Jeep Coilover suspension kit Development...

Thanks George.

 

I want everyone to know I am going to putting up some posts about aecarbon and not to stress out about it it has no effect on this GB just a restructuring.

 

Whats up?!

 

Hey Guys, My name is Branden, I'm the one handling the GB with George for your coilovers. I wanted to come in here and give an update for you guys, as I know we've taken a bit longer than we had anticipated.

The front coilovers are no problem to make, we have the tooling set for those already. The problem that we're facing right now is the rear springs. They are nothing like anything we've made in the past, and it requires a pretty heavy progressive spring. We've got the spring and perch design set up already, it's just hinging on the spring production. The springs we typically make are a linear type spring and it's a costly venture to make a progressive spring in a wire size we've never made before. We're basically looking at our options to provide the kit without driving the price up. I'm looking to get you guys a date by the end of the week. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

We very much appreciate you guys' patience with us.

Take care,
Branden @ Ksportusa

 

Branden thanks for the update, I'm glad this is being addressed now as we all know how much power is put on the back springs when the Jeep launches as some of us are having issues with the exhaust smacking the frame on hard bumps and hard launches with the lowering springs that are available now.

 

I spoke with Branden about this over the past weeks, I am glad he came in to show their involvement and that it is moving forward...Thanks B for the update.

 

Hey Brandon.

It is ABOUT time you found your way over. hahahaha

A huge thanks to both you and George for making this happen.

Check your PM box.

 

Well we're trying to make this kit an all around performer. It's quite difficult to find the medium ground between street/strip/track racing. With the rates we've chosen we should have something comfortable for street driving (Relatively speaking), with enough adjust-ability to tune for drag racing and track racing. Also keep in mind that when this production run is done, we'll be able to offer custom valving services here at our location in AZ. We recently got a shock dyno on location here (only had one at the factory previously) so we can now offer these services with a quick turn around time i9nstead of having to send them back and wait a couple of weeks.

Not a problem Ron, I'm glad we were finally able to find someone who was willing to step up and make it happen. I've had some interest sporadically for this kit but nothing ever solid enough to make the kit. Thankfully George was willing to stick his neck out and get it going.

I try as much as I can to get involved in various communities around the web, however as busy as we've been, time is very limited.

Big thanks to you bro, for getting this GB going. I know how these things can be and again, every ones patience is greatly appreciated.

Take care,
Branden @ Ksport

 

I need to say 2 things;

1. a memebr of my forum recently made a post and i quote:
"Just wanted to give all my WK brothers that I have been talking to Nick form Ksport Suspension for a while now and he told me, Direct quote:"we are hoping to get a date this week for finish." This was yesterday when he told me this. I have been waiting for this full coilover suspension for a while so hopefully it will be out very soon. Pricing should cost about $1200-$1400. Here is there website: http://ksportusa.com/asp/index.asp "

2. While at a Jeep meet this weekend, a very active Jeep vendor was present, it wasnt Paul but someone very active on the red site, was telling all the SRT8 guys how he was working with ****** at KSport to gget a great price for coil-overs and he also was stating values less than we are paying for the GB.

MY COMMENTS: We are paying the top price of this range. While I appreciate George putting this together, its OUR FUNDS that are making it possible, not Georges. I would expect that we will have these in our hands at less than the retail price. Further, all testing to date has been on an srt8 that had lowering springs installed. Yet the quote above was that these will work on ALL WK Grand Cherokees. There are 10K Jeep SRT8s and 500K regular GCs. It would be STUPID if these do not work well on ALL Grand Cherokees.

 

You do have valid concerns, let me try to address them for ya.

The pricing point is Georges deal, I'll let him chime in on that. Whenever we do production runs on a kit, the dealer who sets it up has exclusivity on that specific kit for a predetermined amount of time. I'd imagine your friend may have been discussing becoming a Ksport dealer as Nick has no recollection of speaking with anyone but myself and George about this kit. Unfortunately the SRT8 coilovers would be unavailable for purchase except through George.

As for the SRT that we've done our engineering on...the lowering springs have zero effect on us building this kit. What we look for is motion rate and wheel rate. We don't need any specific type of spring installed on the car to get this information. However we do have Casey's stock springs on hand here just to cover any and all basis.

The only thing that would keep these from working on any other Cherokee is how it mounts into the car. We didn't bring in any other Jeep than the SRT 8. We do however have the ability to change damping and spring rates as/if necessary for a switch.

One thing to keep in mind; your funds definitely helped this along, however George had to put up a decent chunk of change to make this happen. Getting a deposit IMO was incentive for him to get the ball rolling. This is by no means a cheap venture. It's quite costly and VERY time consuming for both George and us. Out of any other production run I've quarterbacked, this one has been the easiest by way of logistics. George has been great in getting me the tools I need to make this happen.

If you have any questions I can answer for ya, feel free to post/PM/email or call

Take care,
Branden @ Ksport
[email protected]
480-829-8100

 

Thanks for enlightening me. The mounts for all the grand cherokees are the same, regular gcs swap in SRT8 parts all the time. the only differences in the suspension are spring height and rate, shock height and dampening, and the spindles to hold the brembos. so we should be fine there.

and I do apologize to george about the funding. I didnt know he had to invest as well.
actually, probably another Thanks from me is in order to George.

my second point, i dont remember the name this vendor was dropping, but he said he was in contact with someone at k-sport. maybe he is full of shit but he was dropping dollar amounts and such and said they were weeks away. he could be full of it but it just rubs me the wrong way. I will poke at him again and if he drops the name again, i will PM it to you.

anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer my asshole posts.....I do appreciate the time both you, george, roadracingsrt8, and others have spent getting these made for the Jeeps.

rob

 

The price was set where it is because this is not huge run, its 15 orders to start, if it had been 100 or more I assure the price would have been much lower. I have bent over, sideways and upside down to make this deal happen for the Jeep community. I am sorry you feel like its a high price but no one else wanted to pony up the money for this. I knew I would have rights to these i am not in the business to lose money or rape people the price for the leg work, organization and cash i thought was fair.

I did check out through several people about the suspensions on the V6, Hemi and SRT and was told the suspensions were identical and it would work. I will post if they work for sure when we try a set on one of those models.

I have other plans for the Jeeps also in time.

 

george, first off sorry for any added trouble from me. i didnt mean to cause any trouble. just get a question answered. and its been done.

i am not complaining about the price. I chose to pay it. i think its fair.

but my point was if say in 30 days after we get the GB the retail price is substantially lower, that wont make me happy.

and i hope you ignore my earleir stupidity and please do make some more Jeep parts.

THX
ROB

 

a little birdie told me the price is actually going to go up my friend

 

I can only speek for myself but.....Take all the time you need man....I would rather wait longer to have somthing that is 100% ready to go then rush it and have to mess with it down the road anyways....so take the time do what you guys need to do...and keep up the good work...thanks for the update

Ross

 

Your doing a good job Bro.....keep it up we all thank you for it...I know what a pain it can be to organize stuff like this...so no worrys..and when your looking for someone to pony up some cash for future stuff fire me a PM im up for almost anything..

Ross

 

Anappe24 is also in

 

I am possibly selling or merging ae in the next few days, I have posted on several forums about this and want you to know that this has no effect on the jeep GB so dont worry those who have asked for their refunds have received them and its all in Ksports hands now....taps foot...But I assure when they are completed they will be top notch and fit perfect.


If you have any questions about the future of ae ask away.

 

not sure what that means - 'it's all in kSports hands now' and 'some refunds have been given'.

on the 13th of Jan you asked us not to freak out, nothing was up. now you post this about 3 weeks later.

so exactly what is the state of the GB and our funds - Thanks.

 

So can Brandon verify that Ksport has our money? Are we going to pay them the balance? How do we know your new buyer is going to honor this? Times are tough and you ask us not to worry about our money......That's funny. I do appreciate you keeping us informed on your company and not just disappearing but you are not giving us enough details to think this deal is all warm and fuzzy. I really hope this works out.