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

I admire you for being straight up and blunt.

customer service is everything... keeps customers coming back. Makes working class, blue collar customers spend 10k of money we dont have on a 30k truck we are currently still paying on.

I wanna see how marlin crawler address issues that arise with this system. Cause there will be problems. How they stand behind their product and how they make issues right quickly. Because right now I won’t even purchase the lca gussets.

 

I've watched this thread, as well as the JD thread both since day one. I now have the full JD kit on my truck and love it. They both are killer systems for sure. This thread has been going on for so long it's crazy, and a lot of people are pretty frosty at Marlin for stringing them along for so long. On one hand I agree, it was announced way too soon, and was drawn out way too long, with a lot of broken promises. But on the other hand, Marlin doesn't owe any of us anything (unless you put money down). They could take another 10 years refining this product if they wanted to, and unless you can develop and bring to production a system quicker, it's hard to judge.

I've been a business owner for a few years now, and it's super tough, with pressure on all sides. Nothing is ever easy. It probably would have been better to wait until version 3 of the prototype to start hyping it, but it's also scary investing so much into a product if you don't even know if there's a market for it.

I can appreciate that Marlin has invested a lot of time and money into making sure that this product is dialed before launch, whether I appreciate the "world's first" and "54% beefier" marketing strategy or not.

At the end of the day, these are truck parts that we use to go and play outside. Nothing to get too worked up about. I love my JD setup, and you can tell those guys are just doing what they love. They don't care about the marketing or any of that, they just build cool stuff cuz they like it, and let the product speak for itself. But I'm sure the MC kit is going to be really great as well, and whoever gets their hands on the kit will have a lot of fun with it, no doubt.

Edit: I also just want to add that nobody is perfect. I'm sure @BigMike and his team have learned a tonne through this entire process, and I would like to believe that they would do things differently if they did something like this again. We all have to learn, and sometimes the school of hard knocks is the only way. I just want to try and give them the benefit of the doubt. I know I've made mistakes for sure. It's all in how you make things right and move forward. But really, other than taking a lot longer than anybody (including and especially marlin I'm sure) expected, they haven't really done anything wrong to make right. We all act as if we are entitled to this product just because they said they were going to make it. I could see people being rightfully mad if everybody here had put down a couple grand deposit already, but as far as I know, that hasn't happened.

 

I see that the 200 series rack is being marketed as a simple bolt in with your installation parts but it only fits the geometry in the RCLT knuckles. Will you be selling just the “installation parts” for the steering rack separate from the whole kit? I’m assuming it involves an offset bushing set from what I am seeing.

 

I was really trying to stay out of this thread but since JD keeps getting brought up I’d like to address a few things.

First and foremost I would like to say I/we have been using Marlin products for decades (specifically R series transmissions for class 7s and 1450 race trucks) they even sponsored one of our race teams for years.

This whole RCLT thing is troubling to me for a number of reasons. We all know what’s gone on with the past delays, shit talking and failed promises but I’m past all that. The issue at hand is moving forward and how to save face for a great company. I really want to see @BigMike turn this around and gain back the consumer confidence that Marlin once had. After all the Tacoma market it huge and there is more than enough business to go around for everyone.

The biggest issue I have is the whole pre order business. In my opinion the ability to take preorders and charge customers ahead of time is something that is earned. At this point I believe Marlin has lost that privilege. My advice to Marlin would be to stop taking preorders, stop talking about the kit, marketing, hype etc and just produce a batch of RCLT kits. Once you have a batch of finished products then sell them. Taking money for preorders to me means one of two things. Either the company doesn’t have the capital to actually produce the products or they don’t have confidence that they will sell. I think it’s safe to say we all know the product will sell which takes me back to my first point. We all watched the pelfrey fiasco unfold and I really don’t want to see that become Marlins fate. The whole robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a good look. People might say why do I care??? That’s Marlins issue but the reality is it becomes an industry issue. It creates mistrust amongst customers and you end up having to do business with a bunch of jaded customers.

Other than the quality of product people have been doing business with JD for over 20yrs because the company is extremely financially stable... all the business assets are owned outright and there is more than enough working capital available. This is what gives people the confidence to spend money with a company... especially when they are spending $300k + for truck builds. I can write this message with confidence knowing if a customer ever has an issue with a product I can ship them a new one at no cost, no questions asked.

I hope everyone realizes this post isn’t meant to call marlin out rather to help guide them in the right direction for the betterment of the industry as a whole.

The world is full of marketing hype and BS... please, please keep that shit out of the off road community. Focus on producing great products with even better customer service and the rewards will always be great.

-Harry

 

Agreed. It’s a long term game

Well put and thank you for speaking clearly for all to hear and understand the implications of pre-orders and what that means.

looking forward to more great products from you guys!

 

It’s always a red flag when a company makes a claim with a negative proof. Lack of delivery on products is typically another red flag (e.g tacobox, tube bumpers, etc.) In any case, it’s all kind of moot when you don’t offer much post-1995...

 

So, who has ordered the kit?

 

Hahaha apparently no one on here because this thread is DEAD

 

Yeah its kinda funny with all the back and forth, the wait time since announced, I figured there would be some people who have already ordered all excited but this is the only thread I see and not one announcement. I don't believe the first batch has shipped yet because the installation procedure has not been posted yet. I guess we just wait and see...

 

Apparently the first batch has completed production and are shipping March or April but I would bet it’s mostly content creators looking for views and likes. Outside of that I doubt it will sell well due to its price point.

$7000 is a lot to spend on something that provides minimal benefit. By minimal I mean comparing it to the folks like myself and others who rock crawl our trucks on stock IFS with 35 and 37” tires without issue.

 

It is pricey but does look pretty beef. Stock IFS with 35" and 37" is still gonna be a lot of cutting at least and wont get the suspension travel like a long travel IFS. I like to crawl as well and have outgrown my mid travel on 33's. I wanted to go TONS but dont have the space to do it or the downtime required. Most people I go out with run TONS and 40's and its sad I cannot hit the same trails. I am considering this option for a DD, go with 37's then just get a real chassis down the road.

 

I wheel with guys on tons running 37s and 40s and we are all running the same trails. Some obstacles my truck better and vice versa, sometimes we have to take different lines but it’s totally doable. I’m not sure I want to run LT for crawling mainly because if you bust a CV you can’t just go to the local parts store and get a new one.

 

Yeah that’s the issue with LT.
Or go RCVs and possibly blow the front diff.. that would suck.

 

looks like humvee suspension except they use portal axles



There's some company that makes custom portal axles. Some have been used on Toyotas.
I wonder what it costs to make. Or if used parts can be made to fit.
And if there are any drawbacks, besides needing to change the gear oil inside the portal sometimes.
Like what affect the gears inside can have on the vehicle with things like possible reduction of MPG, careful choosing/matching of all ratios in the drivetrain to work together with each other, etc. - stuff that probably doesn't matter as much if still using a stock type axle shaft

 

The more oil you gotta run parts/gears through the more resistance and thus it'll affect power at the wheels and MPG. You'd be correct in saying at the hubs would have to match in gearing otherwise in 4x4 the wheels in the back would be spinning at a different rate than the front and that's how things break. At least those are my educated guesses.

 

Curious and waiting to see how marlin addresses the RST fiasco. They’ve worked together on projects and both take money ahead of products.

Really hoping they can get back to what Marlin use to stand for.

Seems like waiting for rclt is like sending your truck to RST, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting...

 

They won’t reply about anything. They made this thread then quit replying in it.

 

Agreed, I sure hope everything works out.

 

Kinda off topic but I got the marlin lower control arm pieces a while back and they’ve just been sitting in my garage, anyone know if they will work with the total chaos cam alignment tabs?