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

Lol no one brings spare shocks on a trail but if you have to bring a spare ORI then it’s already a problem.

My buddy blew a lower shock mount in Moab, he just unbolted the upper shock mount and threw it in the back and kept going. Wouldn’t happen with ORIs but as mentioned above lots of things break.

There is no empirical data of failure rates, unfortunately they aren't as common as traditional coilovers so there is a big gap in data.

While KOH is a good benchmark for racing most of us need to be able to rock crawl Johnson Valley or Moab and be able to drive 10k-15k miles/year on the same shocks, something Ultra4 cars dont have to do. That being said, every major shock company participates, King, Fox, ADS, etc but they still have shock failures, just because Fox is on an Ultra4 car doesn't mean your Tacoma fox shocks won't fail in under 5,000 miles (true story, seals leaked in under 5k). A lot of race shocks utilize Viton seals but guess what happens to viton seals when you arent hammering through a desert...they leak. Anyways, my point is a specialized racing event should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

Maybe it was the setup but the jeep I drove that had ORIs was the tippiest (made that word up or spelled it wrong) feeling thing I've ever driven. It was bad as F but anti-sway is sure as fuck wasn't.

 

Yup. Anyone buying race spec parts, or buying parts based on KOH, for a street driven rec wheeler is not smart. Anything racing means shit loads of maintenance and replacing parts before they wear out and money is almost no object.

 

I have never heard of anti-sway characteristics withs ORIs, everyone is still running sway bars.

 

What's a sway bar?

 

That thing you disconnect or remove for offroading ha. You can have mine!

 

As someone who use to race, I 10000% agree. We got shit for free all the time depending on the sponsorship. You better believe with how expensive it is to run those guys are looking for any little help they can get. I could care less what jimmy is running in his xyz ultra 4 or so and so is running in his WEroc crawler when they are being paid or getting that stuff for free.

 

ORIs if not tuned properly tend to unload at very weird times and have some pretty quirky things with them.

 

This was on a shitbox with 44s and hydro steering so that probably was the case.

 

"Dual-pressurized chambers that provide for unmatched body roll stability in fast turns and on off-camber side hills. Set them to mid-stroke ride height and you can still control body roll without pushing off."

 

My jeep resembles that remark too, and I affectionately refer to it as my shitbox.

 

Sounds like we agree that anything can fail and having a contingency plan is always the best option. The ORI's are easy to self service so I have spare seals with me.

 

Definitely how they were set up.

 

I made the reference to KOH in jest to the comment of them being "OK". My logic is that someone isn't going to invest extreme amounts of time and money into a race just to use parts prone to premature failure.

The endless sniper attitude standing by to shoot down any comment is very off putting. Just give constructive feedback where it is suitable. I decided to go a different route than everyone else. I've paid the price so far in terms of getting the damn things to fit. So far I am happy with the results. If you don't like my choices that is your opinion, but to say I wasn't smart about it is far from the truth because I spent a hell of a lot of time analyzing my options.

 

those pics with the forklift look great - looks like a good decision to me, and I am looking forward to seeing a few pics of that in the dirt.

 

The RCLT isnt compatible with sway bars.

 

The jeep I was referring to was so awesome! You could point it at anything and it effortlessly went over it. It almost took the fun out of it.

 

You bring nitrogen bottles with you?

 

Yeah I'm hoping mine will be at that point eventually. What makes it fun is if I break, loose a window, dent it up, or roll it, it gets loaded up and taken home and I'm not stressing, upset, or bothered by any of it.

 

Thanks! No dirt pics yet, but here are a couple from the first test run where we ended up in the sand. The truck performed very well on road and high speed dirt roads with lots of bumps. The one thing I am concerned about and need to ask Marlin, is that the steering is very heavy. It is manageable, but heavy.