Red 9 Design front beam

[scull]

Hello All.

I am wanting to fit a Red 9 Design front beam but their website dealer list is out of date and the whole website has not been updated for some time. Many listed dealers no longer supply or fit so there must be an issue either with the quality and/or supply of the product. Can anyone advise me if the R9D front beam is a good upgrade choise or not. I am simply wanting to lose the steering box and replace with a rack and pinion system and keep my van lower than stock while maintaining or improving the suspension and handling performance. Your comments would be gratefully appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Clem]

I beleive the company that was UK based have now sold the business to a company in France. Whilst not wishing to open a can of Brexit worms, this will mean some additional cost in purchasing one now.
People have had mixed results from them in the past but they sold enough to mean they were a suitable option.
Personally, with a steering box refurb and a decent beam based lowering system, you shouldn't really need to go any more complicated? It can also be the difference between MOT exemption status, or not, if that's important to you.

 

[K@rlos]

Best thing you can do is not get involved with Red 9, the quality is terrible. Don’t see the point in the conversion really either, bit of lowering with some decent shocks and a bus with standard style suspension handles fine and is a damn sight. Most buses have wayward handling due to the front end components being worn out.

A customer brought a bus with the set up on, got me to remove it and fit a 4.5” narrowed king & link pin set up. I cut the red 9 up with a gas axe and scrapped it

 

[sparkywig]

Red9 are now Dutch owned, and as far as I know there are no UK stockists/fitters at present.

 

[scull]

Many thanks for your all comments regarding the Red 9 Design front beam. Seems most of you are not fans. I may need to re-think my options towards a narrowed beam, dropped spindles and referbed steering box. Any recommendations of suppliers and fitters of a beam systems like those described above and where to get my steering box referbed would be gratefully appreciated....Thanks again...

 

[sparkywig]

Try Graham L on here, Midland Early Bay are French Slammer agents and refurb steering boxes as well.

https://www.midlandearlybay.com

 

[ozziedog]

I think most peeps will refer you to Graham L at Midland Early Bay, he’s been leading the way for quite a while with that sort of stuff :mrgreen:

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, plus it works :mrgreen:

 

[scull]

Thanks Sparkywig. The steering box referb page looks interesting. I will call Graham on Monday. I was looking at the French Slammer beams from Coast VW as you posted.....Spooky..Thank you.

 

[K@rlos]

You don’t need to fit a narrowed beam, just some dropped spindles, adjustable spring plates and lower profile tyres with appropriate shocks would give a tasteful drop if you don’t want the ‘slammed’ look.

I always use Components from Transporterhaus when I lower VW’s, got a full Thaus set up on both my bus and beetle. The Porsche brake conversion I did on my bus also uses a mounting kit from them.