572_Rat

I have read people saying that the aftermarket K members break, please list the following if you have an aftermarket K member on your car. If there is a problem at least this thread will put an end to it.

1) Brand of K-member
2) Material it is made of
3) how long has it been on the car
4) Have you experienced any cracks or breaks or bends in K-member, and if there is any damage how did it happen
5) Street car or race car

I will start
1) Racecraft Road Race
2) 4130 Chrome Moly
3) Installed in 2007
4) No problems
5) Big Block street car, driving in the pot hole capital of Canada

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

1. UMI's double hoop K member
2. Regular Steel version
3. Two years on the car
4. No observed cracks, dents or bending. No noticeable weld abnormalities.
5. Street car with AutoCross usage.

I haven't heard many people say that their K Members have broken, the only instance I have heard of is of RedRaif and hers was because of a bad weld by a company that was doing some contract work for the original manufacturer. I do not know the story personally though. The discussions about the strength of K members by aftermarket manufacturers is that they are not as strong as the stock pieces and would break easier if given the right opportunity which is inherently predicated upon the happenstance of a "what if" situation. Know what the risks may be and how to best avoid them.

articwhiteZ

iTrader: (56)

just a note:
she did not have a bad K member..it was a A arm that the tube let go. and had nothing to do with a weld...from what i remember..
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...arm-broke.html
read post #68

and almost 10 years ago...
just want to put that out there
candyman...candyman...candyman...ooops

sphon k member (got rid of it..not a good fit)

umi K member (like GM made if for my car)
sphon coil overs (90/10 struts)
sphon A arms with Del-Sphere Pivot Joints (i have had every A arm type sphon makes) all 3 types
everything ya can get aftermarket on the front..brakes/rotors brake lines. ya name it..
all new not on the road yet..

SlickTrackGod

I will just speak for personal experience that I have hit Kmembers accidently on numerous occasions.
My Camaro I remember hitting 3 times. Once a tire retread that a car in front of me drove over and I had no where to go- cracked my front spoiler, Took off half my air dam deflector, smacked the Kmember and crushed the y-pipe. Two other times were rock hits- once in Carbon Cyn, and the other was coming down from Angeles Crest-both at speed, both took a hard asz hit on the kmembers to a point where it gouged it - missed the oilpan, but bent the trans pan. The other one bounced off it hard but came out of there not damging anything other that a loud and cringing thud that made me stop and inspect the underneath.

My truck of 25+ years has taken well over a dozen hits from rocks and retreads wiping out mufflers, etc and slamming that Kmember so hard and it riding up onto the rocks crushing them as it steam rolls them at speed. Both vehicles are low and hunderds of thousands of miles between them.

All I can say is if those two Kmembers were tubing they would have bent and been replaced long ago several times over. If you puzzy foot your car or you drive with a large visual gap at all times to see the road far in front of you? then no need to worry...not me, not in my real world. I have hit sh*t hard in my days. THose stock Kmembers are bulky for that very reason- they last for decades (and I keep my cars for decades and drive them all hard.

Just merely an honest story with real life experience. If tubing takes a hit, it most likely will not fail on initial impact, but a dent of damage will cause future fatigue and corrosion that will shorten it's intended life span.

articwhiteZ

iTrader: (56)

most of us who puzzy foot the rides we have.(cuzz there are driving laws) have never hit things in the road..iv had 3/4 ton trucks on 2 wheels (to one side) on a freeway.
cars on 2 wheels also missing things! on the freeway..and 2 wheels on the drag strip to good way..the 2 in the back..
i have hit things in the road as well...most of the time it was small and running across the road.. but iv never driven so unatteniive that i mow every thing in the road down to the point we smash things under the car without checking it out after..or is it just a few of us?

edit to add:
if it did get smashed from somthing..i would do what all of us would do..and Replace it. like tires or wheels..after all its made to be replaced...
but i think the OP set this up as a
How is your aftermarket Doing

SlickTrackGod

Yes he did set it up as a How is your aftermarket doing? It is a reference to how aftermarket Kmembers are doing compared to the large bulky OEM kmember. I gave real woeld experience in drivng roads that most people will encounter once or twice in a life time of driving at best, more at worst. It does not take hauling azs, it simply takes a car in front of you going 5mph ove the speed limit (which the world does- here in So cal it can average 15mph over on our freeways or you will get run over) and the car in front of you at stock hieght drives right over an object in the road and you have NOWHERE to go in the 2 second following distance (So UNLESS your puzzyfooting it with a 4-5sec ltrailing margin-get a clue on the term puzzy footing- then you will be doing the flow of traffic and suddenly have impact on your lowered vehicle right into the object with the Kmember.

If mine were tubular, they would have beent the tuing and would have had to be replaced many times in my 30 years of driving.

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

572_Rat, from what I recall reading about the K-members is that there was a company that added reinforcements later on (due to damages experienced) so it might help to add that to the list.

Edit: I do think that the pot holes you referenced to are going to test after market K-members the most.

572_Rat

The only company that I recall adding reinforcements to the K member was Racecraft, not due to damage but because they K members were originally design for drag racing. They came out with there road race k member for street and auto cross use.
And for pot holes, I have hit several with my car, only damage I have gotten is to my headers. If you google Winnipeg, Manitoba you will find we are the pot hole capital of North America. We actually have a contest every year to name pot holes. And when you have potholes named mega death and people suing the city for car damage. We actually had a death were a guy rode his bike over one that was filled with water so he did not know how deep it was and hit the ground and died

572_Rat

Articwhite is exactly right, I wanted to see if there were actual problems, not perceived problems. We all know what if's. I wanted to see with all the cars using all these different brands of K members have actually had problems.

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

Over the years, I've read of multiple failures across several makes/models of vehicles along with different brand/types of k-members. IIRC, they sold most of them labeled for off road use for a few different reasons and people still used them on the street anyway. I remember people talking about adding gussets on their own as well. (Both online and in person) But yeah, there could have been more than one company that did that, and I think it's a good idea actually. (Just thought it should be noted is all.)
Here are a few links I found with a quick search and I don't recall reading them before. So I'm assuming there were more.
BMR:
http://ls1tech.com/forums/suspension...l#post14003623
Spohn:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...-k-member.html
AJE:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ml#post2914696
PA Racing:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ml#post2393952

Lol, we don't name pot holes here, good idea though.
I can say from experience that we do have our share. Lawsuits and refusals to pay is commonplace as well. Last year was probably one of the worst with the constant snow/thaw/refreeze cycles along with dipping to -20º (non-windchill) a couple of times.
I'm not sure if there were any deaths related to potholes but I can believe it.

572_Rat

Our weather here gets bad during winter, -40 is pretty common with wind chills in the -45 to -50. Last year we had 6 weeks in a row where it never got warmer then -30 without wind chill. That's what kills the road so bad. I checked the links, the ls1 link had some good information. BMR stated that up to 2010 they had 5 welds break on their 1st design out of 2000. They stated the new design fixed that problem. The other links were looking for information on when the new k-members were coming out, and about breakage with torque arms and a-arms

This brings up another good point, if this companies discover they have a problem, why not tell us. These companies are getting as bad as the auto manufactures

Scorpner

iTrader: (4)

I figured it would be colder up that way. That Canadian air comes down every once in a while and it does have a good bite to it.
There were little tid bits of information in the links but as you're saying there isn't much that lays everything out. I posted the one about the a-arms because it included a rep responding to a very similar issue. Thought it was interesting.

Yes, I definitely agree that they should tell customers when something isn't right. People need to be made aware of it and also where to check for problems.

92GTA

iTrader: (11)

1) Spohn
2) Mild Steel
3) ~2008
4) Hit a small boulder on a mountain road dead on only 500 miles after installing it. The rock was decomposing granite and smashed into pieces upon impact. The center was bent. I had a chassis alignment shop straighten it and check my frame for square.
5) Street

I wouldn't buy it again just because Spohn's own steering kit rubs the bloody thing.

Only failure I had was the passenger ball joint in the Spohn tubular A-arm with only 1,500 miles or so on it (I installed it with the k-member) and totally destroyed my passenger fender. Thankfully I was only going literally 2mph when it happened.