The Journey of Joi

[Joyride]

Beautiful front end of the truck, the amber lights look good. Do you plan on having a shop do the suspension or you going to install yourself? I have been thinking about getting my front suspension installed and doing my rear shocks myself. Although it is quite costly, so if you know a good trusted cheap shop let me know

Thanks! Plan to do the install myself, or assisting my neighbor anyway. He’s well versed on suspension and has offered to do it. I will have Socal Suspension set the springs and do the alignment though. Should be pretty straightforward. The shop would charge $450 to install the 6112s and that’s with doing the alignment. So not bad.

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[Discount Tire]

Awesome job on the front end! Anxiously awaiting the suspension w/tire and wheel pics

 

[Joyride]

Took a better shot of the lights. I have the Diode Dynamics fog lights to install but the amber of the fogs will go nicely with the Raptor style lights.

 

[Joyride]

Still awaiting wheels ...In the meantime finally installed the Diode Dynamics Pro fog lights. A straightforward install but a pain in the ass because the space is super tight. FYI, I only removed the wind dampeners and reached my hand/tools up from the bottom. Oh, and whoever aligned/drilled the holes on the FX4 wind dampeners should be taken out back and shot! Decided in the end to delete those pieces since it was something I was considering anyway.

 

[Joyride]

Okay! All wheels are present and accounted for with no damage. To give everyone an idea of what the ordering and exchange processes are like, I've documented the timeline and what you can expect from Custom Offsets (aka CO)...

Initial Order/Receipt
Sun 6/27 – Ordered Vision Rocker wheels (not on backorder)
Fri 7/2 – Received one wheel (delivery doesn’t require signature)
Sat 7/3 – Emailed CO regarding delivery of other three wheels; CO advised that the other three wheels were in route and provided tracking update
Mon 7/5 – Inspected the one wheel and it’s damaged; submitted email regarding the wheel being damaged; CO advised to wait for the other three wheels to be delivered
Tue 7/6 – Received other three wheels; inspected and all wheels damaged; submitted email regarding damage and production finish issues

Return/Exchange
Wed 7/7 – CO offered $50 off per wheel and a 1-year extension to the finish warranty; I responded stating that I still want to return the damaged wheels and replace but with the Moto Metal 970 wheels; CO responded stating they would process the return and schedule shipping pickup
Thu 7/8 – Received return shipping carrier info/instructions for scheduled 7/9 pickup from 2-4pm; CO provided info for remaining balance I would owe for the replacement wheels but informed that replacements cannot be shipped until damaged wheels are received
Fri 7/9 – Left work early due to scheduled pickup time but wheels weren’t picked up until ~7:15pm with a scheduled return delivery date of Fri 7/16
Thu 7/15 – Email CO inquiring if the replacement wheels can at least be processed for shipping prior to them receiving the damaged wheels; CO responds that damaged wheels must be on their dock first
Fri 7/16 – Tracking updated stating return delivery rescheduled for Mon 7/19
Monday 7/19 – Returned wheels arrive at CO warehouse; CO processes invoice and I pay remaining balance for replacement wheels
Tuesday 7/20 – Shipment tracking number provided by CO; No notification of shipment pickup or projected delivery date noted by UPS
Friday 7/23 – Again, received one wheel (delivery doesn’t require signature)
Monday 7/26 - Received other three wheels; inspected and all wheels are good and ready for tire installation and ceramic coating prior to mounting ?

Overall Take-aways
So as you can see the initial order to delivery is quiet fast at 10 days if everything goes well and the wheels aren't backordered. If it doesn't you can expect another 20 days or so to complete the exchange process. With shipping challenges these days you have to be patient and persistent. Especially if the wheels you ordered are on backorder.

The customer service from CO was outstanding, although I was wondering if CO shipped me a known damaged set initially with the hopes that I'd accept their offer of $200 and 1 year extension of the warranty. But let's keep it positive and assume it was an honest shipping damage issue. Those Vision boxes were beat. CO responded immediately to my multiple emails keeping me informed of their progress which I give them kudos.

Would I order again from CO? Maybe yes, their customer service is very good...Although, I've learned that I don't like to be the intermediary of the process. That's where a brick and mortar shop, like Discount Tire, has it's advantages. You/they would order the wheel, it's shipped to the store, and THEY'D check for damage and deal with replacements if necessary, not you. The shipping time element is still a factor no matter where you order. Another potential advantage with a brick and mortar is that you may not have to wait for the return to arrive back to their warehouse before they'd release replacements. I understand why CO has to do this, but with a place like Discount Tire, they could possibly exchange immediately since it's an in-house exchange with their employees and/or vendors. Either way, waiting sucks haha.

I hope my experience sheds some light on the wheel ordering process and experience. Now on to next steps.

 

[Joyride]

Ceramic coated my new wheels. Have a lot going on with work and family, so took my time doing one wheel per day. The Adams wheel coating is an awesome product to work with, a bit tedious but easy to use. The coating also glows when you shine a black light on it which really helped to ensure all parts of the wheel were covered and even. Although, this process peaked my OCD making sure every nook and cranny were covered. The coating also makes the black gloss stand out even more. Anyway, glad to be done and have the added layer of protection. Also decided to add MGP caliper covers when I mount the new wheels/tires...which of course also had to be ceramic coated haha.

EDIT: If you decide to coat your wheels, don't forget to do the drums!

 

[Joyride]

The deed is done. Discount Tire hooked up my ride and the fellas put up with my requests to be careful with the coated wheels and even put the center cap covers on in the direction I wanted. Yes all right side up in correlation to the air stem It really is tough to find businesses that do things the right way and these fellas did great…to quote a favorite book series of mine, “how you do the little things is how you do everything”.

Here’s how the Ranger looks now…

 

[Discount Tire]

Turned out absolutely, fantastic @Joyride!!!

 

[Joyride]

Couple more thoughts on the new wheels and tires. The height of the Cooper AT3 4S tire is 32” but at a 285 width there is an ever so slight rub at full turn on the rear felt of the wheel well. Plan on taking care of that although it's not an immediate issue. I do have a set of BDS crash bars, so the delete isn't forever now that I've confirmed there will be no rubbing. Also wanted to ensure that I wasn't adding a bunch of weight to each corner despite being inevitable. The stock Lariat wheels/tires are 66 lbs. and my new setup is 80.5 lbs., so I managed to upsize without adding a bunch of weight. The ride has hardened up a bit going from a 60 to 45 sidewall, although the ride is still very nice and the Coopers are turning out to be a great all around tire. They're as quiet as the Hankook tires and a fantastic deal compared to other brands as a 3-Peak Mountain Certified tire.

Today I didn't really mess with the truck all that much, although I installed the MGP caliper covers (https://www.calipercovers.com) and they came out great. Especially now that the big silver calipers are hidden. They're super easy to install and took me about 10 minutes or so.

The next step is to get the set of OE style Bushwhacker fender flares over to OEM Auto Art (https://oemautoart.com) for paint prior to installation. These are the smaller flares, so there will still be a little poke of the tires which is what I want. The flares will protect the paint but mainly to widen the look of the truck. More to follow on this.

REAR

FRONT

 

[Discount Tire]

The caliper covers are a nice touch!

 

[bfastr]

even put the center cap covers on in the direction I wanted

and I thought I was OCD.. but you know I am going out to see if my caps line up now

 

[Joyride]

and I thought I was OCD.. but you know I am going out to see if my caps line up now

Haha! It’s a habit that’s carried over from doing car shows with my 67 GTX (now sold). Yours all lined up now?

 

[Joyride]

The caliper covers are a nice touch!

Thanks! Next best thing to powder coating which I didn’t want to fuss with.

 

[Discount Tire]

Thanks! Next best thing to powder coating which I didn’t want to fuss with.

Certainly understandable and MPG builds quality covers from what we've seen.

 

[ak47p]

Fanfriggentastic build man. Love what you've done. <3. Really thinking of doing that FP tune now that I've seen such great reactions on it. Following this tread for SURE!

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