Brad, gerhart was there long before Jim was involved.
As were myself, Mike mazur and land and sea.
As I said, I never failed a bearing,,ever.. but serviced many that did. its just the cost Brad.
Now with bigger ball bearing options at lower costs its just evolution, the market goes where it needs to get the results warranted to stay competitive.
We need a higher rpm window so these guys can take advantage of the knowledge gained over these last 20 years.
Todays end user may start out at 9 psi,, but the old burndown destruction days are gone.
Sooner than later that end user is up to 13 psi,, got a taste of big torque and he's calling for the race fuel set up for just short blasts !! LOL
That seems to be the market I get exposed to more and more.
3 seasons on 2 stroke turbo without failure was outside the window when Your unit was the ONLY ball bearing vertical turbo we could get.
Its almost a shame the aero was the turbo of choice, it would NOT have been exposed to so many LEARNING fiascos that had nothing to do with the turbo.
It was OUR own fault to wreck those old triples at 25 psi...the cost to repair got out of hand, but again,, it was our OWN fault.
Big air flows at lower boost levels and of course, the price..
now the ebay stuff is putting a tarnish on them too.
Gus Bohne
1989 aerocharger Cat dealer..I never sent even 1 unit back for repair.
I bought parts and repaired my own and of course some others.