I Got A Buddy…
I Got A Buddy…
This is in no shape, form or fashion an affront to anyone who has a friend who understands the subtle intricacies of lefty loosie and righty tighty. We all have friends who have a particular set of skills but sometimes those friends become a nightmare for someone like me. And make no mistake, there are friends out there who can in fact work on vehicles successfully and efficiently. Example: Blake and Cody are buddies of mine that can totally work on vehicles. I don’t know who your friends are or what their skills are but chances are if you’re calling us to get a quote on a lift kit install, there’s a good reason for it. We do it EVERY DAY. Let’s dive in.
Let’s play a game of pick a truck. I’ll go first. 2020 Chevy Silverado 1500 4wd. Let’s play another game, pick a modification. I’ll go first. 6” lift kit install. For a Readylift lift kit with Bilstein rear shocks you’re looking in the neighborhood of 4ish grand installed. Not necessarily chump change by any means. This is a major purchase for most folks. But let’s say you have a buddy that took auto tech in high school before he dropped out his junior year and his grandad had a shop that rebuilt carburetors for weedeaters that he worked at for a summer before he served time for a B and E at a self storage place. We all have that friend, am I right? So you tell yourself, self, I bet I can get my buddy Kevin to put a lift kit on my truck. Case of stones and a hundred dollar bill outta do it!
But wait a minute you say as the gears in your head begin to spin. Does Kevin have a lift to do this on? Hell, does he have a shop? Does he have tools? How’s he going to align it? Oh he’ll figure it out. It’ll probably be fine. I’m gonna call that lift kit guy to get it ordered and have old K dog put it on. Kevin is called and responded to the interrogative regarding lift kit installation and met it with a resounding hellyesbrother! I just got some jack stands from Harbor Freight! I’ll have that dude knocked out in a day, just bring me a case of stones and a hunerd dollar bill.
Kevin’s funeral will be held next week and it’s gonna be a closed casket due to the failure of the Harbor Freight jack stands. RIP. But hey, you nearly saved some money. It didn’t have to be this way. Four or five people are gonna be super bummed out for a couple of days and then this too shall pass from the collective memory of a small town purging itself of another burnout. But I digress.
Okay this one’s actually true. Rock lights! You’ve seen them on all the cool trucks. We even have them on our shop truck. Shout out Oracle! They typically go in each fender well of the truck then maybe one in the skid plate area and another in the spare tire area in the rear. There’s a right way and a good Lord what the hell did you do way to do this. We are the former in that we run the wiring as concealed as possible to maintain a clean and professional install. We keep the wires clear of any moving components and exhaust so the wires can, you know, not get destroyed. This equates to a higher labor charge than what your buddy can do it for because we take our time to not have our wiring look like a bag of smashed up assholes. We have seen rock light wires mounted next to the carrier bearing of the driveshaft. We have seen rock light wires draped over exhaust. We have seen them zip tied to e-brake cables. We have seen them run through shift linkages. We have seen wires connected with wire nuts you would use for house wiring. We have seen wires connected using nothing but electrical tape and hopes and dreams. All of these installation tactics I’ve mentioned are a hard do not pass go, do not collect $200 at Off-Road King. For the extra dollars you throw down here with us you can rest assured that your shit will not burn down.
There are other items I can get into where “buddies” have “saved me some money” in the past, like welded on control arm drop brackets that don’t need to be welded on and pieces of wood cosplaying as lift kit parts, but that can be a follow up for another day. The short version is that cheaper may be cheap today, but reeeaaaaalllllllyyyyyy expensive tomorrow. Take it to the professionals. Who knows, you just might save a life. K love you bye.