Oh that´s sad to hear. Hope you can get it fixed soon.

 

WOW nice to know......

 

Sorry this happened to you but good to know. let us know when you get the redesigned parts. Id like to see exactly what was changed.

 

Could you post the pictures of your failed part?

 

humm.... maybe I'll cancel my order, they have not shipped mine yet wonder if they will charge restocking?

 

Why would you want to do that? The part's been re-designed. :smiley_thumbs_up: The breakage is just part of growing pains - the guys running the lift are essentially on the bleeding edge. It's a risk you take with such a new product (both the Patriot and the lift). The customer service seems to be a bit disappointing, though, if past customers weren't notified, but right now there are no other options.

 

Yikes... I was thinking about ordering a lift from them this summer but now I'm not too sure.

 

Re-designed does not mean fixed though... Growing pains huh? What if it did go through his tire at 75 mph? That is a MAJOR safety issue... and it is an excuse to save $1,000 with the lift at around 400, tires 500 plus mounting. Not to mention the warranty. And really the kind of off roading I do hardly warrants a lift, I just think it looks better. I think I can get that look though with my other ideas.

 

Unfortunately that is a side effect of moding your vehicle. aftermarket parts are never made to the riggorous factory specs, and sometimes things break. I think for this to be properly addressed RR should include longer sway bar links to compensate for the lift. Once again they need competitiong from another company with a more complete kit to raise the bar.

 

So what exactly is RRO replacing? Is it the extention bracket for the sway bar linkage arm? It sounds like it bent the linkage arm...is this being replace out of your own pocket through Chrysler/Jeep?

Some pictures of the orginal part, part location on the truck, and the re-designed part would be a great help...

Are there other lifted MK's with the redesigned part from RRO? If so, how is it holding up?

 

I don't think anybody knew it was redesigned, except for the people it broke, and who knows how many that is? Which calls into question whether it was actually redesigned. I canceled my order, and will be waiting a few more months on it... RR customer service sucks by the way.

 

Jim, I don't think it is blowing it out of proportion, we don't know his driving habits but they can't be worse then mine, I drive a good 75 mph on a daily basis, sometimes more. I live in a rural area where dirt roads are not uncommon, and in fact I play on them quite often especially in the rain, with lots of mud... and pot holes.

You are correct in saying we don't know the re-design date because they didn't send out a bullet on it, which they should have if there were any known problems, as a heads up, that's what businesses should do, they did not.

 

I have put about 7000 KM on my lift (I installed it in Mid January and have done several snowboarding and climbing trips since). Two months ago I had it in the Ghost Valley, a popular climbing destination in Alberta. There are roads of sorts but they are of the very large gravel or scree type rock. They are pretty rough but I could have made it in (with the exception of one river crossing) in my 1969 Caprice.

Potholes and speedbumps, nothing out of the ordinary for regular Edmonton driving. Nothing that is memorable at all.

The issue here isn't so much the part failing. I can agree with anyone saying that there are growing pains. Maybe its the fact that I am an engineer but looking at the part in retrospect I can see how and why it failed. The part is far to thin at 3/16 of an inch to handle the forces applied to it. One simple weld or making it 1/4" flatbar would likely be more than enough to strengthen it up.

There should have been something posted here. We are their testers as the first buyers of this product. In my opinion a good company would be involved with their customer base. Create a post asking how things are working and if any improvements can be made, let us know what improvements have been made.

I have pictures but I cant use photobucket at work. Will have to post later.

In the mean time I can forward them to anyone that wants to see. PM me.

 

Thanks for getting those pics JeepJim... That was the other thing they could do to fix this problem. There are not that many of these lifts out there. This is definately a problem and personally I think they should be replacing these without any hassle for anyone who has the old ones.

The customer service comes in when I was forced to drive an additional 70 km's to get a picture of a broken part that they knew would break. The part breaking, fine, it cost me the money to replace the linkage and a day at work but its the picture that cost them any future buisness from me.

 

Thanks for all the info Jim. It looks like they did a very strong redesign. that definately eased my worries for ordering a kit.

 

Above and beyond the added triangle support, is the thickness still the same as the original?

 

just read your blog and was thinking of getting a K/N air filter ,How much of a differeces did it make, ps just bought 2007 steel blue patriot with 31000klm 4x4, power group ,yes fabric,anyway

 

Wrong thread dude.

 

When there was an issue with a part they should have posted here about it. This is the forum that they used to rally support for actually designing it, its where people have reviewed it and talked about the quality and help others out with questions about the lift kit. I would guarantee that more (all?) have been sold in large part due to this forum.

 

With all the things RRO should have done aside i say, now that everyone knows there are redesigned parts, contact RRO if you have a kit with the old extensions.

 

Originals were 3/16". That looks thicker than 3/16" to me.

Maybe a forum wasn't the way to announce the problem. Something should have happened and I am curious to see if they will replace non broken ones. Like i said, they demanded a picture of the broken part before they would warranty it and were un willing to ship the parts over night so I could repair my Riot. If I wasn't a little creative I would be without a vehicle right now.

Basically, it boils down to this: The product has been upgraded to address the issue. Be wary of RRO if you are someone that values customer service.

My experience has left me with a bad taste, if they start replacing them for people who have not had them break yet then maybe they would be worth looking at again. As it stands I will not recommend them or buy from them again.

 

Well, I suppose its a good thing that it doesnt matter to me what you think I am demanding. Overnight to Canada is not impossible. I have done it in the past. Not only that they shipped it UPS standard, not Air or anything special, the same wait that it was lost the first time I ordered from them.

It certainly disabled my truck enough for the day that I missed out on $400 of work, cost me $60 or so for the broken part and two trips in and out of the city because they neglected to tell me they needed pictures.

 

you stated the RRO mounting bracket broke and the extension arm bent... that in itself does not disable a truck. Now if it had punctured the tire that would have disabled the truck but only until you replaced the tire. The fact that the Sway bar can be disconnected and driven means your truck is not disabled.



I can sympathize with you for being pissed off but truly did you have to skip more than half a days work? I mean come on its four bolts to disconnect a sway bar.

Does anyone else feel he is asking too much or am I just a dick?

your just a ...... What time is it in germany anyways? you must be tired. :zzz:

jk everyones entitled to their opinion. We all react crazy when we are mad and he has every right to.

 

Missing a sway bar does NOT disable a vehicle, it just means that you should not try any high speed cornering unless you are a qualified driver. Many off-roaders don't even run sway bars because it can limit articulation. Model A Fords never had a sway bar and they weren't that popular up until the '70's.

 

More:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sway_bar

 

Thank god for the notice

I have the old kit and the left front braket on mine was bending and I had to tightin my bottom bolt every two weeks. I just talk to JP and I'm going to send a picture of it to him so he can send me the new ones. I will also upload it in this forum too so everyone can see.

 

When the drive is as far to work as mine is then yeah, it does take a good chunk of time.

You need to keep in mind that this was passed off as an easy to install kit. I am hands on as the next guy but I dont know all there is to know about suspension. To me Jeep decided this vehicle needed a sway bar for a reason. As a result of that I am not too keen on driving with out it, that is more than a fair reason for me to be unwilling to drive it. It was near 2 oclock when i found out that i could drive with out it, at that point the day was mostly gone.

Its pretty simple:

1) Their part was very poorly designed.
2) They redesigned it and neglected to inform their customers of the issue when, at highway speeds the issue could be a safety hazard
3) Their customer service department was not clear as to warranty requirements and gave me mis-information resulting in over an hour of driving time wasted
4) They would not make any effort to expedite getting the parts to me

As for the parts not being required clearly the sway bar is providing a significant enough function to carry forces strong enough to cause the bracket to fail in both bending and shear. As the owner of a new vehicle i was comfortable enough modifying this to the point I have, I am however not comfortable driving it with components disconnected. People need to be informed of this because i believe it to be a safety issue and possibly a very expensive problem.

Had i been on the road trip i am leaving on tomorrow and somewhere in the mountains with this a tow would have cost a small fortune, the replacement tire had the tire popped would be very expensive and road side would clearly not have covered it.

As it stands it sounds like at the very least one person has found their brackets to be bending and will hopefully have them replaced prior to being left on the side of the road stranded. You need a 17 mm and 15mm wrench/rachet to pull these out if those do break on you before you get your new brackets JeepNewbee.

I've pointed out the problems I have had with it, I believe thats the purpose of a forum. I expect better customer service, so i've simply stated that if you are like me that you consider what I have said.

 

Quiff69 - I certantly do appreciate the info, my brother has a 2007 Pat and I fell in love with it, so much that I got a 2008 about 4 months ago, but about a month ago, the same thing happened to my bro's pat, the extension arm bent and don't tell him this....but I thought he had done something wrong, well, till this day, he's still waiting on his parts too and he's been very dissapointed, and I do thank you because it's algo good to hear the negative side of things as well... so I'm gonna hold off on getting a kit.