TKM has closed down

"Because of parts supply issues and the spiraling costs of components and FAA compliance coupled with shrinking demand for our products, TKM has gone out of business."

Shrinking demand is key. I can't imagine they're selling very many of these products. You can't survive in the avionics business without innovating, and it appears this firm's innovation, like Narco, took place about forty years ago.
 
If I was in this business, I'd make my entire model poaching off existing installations. Plug and play off Garmin and Bendix/King wiring diags. I'd be the McDowell's of this joint. :D
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Brad Z said:
Shrinking demand is key. I can't imagine they're selling very many of these products. You can't survive in the avionics business without innovating, and it appears this firm's innovation, like Narco, took place about forty years ago.
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Given an ACOG 182 sells for $100K, the days of 3rd tier replacement solutions is about over.

My own 182P was valued by local tax agency at $157K and the insurance company at $180K. The plane still has vacuum pump round gauges, OK paint, but does have a new interior and engine.

The cost of maintenance is now so high, valuations are high, economizing on 3rd tier replacement radio makes little sense. People are buying GNC-255A's or the similar and just paying $300-500 for the required rewire.

Plus TKM never had that rock solid reputation like Garmin or Trig.
 
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NordicDave said:
Plus TKM never had that rock solid reputation like Garmin or Trig.
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From my point of view I think that had more to do with the target market and issues that may have been existing prior to the radio installation rather than the TKM product itself. I don’t recall ever seeing a TKM radio that was itself faulty, although I’m sure there were some. The user interface on their radios was pretty miserable, which didn’t help matters either.

Regardless, it’s disappointing to see another competitor go away.
 
Min Kao and Garmin kill another business under the guise of innovation.

I know we all love to pay $13k for a navcom GPS or $4k for a plain navcom. Yay!


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Llk said:
Min Kao and Garmin kill another business under the guise of innovation.

I know we all love to pay $13k for a navcom GPS or $4k for a plain navcom. Yay!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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No ire for Gary whatsizname? :)
 
Seems Bevan Avionics bought the TKM inventory, and will continue to service TKM products, Thank goodness, yea I own a TKM MX170C
 
The question is ,will Bevan be able to sustain TKM with the inventory they purchased.
 
I remember walking by the TKM booth at OSH a few years ago, and feeling embarrassed for the young sales rep standing there. They were marketing a "new" replacement radio (I can't remember what it was a replacement for, probably a KX-155), but it was so un-innovative, and way too late. There was no interest, nobody asking questions. I knew then that TKM probably wasn't going to last a whole lot longer.
 
frfly172 said:
The question is ,will Bevan be able to sustain TKM with the inventory they purchased.
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TKM radios are just fancy faceplates hacked onto good radios like the KX-170C, so parts should be in no short supply, and Bevan already services the King and ARC stuff (no idea about Narco) -- so they're really just adding a fancy digital faceplate mod product to their existing radio repair shop.

From my more recent experience with TKM service, this is actually good news for those of us with these things.
 
I’ve got a MX170c - when I bought it I thought of going with a GNC255 but the rewire and everything made just sliding something in appealing.

Their retrofit approach was kind of old school -reminiscent of the days when you would top an engine on an old plane rather than overhaul it because the old bird wasn’t worth the investment of an overhauled engine.

Recently, I posted asking about my post 100,000 serial number KT76A transponder and was pretty much scoffed at about how I had a boat anchor for a transponder and how everyone else had “ moved on.” If you follow that thread you’ll find someone eventually noted that those late serial number 76s are still pretty good units.

Remember folks, we are not flying F16s here, most of us have planes Kyle Larson would leave in his dust. What we need is reliability and not necessarily innovation. TKMs stuff was great for the guy (or gal) who needed a replacement for a radio in an old ratty plane. I laugh sometimes about the number of planes I see with an innovative stack of radios snd a thirty year old engine - I think we can all agree these folks would be better off with some TKM radios and a better enginee.
 
schmookeeg said:
TKM radios are just fancy faceplates hacked onto good radios like the KX-170C, so parts should be in no short supply
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While that’s true for the MAC 1700s, I don’t think it’s true for the TKMs. I had one and had Bevan service it (the Nav was not working). Talking to them, the TKMs had issues with build quality, most typically soldering on the boards, especially grounds, if I recall.

But I’m pretty sure they’re different on the inside than a KX170, unlike a MAC which is what you described.

Add: I will say, the knobology for the TKM can be frustrating when first starting to use it.
 
I think by the time they got to the MX170c they were doing a pretty good job - then they shutdown.
 
TKM was not a competitive product. Their market niche was guys too cheap to install a decent radio, and willing to use a sub-standard product to do so.

Far too small an addressable market.

Garmin didn’t burry these guys, they shoveled their own dirt.

Feel free to flame away….
 
Llk said:
Min Kao and Garmin kill another business under the guise of innovation.

I know we all love to pay $13k for a navcom GPS or $4k for a plain navcom. Yay!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I doubt anyone in Garmin has ever heard of this outfit.
 
Avidyne has done more than the IFD units. The G1000 usurped them in the Cirrus models. Here's hoping Avidyne can keep it up and we're not all relegated to Garmin or Dynon. I definitely want a third player in this market.
 
wheaties said:
Avidyne has done more than the IFD units. The G1000 usurped them in the Cirrus models. Here's hoping Avidyne can keep it up and we're not all relegated to Garmin or Dynon. I definitely want a third player in this market.
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Dynon not having an ifr is kind of a hole for them. Bendix farmed out there stuff to avidyne.
 
About five years ago one of the two 40-year-old KX175Bs in my C-172N up and died. It was just a little out of warranty, so I had to replace it but didn't want to do a major panel upgrade. For under three grand I got a new TKM MX170C. I lived in Phoenix at the time, so when it was ready I drove across town to the TKM factory in Scottsdale and picked it up. Installation took almost ten minutes. I was pleased with it.
 
hindsight2020 said:
If I was in this business, I'd make my entire model poaching off existing installations. Plug and play off Garmin and Bendix/King wiring diags. I'd be the McDowell's of this joint. :D
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Correct, no one but Garmin and the ones who can stay alive because of their exposure in the exp. market. Even BK is being reduced to selling other company's products with the BK name stamp.
 
Say what you will, but I personally do not think TKM radios were/are junk. I flew with one for 16 years with no more problems that I had with a KX-155 I had previously. And I don’t consider myself “too cheap” to buy a good radio. :). Frugal maybe, but not cheap!
 
Is it my faulty recollection, or did the KX-155/165 plug-in replacement never make it to general availability? The way the 155s displays have been dying, I'd think this'd have been a hot commodity.

@Pilawt showed me his TKM in the 172, and while I found it a little confusing, at first, to operate, it seemed clear and reliable.

I'm sad they couldn't keep up.
 
somorris said:
Say what you will, but I personally do not think TKM radios were/are junk. I flew with one for 16 years with no more problems that I had with a KX-155 I had previously. And I don’t consider myself “too cheap” to buy a good radio. :). Frugal maybe, but not cheap!
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That may be the case, but after having tasted "the good stuff" (monitor mode, nearest from GPS, Morse decode, playback, radial ID, etc) I find it hard to go back. :)
 
Perhaps because of my professional roots the first question that comes to my mind is how they're disposing of their assets if the company is winding down?

If they have a viable, proven technology that is an alternative to Garmin and serves as a drop in replacement for the popular KX155 (disclaimer: I own 2 KX155 and not excited to replace with 5k$+ grmn radios), that seems like an asset that's worth something. A lot of the hard work is the R&D and the approval process, so if you've overcome that hump and it's a supply chain/cost issue, maybe there are solutions to that which would justify keeping the operation going -- even if scaled down or something... Even if it's not worth it to the current (or now former) owners.
 
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I didn't realize they were still in business. I thought they disappeared years ago.
 
Right in Scottsdale… it’s too bad. I know they aren’t sexy but man it’s nice to have slide in replacements when needed.
 
Rgbeard said:
Is it my faulty recollection, or did the KX-155/165 plug-in replacement never make it to general availability? The way the 155s displays have been dying, I'd think this'd have been a hot commodity..
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I believe you are correct; it was going to be a very nice, software-based radio, that would slide right in the tray of the 155, with a color touchscreen and various other nice features, the best the feature of which would have been the fact that it was plug-compatible with the 155. I think they just did not have the money to finance getting it across the line, which is too bad, because it would have been a great seller.


And, for what it's worth, every one I ever used worked just fine, even if they were sort of cheesy -looking.
 
SCCutler said:
And, for what it's worth, every one I ever used worked just fine, even if they were sort of cheesy -looking.
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Cheesy looking, yes. But also simple and easy to use. I saw a lot of them in Cessna 206-7 in Alaska.
 
They didn’t look cheesy to me compared to the ARC radios they (for the most part) replaced. They did their job.
 
A friend had just sent me this info today. This is sad, I have had the MX-155x for about 3 years. A slide in replacement for the King KX-155.
Interface with the touch screen is odd but the radio itself works perfectly.
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I had purchased this after trying to get my KX-155 repaired because the display was failing. This was a better option for the money at the time. An LED screen King radio was going to cost me the same as this radio. I went with the TKM only complaints is tuning the thing in turbulence is challenging. Otherwise the radio works great.
 
SCCutler said:
I believe you are correct; it was going to be a very nice, software-based radio, that would slide right in the tray of the 155, with a color touchscreen and various other nice features, the best the feature of which would have been the fact that it was plug-compatible with the 155. I think they just did not have the money to finance getting it across the line, which is too bad, because it would have been a great seller.


And, for what it's worth, every one I ever used worked just fine, even if they were sort of cheesy -looking.
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My MX-155x works fine in my Cherokee 180. I went through a hassle trying to get the KX-155 screen replaced with the LED screen. This was cost prohibitive. The MX-155x works great.
My 2nd radio KX-125 died and I was in disbelief what they were going for on eBay. After buying a used $1200 KX-155 on ebay that was advertised as working, that would replace my inoperative radio. I got another non working radio that had no nav audio. Then an apology from the seller, with the excuse of sorry we don’t have the time to test each radio we sell. But we do advertise them as working. They took it back but I got stuck with $80 of shipping charges.
This is what pushed me to the MX-155x and the second radio I bought which is the PAR200b from PS Engineering. Extremely pleased and never looked back.
 
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My main beef with the MX155 is that underneath the snazzy looking front is a rather basic NAV/COM that's missing most of the features modern units have. Looks like it has radial ID but that's about it (the user manual seems to have been erased from the TKM website). No monitor modes, no built-in CDI, no GPS input, no remote control, no playback, no BC, etc.

I totally understand someone wanting to bypass the weeks of downtime plus the shop's labor bill, though.
 
asicer said:
I totally understand someone wanting to bypass the weeks of downtime plus the shop's labor bill, though.
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You mean other than the shooting how was the play mrs. Lincoln?
 
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