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Tubular Suspension

15K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  famous bob 
#1 ·
Picked this up at Mopar Nationals Saturday. I spent some time checking out the tubular k frame kits offered by a few companies. I've heard good things about a relatively unheard off company out of Iowa called Gerst Tubular Suspensions. Ended up with a Gerst Tubular Suspension.

So far, everyone I talked to personally that has one and is running one, can find nothing negative to say. There are even some circle track and road race cars running this thing, talked to one of the owners/drivers over the weeked, nothing but rave reviews about it.

Thoughts so far, will update on install.

This thing is built stout, I'd mount it on a tank. And he's proud of it. Said that if you can find a stronger unit, let him know, he'll make it even stronger.

Full IFS coil overs, Shocks are dual adjusting.

Ball joints are rebuildable and maintainable QA1 units. Very nice

TIG welded and man do the welds look amazing.

I compared all 3 that I saw at the nats, RMS, HDK and GTS. All had similarities, all had differences. To me, its about building a better mouse trap. That's pretty much what the after market is about. Improving on what is already out there. Here's why I chose the kit over the others:

A: It didn't use the factory shock towers like the HDK. I know HDK rienforces the towers in their kit, which I'm sure does work just fine. But it's not something I wanted ultimately

B: It uses stronger and thicker steel than the others, granted it weighs a tad more than the others, but it appears stronger. It's also got more gussests than the others I saw as well. RMS is at 3/16th steel, GTS is 1/4, not sure on the HDK to be honest.

C: No drilling the frame. Only cutting required is to remove the bump stops.

D: Construction. The welds look AMAZING. again, everything is designed to improve factory caster/camber specs, lowers and uppers are designed to eliminate the caster/camber issues with the factory. Plus fully adjustable. Lower control arms are double shear, 2 cross bars, bucket style lower control arms, all of which are unique to this kit.

E: Bang for the buck. Price is way less than the RMS and even the HDK, even if you go high end on the brake kits. There are a couple cheaper kits out there, but I saw their quality and it sucks. Ultimately, this is to me, the best bang for the buck.

If you're in the market for a tubular suspension kit, look up Gerst. You wont be disappointed. Plus, its almost half of an RMS and cheaper than a Hemidenny as well.

3300 plus shipping for a basic kit with stock style brakes and a manual rack. you can upgrade from there to power steering, wilwood, sway bar etc.

I opted for no brakes since I have a set of mustang 2 brakes in the shop from my dad's project. A kit like mine is 3050 plus shipping. Course bare, non powdercoated may be even cheaper than that.

Comparison: All data off respective company's websites and or flyers. Prices may have changed or whatever but this is the most recent i could find.

RMS ALterkation = with brakes: 5600 plus shipping without brakes: 4995.00 plus shipping

HDK= bare kit, no powder coatingno brakes, no spindels, no rack, no coil overs: 2800, add 100 for the rack, plus 600 in brakes plus 600 in coilovers, plus the spindels (price not listed on their website for spindels, so i didnt include that): 4100 plus shipping

GTS: Basic kit, everything but the brake kit. = 3050, basic kit with stock style brakes, 3300 plus shipping. The GTS kit comes with QA1 rebuildable and adjustable tension ball joints, viking dual adjustable coil overs and springs. Manual rack(upgradable to power), mustang 2 spindels, upper, lower control arms.

800 cheaper than the HDK and complete. and 2300 cheaper than RMS.



 
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#11 ·
Gerst tubular front k frame

Just went to the web site and priced out the k frame for my 1968 Dodge Dart. I like the idea of having a rack and pinion power steering, disk brakes and the elimination of the torsion bars. But the 5000.00 dollar price tag is not in the budget this year. I will look around and see if I can find a cheaper alternative or the car will have to wait till the money gets better.
 
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