[Tnronin]

hitechcc KS7 Lower Rail Mod Attachment

Preorders being accepted. I don't even have the SG yet (on order from RK). I want, but I'm concerned about hanging too much crap off it. I had a vertical on my KSG and it worked great.

 

[Charlie Bravo]

This will be a popular thought for most. I have some thoughts:

• first is the high prices that HiTech products demand - though some of the products are awesome.
• next and more important is the 16 oz weight penalty.
• another is the side holes and the more expensive side rail adapters that are offered for $26 each. I am guessing they are proprietary since they cost more than the other rail adapters. That is a guess since I couldn't see the back side of the rails.

Overall this fixes a lot of things but maybe it is over engineered - seems really thick aluminum, but i'm no product designer.

What I'd like to see is a direct pump charger replacement to save some weight. HiTech mod is a 3 piece product. I have removed the KS7 pump (pic below) and it seems just as easy to build a replacement that eliminates the original longer pieces. This would let the replacement stay thinner and not add bulk in width. Weight may or may not benefit but I'd take 1 lb replacement part that allows me to remove half (?) that.

But this is a great step forward and hopefully other companies follow. I really want a centerline rail attachment and this is an interesting option.

 

[dfariswheel]

A pump handle assembly like that would be very expensive to make.
The cost of manufacturing the molds and buying the plastic injection molding equipment is shockingly expensive.
Once you buy the equipment it will pay for itself >IF< there's a major market for it that will buy a good many.
Molded plastic is great only if you're going to be making very large amounts.
I doubt that there will be a very big market for a complex KS7 front end enough to pay the costs of producing one.

An aluminum device as shown above by Hitech is actually cheaper to make because they've already bought the CNC machinery to manufacture complex parts.
The cost is lower then a plastic part because you only need to write the program to machine an aluminum blank.

I think a better approach would be a bolt-on rail that would be strong enough to install in the stock front end.
I've looked at the KS7 and I think a simple aluminum device could be made that fits into the slots on the bottom of the handle and would require only cutting two or three holes in the two sides..
My idea would be a rail that had "bars" that fit sideways into the slots on the handle and has spacers to provide clearance for the rail to fit on the outside.

Something like that could be rather easily home made.

 

[dfariswheel]

Here's something that might work.
The long rail section would have two sideways bars screwed to it with two hardware store stand offs.
The sideways bars would fit into the slots in both sides of the front end, and the stand offs would give enough clearance to mount the rail level on the outside.
Other parts would be button head bolts, nyloc nuts and several washers.

If I can find the time I'd do a better job of this simple illustration but it gets the idea.

 

[Charlie Bravo]

I agree a CNC'd aluminum bracket would prob be best or a commercial 3D printer - if NASA can 3D print rocket parts, we can prob do it for a pump handle.

Keep in mind any rail should be long enough to mount a light (light/laser combo) and a vertical grip. HiTech product has 14 slots to mount both - about 6 inches which is the length of the entire pump grip area. dfariswheel - that diagram looks only good for a vert grip; 3" rail only provides 5 slots.

I could see an aluminum bracket that utilizes the bottom 2 of the existing 4 screw holes to wrap bracket around bottom of pump. this keep is lower and not wider.

I would like to keep things on center and avoid hard to reach side slots. So a longer rail for light and vert handle is my goal.

Thoughts?