Tubular control arms??!!

[Junior13]

Hey guys I need a little help. New to the forum. Does anyone have any experience with these new "discount" tubular a arms they are selling on eBay?? They seem like a quality product for a low price. All the sellers feedback is great.. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Hotchkis]

Without looking at the listing you're referring to, it's hard to offer an opinion.

While there are exceptions, generally with automotive parts, you're paying for materials and you're paying for engineering R&D. If you find parts that are radically less expensive than the competitors, there is usually a sacrifice made in the materials or in the research or both.

With many of the cheaper tubular control arms, the manufacturers have simply copied a stock arm. At Hotchkis, our A-arms are actually designed to correct poor stock geometry.

The Hotchkis upper a-arms are precision CNC manufactured, equipped with smooth operating Delrin® bushings, 4130 chromoly offset cross-shaft for increased camber adjustment, and removable shims for caster adjustment.

The Hotchkis lower a-arms are equipped with smooth operating Delrin®bushing, and polyurethane spring cup with adjustable ride height shims.

Both a-arms are 100% tig welded and bolt on in stock location.

The cheaper a-arms might hold up fine, but why bother with the swap if you won't get any performance improvement?

[JRouche]

Im gonna add to that a lil. I prolly shouldnt cause I dont actually know, just making comment.

Companies (US companies) that produce ALOT of parts, say control arms do so in a mass production run. So they can decrease the cost of short runs they do a long run. This enables them to ship the part for the bottom line. Thats a good thing for us as consumers.

When you see a part, say a control arm, that is far below the cost for the control arms of the major manufactures that has to turn on the BIG spot light above your head.

There are only a few ways that someone can be offering a similar control arm for alot less money. Because really, the major companies have shaved off all the overhead that they can. They buy stock in large quantities to reduce costs, run long production runs to reduce costs and with the way things are these days the competitive pricing really keeps them from trying to make a killing.

So maybe two ways the ebay control arms can be bought for such a low cost. One is they are from china. There are many things I buy that are from china, way too many. But control arms arent one I would knowingly buy at this point.

Another way is there is a small company that bought some control arms from the various manufactures that did all the R&D and they are copying them. Without any additional design work or testing. Just a straight copy. So they dont have any of the costs associated with designing a part, they are trying to copy a part, in the dark, without any knowledge on why they are building the control arm a certain way, much less if the materials are correct.

There are small companies that are making control arms, but I dont think they are the same ones selling them on ebay at way below costs.

And look at the ebay ad. It will tell ALOT. If it just has some pics of the control arms and a general description (maybe even copied from other ebay ads) then I would steer clear.

But if the ad talks alot about the company, their manufacturing methods, the materials, the process and they seem to be very proud of their business as manufactures then I would consider them. Specially it they had a link to their companies web site to allow you to do more research into what they were all about. That may be a legit company building control arms and just using ebay as another avenue for bringing their products out to the public.

So many reasons why you see inexpensive parts available. And always worth looking into and asking questions.. JR

[Rod]

Avoid those eBay arm sets there welding is good and the parts look good, but its the steel its very low quality and has a low failure point, the cost of the american made arms relate directly to the higher quality steel, the US steel is in great demand from many companies all over the world for itsstrength, this link will explain steel problems
http://www.meps.co.uk/viewpoint4-06.htm

[AM.MSCL]

Camaros.net has a couple of very extensive threads about the ebay arms.
One person had a problem was was corrected very quickly and it was not a welded part; it was a insert part.
Several of the cars over there have been running them for a year or two. DSE commented about them also because someone was thought it might have been theirs.
Ray

[jtm311]

I had bought a set from GL it turns out they were the ones sold on Ebay, I did a lot of testing and the welds,designs and steel are fine. The problem is the slugs. I did find a fix for them so in the end it was cheap but I'm glad I found the problem.



John

[Junior13]

Thanks guys! It looks like a bunch of people are looking at this thread, So i guess I'm not the only one with these questions. The Ebay company is CPP. Classic Performance. The website says they have been in buisness for 20yrs. So its not a fly by night comp working from a garage some where. Still it would be nice to hear from someone who has purchased and installed these items. Any additional input would be great...Thanks.

[jtm311]

Mine came from KMJ who said he buys them from Pro Comp who said he buys them from Global West, who really knows..

Anyway here is some good info. Also how I fixed mine.
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=141451

John

[MrQuick]

Thanks guys! It looks like a bunch of people are looking at this thread, So i guess I'm not the only one with these questions. The Ebay company is CPP. Classic Performance. The website says they have been in buisness for 20yrs. So its not a fly by night comp working from a garage some where. Still it would be nice to hear from someone who has purchased and installed these items. Any additional input would be great...Thanks.

http://www.classicperform.com/

again, without the link you are just setting up for speculation. thank you for the extra hint we needed to form an opinion.

This company have been around for years and I'd trust them over an overseas copy of the DSE tubular arms that has been topic of discussion here since they hit the market.

CPP, you should be good to go.
vince

[JRouche]

The Ebay company is CPP. Classic Performance.

OH!! Well that makes a world of difference. They are a reputable company. You should be fine with their arms. JR

[BMR Tech]

I just want to point something out about these A-arms. I have no personal experience with them but have read a lot of the threads about them on PT.com and over at Lateral G. If you do an Ebay search, they are sold by at least 6 different companies on Ebay. Look closely at the design and features and you will see that they are a direct DSE copy. They have just about every feature exclusive to DSE all the way down to something as simple as the design of the gussets themselves. They are not CPP arms even though CPP does sell them. Even CPP points out in their Ebay auction that they are overseas arms (see HERE) sold by CPP. Just because CPP sells them I probably wouldn't give "these" arms any more credibility because a lot of no-name companies also sell them on Ebay....

[jtm311]

Brett I agree that is also what I found out after looking into the ones I got.

[nor_cal_67rs]

Take note that CPP manufactures their own arms called "Totally Tubular", and they sell some low budget ones...I personally got their Totally Tubular arms...$690 or so shipped...

[jknight16]

A-Arms are a critical component of the suspension and an area that should not be subjected to cutting corners. Even if you're lucky enough to not have them break at 75 mph in traffic and send you veering off the road, it will still suck to have your day at an autocross or cruise ruined by a broken criticial suspension piece.

Addition: There have been aftermarket A-arms breaking on some mopars that are not from overseas companies, so you can't write off the risk that "good enough" arms are going to be able handle the rigors of light street duty.

Spend the money for a reputable product and you'll not only have a better part, but you'll help to fund further R&D by these companies for the cool parts we love while helping to send the overseas, R&D stealing, knockoff firms to the bankruptcy court to file for chapter 11!

[67 455 Bird ragtop]

Glad I got mine from Global West and not from ebay...

[Hotchkis]

A-Arms are a critical component of the suspension and an area that should not be subjected to cutting corners. Even if you're lucky enough to not have them break at 75 mph in traffic and send you veering off the road, it will still suck to have your day at an autocross or cruise ruined by a broken criticial suspension piece.

Addition: There have been aftermarket A-arms breaking on some mopars that are not from overseas companies, so you can't write off the risk that "good enough" arms are going to be able handle the rigors of light street duty.

Spend the money for a reputable product and you'll not only have a better part, but you'll help to fund further R&D by these companies for the cool parts we love while helping to send the overseas, R&D stealing, knockoff firms to the bankruptcy court to file for chapter 11!

Thanks for the thoughts, you make some good points. As a manufacturer, it means a lot that consumers are willing to invest in our parts because of our R&D and track testing.

It is true that even some non-ebay parts are not tested to the extremes they should be. That's where forums can be useful to the buyer, you can see what companies are really testing and reporting the results.

[JEFFTATE]

I will only buy parts from the companies that do the R&D .
The quality and reward is much better ..

Plus, these guys deserve the business , since they did all the work..

[68Formula]

I will only buy parts from the companies that do the R&D .
The quality and reward is much better ..

Plus, these guys deserve the business , since they did all the work..

Not to mention, if we want new products, they need the income to do the next innovation.

[Mike Davis]

Surprised we haven't seen any billet aluminum ones....i blueprinted a set, but i have a small mill and dont want to spend 1000 hours to make them lol. Still....would be sweet to see.....Hotchkis..Maybe this can be a new idea? Wink wink, nudge nudge :P

Is it feasible to use an aluminum tubing and billet plates to make control arms? Is the material strong enough to withstand the stresses the parts are under? hmmm... I hate it when i start thinking.