Marlin Crawler's New Rock Crawling Long Travel IFS Suspension System (#RCLT)

@wrmathis on Nate’s IG

 

gotcha. figured it was over there and not on facespace

 

It's not heresay. Nate and Mike are buddies. Period.

Mike has been in multiple videos put out by Nate, dating back to Bleepin Jeep. And before Nate even owned a Tacoma.


The drive in orders. Requirement of payment up front, with the extreme swings in material costs. Is exactly why I think Marlin is going to end (probably badly) in the next 5 years.

The best thing that could happen (for the customers) is Trail Gear buys Marlin.

 

Didnt he say in the first video that he was only the second guy to get that kit, but in the second video he say he waited for a long time like everyone else?

 

I think he was talking about the width. His is wider than the currently available ones.

 

He's the second to get the 3.5 vs the 2.75 kit. Read this thread to see the timeline. Sorry but any clickbaity title like SAS is obsolete on 3rd gens is just dumb.

 

Just a question... does anyone have issue paying $7000 for a mild steel kit with rubber bushings and uses stock unit bearings?

 

Not if I can clear 37's on fire roads

 

Depends what RTT you’re running. I was also surprised big mike didn’t recommend coil bucket gussets at all and they’re bolting a stock unit bearing to a super beefed up fabbed spindle.

 

With 580:1 you won’t need it since you’ll never impact anything hard enough to cause a hard bump. Why weld when you can buy another Marlin product to solve the problem of needing gussets.

 

Well, mostly because it's really hard to buy Marlin products. Get that welder out. lol

 

Look out, looks like JD is doing the same thing - @EatSleepTacos being another influencer babying their mall crawler.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYhmMTuJCKW/

 

Ah shoot, you caught me.

 

Saves weight too. He probably daily drives in 580:1

 

That would partially explain the delays

 

No, (not on his Youtube) I've made some comments on his Insta. But I don't really have a dog in the fight. I'm 1st Gen and have no intention of going 2nd or 3rd. I highly doubt this kit will ever be available for 1st Gen. And I have no intention of ever giving my money to Marlin Crawler for anything.

Only reason I'm interested is I saw what happened with Pelfrybuilt and I'm sure hoping I'm wrong that it may have a good chance of happening again.

 

I don't doubt they are buddies but I can't prove one way or another if Mike was producing influencer kits with paying customers money.

I will say I bought Marlin sliders for my 4runner and the welds are pretty shit quality. I'm sure they are subbing out the work to the cheapest bidder. I imagine I will be cutting them off at some point and welding on better ones made of DOM. RCLT is such a premium kit, I honestly can't see them selling enough to keep them afloat while seemingly ignoring their bread and butter small/fab parts. I was shocked when I got the sliders and realized this is what they are putting their names on...

 

Check out DeMello

 

Please - can the mods put this thread out of it's misery

But on a more serious note, being in BFE Fresno, I don't think it puts them in a good labor market and hasn't helped them as it could have as much as if they were in a well populated area. Not an excuse still... ...but this thread is a smirch on the flawless section of this forum dedicated to bad decisions, better than horrible welds, builds that get sold as soon as they're finished, etc.

 

Been ordering Marlin stuff since 2006 and they have always sucked when you want to give them money and they refuse to take it LOL!! It was a right of Toyota rockcrawling passage sitting on hold for hours waiting to get a hold of someone there. My crawl box blew up 1 week before a trip in 2008 (my fault, install error) and I paid to overnight morning delivery on a bearing from CA to IL, and I call them 2 days later with "where the fucks my bearing, get put on hold and got the "what t shirt size are you? We forgot to ship the part". They did refund me shipping though and still overnighted it. It got to the point where I had to call inchworm to buy Marlin parts from them for a mark up but I needed them ASAP. Marlin was sold out, inchworm had them, this was before they were owned by trail gear. They also let me jump to the front of the 3month waiting line for a rebuilt trans when mine exploded and my truck was still a DD, so that was cool.

I have a love hate relationship with that company, it's like having a slutty 10/10 ex, you get burned evreytime but keep going back because they have what you want. They don't deliver, fuck you over and you regret it, repeat LOL!!