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

It's certainly rushed. It's like an episode of Road Kill with a better starting vehicle.

 

You’re not wrong

 

I kinda like the wrap but Want to see not video edited.
I question his idea for making the Bilstiens work. I guess maybe as a temp setup but not to hammer on at KOH.

 

Did you see what Rudy (MORR) did for his XJ before winter 4x4 expo

 

The difference here is Rudy wheeled his rig. Shitty geometry and all. lol

 

I would say also he straight up trolled himself and admitted to everything being temporary

 

Flex ramp

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZQIPd1PE5U/

 

A week's difference. Ballsy not running any skid plates

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZYTMiTL9oz/

 

Hahahahahaha the roll steer on that thing is spectacularly bad.

 

Not only short links but on a terrible angle. The axle side mount should be above the centerline of the axle if the frame side is going to be so high

 

I usually like nate's stuff, but if those links are shorter or similar length to stock 4runner links, then that would be a major L

 

Link length definitely isn’t a one size fits all approach. Wheelbase and angle plays a big factor. If links get too long and start to get close (or beyond) the center of the truck some weird stuff starts to happen with chassis control. Plus they will bend and hang up easier. Longer links will help flatten the angle out though, which is a huge positive.. so it’s all a compromise at the end of the day. My front links ended up around 39” and they’ve been perfect for my application

 

Undergrounds stuff is nice he seems to have a lot of kinks worked out for WIY kits

 

He isn’t cheap at all though and there’s guys with serious fitment issues with the kits too. I get what he’s doing but it’s a tough space to exist in on charging a serious premium to theoretically avoid the cutting and grinding required to make generic link brackets work. I think my Barnes kit was less than $600 with heims and brackets included. 4WU wants $1100 for just brackets and like $500 for shock towers

 

When there's fitment issues from what I've seen is he takes care of them and then works with those that did have issues to correct his kits so they don't have issues on future batches and stops production until it's corrected. The rest is an apples to oranges comparison. I could say man 600 is expensive when I can buy all the tube and plate and make all my own stuff for a lot cheaper than that. A more fair comparison would be the kit that's under the rear of my XJ to 4wu. After seeing a 4wu and having the XJ both kits are similarly priced and the 4wu kit is a lot better thought out and quality is a bit nicer. Time is also a valuable commodity to many people and spending all the time and energy into researching suspension, geometry, set up for generic stuff, etc. may not be worth it to them so buying a kit that a lot of that is already done and minimal install time compared to a completely generic kit is better suited for them.

 

Oh I get that time is money but 4WU’s fitment issues cost time too. I don’t totally blame him, or Marlin for having fitment issues. There are a million variables in a build at a certain level and things will have to be modified to work depending on the application. What I have an issue with is them marketing a product that doesn’t exist as pain free as advertised and charging a huge premium compared to other vendors that are more transparent in the work required.

JD is on here being fully transparent about the work required with their stuff and Marlin is hiding behind a bunch of marketing fluff. 4WU isn’t much different in my eyes, he got called out on some BS marketing here and deleted posts instead of backing things up when @malburg114 pointed out that he was blatantly pitching lies with his kit’s capabilities.

 

$600 ain't that much for materials these days

 

Local guy to me has had nothing but issues with his 4wu kit. Kit claims 6 inches of uptravel and all this other stuff on a stock frame. Go look at my build and see what I did to get the same thing he’s claiming. Now this poor guy local to me is in over his head and debating whether settles for 2 inches of uptravel on 15k custom axles and 5k In brackets from 4wu or chop if all up and make it work (which he has admitted he doesn’t have the skills or knowledge to do).

he nought the kit and diamond axles. Waited a year and half for it all thinking it’s cut off the ifs. Weld this stuff on and to have fun which it is far from. Granite Brian does answer his questions but sometimes it takes over a week for a response. Time is money and that’s not a way to treat a customer in my eyes.

I did all my own work and made my own brackets so I understand what it takes and companies are constantly hiding facts about what it actually takes to achieve a lot of these builds. I’ve asked questions and tried to buy from these companies and ultimately got turned off by poor customer service and shady answers and just asking for my credit card info.

 

Fitment issues always cost time which sucks. I haven't seen 4wu advertise anything close to what marlin does, if you don't actually read beyond the headlines it can be misleading though, which I'll go back to that person shouldn't be buying it. Go look at the XJ stuff for linking the rear they all say it's bolt on, and to be fair there is still a lot left on the table when it comes to geometry and set up. Only bolting you're doing is the front crossmember and links. The rest is all welded, fitted, set up, measured, etc. I don't have 1st hand experience with 4wu and the times buying or putting together their stuff just that I've seen there be issues he's publicly said so and made posts (IG) and such to correct it. There could be more idk. Just stating what I've seen. I didn't see 4WUs posts on here so I can't comment to that just recently what I've seen.

As far as Marlin hiding behind marketing fluff 100% agree I've been on that train since a yr before first production pre-order peeps when I got an email eluding to paying up front for a kit that still isn't even available (3.5" kit). The rack was another, god awful CS, etc. Everytime I see people but those LCA gussets I cringe and wish someone else made them because it just keeps him in business that much longer.

I do have a lot more respect for JD than pretty much all other manufacturers for any of this kind of stuff for what you're saying. It's why I have idk over 10k worth of their stuff ready to go on the truck. You don't see very many manufacturers doing what they do these days and as actively as they do it. I went with them over several other choices because of this factor. Even if I don't agree with some of what Harry and crew does or their thoughts on certain things it hasn't steered me away because of that transparency.

 

I hope the owner of that hotmetalfab truck doesn't plan on crawling with it, those lower link mounts are going to be boat anchors. Pretty obvious none of the people involved in that truck actually have experience crawling LWB IFS vehicles.