[lousieg55]

Okay i kno im going to be bashed on this one alot ow: , but really whats so bad about whiplash. I heard so much crap talked about them but never any cold hard facts, no broken parts, no totaled truck anything just alot of you saying there crap lol. I just want to kno what makes them so bad. I personal think the x in the sub frame looks cool lol.

I have sean a few down in pismo mashing pretty hard, seem tough.
Any one run a newer kit ether.

 

[Daniel]

I heard that use inferior metal and banana peels to make the kit

Thats what robert cepek told me at least

 

[TheLlama]

Everything is wrong with them. They use thin metal and not much bracing... Ive seen kits split apart at the welds. There used to be some pics floatin around but i cant seem to find any.

 

[Alden]

-Upper a-arm brackets don't fit correctly. They're either too tight and have to be "hammered" in, or they're too loose and you constantly loose alignment when they shift.
-Bracing is weaksauce.
-Welding isn't very good... Years ago, people posted pictures of broken welds.


I know of lot of people who were fine with the kit and had very few problems... But there are a lot better kits on the market. Why go with the cheap one?

 

[Twstd02]

We had a 15" kit on our 02 silverado...with no problems.

 

[Cajun4x4]

http://homepage.mac.com/darketernal/PhotoAlbum31.html

 

[bigchevy]

http://homepage.mac.com/darketernal/PhotoAlbum31.html

the only thing i saw wrong with whiplashs part of the truck was the bolt breaking near the steering crossmember. the rest of the problems looked to be from that dude ragging the hell out of that vehicle. I mean you know he was rough on that thing to break the idler arm mounts off the frame. and for the compression struts I would say the guy who installed the lift didnt weld the tabs on good enough. maybe its just me.

 

[lousieg55]

the only thing i saw wrong with whiplashs part of the truck was the bolt breaking near the steering crossmember. the rest of the problems looked to be from that dude ragging the hell out of that vehicle. I mean you know he was rough on that thing to break the idler arm mounts off the frame. and for the compression struts I would say the guy who installed the lift didnt weld the tabs on good enough. maybe its just me.

I kinda agree The truck looked like it was jsut trashed yea take any truck off a jump goin 45 with fts or any of those your gonna break stuff.

Just wondering what you guys thought tho, the new kits seem pretty decent.

 

[4x4Tahoe]

that specific truck was never taken offroad. he's my friend.

however it was the 3rd truck that kit had been installed on. and the previous 2 trucks were abused bad.

i've been out of the game for a few years now, but the whiplash kits for the 99+ trucks went through 3 different models. if you find one of the 3rd generations, i've never heard of anything going terribly wrong.

here's a couple pics of our friends from high school back in 2002 i believe. his was the blue silverado. mine was the pewter tahoe.

 

[Dark Eternal]

Ive taken 4 of them off now - every one of them damaged due to every day driving. That guys idler arm mounts ripped off due to the steering geometry of the kit being so damn far off it puts loads of stress on everything.

In all honestly - I rather crash my truck into a brick wall than put a whiplash on it.

Ive seen:
1) Broken welds on the kit
2) Bolt holes in the kit ripped right out
3) Damage to the vehicle due to aweful alignment of the kits (even the 3rd gen ones)
4) Flat out failure of the kit during normal driving (bracket breaking in half - not even at the welds!)

 

[Norris]

ill go with you.

for the price, the lifts are very comparable to FTS. yes, in the past, there were issues, but with everything that just starts theres going to be issues. Now Whiplash says NEW and redsigned kits i think that happened in 05. If they were so unsafe and so shitty, why are they still here today? I agree it doesnt equal something like a Cognito, but for the price, i think its all over priced, but what can ya do. I personally havent seen one on anything other then Marks truck, and what I did see i liked. I still have plans for the 16 inch for mine, just havent decided between FTS/ whiplash or a whole other route- 87 1 ton straight axle chassis, cummmins 12v, rockwells, 15 inches of lift, 53" Mich or something aroudn a 44 bogger, and my 95 body and 4l80e.... but im working on it.

 

[Norris]

i stand corrected, thanks DE for some actual hard proof..... have you seen anything worng on other big ifs lifts or the smaller ones for that matter?

 

[silver98Z71]

Man, that is a 10bolt fuck-fest if I have ever seen one. Minus the F150 of course.

 

[Dark Eternal]

Well - hopefully this wont piss anyone off - but here it goes - just what I have seen and my opinions - I have literally installed at least once every kit out there.

Procomp Full Drop:
Had one customer who broke the torque strut that goes from the upper diff mount to the factory driver rear LCA mount. Not the welds - but the tab on it. He IS hard on his truck and we warentied it and hes happy. Ive installed maybe 15-20 of these kits and thats the only problem - minor at most. Overal I like this kit other than its a huge pain to instal.

Rancho 4-6":
Had a few kits missing some parts when I opened them - awesome kit though

Superlift full drop kit:
What a POS - its a million parts and has big issues holding alignments. Ive replaced several broken brackets throughout the kit, NOT just the now redesigned UCA drops. The shock hoops dont stay tight, the kit is even worse to instal than the procomp. I would highly recomend against this kit. Constantly shifting alignment also fucks with tire wear on many trucks.

3rd coast:
Pretty nice brackets, however you are taking a gamble on how the welds are. Some are great, some are poor - seems to be dependent on who was welding the kit that day. We have dealt with kits with porous, weak welds. Also the steering geometry, is fucked. Someone with a NBS lift - go jack up your front suspension and watch the toe on your front end change by as much as 6" - yes six inches! Due to improper tie rod angles and lengths the toe changes greatly in suspension movement - this causes aweful tire wear and some weird driving characteristics.

Full Throttle:
Shitty instructions. Kits similar to 3rd coast. Some have the same steering issues but not to the same degree.


These are just some experiances - youve already read what I had to say about whiplash. My favorite kits include:

Cognito
Rancho
RCD

Fabtech, BDS, the FIT kit, Procomp (both kits) etc... are all nice as well without major issues.

 

[Anthony]

i knew someone personally that had a whiplash'd 04 z71 tahoe and daily driven it had a lot of the problems that steven described... idler arm mounts and rear swaybar mounts being sheared off and having to be welded back on. alignment sucked... ride quality sucked (was rolling on 35" BFGs).

 

[lousieg55]

Sounds good i would never put it on my truck, with such a bad rep i always hear, but i was just wondering because i have heard so much stuff talked about them intresting to see that some people say they okay, but most just say crap.

So if going with a bigger lift between fts and whiplash i guess hands down FTS then. To most people

 

[Gerald]

Thanks for starting this thread. With the addition of Stephen's post, this turned out to be some very good, need to know information!

 

[Will]

this thread makes me miss this truck...

http://www.gmfullsize.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1204

 

[taSk]

I know off topic but I've been thinking this a long time.

This site has no content. Good reviews like this by dark eternal(hands on experience) are just going to be lost and you can only sticky so many threads before it takes up the first page.

i think something like this would really be helpful:
http://www.offroaders.com/tech/AT-MT-Tires/SuperSwamperBogger.htm

I think this forum is awesome (never posted before but i do read a lot). but i do think a review system for tires/wheels/lifts like the link above would really improve it :imo .

 

[lousieg55]

Is the 3rd Generation for the New trucks the Extreme addition ones.