Current FFR Bilstein Shock Issue!

Bobcat · #1 (**permalink**) 09-16-2008, 10:51 AM

Hoofa , Mrmustang , at the risk of having both of you on me , IMHO , I think you are both right . After looking at hundreds of rod end failures on sawmill equipment throughout the country , I saw identical rod end failures ... all at the juncture of the neck down area where the the thread starts . Failures were mostly traced back ( assuming the rod diameters and material were correct to start with ) to bending forces transmitted to the weakest point and over extension/bottoming out of the equipment the cylinder was connected to . Generally at that point ( full extension/full compression ) , the equipment placed not only a pulling/tensile/compressive load on the rod end , but also a bending moment . I realize that a hydraulic cylinder isn`t a shock , but the similarities are pretty darn close .
In a very few cases , it was because the tool used to cut the threads was too sharp and created the stress riser ... which is why we used rolled threads.
We normally solved the breaking issue by going to a bigger thread (full thread) , adding a spacer to move the load away from the weak neck down area , or in extreme cases , a bigger rod . However , all of this also went along with correcting the over travel and misalignment .
Am I 100% correct ?? Don`t know , just 20 years experience in the cylinder industry ... and again , I think you are both going down the right road .

GTA · #2 (**permalink**) 09-17-2008, 07:42 AM

Was'nt the Bilstein shock porgram doing that? Bigger shaft size.Roger

Maricopa · #3 (**permalink**) 09-17-2008, 08:04 AM

Yes, before B-stein called it off the deal was to send them back and have new guts and a larger shaft put in.

GTA · #4 (**permalink**) 09-23-2008, 11:36 AM

I just got off the phone with FFR. Lucky me, I have the shocks that are on the list. I was told that Dave is having a meeting with Bilstein today. I was also informed that FFR did not spec the shocks. I was told that FFR gave them a car and told them to design a shock to fit it. After the shock was made , FFR questioned Bilstein as to whether the shaft was large enough.Bilstein said it was .That does'nt let FFR off the hook with me, they sold me this crap, but if someone were to lawyer up,Bilstein has does have a dog in this fight. All's it's going to take is one person to get hurt or killed and the $#!t will fly, and a bunch will fly Biltein's way as well.Roger

mrmustang · #5 (**permalink**) 09-23-2008, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTA

I just got off the phone with FFR. Lucky me, I have the shocks that are on the list. I was told that Dave is having a meeting with Bilstein today. I was also informed that FFR did not spec the shocks. I was told that FFR gave them a car and told them to design a shock to fit it. After the shock was made , FFR questioned Bilstein as to whether the shaft was large enough.Bilstein said it was .That does'nt let FFR off the hook with me, they sold me this crap, but if someone were to lawyer up,Bilstein has does have a dog in this fight. All's it's going to take is one person to get hurt or killed and the $#!t will fly, and a bunch will fly Biltein's way as well.Roger

Roger,

Interesting, who told you this? (not about the meeting today)?

Bill S.

jhv48 · #6 (**permalink**) 09-23-2008, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTA

I just got off the phone with FFR. Lucky me, I have the shocks that are on the list. I was told that Dave is having a meeting with Bilstein today. I was also informed that FFR did not spec the shocks. I was told that FFR gave them a car and told them to design a shock to fit it. After the shock was made , FFR questioned Bilstein as to whether the shaft was large enough.Bilstein said it was .That does'nt let FFR off the hook with me, they sold me this crap, but if someone were to lawyer up,Bilstein has does have a dog in this fight. All's it's going to take is one person to get hurt or killed and the $#!t will fly, and a bunch will fly Biltein's way as well.Roger

This is new info. Who is your source?

GTA · #7 (**permalink**) 09-24-2008, 12:06 PM

I don't know the guys name . I did'nt ask him for his name, and he did'nt offer it. I called and ask for someone who could help me with the shock problem and the guy that answered the phone said he could help. He infromed me that FFR adviced me not to drive my car at this time. He said that he thought that Dave was having a meeting with Bilstein today. I ask him directly who spec'ed the shocks.He told me that FFR did not spec the shocks. He said he was pretty sure that FFR gave them a car for them to design the shock to fit. He also said that FFR questined the size of the shaft . You guys can call and ask the same as I did.I wished I had thought of asking the guy for his name. Roger

Tugboat · #8 (**permalink**) 09-24-2008, 01:17 PM

Being a business owner and not having a dog in this fight I was just enjoying reading this thread and all the post and I had a thought. What is the amount of cost in this matter being discussed! How many of these shocks were sold and what would it cost either of the companies involved to resolve. Thousands, Hundreds of thousands or maybe millions? I am curious what this amount of bad Publicity could have been saved by just trying to resolve this problem more quickly. How many potential customers read this forum (my thoughts are alot) and make decisions based on others experiences. I know that you have to read between the lines on this entire issue, BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a curious observer, Any guesses out there?

Larry