K-Member / Rack & Pinion Steering Suggestions

HemiDenny said

I understand where you are coming from and I do see at least one additional potential problem area.....time will tell.

To be honest (as opposed to being not honest) I never could understand the big deal with the Gerst, It was simply a poor copy of the successful RMS / AlterK. With Control Freak already making their round tube version (copy) of the RMS / AlterK, there is / was nothing innovative, different or improved about the Gerst. You can image my surprise when in a casual phone conversation with my Qa1 rep he told me Qa1 had bought Gerst. My immediate reply to him was...."That's a great fit!!, Gerst doesn't even use your shocks!" And then I had to asked him....Did the same geniuses that approved the CAP purchase....do this purchase? He sheepishly replied....uh yes. BTW, that same rep told me in Qa1 eyes, Mopar people are different breed to which I proudly replied..."yes, we are!".

All I can do is grin and shake my head.

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Uh, CAP was a good purchase. The QA1 LCA's were virtually unchanged from the CAP versions when they were initially released, they've only had a minor redesign since they were released to add the bump stops. The QA1 strut rods are identical to the CAP version. The K frame required some re-design, and the UCA's were totally redone. In the grand scheme of things, it got them into the Mopar arena pretty cheap since CAP's reputation was already flagging. But their designs were pretty good, it was just their production that sucked. QA1 takes the good designs and solves the production issues. And taking something from small scale production to larger production always requires some changes anyway, so some of those redesigns from QA1 may very well have been for production.

The Gerst purchase is a good purchase as well for the exact reasons you already said. The Gerst is basically a copy of the RMS with a few questionable design/construction areas, like having a multi part upright for the coilover mount. Well, that's a super easy thing to change on production, which QA1 has to set up anyway. So, QA1 fixes a few minor issues when it's making changes for production anyway, and suddenly it has a competitive coil-over replacement that very much resembles the RMS. Without having to buy out RMS (much more expensive) while bringing their name and marketing to what is basically a proven design.

Yeah, from a business standpoint it actually makes a TON of sense.