Stupid Flex-A-Forms

[Silly]

Another member who I was venting to last night told me I wasn't the only one who had told him this story.

On the drivers side flex-a-form it has a stress fracture/crack on the back aluminum plate. I didn't get pics but I will next time I am there. If you look at the passenger side you can see the stress marks in the exact same location on that one, but it hasn't cracked.

These have been on the truck for maybe 4 years but have about a 1/4 mile total driving miles.

Anyone else? What did you end up using? I liked them because of weight so much for that.

Meant to put in suspension forum, sorry.

 

[SYO237]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

I have never heard a long term success story with flex-a-forms...ever.

In the end they are fiberglass. Over time, fiberglass glass becomes brittle and flexing just amplifies that stress. It doesnt matter if the truck is driven a ton or not at all. If you put the load on them and they dont move, they still crack and break due to glass sitting in one position for so long when you do put a flex in them, they pop. Even the opposite happens. I think it was Sean Morris who has his Sy up in the air for quite some time with brand new flexs on it. The moment he put the truck on the ground, one of them snapped in half.

I would never put them on my truck even if someone gave them to me free and offered to install them.

There is a company who I have made contact with about a glass that does stand up to flex (when I fix/make surfboards, or do CF work). They are still somewhat new and developing the product, so not sure on any long term effects....but it would be interesting to see this technology be developed and used in the flex-a-forms. I'd have to dig out their info again to get the name. Maybe I can tell them to contact flex-a-form to try out their product

Not that I really just helped this post in answering what the alternative is, so Im interested to see the responses.

 

[GarnetTy1473]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Mark (Maxtor) had one crack on him, and his sees very little use, although hard use when it is. I think he just replaced them with new ones about a year ago.

 

[dgoodhue]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

I have never heard a long term success story with flex-a-forms...ever.

In the end they are fiberglass. Over time, fiberglass glass becomes brittle and flexing just amplifies that stress. It doesnt matter if the truck is driven a ton or not at all. If you put the load on them and they dont move, they still crack and break due to glass sitting in one position for so long when you do put a flex in them, they pop. Even the opposite happens. I think it was Sean Morris who has his Sy up in the air for quite some time with brand new flexs on it. The moment he put the truck on the ground, one of them snapped in half.

Late C3 and C4 Corvette's have transverse fiberglass spring's and they rarely fail. I never bothered with Flex-a-forms due to the relatively high failure rates.

 

[SYO237]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Late C3 and C4 Corvette's have transverse fiberglass spring's and they rarely fail. I never bothered with Flex-a-forms due to the relatively high failure rates.

Didnt know that, interesting. So I guess the question is, what was GM doing that Flex-a-form isnt?

 

[Poconojoe]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Astro / Safari vans have fiberglass leafs on lots of them and I've never seen one fracture. My conversion van came from the factory weighting over 5000 lbs and had them

 

[Maxtor]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Mark (Maxtor) had one crack on him, and his sees very little use, although hard use when it is. I think he just replaced them with new ones about a year ago.

I had the driver's side crack. They were on the truck since 1999... but only had about 5-6k miles. As JJ says, though, they saw their share of hard use and quite a few 10 sec passes. They rebound very well, are light weight, well mannered on the street, and for my application I think their life span was reasonable given the conditions I expose them to.

I did replace them with a new set this summer and have seen no issues since replacing them. Keep in mind steel springs may not crack, but they do lose all of their rebound properties. FWIW, though, I would not put these on a daily driver given some of the complaints I have heard.

 

[Silly]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Where has others cracked? Anyone got pics? Ill get some of my own as well

 

[Maxtor]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Where has others cracked? Anyone got pics? Ill get some of my own as well

Mine was right underneath the shackle plate.... stress fractures more than cracking but I wasn't willing to take the risk

 

[jhacking]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

I had the same problem with the first set of mine, so I drove down there, and the old man that is no longer living told me personaly that you cannot run a lowering block with the lowered leafs. Changed them out and have had no problems been on the truck for over 7 years.

 

[1BADV6]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Jamie,

Are you running the axle housing directly on the springs, without the tapered pinion angle plates? How about the plastic strip material he supplied to sandwich between the housing and spring?

thanks,

 

[Daveman2]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Yeah I have been running fiberglass leafs, and from working with it I could see how letting a springs sit with no weight on it for a long time cuz cause it to become brittle.

I think to verify these stories, we need a number of details.
1.Weather conditions? This is HUGELY important factor for how quickly they will deteriorate. Cold/Hot Moisture/salt etc.
2.Miles/Type of driving conditions

Other wise it's could be any number of things, it could be u-bolts rubbing, it could be bad bushings that cause poor geometry.

As stated plenty of cars have run OEM fiberglass springs, and even detroit springs states that composite leafs hardly ever should fail, so to claim they snap all the time isn't really based on much other than a few odd stories.

I beleive that they can fail, but I don't think we collectively have any sort of a clue of how often these break and why and under what conditions


As for my own pair, I'm waiting to see when they crack and examine them constantly. No problems yet.

 

[midnightbluS10]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Daron had one fail on his Ty, also.

 

[Daron]

Re: Stupid Flex-A-Forms

Daron had one fail on his Ty, also.

Whats sorta comical in a morbid sort of way is the other side failed while we were in hawaii. I open the garage upon returning and the Typhoon is now no longer listing to one side... Both sides are now on bump stops.
Jeff, send me springs!!