Al Dustan said:
Well these arms look nice. As far as pricing I will not comment. I will say that ball joints, and bushings cost a less than the 3 peice chromoly, teflon lined heims that I use. These are not economy heims and any one who says they are is full of it. As far as strength again I will glady put my arms against his. I am glad to see competition for these kits.
OK, I was gonna hold my tongue but since you bring it up - lets compare. I ordered a front suspension kit from you on April 7. This kit had already been designed and was running on one or more vehicles. After almost 7 months of waiting, having numerous promised delivery dates pass, hearing numerous excuses, then getting billed for the full balance ("it will ship today or tomorrow") and still nothing for over a month, I cancelled my order in late October. In 3 weeks Dennis designed, built, and in the process made assembly jigs for the a-arms, had them powdercoated and ready for installation. He could easily run off 20 or more sets and have them all shipped within 2 weeks, probably less. The PEP kit uses OEM alignment adjustments, factory style mounts for the ABS cable, and OEM style ball joints and poly bushings. This makes for an extremely strong suspension which is easy to live with. It saves 80 lbs over stock and that includes heavy (relatively since they're chromemoly) a-arms and retaining the crossmember behind the torsion bar support - Dennis did not feel it was worth the weight savings to remove it - instead he unrivited it, moved it back a couple of inches, and welded it solidly in place. Now it's possible to drop the tranny and transfer case from the truck as a unit if necessary.
Does it really matter which Heim joints your using? The strength of the Heim lies in the long axis (pulling or pushing along the length of the tubing the Heim is attached to). It is not designed to be used to control forces perpendicular to the long axis. It is *extremely unusual* to see such a configuration used in the front suspension of a street vehicle let alone a high performance truck. Your design is *similar* to some circle track stuff but those cars are much lighter, travel on smooth surfaces, crash often, and are made to be taken apart and put together on a regular basis. But those "monoball" setups are not just Heims, but steel encased Heim's that do not come apart easily - a heim is a semicircular piece moving in a cup and can fairly easily be popped apart. Dennis dismissed the use of Heims or monoballs within a very short time during the planning phase. The small amount of weight savings is simply not worth the loss in strength in this application. BTW Dennis also uses the teflon-lined Heims - with the Seals-It washers to seal out dirt - in the rear 4-link where they belong.
I could go on and on but what's the point? You say you're happy for the competition - in what sense does your stuff compare? Design? Weld quality? Strength? Performance? Ease of alignment? Ability to deliver when promised? Value? I don't think so. Dennis was disappointed when he saw the pictures of your stuff - he was up for a little competition...didn't see any. If I were you I wouldn't comment on the price either - for the same price as your kit the PEP kit delivers a much better product.
I notice you didn't mention the rear suspension setup - did you want to compare DPT's to PEP's there too?
