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My new truck

ak diesel driver said:
So I had to talk to bilstein directly to get any response from Southwest speed (vendor). So the warranty procedure is to send them in via UPS or Fedex and then they'll decide on warranty. This would require my truck to be without shocks for a couple of weeks I'm guessing. Or I can pay for new ones and they send me new ones and then I send them in and get refunded for the ones they decided to warranty. I'm not real comfortable with either option as I wasn't impressed with them from the get go. Thinking of cutting my losses and getting something different. Thoughts?
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Yeah, it's really too bad that you had a bad experience with them, they've been a good product for so long. I can totally understand why you'd want to change them out.
It really just boils down to if you'd want to give them another chance because of their reputation. But you'd sure be pissed if they were bad again!
Eh, if it's no money out of your pocket, I'd just give them another go.
 
So I think I've about decided to get some Gabriel Max Control shocks locally 77609f and 77488r. I can get them from RA about $33 cheaper but if I have to warranty them it would be local. Been thinking that the bigger and heavier dually must stress the shocks more. The bilsteins are a one size fits all.
 
ak diesel driver said:
Well if I have to ship them UPS/Fedex it would cost about$75-100. I thought about getting new ones and reselling them to someone
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If I have to pay for shipping on something under warranty, it generates does not happen until I have went through all the management of an outfit. I argue my case with:
“You are in business selling parts and shipping them and have accounts to do so with discounts for volume, which I don’t get, and should expect 1 or 2 to have some items fail under warranty.
It should be no big deal for your company to send me a shipping label like every other company of wuality products does. I realize you can save money and won’t just automatically pay shipping for everything under the sun, but you can choose to make an exception this time-Unlesss you are telling me your product is always failing during warranty time so you are used to ensuring people get no refund on a known failure item by making them eat the shipping cost of defective products.”

Then if they say anything other than ok, I start telling them of other business. “I buy Mac tools, and when something breaks I contact them, the email me a fedex label, I ship it, they fix or replace it, I buy more Mac tools later without concearn.” If weight is the issue of response, I remind them mac tools sells things heavier and larger than shocks. Then just continue until that individual says yes or will foreward me to their supervisor.

A cell phone with blue tooth ear/mic thing makes being able to do things while talking to them work out because it is anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hour call. Not 100% sucessful, but nearly. Money is one thing, but if I feel priciple is at stake I won’t give up.
 
Replaced the trailer plug in today. Took a piece of 4x4 angle iron and made the bracket out of it. Cut the side the mounts to the bumper down to about an inch. Certainly more solid than the cheesy bracket that comes with it. Used heat shrink butt connectors , should be pretty water tight now. Certainly wasn't before.IMG_20180328_163330.jpg

Took out the camper wiring up to the bed. Could have shot whoever did that, cut into the main harness and used spade connectors. Of course the wires were too short now so I ended up soldering in a short piece and then heat shrinking the 5 wires they cut.
 
IMG_20180402_115910.jpg IMG_20180402_115926.jpg ItRUST aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!
So while I was putting on the new receiver I noticed some rust starting be on the bedside so I took a scraper and a wire brush to both sides and gave them a good coat of rusty metal primer. I'd also watched a YouTube video the other day of someone blocking off the drain holes on the doors and putting oil in the bottom to soak into the pinchweld. So I thought I'd give that a try, that's when I discovered the pinchweld was almost gone in the center of the driver's side passenger door. The driver's door wasn't as bad. Strangely enough the passenger side was great. Gets me to wondering if the doors on the driver's side are aftermarket along with the bed.
 
Door bottom trick... Take a glue type syringe and inject rust extender in both drain holes until it's running out. leave the doors open a day or 2 to cure. I have done that every fall for years. They have to be completely dry beforehand though.
 
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