I have no plans to mess with my suspension at the moment, but from how @Flatout Suspension has handled the wanna be trolls in this tread. They have earned my business in the future.
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If you have a spacer lift, you NEED these Shock Extenders..
- Thread starter Flatout Suspension
- Start date
- Watchers 6
- First Name
- Jim
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2022
- Threads
- 5
- Messages
- 1,546
- Reaction score
- 2,040
- Location
- Cedar Park, TX
- Vehicle(s)
- '22 Area 51 Hybrid FE, 2014 Impala
- Engine
- 2.5L Hybrid
I own a hybrid, which is driven strictly on-road, so I'm not in the market for a lift. But if I was, FlatOut Suspension would be on my short list. In fact, right now they would be the only ones on that list.
Engineering and quality matters... My Maverick may be a "less expensive" truck than the other guy's fancy Raptor, but what I'm hauling around in my truck (my wife, kids, and grandkids) are worth more to me than anything else in this world... I'm not going cheap on suspension components, brakes, or tires... I've had the unfortunate experience of having a low-cost suspension component break on me - on a motorcycle, no less. I was very lucky that it happened a low enough speed that I survived with only road rash (cactus rash?), but I would never want to experience that again! And I truly hope to never experience it in my Maverick! As he said, "Pay once; cry once!"
Engineering and quality matters... My Maverick may be a "less expensive" truck than the other guy's fancy Raptor, but what I'm hauling around in my truck (my wife, kids, and grandkids) are worth more to me than anything else in this world... I'm not going cheap on suspension components, brakes, or tires... I've had the unfortunate experience of having a low-cost suspension component break on me - on a motorcycle, no less. I was very lucky that it happened a low enough speed that I survived with only road rash (cactus rash?), but I would never want to experience that again! And I truly hope to never experience it in my Maverick! As he said, "Pay once; cry once!"
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- Thread starter
- #48
I've never been very good at being bullied.
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- Thread starter
- #49
It's funny, the market (in anything) has become a race to the bottom to satisfy miniscule budgets. Speaking from market experience, you see our street/ lowering suspensions. We're just shy of $1600 which is pretty comparable with others in our tier. Then you have the $700-1200 mass produced options made in the same overseas factories. THEN you have the ones under $300 for all four assemblies. If that's retail, then what do you think their cost to produce would be? $240 with a conservative margin?? ONE...a single ONE of our shock pistons is 1/4 of that. I'm just talking about the 46mm round gizmo with some holes in it for oil flow. Not the shock, not the rod, just the piston.
While as a consumer, doing some product research and price comparison is advised; you can't only look at price. There has to be a point where you say "ok, this is $X cheaper than everyone else...they are here for profit...they aren't slashing prices to do me a favor...where is that savings coming from?" It does take a bit of discipline to shop that way.
Last year, I needed a spring compressor for the shop area. It's not something we use often, but a lot of times when we need to design a new suspension, we'll order an OEM assembly and break it down. Take measurements, put the OEM shock on the dyno so we can match up OEM rates and see how to get our shock to mimic the comfort aspect. I bought a spring compressor (the stand type, not the death claws like what you can rent from AutoZone). It was under $200 on Amazon and designed for struts. "That's a good deal for something that isn't used very often." I didn't want to pay big money because we aren't using this thing 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I loaded up a strut, started cranking to compress....next thing I know, everything is very blurry and once I did a cognitive recalibration, I realized the arm on the compressor stand snapped (the steel looked very porous - like Styrofoam). That could've killed me. That 200lb spring compressed about 4" released roughly 500lbs of stored energy at the same rate the Titan submersible imploded. All because I wanted to save some money.
Back to this, if a part is 50% less than the majority, I can guarantee you are getting 50% less quality.
When it comes to buying parts, if you are price shopping against a top tier manufacturer, you aren't a top tier part customer. You are a bargain hunter (which is totally fine). Just remember that bargains have a shorter shelf life. You can buy a $30 T-shirt, or a $6 shirt from Walmart. I know which one will hold up to more wash cycles.
All the industries have been a race to the bottom - it's easy for a consumer to quantify a price, hard to quantify quality. You've outlined that you use high quality materials, but if you put the same part in an average persons hand - one high quality, one low quality and polished up, people won't know or understand the difference, which is unfortunate but a reality. It takes time to build that high quality brand, and I hope you guys get achieve it.
But at the end of the day everyone, if you like your Maverick, and want to see innovation, money has to be on the table. And don't go cheap chinese garbage for those parts that your life, your loved ones, and other people on the road depend on.
But at the end of the day everyone, if you like your Maverick, and want to see innovation, money has to be on the table. And don't go cheap chinese garbage for those parts that your life, your loved ones, and other people on the road depend on.
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- Thread starter
- #51
Well said. You’re right, most people won’t see the difference. I can say though on our full blown suspensions, especially for people that have done various adjustable coilover type suspensions; they can feel the weight and quality of our parts. We have technical data (shock and spring dynos) to back up our quality.
One thing that will always baffle me; people will scrape the bottom of the barrel to save money on a suspension component - a component that could suffer catastrophic failure at highway speed. To me, that’s equivalent to price shipping for the lowest cost parachute. “This parachute is $700, but this one (made in China) on eBay is $26..” As I said before, there’s a reason it’s that cheap, and its not in your favor.
Our business carries a large insurance policy. I don’t ever want to have to use it.
Like I said, I do understand price shopping, but moreso on a “can I find this exact thing cheaper somewhere else?” Our typical customer is looking at features and accomplishments, then price as a secondary in a sense of “is adjustable shock damping/ height for the added expense over non-adjustable?” There is an intersect between pricing on quality and then gouging. There is a point where price is just price to see how much one can get. On the reverse a company will engage a price war with the others just to sell more. They are then selling a price instead of a product. That’s where you get into cutting cost of goods to cut retail pricing, but even that intersects (shrinkflation) to higher price and gouging.
We’ve always prioritized innovation and quality. The price is what it is.
Amen. I assure everyone that I'm reluctantly cheap and often price shop for things when safety or damage isn't a concern. Suspension/brakes isn't an area to be cheap, and I've done a lot of suspension swaps on my previous road cars. I've never gone no name parts besides one time a budget brand lift kit, which wasn't good, shocks blew out quickly, and I wont use them again. Even things like springs may seem to have the same specs, but there's plenty of articles online where the spring rates from a set of no name chinese brand vary wildly.
I'll look into your products when I'm ready to lift the my maverick. I want to make sure I have no axle issues before doing a lift. Stay quality.
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- Thread starter
- #53
That spring variance you brought up is exactly why we compare spring dynos, 1. To verify that 250lb spring is 250lb, and 2. So we can closely match up a pair for consistency.
Was thinking of the front shaft lol.OEM Rear shock shaft is 11mm. These are also externally 11mm. Inside tapped to match the M8x1.25 threading, the stud on the end matches at M8x1.25
@Flatout Suspension - is this recommended to get with your existing 2" Maverick level kit that works for the 2WD Hybrid model? I'm just wondering why this isn't included in the existing kit or at the very least an option that goes with the kit if it is something recommended to get with your level kits.
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- Thread starter
- #56
If you lift the rear 40mm you'll find them to be beneficial. Some may not need them, so if it's included, they'd get installed and could give reverse results. Say, if you want stock rear height, but wanted to bring the front up to be level and you only got this kit for increased load capacity (overload/ DIY tow package), you'd end up bottoming out the shock sooner.
Under the product description is a link to add them to your order.
I know this is an old post but about the business and aftermarket support stuff dissapearing. Let me tell you as a real Maverick Man who built and hotrodded an old Maverick. Dont give up, and if you do make a crate full of parts an stick em in a barn somewhere. You will be getting calls 25 years from now from people willing to pay anything you want for those last remaining parts. Also keep your plans and specs. If you sell your business hang onto some information because people will be tracking you down in a nursing home for help with their restoration project. If you give them any little bit they are looking for they will stop bugging you while you are watching whatever the futures version of Matlock is.
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