RCD RANGER 4" coilover kit for "4x4" !! | Page 7 | Ford Explorer Forums

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RCD RANGER 4" coilover kit for "4x4" !!




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Originally posted by sirhk100
From the inside I'm still curious whose brilliant Idea it was to let the public know about it and display it at the show. They should have known that this was one of their most involved developments and therefore should not release it to public till they can actually guarantee a release date. That's hard to do though seeing as how magazines are usually months away from press at the time info is conveyed to them.

Actually they brought it to the show literally hours after it was finished. And I happened to have brought my camera. The marketing dept. knows me as "that guy who took pics at the show." Actually, some of them know me by name now because I call so much. They told me that my photos were a double edged sword for them. On one hand I stoked the fires more than they could have done on their own in such a short time, but on the other, they have coaught wind that the competition has new Ranger kits in the works now. So it looks like I kinda opened a can of worms...although I did get free RCD stickers and a cooler cup. :rolleyes:

--Sean
 






Good job Sean. Keep callin and buggin them to get it out sooner. I know, I read the previous statements but I want one bad.
 






The competition was also at the SEMA show don't forget. The products are there to be photographed and reviewed by the media so it should have come as no surprise to RCD.

Trail Disaster I mean Trail Master... Did the same thing a few years back. They introduced their 4" kit for the Explorer and said it would be available in 3 months. Well over a year later they finally released a kit after recieving tons of calls and e-mails from folks wanting to buy their kit. Superlift did the same thing. Their kit was finally released over a year from it's initial introduction.

Funny, they could produce a dozen kits to put on all of the Explorer Sport Trac's at the 2000 SEMA show, but they couldn't build any for the public for another year... go figure.

As far as RCD not wanting to market their kit for Explorers all I can say is the top guys are wimps. Sorry Khris... I know it's not you making those decisions. Ya know for a FACT that more lifted Jeeps will roll offroad and on just because there are more lifted Jeeps out there. Statistics... That's why more Explorers are involved in on the road rollovers than other SUVs. They have sold more Explorers in the past 10 years than practically all the other SUVs combined so statistically more will be in rollovers.

NHSTA already cleared the Explorer and said it is no more likely to roll than any other SUV. That should be all RCD needed to hear to market the kit for the Explorer.

BTW, Khris... did the guy who was at Tierra Del Sol a couple weeks ago mention that I showed him several of our Explorers and I asked about you?
 






Originally posted by sirhk100
No problem have the guy reengineer them, maybe 2 days work max, then half a day for me and were rolling right? WRONG AGAIN!! That truck actually belongs to Bilstein. It the truck that they cruise around in and do on sight valving and testing with race teams and customers. It's also their main show truck right now. We would only need the stupid thing for a couple days max but they've got it booked work solid for next month or two.

This is a bad business decision waiting for the Bilstein truck. You will lose customers quick whether you have the better product or not. You know they could get a volunteer vehicle easily, but they won't. It's just like being a parent. You don't want to lose your children's respect. The easiest way to lose it is to promise things you can't deliver.
I won't wait forever. Time to look at Superlift again.

Regards,
John
 






I do agree with you Aquaman... I am (and many others are too) wanting a lift real soon. Not saying I have all of the $$ set aside, but I could figure it out if I had a product and time line :) And with the Superlift kit for Sport Trac's running at $1600+ It's not like I will save money by going with the Superlift. I am real surprised that RCD top management doesn't read this thread (in it's entirety) and decide that they CAN benefit seriously from this kit (and maybe even sell some stock to boot ;) ) Sheesh, if they ran the military the same way, we would be flying prop planes and complaining that the Nazi's won't let us borrow a plane for our own uses yet. Oh wait, I fly in a prop plane :D Well, you know what I mean.
 






Well, all I know is that when it finally comes out, I will be one of the first to get it. I still think I am going to go with the T-bar kit. Mostly because I want something bolt on since I have a 5 year extended warrenty. The less they can ***** about the better. However, the longer they wait, the more money I save. Who knows, maybe I'll be putting down cash for the lift and tires when it finally come out, lol. And maybe it'll be on the c/o kit. But trust me, for those of you waiting for the kit like me, you have no better advocate than myself. I will bug 'em till it comes out. And keep posting info as I get it.

--Sean
 






Talked to RCD today. The sales guy informed me that the production date is middle of May and he thought that it would cost less than 2K. As far as lifting the rear, the kit will include some blocks or add a leafs. He also stated that the lift is being labeled for the rangers and not the explorers, due to all of the negative publicity that the explorers recieved throughout the gov. investigation. The kit will have everything including the bilsteins, extended brakelines, etc.....

I also asked about the effect of having the 5.0 V8 and he informed that it should not be a problem, that you might have to dail-up the PSI on the shocks a touch.

Hope this helps,

-Luke
 












BLAH! who plans on lifting a explorer or any truck 5.5" and riding on skinny firestones?? what BS. any taller vehicle is prone to rollover moreso than stock. just get wider wheels and non fstone tires. duh! Their marketing aint too smart. oh well.... May is good :)
 






Things to consider if you buy a Ranger FX4 and have plans to mod it with the RCD lift kit:

1. You will be trading the Bilstein shocks that came with the FX4 for the ones that come with the RCD kit. Ok, just sell then on Ebay then.
2. You then might want to go with bigger/wider tires. If you go up to 35" tires, you will probably want 15x10 wheels. Which means changing the fancy ones that came with the FX4 package with some other fancy ones. I guess you'll be using Ebay again to sell the original tires and wheels. Are the FX4 wheels 15x8? You can fit 35" tires on a 15x8 wheel, but you will get a better offset with 15x10 wheels. The higher you make your ride the farther out you want your wheels.

Just a couple of things to ponder.

But who am I to talk. :shoot:
I bought my Sport Trac with the fancy 16" wheels and recently changed to 15x10 and 35" tires. But, at least I had gone about 38,000 miles on the original ones.

I keep piling up the stuff I take off my Sport Trac as life goes on:
- Airbox, Shackles, Anti-sway bars, Waag Brush Guard, Fog lights, original carriage bolts, and various pieces of plastic that get trimmed off.
 






Should be no problem selling the 15x7 Alcoas and BFGs that come with a FX4. My EX came with 16s too but I made the mistake of getting new American Racing neptune 16x8 polished rims. Wish I would have known to go 15. 16+ is so much more expensive.

anyways 01 EXs, STs and rangers have slightly larger front wheel wells or whatever. Us 95-00 would have to remove the factory flares and hack off extra tupperware to get 35s to fit.......


EXs gonna have to swap the rear shocks and blocks that come with the kit also thanks to RCD marketing. But its all good. Whoever is first with this kit on a EX should send them a nice pic....
 












Whatever name they put on the kit, it should need little adaptation to my Sport Trac. When you look at the front ends of a Ranger and Sport Trac, they look exactly the same.

I'll admit I had to hack a bit of my inner fender wells for the 15x10's with 35" tires, but they are soooooooo worth it! Besides I needed to get rid of some weight since I went from alloy wheels to steel wheels. LOL :eek: :eek:
 






Why buy a truck just to get a sponser for a lift? That doesn't make any sense at all. Unless you are in the market for a new truck, then it makes sense. These guys have a point though, why yank off all that custom stuff just to put on a lift. Buy a cheap Ranger and do it to that, why waste money?

Aquaman, sweet trac! how do you like the rims. I had a set a sold in a month, nobody could balance them.

I was looking at your page and I figured I'd give you a heads up on the Powertrax no-slip. The Explorer part doesn't fit the ST carrier. My guess is that the Ranger one will. I had to call Powertrax to get mine. Not sure when you will be in the market for one, but I thought I'd tell you before you bought it and found out the hard way. One of the other members here bought one and found out that way.

Looks nice....
 






Originally posted by 2001ExpSport
Aquaman, sweet trac!
Thanks!

Originally posted by 2001ExpSport
how do you like the rims. I had a set a sold in a month, nobody could balance them.
Huh? Mine balanced fine. I must have over 2000 miles on them now.

Originally posted by 2001ExpSport
I was looking at your page and I figured I'd give you a heads up on the Powertrax no-slip. The Explorer part doesn't fit the ST carrier.
Thanks for the heads up. If Eaton doesn't get their E-locker going for our EXs soon, Powertrax will be the way to go for me.

Thanks again,
John
 






Originally posted by advncap
Talked to RCD today. The sales guy informed me that the production date is middle of May and he thought that it would cost less than 2K. . .
It better be earlier than that. . .I want to have this on before Moab :bounce: :bounce:
 












I'm an Explorer owner as well but if I was the owner of a up and coming suspension company I honestly don't think I'd be marketing to Explorers either after all the negative publicity. Rick, I'm sure you'd love it if you were the owner of a suspension company and then some idiot sued you and took everything you worked hard for on the basis that you supplied the equipment to raise the center of gravity on a vehicle that has a reputation like the Explorer. Think about loosing everything!!! I think there's a lot of time involoved in what trucks they are marketing the kits to for different reasons. Also, I'm just the one and only production engineer there. I take a prototype kit and produce all the necessary info for our production floor or any production floor for that matter to produce thousands of them. I'm not in marketing and I don't decide what kits will be released when. I can tell you that as soon as they get the changes made on the kit it will be out pretty soon cause I don't foresee it being more then a day or two of work for me to finish up and then it's up to the production schedule as to when they start cranking on it.

BTW I'm voluntarily offering up all this info that I've posted on the board. I honestly don't know if I'd get in trouble for posting this stuff from my work or not so I may be taking a chance just providing you with the info I have.

Also, a lot of the stuff I've written here is truth to the best of my knowledge and some of it is also opinion. Take it as you will.

For those that want a lift now for your Explorer go buy one. I can guarentee that the kits out on the market right now won't even compare to the handling that ours will provide in the front because of the coilover shocks alone. Also, I don't know what our competitors are working on either. Are they doing coilover kits also? When is theirs going to be released? I don't know how many of you have experience with high performance coilovers but comparing the stock torsions to a set of specifically valved bilstein coilovers would be a joke!! Also, I don't know about the price of the kit but I can tell you that I just bought some Sway-A-Way coilovers for a freinds truck with a racer discount and they were $650 for the pair. Bilstiens are better quality then those and we include those in our kit.

Comparing us to the government, HAH!! Once again, we're a private company that wants to produce the best product we can. We set a time line but don't stick to it. I know for a fact that we could produce the kit right now but the owner and designers, as well as me, weren't completely satisfied and thought some changes would be an improvment so off it goes for more reengineering. If you want a cheap kit that will get you buy but also may be built with short cuts go buy Pro Comp. I can say from the kit that my friend has on his Ranger (I-Beam style) to whats on my Explorer, it's a joke!!

Once again, A LOT of this reply is my PERSONAL opinion. Desert Spive and others that saw the kit first hand seem to realize that it's a good quality lift that's worth waiting for. Heck, look at any of the kits on the Chevy's and Ford's rolling around, there are small details engineered in there that put us a step ahead of everyone else. That's why we are exploding, the shops see this too and push or stuff over our competitors.
 



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Originally posted by sirhk100
I can tell you that I just bought some Sway-A-Way coilovers for a freinds truck with a racer discount

:D umm can you set us up with a racer discount?

Dude thanks for the insider updates and such. It keeps me patient. have any updates on the shock hoops? any more pics of the test truck?
 






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