HOOD STRUT CHALLENGE!!!

[virkdoc]

This is what my redlines do on a 21 JLUR hood. They have never popped open, you have to give it a nudge or two. Any other vehicle I've owned with factory strut hood opening just pop up after you release the hood catch, never have to nudge them.

Mine are the exact same. Installed a few weeks ago....give them a nudge and then they will open.
Some videos Im seeing they just go straight up. But Im ok with them....I guess
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[Terrymo]

No it's cool, I'm going to upgrade to a $40 one from China this upcoming summer.

If a $20 one from China is equal to or slightly better than @Redline Tuning $100 strut, then a $40 one from China should be worth its weight and gold!

In reality I'm probably going to get it from Alibaba instead of AliExpress, so that way I can communicate with the manufacturer directly and get a significantly better one and make sure it works for what I need.

If that fails, I'll probably just go with Rival, I haven't seen a bad review of them yet!


Why would you replace something that clearly has an issue with quality control with the same product that has the same issue? Makes a whole lot more sense to buy a better quality product and not have to deal with this in the future.

I ask, only because hopefully the failure in your case is the exception and not the rule.

I love German made Stabilus. However just out of college I worked for two years in customer service for a company that sold Porsche OEM and race parts. Guess what our number one selling product was? And by far our number one warrantied product? German Stabilus hood struts for the 911. To the point that someone fabricated a bracket to mount two hood struts on one side. The early 911 hoods especially pre74 were very long and that weight and leverage put a lot of stress on the struts. The company approached Stabilus and asked them to provide a better strut rated for more weight. I don’t know if it ever happened.

 

[yokramer]

Youre really upset about this Greg, shouldnt you be cutting more out of your Jeep instead of worrying about other peoples parts?

 

[Blues Fan 30]

I ask, only because hopefully the failure in your case is the exception and not the rule.

I love German made Stabilus. However just out of college I worked for two years in customer service for a company that sold Porsche OEM and race parts. Guess what our number one selling product was? And by far our number one warrantied product? German Stabilus hood struts for the 911. To the point that someone fabricated a bracket to mount two hood struts on one side. The early 911 hoods especially pre74 were very long and that weight and leverage put a lot of stress on the struts. The company approached Stabilus and asked them to provide a better strut rated for more weight. I don’t know if it ever happened.

I feel like it is an exception. Ive never heard anyone else complain of issues with the redline setup.

 

[yokramer]

I ask, only because hopefully the failure in your case is the exception and not the rule.

I love German made Stabilus. However just out of college I worked for two years in customer service for a company that sold Porsche OEM and race parts. Guess what our number one selling product was? And by far our number one warrantied product? German Stabilus hood struts for the 911. To the point that someone fabricated a bracket to mount two hood struts on one side. The early 911 hoods especially pre74 were very long and that weight and leverage put a lot of stress on the struts. The company approached Stabilus and asked them to provide a better strut rated for more weight. I don’t know if it ever happened.

I replaced and sold so many hood and trunk struts when I was a tech working for everyone from CJDR/Ford/Mazda/Hyunda/Toyota. Its a gas strut they fail no matter who makes them or what manufacturer they are on. And now I sell a boat load to fire trucks cause guess what? Its gonna fail because thats what parts do.

 

[Terrymo]

Youre really upset about this Greg, shouldnt you be cutting more out of your Jeep instead of worrying about other peoples parts?

Worrying about other peoples parts can be an unhealthy obsession depending on which people and which parts we’re talking about.

 

[shagles]

Can someone point me to where Stabilus struts are made in America? I've seen a couple people present that information, but I can't find it anywhere on their website, and the photo of stabilus struts earlier in this thread said Made In Germany.

 

[SlickRicksWilly]

Almost 8 years with the $90 redline tuning on Lake Rat and 1 year on Earl. I can notice the 8 year old ones aren't as strong as the new ones but they still hold the hood up.

As for China vs America, It's a mixed bag for me but I prefer to stick with American made for most stuff but sometimes it just doesn't make sense. But, if it looks like China ripped off the design from an American company I will almost always go with the American company.

With all that said I do have a Badlands winch waiting to be installed, but to be fair I didn't buy it. But to play devil's advocate, If I were to buy a winch it would have been the same one.

 

[Grayhound]

I paid $52 for open box on extreme terrain and they’ve worked well for a couple years! Don’t even know the brand but it’s not redline. Does the job though!

 

[TrentYoung]

Frankly I'm a little tired of this whole made in the USA thing everyone loves to flaunt, meanwhile it's always a question as to how much they're actually made in the USA, and how much they're just assembled here.

I find a good way to tell that is to look at the size of the facility which they are supposedly manufactured and designed in, go on LinkedIn or another site, see how many employees they have, and see if the numbers add up to however millions of products they sell every year. A lot of times I find it's just a warehouse where things are packaged and shipped from, rarely do I ever come across a company that does everything they say they do from their tiny little facility wedged between two other companies in the same plaza.

Anyways, this is my experience so far having purchased numerous Chinese hood struts for various vehicles I've had over the years, sometimes you win with them, sometimes you don't, but the more based in the USA the company is, the more likely you are to have a quality product. When you buy straight from the manufacturer like I have in the past, it's kind of a hit or miss whether you get a quality product or not. But when you buy from a company that's based in the USA, but manufactures their products in China, you usually get a very good quality product, remnant of the much more expensive products that are supposedly manufactured in the USA.

I think we can all agree at this point that I have a substantial amount of experience ordering from manufacturers in China, maybe not as much as some of the company selling us products manufactured in China, but as an individual buyer I've been doing this for over 10 years now. I like to think of myself as a bit of a DIY expert when it comes to finding products cheaper from their manufacturer in China and ordering and installing them.

Without further ado here is my comparison between my 1-year old @Redline Tuning hood struts, and some cheap Chinese struts I got for $20 off of AliExpress 4 years ago:



I'd love to hear y'all's experiences with whatever brand of hood struts you guys are currently running, and your experiences with domestically produced ones as well as ones that are manufactured in China and other countries globally.

Spoiler: LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Could be you live in a filthy environment evidenced by the dust and dirt on your vehicle. I have had Redline for over 3 years and they are flawless. Perhaps you didn't install the RedLines correctly and dust and trash from your garage are affecting them. Now matter what... even i f i have to pay more, I will always 100% support American made by American workers keeping our America strong.

 

[Sand Flea]

I put RedLines on my '18 Sahara and it was the first thing that I added to my '25 Sahara.
They just work.

 

[SlickRicksWilly]

Could be you live in a filthy environment evidenced by the dust and dirt on your vehicle. I have had Redline for over 3 years and they are flawless. Perhaps you didn't install the RedLines correctly and dust and trash from your garage are affecting them. Now matter what... even i f i have to pay more, I will always 100% support American made by American workers keeping our America strong.

From experience I don't think dust has anything to do with it.

 

[Deleted User 38384]

Youre really upset about this Greg, shouldnt you be cutting more out of your Jeep instead of worrying about other peoples parts?

Naww, I was annoyed about how @Redline Tuning was bombing another forum sponsors thread. Not only is it disrespectful to another business, but they clearly think they are a threat if they have to interrupt their thread and interject themselves into it.

That being said, @Redline Tuning loves to throw around their "Made in USA" speech every time a post something. And over the last 3 years, the multiple times I've called them out, they will never post any level of proof of this. It's like that's literally their only selling point, they have a mediocre product that they state is made in the USA and is clearly a big marketing thing for them. Shoot I can't even get them to show what they assemble in their tiny little office in Ann Arbor. I'm guessing releasing that kind of information would significantly hurt their business model when people realize they're just shipping out other people's products and not assembling anything themselves.

That being said I've had really good luck with a lot of Chinese made products, so the whole idea that they love to push, USA made is better, with a whole bunch of smoke and mirrors, it's just not true.

So this is the thread to see who has experience with other products beyond redline tuning, and get a little bit of real world information flowing, beyond the typical "Made in the USA" with nothing to back it up.

 

[Deleted User 38384]

Can someone point me to where Stabilus struts are made in America? I've seen a couple people present that information, but I can't find it anywhere on their website, and the photo of stabilus struts earlier in this thread said Made In Germany.

North Carolina. I was on there global website yesterday. Also if you go to their website they're hiring mechanics and welders and people that actually make struts.

Which is more than I can say for @Redline Tuning

I should probably state that stabilis is a parent company, so they own a whole lot of other smaller companies that do a lot of the work for them. Again if you go to the careers section of their global page, there's like 80 jobs for engineers and other positions that deal with the strut manufacturing industry here in the USA through them.

 

[yokramer]

Naww, I was annoyed about how @Redline Tuning was bombing another forum sponsors thread. Not only is it disrespectful to another business, but they clearly think they are a threat if they have to interrupt their thread and interject themselves into it.

That being said, @Redline Tuning loves to throw around their "Made in USA" speech every time a post something. And over the last 3 years, the multiple times I've called them out, they will never post any level of proof of this. It's like that's literally their only selling point, they have a mediocre product that they state is made in the USA and is clearly a big marketing thing for them. Shoot I can't even get them to show what they assemble in their tiny little office in Ann Arbor. I'm guessing releasing that kind of information would significantly hurt their business model when people realize they're just shipping out other people's products and not assembling anything themselves.

That being said I've had really good luck with a lot of Chinese made products, so the whole idea that they love to push, USA made is better, with a whole bunch of smoke and mirrors, it's just not true.

So this is the thread to see who has experience with other products beyond redline tuning, and get a little bit of real world information flowing, beyond the typical "Made in the USA" with nothing to back it up.

Chinese manufacturing is hit and miss just like US manufacturing. It all depends on the company sourcing the product and how much they are willing to spend on it.

That said a company that has a real name, at least headquartered in the US that stands behind their warranty is worth something, to me $20-30 is nothing to spend on piece of mind knowing if I have an issue the company is likely to stand behind it rather than chasing the next alphabet soup named company that pops up on amazon. And if we are being real anyone modifying a current gen Jeep should be able to spend that as well rather than chasing the cheapest thing possible.

In the last 3 years or so Ive really tried to stop just buying random bullshit from amazon and finding the same things from actual sellers, be they RAH RAH USA USA companies or UK/Canadian/Chinese doesnt matter to me, what does is a company that is doing its own thing, standing behind their product and are easy to deal with.

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