfectly flat. I could see a pre-fab structure that would work for all flat yards of x by y yards, but as soon as you throw a slope in, all that goes to hell.

As far as stuff being solid, again with basically a circular saw, a power drill and a tape measure you can build some seriously solid stuff. Take my rail that I made, in about 3 hours with nothing but those 3 tools.

View attachment 652031

Super solid, cost I think 50 dollars not counting the 2 power tools used. I would love to hear your ideas on how to ship something this large and heavy, pre fabbed and not require it it to roll up on a flatbed to someones house. Shipping cost on that 50 dollar, 3 hours of work rail would likely amount to 100-200 dollars easily.

 
The first time I built the drop in, it was covered in lattice and turf. I deconstructed it to change some transition angles to optimize speed. I tried again with lattice and turf. Still wasn't where I wanted it. After doing that, I decided to re-surface the whole thing with mSnow, which took much longer than I anticipated. I also had to change some transition angles, as the angles felt rougher on mSnow than on turf.

I just think making a quality setup is a lot more time consuming and involved that most think. My current setup is the result of 2 summers of building and riding.

You'd have to make some really nice shit to convince people to pay you to build their setups, as most people can build a pretty nice setup on their own with some work.

 
I just finished filling it out. Literally the most important concern would have to be durability. *cough* *cough* David Baird *cough*
 
I think a good assumption would be flat yards, and then make it pretty easy to change the angle that the drop in is sitting on. F
 
Thank you once again for all your help! Keep it coming, the more responses we get, the better chance we'll have at making this a reality!
 
I did the survey, but in all honesty probably wouldn't buy it. I made my own setup for relatively little cost and it works fine. But it'll be nice to see what you come up with. Maybe if it's that much better, I'll reconsider.
 
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