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

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wonder when pricing will be available. I'm still curious about the base model kit. With it only consisting of control arms maybe it won't be horribly expensive

 

Same. I'm in the market for UCAs and am wondering if I should wait and go beef or just throw on some SPCs and keep trucking.

 

Depends on what your timeline looks like. Marlin has never been known for expediency. The MarRack was mentioned last year and the LT kit alluded to. They've now made a semiformal announcement but no pricing or release date. That was probably 90 days ago at this point . I don't even think the OP has been back in this thread since early March. I would be amazed if we saw kits ship out this calendar year.

 

My time frame is: How long it takes to save money. But you know how it goes, when the money gets in hand it's hard not to buy. One weekend of OT covers SPCs and I'd like to get them on before the tires wear out so I can go up in size and install my 887s onto the 5100s I currently have. the RCLT sounds awesome but I'm sure it would be a tax refund + more in cost. Maybe one day. I'll probably have to buy a daily before I go crazy with the truck since Daily-ing 40's and LT might be a bit much.

 

I'd look for your upper arms used, then when you can upgrade do so, then you can sell the uppers for what you bought them for....

 

As long as they aren't beat to piss. If I had to buy a used set then turn around and buy new joints for them I'd be at a loss.

 

@BigMike Any updates on release and pricing?

 

Hello TW!

Thank you for all the continued replies. No updates to pricing or availability, but I will be updating the thread during the next week with the completion of my second/V2.0 RCLT HD prototype

More to come soon, thanks!

Regards,
BigMike

 

Is that gonna be a "here's the changes we made" update or a "here's the changes we made and perspective pricing/availability" update?

 

Thanks Mike!!!

 

Its alive....ITS ALIVE!!!

 

Welp, I need a new front suspension, and this is looking pretty sweet, and more in line with my truck, so... Pricing and availability will be much appreciated soon...

 

Haha just tell me how much I’ll be in debt already!

 

Former.

 

That's my expectation as well. But I hope for the later. It could change the way I proceed with the next batch of mods to the truck. Looking at a Dana 60 rear and retubbing the front of my truck for the new backspacing on my wheels. If I can decide on this kit before hand I might be able to skip the tub job and I'll order the Dana 60 to have a matching width. If I start that process before the kit is released then no LT for me.

 

BigMike, thanks so much for starting this thread. It has been an honor to partner with You and Marlin Crawler on your RCLT kit.
For those who don't know me, I'm the owner of Steel City Racing and one of two individuals that has had the pleasure of "real world" testing the new Marlin Crawler RCLT kit. The other person is Robert Otwell who helped me with all major custom fabrication on our Steel City Racing 4602 King of the Hammers build. I mention Robert because he has 10x the desert racing and rock crawling experience that I have.


Let me cut to the chase. This RCLT Kit is solid. It's provides unmatched ground clearance, strength, and performance. There isn't anything else like it on the market today. BigMike poured his Heart, Soul, and Experience into this product and it just plain performs.


Now, let me get to testing. For full disclosure, BigMike asked me to be fully transparent and honest in my review.
When the 4602 was finally ready for testing, both Robert (at a much faster pace than I was capable of) and I put it through Rough Desert terrain and some Moderate to Difficult Rock Crawling. Our rear suspension is an amazing RockSolidToys 4-Link setup. Unfortunately our rear is limited by 4600 Ultra4 Class rules, specifically a large crossmember in front of the rear axle that we cannot touch that limits us by 3-4" of uptravel.

We run 2.5" Icon Coilovers in the front (Remote Reservoir and CDCV) and Icon Progressive Rate Coils and 2.5" Shocks in the rear (Remote Resevoir and CDCV). We also have the first set of RCV Gen II Front Axle Shafts with the stock Toyota 8" Diff (4.56 Gears, ARB Locker, and MarlinCrawler internal upgrades) than can handle up to 28 degrees of operability and 40" tires. We have a Dynatrac ProRock 60 in the rear that is setup by RockSolidToys.

The RCLT kit performed so well that our rear suspension, albeit it's limitation noted above, actually struggled to keep up. We were not expecting this - and neither was Icon who was hoping we had 30% more Rear Travel than Front Travel.

The front end floated over the rough desert and flexed really well in the rocks. So much that we actually had to stiffen the front Icon Coilovers to hold the front back a little to balance it with our Ultra4 Rule limited rear suspension.


Our prototype is still being intentionally limited. Unfortunately our front Icon Coilovers were so big in diameter that we had to limit 3-4" of downtravel with a limit strap to keep the coils from hitting the spindle. With this spindle "tweak", our RCLT travel is going to be even better.


Now, let's get to the race. If you check out our build thread (http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=103102.0), you will see a ton of pictures and videos of the RCLT kit in action. Spectators said it looked like we were "floating" through the rough stuff. We were 2x smoother and faster than all the Solid Axle guys in desert. We never made it to the rocks, but our testing on numerous Hammers trails during pre-running the 2-3 days before the race proved the suspension flexed and performed really well in the rock crawling environment. Obviously more testing is needed in the rocks though.


Fast forward to Mile 25. We experienced a steering connection failure at KOH that took us out of the race. If you know Ultra4, you know that we are literally "strapped in" beyond belief inside our Cage, 5-Point Harnesses, Neck Restraints, Fire Suits, and Helmets. Simply put, we cannot see all that well and are trying to go FAST.


About an hour or an hour and a half into KOH EMC Lap 1 (75% of the total EMC mileage is in Lap 1) and many miles of rough terrain tackled, we were stuck behind a big blue 4600 Ford that was blocking our visibility. I mis-judged a rock that we honestly never "truly saw" and took a hit it on our passenger front tire at speed. We felt the vehicle hit fairly hard and our steering started to act funny. The picture above is the final result - our steering tie rod end sheared off the spindle connection a few yards later and took us out of the race.


Could this section be stronger? Yes, absolutely. Should I have avoided that rock? Of course. Will the RCLT be able to take the impact after the revisions above are made. Hopefully!

BigMike wanted his product tested in the most grueling venue possible - KOH. It's is the ultimate race to reveal any potential weak points before a product hits the market. That's what R&D is all about. Mission accomplished. It's also worth of noting that I contacted 4-5 other Long Travel Front Suspension Manufactures early in the build process and none were willing to put their product on a KOH bound vehicle. They all stated that their systems weren't "made for KOH level abuse".

So, what's next?
Within minutes of me sending pictures of the damage to BigMike from the lakebed where we were towed after the break, he was already working on ideas and improvements to the RCLT kit. From my perspective, the only "enhancements" that I can foresee are:
1) Strengthening the connection point for the Steering End to Spindle to avoid any future failures at this connection point.
2) Reinforcing the Lower A-Arm with a gusset at the rear lower side for potential high speed impact.
3) Shaving the width of the spindle in the middle areas to avoid contact with large diameter 2.5" coilovers, thereby gaining anoterr 3-4" of downtravel
4) Shaving a little more material off the lower Coilover mount on the A-Arm so large Gen II RCV boots clear it easily at 28 degrees.

That's it. Nothing else is needed.


Our RCLT kit is on our 4602 car in my garage as we speak. The MarRack to this day still works like new and took a lot of abuse helping get us out of that canyon with only one wheel steering. The tie rod ends are as stout as they get and didn't flinch at impact. The Upper A-Arm is solid. The Lower A-Arm and Spindle will be perfect after these small tweaks mentioned above. And the steering connection can be and will be strengthened.

In reality, Robert, Justin Reece, our pit crew team, and I were expecting many more problems with a "First Of It's Kind" Prototype like the RCLT kit. Everyone who drove it and everyone who worked on it (including Justin Reece and Our Pit Crew Team, who won 4600 this year) were more than impressed. It is extremely well envisioned, engineered, and built and only minor tweaks are needed before it's ready for market.


I am honored and excited to have been given the opportunity to run and test the RCLT kit and MarkRack on our 4602 car. And I'm equally as excited to help BigMike make these enhancements and get the RCLT kit to Market.

If further proof is needed of our commitment to Marlin Crawler and the RCLT Kit / MarRack setup, we will be proud to run the newly enhanced RCLT v2.0 kit on our 4602 car again in the 2020 King of the Hammers with a goal of finishing the race.


If you are considering this kit, IMO it's the ONLY Long Travel IFS Suspension and Steering setup capable of withstanding King of the Hammers level Desert Racing and Rock Crawling abuse while providing optimal performance in any terrain you could possible encounter. But it's also still in development, so you'll need to be patient on the full release.

Please feel free to ask me any questions in this thread or PM me for more details.

 

Well, can I order one fairly soon? I believe the testing. I would rather not go stupid wide, and fully intend to jump the daylights out of my truck, but yet still be able to trail ride it. My initial goal was to build my own suspension, but time takes its toll. So this kit looks to be a phenomenal option!