Hot Racing shock mount failure.

[Inspector86]

Just a heads up! I installed a set of Hot Racing aluminum shock mounts on my #1 TRX4 last year primarily because I liked the adjustability of the upper shock location. I never paid much attention to the panhard bar mount when I installed the left front HR shock mount. It turns out that there isn't much cross sectional material attaching the panhard mount to the rest of the LF shock mount. So much so that after about 100 hours of drive time on rocks the panhard mount fatigued and broke off. Those who know me know that I do NOT bash, I slow crawl to the point I'm running a 9t pinion and underdrive gears in both front and rear axles. Now, I'm no structural engineer but this looks to me like a weak area in the part design. If I were to design this part, I would have machined an additional gusset at 90 degrees to the plane of the shock mount surface to add more material cross section and support to the panhard mount. Just Sayin!

[JatoTheRipper]

That's lame. Thanks for the warning.

[Inspector86]

After posting this on FB I got a number of reply's from people that have had the same failure with the Hot Racing LF shock mount panhard mount breaking off. I guess it does not surprise me because it is just a poorly engineered part.

[cmbscx10]

Well that sucks. I had my eye on this upgrade. Thank you for sharing and agree on the poor design. Huge stress area with no gussets or material is a no no.

[Adama]

A better design shock mount is the one made by GPM. It has twin mounting tabs for the panhard bar mount and the upper shock mounts are adjustable as well. Im running the fronts shocks with 5mm of lift and 10mm in the rear due to how heavy the rear is on my D-110. Ive been running mine for over 9 months and no problems yet. You can usually find them on ebay.

[Inspector86]

I installed a set of Yeah Racing sock mounts. These mounts use a double shear panhard mount and each individual arm of the mount has more cross sectional material than the wimpy HR mount. I don't see these failing like the HR mount did.

[EZCompany]

I don't think breakage after 100 hours is anything to fuss over. The panhard bar has a lot of stress on it. It's the only thing that keeps the axle from flopping around and the trx4 isn't that light of a truck. I doubt the stock plastic one would have held up that long.

I guess it's just time to find a better one now.

[Inspector86]

Actually, I still have the stock plastic shock mounts on my #2 TRX4 and the panhard mount is going strong at similar hours to the #1 TRX4. The HR mount is just a poor design.

[Frank211]

Have you tried to contact HR about the shock mount ?

[Inspector86]

Originally Posted by Frank211

Have you tried to contact HR about the shock mount ?

And do what, get a replacemet POS HR mount? NO Thanks!

[Frank211]

Originally Posted by Inspector86

And do what, get a replacemet POS HR mount? NO Thanks!

Lol... No, so you can tell them where its weak at, 2nd, i just heard it was hard to get a hold of them.

[Inspector86]

Here is HR Warranty Policy, note the part about "parts broken in use are not considered defective". No problem, I just won't buy HR parts anymore.


Hot Racing Warranty Policy

Hot Racing products are warranted against defect within the United States for 30 days from the purchase date until the date we are contacted.

In the event of a defect, please email us the following:

Product part number
Copy of receipt
Picture of defect
Brief description

After review, you will be issued a return reference number with instructions on how to return.
Please Note:

Products broken in use are not considered defective
Discontinued products are not covered in this warranty
Please allow up to 3 weeks shipping and processing

Shipping:

Customers are responsible for shipping items to Hot Racing
Hot Racing will ship replacement products back at no charge

Please email: help@hot-racing.com