Spacer vs warranty

[Guest Close Guest]

Most certainly, depending on material used for the coil.

I know that a few manufacturers have taken their coil making business offshore to India etc & their product quality has gone somewhat south.

Regards, Jason.

Which are the better ones?

[wholesalesuspension Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wholesalesuspension]

Don't take me too wrong, i really don't mind the Aqua ones, i have just replaced a lot of them over recent years for people who aren't happy with their ride heights over time. I am a fan of their longer springs with softer rates in the right situations.
I obviously like and use a lot of the King's stuff because i usually supply them, forget them & don't have headaches with them.
For the last 6-7 years they have been using only the best X5K steel available & are the Only Spring manufacturer to offer a limited lifetime warranty against sagging.
They also make a fair few other springs on the market for 4 or 5 of the other industry suspension suppliers and rebrand them for them accordingly. Sometimes these are just a copy of their own spring and sometimes to the manufacturers own designs as requested... This has been on the decline a little over the last couple of years as more of the industry has moved their purchasing offshore to save a few dollars & i really believe this is why we are regularly seeing more warranty issues with a lot of the suppliers. I think the quality is a lot harder to control.
We have often found if we don't keep on the backs of some of our offshore parts suppliers that the quality declines between batches.
Initially things will be made to our design and specs, then 12 months later you receive another order & they have made a cost cutting change without consent. We turn them around and send them back.
I'm not going to name the ones i know of that that have gone all or partly offshore for their production, but it is also now a few of the big names.

Just my 2 cents & i hope a not too biased 2 cents, as i often send people to other manufacturers if i believe that it will work better for what their particular setup is.

Regards, Jason.

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

I know that a few manufacturers have taken their coil making business offshore to India etc & their product quality has gone somewhat south.

Hey all,

Isn't there only "a few" major coil manufacturers in Australia, King Springs (who make ARB coils), Dobinsons, Lovells, and a couple more small scale manufacturers in Sydney and Melbourne.

So does this mean they are all outsourcing manufacturing to India?????

There's no doubt that none of the major coil manufacturers can supply coils that are "in-spec" all of the time. The quality control is pretty poor when a manufacturer says 4-5mm difference in free height is acceptable.

Regarding which coil is the best to use, I've read/heard a thousand different opinions. Driving on them yourself will also give another thousand different subjective opinions.

In more technical terms, I'm not sold on King coils using less windings with their magical XK5 steel, for 4wd'ing purposes, saving 30% weight on coil springs is neither here nor there.

Similarly, I've seen Dobinsons coil spring pairs with 4-5mm difference in free height, and flat ground ends that sit outside the outer coil diameter, which rub on the coil seat, or need grinding back.

Having said all that, I haven't seen a Prado like Matts which is suffering 12-17mm of difference in ride height. We can already see that his coils from ARB are quite obviously very different in spring rate.

So who do we get high quality coils from, King shocks, Icon??? I believe King shocks still make their coils in the USA?

...and to the burning question at hand, what then are the best coils that Matt can use to get a level Prado?

Best

Mark

[wholesalesuspension Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wholesalesuspension]

I will happily offer up a set of Kings at cost for this one to help out, but i don't feel that Matt should be having to pay for anything at all.
They should be honoring their warranty.

Regards, Jason.

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

Yep he should escalate it to head office if the store are unwilling to do their job properly


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[Guest Close Guest]

Don't take me too wrong, i really don't mind the Aqua ones,

I have the aqua ones and just move up the circlip if/when they eventually sag. The rears I can adjust at will

[BlakMoth Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close BlakMoth]

The rears I can adjust at will

Take some kids out?


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[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Take some kids out?


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Grande, airbags, give me a good old fashioned spring any day

Cheers Andrew

[wholesalesuspension Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wholesalesuspension]

I have used the circlip grooves on my Bilsteins to good effect to get the nose back up after it crept down a little from my heavy bullbar.
My fault it crept down in the first place, as i wanted a softer ride when i did the kit and didn't fit a HD Spring.

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Well I thought I would try to call the manager today to see if he had any response to me expressing my disapproval . I didn't expect so because the mechanic who was my last contact told me the spacer would be left in and I could talk to the manager if I want but he was aware of the situation. So I called and was told he was on a meeting and never received a return call. Through the whole fiasco I've been super calm yet still letting them know what I want. Maybe cause I've been nice and haven't carried on like a pork chop and yelled and sworn they think I'll just go away . But raising your voice doesn't get you anywhere. I called head office in Melbourne when I got home and the guy who deals with these type of things had knocked off so I'm going to put together an email over the weekend detailing all heights etc and my dealings with this branch so far. Shame things have to go this far , this has already consumed too much of my time and energy and I think I'm a long way off a resolution. I'm a tradesman and take pride in my work and am the first to admit I do make mistakes. Shame everyone doesn't hold these values. (I'll shut up now)
Matt

[BiLLz0r Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close BiLLz0r]

It's such a shame Matt that you've had this issue at all. ARB's name is meant to portray quality and great customer service and that is why their product is higher priced. The consumer accepts this. In this case it sounds worse than a 4wd supercenter job. The manager of Burleigh store goes to my gym. You think it's worth mentioning the issue to them or it's just another franchise so not worth it?

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Spacer vs warranty

It's ok mate . I've been overly nice and not received a lot of help so straight to the oz head office now . At coopers plains I First talked to sales man and he knew what I wanted as in a resolution with no spacer , then the mechanic called to give me the news the salesman knew I didn't want and the manager is in a meeting and won't give me the courtesy of a phone call. True I went with Arb because of the reputation of OME and because I knew absolutely nothing about suspension and would leave it to the professionals. I now know also I was given the wrong front coils. I'm Not dealing with the branch again and if they were pressured to fix this I would want it done elsewhere as I have lost total confidence in them.

[wholesalesuspension Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wholesalesuspension]

Best of luck with it Matt.

Regards, Jason.

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Thanks very much Jason and thank you for your generous offer. I hand wrote a draft this arvo that I'll get my wife to type up tomorrow cause it would take me hours with two pointers. Thanks to Whitey as well who I am going to quote so I sound like I know what I'm talking about.
Cheers Matt

[Mattfunk 120 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mattfunk 120]

Well today I received a call from the Nundah branch to address my suspension issues.After an apology about my previous dealings with the said branch, the fellow basically said that using a "trim packer" was a very regular practice and if suspension was installed from new and had a lean he would install a packer. I didn't understand how 5mm difference of free height in the rear springs would translate to 17mm but he said that the free height doesn't translate to working height once they are under weight. Apparently spring rate can never change so I asked if that was the inference that that had been checked and correct when they came out of the factory so they would be still correct and he said yes, and it wasn't a practice for them to send them away to be checked. . When I asked about how it can be known that the front coils can be in spec he said that he wouldn't expect the difference to be that much. he was comfortable with the use of the packer as it was only used to level up the car not to lift it and this very common to do . Apparently at install the free height of RL was393mm & RR was395mm so the left has sagged in free height of 8mm and right side of 5mm, so the 8mm on the left translates to the 17mm of sag in the RL. We spoke for an hour or so but in the end because they quote for a 25mm lift in the front and 40mm in the rear and my lift exceeded this compared to before install height, regardless of the lopsidedness before the spacer that this was not a concern. The bloke said to keep an eye on it and if it dropped drastically in the future he would take everything out and maybe replace but as it is it exceeds the quoted lift. I was assured the spacer would in no way affect the performance of my suspension. Maybe have to put this down to experience . My lift exceeds quoted height so it's ok. Apparently because of the front end of the 120 it can only be lifted 25mm without affecting handling but the 150 can accept 50mm lift in the front.
Matt