Land Rover - RTE 5" Springs $300+sh SoCal
- Thread starter badfysh
- Start date
badfysh
Adventurer
I would be happy to help with any questions. I am in Long Beach at my office today but should be home by 4:30 or so. You can come by and look at them and check out the truck/setup anytime I am home.
badfysh
Adventurer
I do have one issue, I wont be able to remove the springs until Saturday or Sunday this weekend due to the fact that they are still on the truck (obviously) and that I need to use the truck Saturday morning briefly before dismantling it. Here are two pics of the rear spring from when I installed the lowered spring perch.
badfysh
Adventurer
A small company in New York. I never heard of them and not much reference but I gambled. They focus on Jeep product mostly but looked like maybe one of the guys had a D2 so they made some stuff for that. It was supposed to be "bolt on" which I liked as up until that point I had not cut anything on the truck other than the rear fenders for Greg Davis bumper. Anyway, I also hadn't started welding at the time so I didn't have that option either. I purchased two items from them - a "bolt on" 4 link and radius arms.
As is usually the case with custom ordered product and small "one man" shops, the stuff was delayed for weeks beyond expected and quoted delivery date. Whatever. The 4 link arrived first. The main sub frame is a hack job if I've ever seen one. Just a bunch of plasma cut plate weld in a hodge podge (sp?) of angles and silly little gussets. the welds look like a 4 yr old did it and there isn't a proper angle or symmetry anywhere on the thing. VERY bad workmanship and design. Not to mention just a waste of material and labor. Much simpler designs to be made out of plate and tube and would be much stronger. The arms themselves looked OK but the Uniballs and Johnny Joints are just the cheapos - not very high end bulletproof quality stuff you know. Nothing special there and I didn't expect that since it was marketed that way. The frame brackets, were also terribly fabricated. Just poor workmanship. Fast forward past the next few paragraphs - during installation it is far from "bolt on". The charcoal canister had to be removed, cut and welded back together. OK for me since by the time delivery was made, I was now off and running with my welder, eager to weld anything in sight. But imagine if I didn't - removing and relocating the charcoal would have been a PITA.Also, I have an aftermarket exhaust, granted they didn't know this but the exhaust had to be cut also making me wonder why a typical exhaust path wasn't considered.
So anyway, I wasn't please but I figured, let me see what happens when the radius arms arrive. Finally they do and I tear into the box, within seconds I get my first glimpse and oh my god it was horrible. The design changed and I wasn't informed but that wasn't the issue, I mean fine, I am getting an improved item you would think right? Well, the issue was the workmanship. If a 4 yr old made the sub frame for the 4 link, a blind 2 yr old (no offense to the physically or age challenged) made the radius arms. Looks like the laser cutter was on a shaker table when they cut the plate, just terrible, then the fabrication was off like it was held together by hand while welding - random spacing, crappy welds, just terrible. Then to top it off, they even though it was already weeks late, they packaged it in a hurry before the liner was dry, what the hell.
I immediately contacted the company to complain and at first he stood behind the product and refused to budge. He specifically told me that the parts were laser cut, the they were welded properly and with skill. I (also a small business owner) wad told that it's people like me that make it hard for small businesses to stay afloat always complaining etc. I was appalled. I photoshopped a photo of the ad and what I received into one image and sent it to him and told him I would be willing to place that photo (Fakebook) online and if even 1 person said the quality was good, I would shut my mouth and walk away, But otherwise he should refund my money and pay for return shipping. Not a favorable response so I posted the photo online and tagged their company in it. Obviously the response was 100% in my favor and within an hour I had an amicable response in the form of a partial refund - which in fairness is what I asked for. I didn't feel, even though I got ripped, that he should lose out on the the stuff that was OK for me to use, the arms with bearings were OK and unlikely I will rebuild those. So basically I got 2/3 my money back. Yes, even after the crap I got and the response I got that was even worse, I was fair to the guy.
The good news is the 4 link has served its purpose, it got me thinking and moved my truck to the next level and was the launch pad for many other items. The bad news is I have to rebuild most o fit myself. In other news, I have no idea about the companies quality with other products but with what I got I could never recommend them to anyone and with the initial response I got when I complained and provided photos and that ultimately I had to take my complain tto the masses to ge them to stand up, I could't in good conscience recommend them for ANYTHING.
Needless to say I did not install the radius arms and have since come up with my own design that I will fabricate shortly once I order the steel. They have since removed LR products from their website.
Draken Offroad
See pics.....
As is usually the case with custom ordered product and small "one man" shops, the stuff was delayed for weeks beyond expected and quoted delivery date. Whatever. The 4 link arrived first. The main sub frame is a hack job if I've ever seen one. Just a bunch of plasma cut plate weld in a hodge podge (sp?) of angles and silly little gussets. the welds look like a 4 yr old did it and there isn't a proper angle or symmetry anywhere on the thing. VERY bad workmanship and design. Not to mention just a waste of material and labor. Much simpler designs to be made out of plate and tube and would be much stronger. The arms themselves looked OK but the Uniballs and Johnny Joints are just the cheapos - not very high end bulletproof quality stuff you know. Nothing special there and I didn't expect that since it was marketed that way. The frame brackets, were also terribly fabricated. Just poor workmanship. Fast forward past the next few paragraphs - during installation it is far from "bolt on". The charcoal canister had to be removed, cut and welded back together. OK for me since by the time delivery was made, I was now off and running with my welder, eager to weld anything in sight. But imagine if I didn't - removing and relocating the charcoal would have been a PITA.Also, I have an aftermarket exhaust, granted they didn't know this but the exhaust had to be cut also making me wonder why a typical exhaust path wasn't considered.
So anyway, I wasn't please but I figured, let me see what happens when the radius arms arrive. Finally they do and I tear into the box, within seconds I get my first glimpse and oh my god it was horrible. The design changed and I wasn't informed but that wasn't the issue, I mean fine, I am getting an improved item you would think right? Well, the issue was the workmanship. If a 4 yr old made the sub frame for the 4 link, a blind 2 yr old (no offense to the physically or age challenged) made the radius arms. Looks like the laser cutter was on a shaker table when they cut the plate, just terrible, then the fabrication was off like it was held together by hand while welding - random spacing, crappy welds, just terrible. Then to top it off, they even though it was already weeks late, they packaged it in a hurry before the liner was dry, what the hell.
I immediately contacted the company to complain and at first he stood behind the product and refused to budge. He specifically told me that the parts were laser cut, the they were welded properly and with skill. I (also a small business owner) wad told that it's people like me that make it hard for small businesses to stay afloat always complaining etc. I was appalled. I photoshopped a photo of the ad and what I received into one image and sent it to him and told him I would be willing to place that photo (Fakebook) online and if even 1 person said the quality was good, I would shut my mouth and walk away, But otherwise he should refund my money and pay for return shipping. Not a favorable response so I posted the photo online and tagged their company in it. Obviously the response was 100% in my favor and within an hour I had an amicable response in the form of a partial refund - which in fairness is what I asked for. I didn't feel, even though I got ripped, that he should lose out on the the stuff that was OK for me to use, the arms with bearings were OK and unlikely I will rebuild those. So basically I got 2/3 my money back. Yes, even after the crap I got and the response I got that was even worse, I was fair to the guy.
The good news is the 4 link has served its purpose, it got me thinking and moved my truck to the next level and was the launch pad for many other items. The bad news is I have to rebuild most o fit myself. In other news, I have no idea about the companies quality with other products but with what I got I could never recommend them to anyone and with the initial response I got when I complained and provided photos and that ultimately I had to take my complain tto the masses to ge them to stand up, I could't in good conscience recommend them for ANYTHING.
Needless to say I did not install the radius arms and have since come up with my own design that I will fabricate shortly once I order the steel. They have since removed LR products from their website.
Draken Offroad
See pics.....
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