Vendor Model 3 Öhlins DFV Coilovers - Engineered by Redwood Motorsports ™

[RedwoodMotors]

John, we have addressed this with you multiple times. As I said before, we have a specific cancelation policy for discounted pre-orders / group-buys (About Us) but can transfer your spot to another member FREE of charge, and already explained we are sending any interested customers your way. We went back and forth for 3 months answering hours and hours of questions, and even extended the pre-order discount for you after it was closed as a favor. I definitely understand your predicament, but we are a business not a bank - making the custom GT kit happen required a *large* production run of completely custom springs, dampers, and other custom components - funds for the pre-order kits are in the hands of Ohlins, Swift Springs, machine shops etc.

As everyone can understand, we're in the same position as the rest of the world and other small businesses during this crisis - we are in no way insulated from the knock-on effects of everything coming to a grinding halt. That said we are doing our best to try to help you resolve your financial issue with a zero dollar loss if we can set you up with another customer who is interested. If you need an immediate cash refund today I have to follow our cancelation policy, but can refund you a large portion of your discounted pre-order .

As I mentioned in the email, we are forwarding potential customers your way (and I've already forwarded your email to two potential customers so far to help you sell your spot). I specifically told you that we would do our best to help you in this situation, but like I mentioned before may take time if you want a zero loss transfer.

Again, our cancelation policy is located here -> About Us The last email we got from you was that you changed your mind and wanted to keep your order, so I'm not sure what you want to do currently.

We are all in a tough position - everyone across the country, small businesses like ourselves, and even big businesses... it's a trying time for all of us, which is why we were trying to work with you directly to help resolve it. Please follow up with us via email [email protected]

 

[Murattukaalai]

John, we have addressed this with you multiple times. As I said before, we have a specific cancelation policy for discounted pre-orders / group-buys (About Us) but can transfer your spot to another member FREE of charge, and already explained we are sending any interested customers your way. We went back and forth for 3 months answering hours and hours of questions, and even extended the pre-order discount for you after it was closed as a favor. I definitely understand your predicament, but we are a business not a bank - making the custom GT kit happen required a *large* production run of completely custom springs, dampers, and other custom components - funds for the pre-order kits are in the hands of Ohlins, Swift Springs, machine shops etc.

As everyone can understand, we're in the same position as the rest of the world and other small businesses during this crisis - we are in no way insulated from the knock-on effects of everything coming to a grinding halt. That said we are doing our best to try to help you resolve your financial issue with a zero dollar loss if we can set you up with another customer who is interested. If you need an immediate cash refund today I have to follow our cancelation policy, but can refund you a large portion of your discounted pre-order .

As I mentioned in the email, we are forwarding potential customers your way (and I've already forwarded your email to two potential customers so far to help you sell your spot). I specifically told you that we would do our best to help you in this situation, but like I mentioned before may take time if you want a zero loss transfer.

Again, our cancelation policy is located here -> About Us The last email we got from you was that you changed your mind and wanted to keep your order, so I'm not sure what you want to do currently.

We are all in a tough position - everyone across the country, small businesses like ourselves, and even big businesses... it's a trying time for all of us, which is why we were trying to work with you directly to help resolve it. Please follow up with us via email [email protected]

I haven’t seen this page before, thanks for the link. Yeah I really didn’t want to do it. Would be nice if someone could take it over. First time I checked wasn’t in this situation and after I responded things changed last Friday evening. Sorry to bother and hopefully things change soon for the good and I keep the order.

 

[RedwoodMotors]

Can you elaborate on the pros and cons of the top hats?

Floating top hats do a few things, they allow the shock shaft and the spring to remain in perfect alignment regardless of the top mount of the chassis (which removes bending loads from the shock). As no control arm (vs top mounting point of the chassis) are in perfect alignment through the compression range, inevitably you induce a bending load on the shock shaft, but also compress the spring unequally on one side vs the other - if you measure this on a spring dyno you'll notice the spring rate does not remain consistent and will wander as you unevenly load the spring... keeping the spring perfectly perpendicular in compression keeps the spring rate perfectly consistent (especially important on track where predictability of spring rate is essential through the compression range). Most importantly for the Ohlins DFV (and you'll notice that nearly all of their shock kits include upper spherical bearings) is the translation of linear shock velocity directly to the piston - which actively changes damping force based on shock velocity (low-speed, high-speed, and ultra-high-speed "blow off"). The stock tophat has a rubber/foam insert (a spring) that is inline with the shock shaft... this induces a delay in the translation of the wheel movement to the piston itself, delaying it's response. The end result of a spherical on the Ohlins DFV's is a further increase in accuracy to react to damping of bumps. Lastly, you remove a lot of labor (and danger) from unloading the stock spring to move the top hat over. The only downside is a very small increase in NVH.

I also posed the same question since the damper isn't load bearing like a traditional macpherson strut suspension design. The biggest appeal to me is that the unit can be fully assembled, I think, so that I don't have to disassemble the factory dampers. For that reason, Mr. Redwood if you're reading, I'll take a set please and happily put them through testing. This should speed up install as well.

Definitely agree on all points you brought up!! Without an industrial spring compressor, I would not attempt to remove the stock top hat as the stock spring is under thousands of pounds of preload! It's impressive (and scary) to see how much force is contained in that preloaded OEM spring!

Floating top-hats will make the whole shock rotate a bit as it compresses/extends so that the shaft stays straight, instead of the shaft bending a little. That in principle extends the life of a shock and lowers friction a bit. At the cost of some NVH increase.
I've never seen dyno results to quantify the effect but I imagine it's real.

This is correct, and the effects are real - though those are longer-term effects for wear. But especially for the DFV having a piston that relies on sensing velocity to do it's magic, having a direct translation from the wheel movement to the piston allows the Ohlins do their job better.

Sorry if this has been asked and answered already. But comparing these to the MPP in regards to adjustability of spring perch and body length....where MPP adjusts using the spring perch and Redwood looks like it has both spring perch and body length. Pro’s vs Con’s?

So we have both available to us... preload AND free length. Both can lower a car, but in different ways - letting the end user/shop set the car up more optimally for the intended use. Now for liability reasons - because the battery is the lowest point on the car - we *ONLY* officially recommend using an OEM free length and adjusting height via the preload on the spring. By adjusting height with spring preload we fix the maximum allowable distance the battery can get to the ground (the bump stop is at a fixed point, and to lower the car we throw away compression travel - but for very low cars this reduces your amount of available compression stroke). If you want both a very low car AND a lot of compression travel, you now need to allow the battery to get closer to the ground at maximum compression. Obviously as your battery gets closer and closer to the ground, you increase your risk of damaging the battery - which is why we officially do *not* condone reducing free length shorter than stock. However, that option is available *at your own risk* should you want to maintain compression stroke and lower the car as well. Basically at a certain point the bump stop needs to come in to stop the car from bottoming out - but with Batteries being the lowest point of the car - you will need to weigh the compromises between how low you want the car and the handling performance (staying off the bump stop).

Our official position is, we will provide a conservative free length for the shock in the install guide, and we only recommend lowering the car using preload. But, additional options are available by sacrificing battery to ground clearance at your own risk/discretion.

that’s what I would have thought but then saw this post by MPP in another thread. Seems like setting up this kind of coilover properly is a bit more complicated. When comparing MPP vs Redwood...this is one of the differences but haven’t seen much if any discussion on it.

Please see the above post, but, it doesn't need to be any more complicated - we provide a single recommended free length top of upper shock mount to center of lower bolt hole, and to adjust the height of the car you can simply change spring preload. However, there are additional adjustments should you want to tweak further - but at you/your installers' risk/discretion.

Any authorized dealer/installer in SoCal? I’m thinking of getting these but don’t know any places to install it.

We do have a growing chart of installers on our website here - we have a number more to upload to the list. This list will grow quickly, but we have a couple in SoCal that we can refer you to for install. Shoot us an email [email protected]

 

[RedwoodMotors]

I haven’t seen this page before, thanks for the link. Yeah I really didn’t want to do it. Would be nice if someone could take it over. First time I checked wasn’t in this situation and after I responded things changed last Friday evening. Sorry to bother and hopefully things change soon for the good and I keep the order.

Absolutely, I'll continue to funnel potential customers your way. Stay in touch, I'll help in any way I can during this time - and we are all hoping for the best for each other and our businesses. Really an insane moment in time and we all hope that everyone's families stay safe and our social distancing measures curtails the spread to the point where we can all finally get back to work and the things we love. I've never seen so many people WANTING to go back to work in my life!

 

[N54TT]

UPDATE: Coronavirus - Day 8? 10? (Who even knows at this point)

Thank you to everyone for your patience here... just as we were gearing up to ship everyones Performance kits we received an order from the governor of California to close for all non-essential operations. We're a block from the Tesla factory... it's a GHOST TOWN! Really eerie. We've been trying to restructure operations here to figure out how to work with limited staff to prevent potential issues. We have implemented some new policies, including drop-off and pick-up only for local install customers (no waiting room, bills are sent remotely for payment, and keys and steering wheels will be wiped down before receiving and returning customer cars). This has definitely been disruptive, but we are ironing out ways to keep things rolling during this unprecedented time, while maintaining the safety of our customers and staff!

That said, this is our first day back following our new internal protocols, and ultra-limited staff. We *are* assembling suspension kits now, with the goal of shipping early to mid next week. Unfortunately, our custom boxes are made using materials from Georgia Pacific - who are now basically making nothing but toilet paper. Our packaging manufacturer has also now re-jigged their factory to make medical garments and N95 masks for healthcare professionals. The custom boxes and packaging are simply not going to happen in time, so we are improvising with brown boxes and packing foam to get the first batch out... please excuse the home-brew presentation for the first batch of suspension. We are including free windshield banners and would like to offer a coupon code for a free hat or T-shirt (please email [email protected] with your order number for a free code, and your desired color/size). Thank you for everyone's extended patience!

The silver lining here is that our Tesla Model 3 Ohlins Front and Rear Floating Top Hats, and front Remote Adjusters are finished and will be available for all customers that have placed a pre-order. To extend our gratitude for everyone's patience we are offering a 25% discount to all pre-order customers on any accessories you wish to purchase before your suspension ships out! If you'd like more info, please email [email protected] and we can help you out!

Tesla Model 3 - Floating Top Hats

Tesla Model 3 - Remote Adjusters

Are the top hats compatible with other coilovers?

 

[RedwoodMotors]

Are the top hats compatible with other coilovers?

Yes, we have spring perches and bearing spacers to accommodate various spring diameters and various shaft sizes.

Our Ohlins kit runs a 70mm spring with 10mm shaft size. We also have 60/65/70mm spring perches and 10/12mm shaft size bearing spacers.

Could you tell me what spring size and shaft size you need?

 

[belanger]

I just started to look last week for a new option and I wasn’t positive if I wanted to go with Unplugged Performance option....then I find this product but missed the discount offer

 

[Spec C]

I haven’t seen this page before, thanks for the link. Yeah I really didn’t want to do it. Would be nice if someone could take it over. First time I checked wasn’t in this situation and after I responded things changed last Friday evening. Sorry to bother and hopefully things change soon for the good and I keep the order.

If yours wasn't for a rwd id have taken it over

 

[Murattukaalai]

If yours wasn't for a rwd id have taken it over

I’m pretty sure you can takeover this spot for AWD but you have to pay $250 more for the front suspension clamp.

 

[ElectroFish]

What was the total for p3d with initial discount?

 

[Murattukaalai]

What was the total for p3d with initial discount?

$3150+~$70 shipping

 

[RedwoodMotors]

If you guys want to make another thread to discuss for-sale posts etc. that's ok, but let's please keep it out of the main thread from here on out.

Thanks everyone!

-> If anyone would like Murattukaalai's spot, please either email us [email protected] or PM him directly.

Yes with an additional charge ($250) it can become a performance kit... it's not specifically tied to RWD if you want to sell it to a member with a Dual Motor.

 

[dsgerbc]

It's happening! Got a UPS notification for a shipping label created!

 

[djharmonix]

It's happening! Got a UPS notification for a shipping label created!

yeahhh!! Can’t wait!

 

[TheD]

My order arrived Friday in Los Angeles. Now I need to find an installer so any recommendations are appreciated.

 

[dsgerbc]

Got the shiny stuff. No setup instructions yet though. Anyone has a copy available to share?

 

[djharmonix]

Im jelly!!!
No replies from my last week’s email, i hope the guys are alright at Redwood with the virus madness...
Did you get a tracking when it shipped?

 

[dsgerbc]

Im jelly!!!
No replies from my last week’s email, i hope the guys are alright at Redwood with the virus madness...
Did you get a tracking when it shipped?

I got a UPS notification, but their own system also generated a few tracking e-mails with a delay of a day or so.

 

[TheD]

I'm still waiting for the installation instructions as well. I also emailed them to ask for their list of recommended installers and I haven't heard back on that either. I get the current economic situation, but it's still a little disappointing to have to wait days to receive a reply to an email from a company I gave several thousand to when completely random shops on Yelp can respond within 10 mins.

 

[dsgerbc]

I got a reply to my text the other day. They said they hope to post instructions today (which probably means those are coming next week . I am sympathetic. It is likely that they are working with like 10% staff and there's probably just not enough hours in the day to sustain near-normal operations while also trying to work with banks etc to make sure they get the government funds meant to help them survive.