SAS Kits Trail Gear Vs others

[Isotel]

I have finaly talked my roomate into a SAS on his Pickup.. Looking at options, it looks like the Trail Gear Kit (a Vendor on this site) is only $1099, and it comes with everything Marlins/Sky's kit has, Pluss an axle truss, Diff armor, and Knuckle Rebuild Kit.. Marlin/Sky's price is near $1500.. What Gives??

Same Shocks, Steering, wheel spacers, Rotors, Pittman arm, etc..

I know Marlin and Sky have been in the business along time, they have good products..

Anyone Use the Trail Gear stuff??

 

[DirtyHarry]

Personally I would never buy a product from Sky or Trail Gear. They both just copy ideas from other vendors and then offer them at cut rate prices. If price is your only concern then the Trail Gear kit is a good deal, and honestly the quality seems good (can't say the same for the Sky products I have seen). If you want to support companies that actually innovate and bring new products to market then I would buy from Marlin, Off Road Solutions, or Front Range Off Road.

 

[Blue77FJ40]

Personally I would never buy a product from Sky or Trail Gear. They both just copy ideas from other vendors and then offer them at cut rate prices. If price is your only concern then the Trail Gear kit is a good deal, and honestly the quality seems good (can't say the same for the Sky products I have seen). If you want to support companies that actually innovate and bring new products to market then I would buy from Marlin, Off Road Solutions, or Front Range Off Road.

Don't forget BudBuilt.com He's done quite a bit of quality innovating. I expect he's had his share of being copied.

 

[Cube Dweller]

Geiger will chime in... but here goes nothing.

Trail Gear is a subsidiary of a large truck part manufacturing company that sells parts to the heavy truck industry. They have been in business a long time in Fresno CA. As such they are well experienced in designing for the automotive industry, and know how to spec, source and test/QC parts from around the world. The Trail Gear team including Chris Geiger is VERY experienced in the offroad industry as well, so the skills are very complementary. They probably have more automotive industry sophistication than most in the offroad industry.

Many of the parts in the SAS kit are the same, though that may change over time as companies like Marlin diversify.

I have a Trail Gear SAS kit sitting in my garage. It is VERY nice and VERY complete. I haven't installed it yet and won't for a while. If you look around you'll notice that many vendors including Inch Worm and others are Trail Gear dealers. In a nutshell, Trail Gear has it figured out- how to offer a great kit at a great price with good service. I expect the kit to be very easy to install as well. SAS kits are pretty much standard now...I don't think there's much to innovate in hanging leaf springs under a toyota that was originally IFS....

A friend's shop happens to also be a Trail Gear dealer so I am biased, (but still dropped my own $$ on a kit for myself).

(Edit 3/5/06 - Removed parts pimpage...)

 

[Isotel]

Cool Thanks for the input guys.. I Here what Dirty Harry is saying about supporting the inovators.. But Cube has a valid point..
if Trail Gear has found a way to make the same product almost $400 cheeper than my hats off to them.. Yea it sucks for Marlin, but thats the way it works.. you make a good product, somone elce finds a way to make it cheeper..

its seriously still mind boggling, this price.. and all thats included.. I Spent about $1000 just on my SR Steering and SOA on my Cruisers and went with cheeper parts, lots of fab and BS sourcing Parts..

 

[Cube Dweller]

I probably wasn't specific enough. The parent company that owns Trail Gear supplies parts to many in the off road industry, including Marlin. That may change...it's a long story that's not that interesting. But it's the story of most products...a few innovators, other, bigger companies enter the market, figure out how to mass produce them, etc.

From everything I've read, the current generation of kits from Marlin, Trail Gear and All Pro are pretty much plug and play. No guess work or other fab needed except drivelines.

 

[curious1]

I would recommend you buy from Marlin. He has been a real stand up guy and has supported our sport and culture like very few have. He is the type of guy that makes things right and even helps when you bought someone elses crappe and it goes to sh!t.

IMO

 

[KLF]

Don't forget BudBuilt.com He's done quite a bit of quality innovating. I expect he's had his share of being copied.

Where do you think Marlin got his crossmember design from?

 

[Cube Dweller]

I would recommend you buy from Marlin. He has been a real stand up guy and has supported our sport and culture like very few have. He is the type of guy that makes things right and even helps when you bought someone elses crappe and it goes to sh!t.

No doubt about it...Marlin has a great crew. Very helpful, let me exchange shocks for different lengths and in general just good dudes to work with. If I can't find a used third by the time I'm ready to SAS my rig, I'm buying it built from them.

 

[bkg]

Buy from Marlin... You get USA made springs and forged steering arms, according to CrusrDave, which does help make up for the price difference. That, and I highly recommend against buying from people who have stolen designs/supply chain from Marlin.

 

[TLCA_Paul]

I still don't understand all this SAS kit thing. It needs to be welded on, and your going to have good enough welds to hold it on. Why not build it yourself? At least the hangers.

But yea if I ever buy anything I first go to Marlin.

 

[bkg]

I still don't understand all this SAS kit thing. It needs to be welded on, and your going to have good enough welds to hold it on. Why not build it yourself? At least the hangers.

But yea if I ever buy anything I first go to Marlin.

Cause it's cheaper to buy them. For the steal and time it takes to build one, I'll buy any day...

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

... and just because you can weld, or pay someone to, doesn't mean you can design a solid front spring mount that will work well...

You can buy the kit, take your truck to someone, have them weld the stuff on, cut all the ifs off and there you go.

 

[Chris_Geiger]

I probably wasn't specific enough. The parent company that owns Trail Gear supplies parts to many in the off road industry, including Marlin. That may change...it's a long story that's not that interesting. But it's the story of most products...a few innovators, other, bigger companies enter the market, figure out how to mass produce them, etc.

From everything I've read, the current generation of kits from Marlin, Trail Gear and All Pro are pretty much plug and play. No guess work or other fab needed except drivelines.

Just a couple of things to add. Trail-Gear is now a separate, independent corporation owned by Matt Messer and is no longer a subsidy of Di-Pro Inc.

We plan to continue to build our dealer market. We currently have a total of 24 dealers and growing. We have a huge number of new products under development. One of the many items we are working on is this new rear bumper....

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I call Trail Gear the other day because it look they have a lot of the same product as the other guys with lower prices and free shipping on orders over $50.00. They were very helpfull, up front, and never said anything bad about the other guys even though I'm combining products. I delayed my order because they are coming out in a few week with rubber spring bushings something the other guy does not have. I will buy from Trail Gear because of there no bull**** aditude, low prices, free shipping, and they will have rubber spring bushings.

 

[Isotel]

wow is that Free shipping on the SAS Kit too??

Why Bother Fabing everything up when the cost of doing it yourself would be just as much, if not more, Plus TIme and tools required, the list goes on and on..

For Less than the cost of an IFS lift you can have a SAS kit with EVEYthing but the Axle.. Great Deal IMHO.. and you can do it in a long weekend, where Fabing everything up would take Months.. Somthing my roomate wouldint want to do to his DD

 

[foxfab]

Sky too...

Where do you think Marlin got his crossmember design from?

 

[toy4xchirs]

i dont know much bout the trail gear kit but ive heard bout some issues with the company in general and would give them my business personally id go with marlin or sky ive heard nothin but good things bout them i run marlins springs on my 85 4runner and love them.

 

[forrunner]

I purchased the Trail Gear SAS kit for my 93 4Runner a couple of months ago. I have no complaints about the design or quality of the kit. The personnel at Trail Gear, especially John Robertson, was very knowledgable and professional. I would recommend this kit and company to anyone.

 

[yota_kid_93]

I ordered a knuckle rebuilt kid from trail gear on friday and got it saturday afternoon... and then I got another one on monday too... dont know what thats about but at least they are making sure their orders are going out right? but I called to see about a return in case I was charged for two... and they guy I think I talked to Ryan... and he said just keep it... but I think Im going to return it anyway as long as I dont get refunded for the one I did pay for...