balakay
BabyMax
I ordered an engine skid and sliders from Hefty Fabworks a few months ago for my 2005 GX470 with KDSS. There was an 8-10 week lead time and I think it ended up being more like 15 weeks before I received the items. Not that big of a deal and I kind of expected it going in. Most companies in this industry have a hard time accurately predicting lead times and it's typical for them to be longer than originally quoted. However, once I received the order, it was not what I ordered. I received an aluminum skid rather than the steel one that I ordered. After trying to contact Hefty to let them know that they sent me something I didn't pay for, and getting no response, I decided to keep the aluminum skid. If they got back to me and had a problem with it since it was a more expensive item than what I originally paid for, I'd work something out with them. So on to the slider install. Me, @tx_shooter, and @tex attempted to install the sliders last Sunday. Passenger side was a good fit with minor finessing due to a couple of mounting tabs being bent during shipping. Got it on and all was well. When we went to install the driver side one we ran into problems. This where all of the KDSS pump, reservoirs, and lines are located on the GX470. After looking at it, we realized there was absolutely no way to get this to work. We could unbolt all the KDSS components from the frame and bolt the slider on no problem. But there was nowhere to bolt the KDSS stuff back on. The only solution we could see was completely cutting off the middle leg of the sliders. So I started thinking that maybe Hefty sent me the completely wrong order since it appeared these weren't KDSS compatible sliders. We called it a day on Sunday and I got in contact with Hefty this week. He told me he had seen my email about the skid and was going to send me the steel skid I ordered and wasn't worried about getting the aluminum one back. It's mine to keep as well. He said he thinks the issue with the sliders is that Lexus probably changed the layout of the components on the frame between model years. On the vehicle used to design the sliders there was only interference with the lines and they could easily be pulled out from the frame and the mounting brackets slid behind them. He was set on righting the issue no matter what had to be done. He asked for some pictures of my driver side frame rail and said he'll compare it to pictures of their previous KDSS installs. KDSS GX470s aren't extremely common, especially in the offroad community. There's probably one for every fifty regular ones and he said himself that he's only ever had two or three in his shop. I've sent the pictures of the frame and am waiting to hear back.
Overall, I'm pleased with the service I've received. Other than the longer than quoted lead time which is pretty much par for the course with small fab shops, there's been nothing that couldn't be fixed or that he wasn't willing to fix. I'm expecting the slider issue to take a while to be resolved. Especially if he has to find someone with an exact year model KDSS model to come to his shop and let him build a slider off of it. I'm going to stick out the wait though. GX470 and KDSS in particular is still mostly unexplored territory in the offroad world so direct bolt on, problem free products aren't to be expected all the time. I'll update more when I hear back from him on what the plan of action is with the sliders.
Overall, I'm pleased with the service I've received. Other than the longer than quoted lead time which is pretty much par for the course with small fab shops, there's been nothing that couldn't be fixed or that he wasn't willing to fix. I'm expecting the slider issue to take a while to be resolved. Especially if he has to find someone with an exact year model KDSS model to come to his shop and let him build a slider off of it. I'm going to stick out the wait though. GX470 and KDSS in particular is still mostly unexplored territory in the offroad world so direct bolt on, problem free products aren't to be expected all the time. I'll update more when I hear back from him on what the plan of action is with the sliders.
