The Millers in Motion Podcast
The Millers in Motion Podcast
Join Ryan and Lauren Miller as they take you beyond the world of RVing to explore all things travel! Whether it’s road trips, flights, cruises, or the hidden gems of small towns and big cities, the Millers bring you along for the ride. In each episode, we’ll dive into our latest adventures, share insider tips, discuss travel challenges, and meet fascinating people along the way. Whether you're an experienced traveler, a weekend wanderer, or just looking for inspiration for your next trip, we’ve got stories and insights that will inspire your journey. Let’s keep those wheels rolling—wherever the road, sky, or sea might take us!
The Millers in Motion Podcast
EP16 - The Road Less Bumpy An Inside Look at Cutting-Edge RV Suspensions with Austin Conrad from MORryde.
Welcome to the RV Shenanigans Podcast from Millers in Motion, where we embark on adventures and share tales from life on the road. Join us as we explore the joys and challenges of RV living and discover the beauty of traveling this amazing country.
Episode Title: The Road Less Bumpy An Inside Look at Cutting-Edge RV Suspensions with Austin Conrad from MORryde.
Episode Description:
Prepare to level up your RV game as we bring you insider scoops and survival tips straight from the 2024 Florida RV Super Show. Our chat with Austin from MORryde isn't just a conversation; it's a treasure trove of a decade's worth of RV industry secrets, ready to transform your road trips. Groundbreaking suspension systems, we get the lowdown on what makes a rig truly roadworthy. Join us for some laughs about sunny Florida escapes and learn why our Alliance Valor is riding smoother than ever before.
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Thank you for joining us on the RV Shenanigans Podcast. Until next time, happy trails and safe travels!
Welcome back to the RV Shenanigans podcast. I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2:I'm Lauren, and together we're Millers in Motion. We sold our ranch in Texas and are now enjoying many new adventures in our Alliance Fowler.
Speaker 1:And we are coming to you live from the 2024 Florida RV Super Show. Still, this is about our fifth show now.
Speaker 2:Five or six somewhere in there.
Speaker 1:We're getting better at it as we go, which is good news for all. The next guest Are we, though? Are we Shush? A big thank you to Alliance RV for hosting us and letting us come crash their party and pretty much just make a bunch of noise, and new friends for letting us record. But we have a fun guest because he has made. Well, he didn't make it sorry, but his company, he takes all the credit.
Speaker 1:his company made our favorite upgrade we've ever had on any RV ever, and it's currently on our 2024 Valor 44 V 14. And I could not imagine toying it without it. This is Austin from Mooride. How's it going?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. I'm here in Florida. Back home in Elkhart it's about negative 20. So hard pass. Yeah 50 degrees here still feels a lot better than that.
Speaker 1:So do you live up in Elkhart? I do.
Speaker 3:I'm so sorry about the weather yeah, it's not great. Family back home keeps texting me and saying you know, I know you're in 50 degrees and it's been raining last few days, but it's better than back here. So it's, it's all good, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no more. No more talk about the rain when it's warm, you don't. You lose that right, don't you? Yes, absolutely Perfect. So welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:I know that it's kind of hard during the show to pull especially vendors away from their booth, so we're super appreciative that you took a little bit of time to come chat with us and, believe it or not, we have a lot. You have the most listener Q and A's of any other guests we have. I'm humbled.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's. That's great. We haven't asked the questions yet.
Speaker 3:That's true Until we read them.
Speaker 1:I guess I I'm not humbled until then. Exactly so. So if you don't mind, what? Just so we can learn a little bit about Austin, peel back the onion layer, if you may. What got you into the RV industry so?
Speaker 3:growing up around the Elkhart area, you hear all about RVs. I mean, the RV capital of the world is based in Elkhart.
Speaker 1:Elkhart.
Speaker 3:Indiana. So I went to college and a local college near Elkhart Family members. My dad worked in the industry and so right out of college, actually a couple months after, I started at Moride and I've been there ever since.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So, but in the industry 10 years now. It's been a lot of learning, a lot of growing, but it's been a lot of fun. Moride's been a great place to work Some really good people, really good owners and it starts at the top down, so the owners are second generation owners and eventually it might be passed down to third generation. But I've been in the industry, like I said, 10 years and it's just been a whirlwind. It's been a lot of fun. I've also come to a lot of the Tampa RV shows, so I know what you guys are talking about. We've had some cold, we've had some warm and everything in between but, it's, yeah, it's.
Speaker 3:It's good to be here.
Speaker 2:You come down just to get away from that weather, don't you?
Speaker 3:I try every year, you know. They say do you want to go to Minnesota or do you want to go to Florida? I say okay, I'll go to Florida, yeah.
Speaker 1:Stop asking me the question, Just send me to Florida. That's not perfect. So if you don't mind, you know I think a lot of people know Moride for some suspension stuff and a few random components that come on their RVs when they get them from factory or when they first buy it. But if you don't mind, if can you talk a little bit about how Moride kind of got its start and how it became what it is today?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Moride started back in 1966. So we've been around nearly 60 years. They actually started as a rubber component. They bought the rights or the patent to a rubber component and the rubber component was used in one specific application. The application was used as a a shear in a shear spring capacity, whereas basically put on the back end of what we're called low boy trailers, and these low boy trailers were used to haul other RVs and other vehicles down the road. So this, this patent that they bought back in 1966, has been integrated into a bunch of our other suspension upgrades, such as the IS and many other OEM and motor home suspensions as well. So they bought it back in 1966. About 15, 20 years later they invested in some metal fabrication equipment, such as like laser cutters and press brakes and stuff like that, like CNC machines, that kind of stuff yeah.
Speaker 3:To help out one customer in particular, and so that was, you know, in the 80s, 90s. Then we grew from there. We bought our second or third or fourth laser, started expanding and our owners were very particular about staying in the Elkhart area. So now today we're over a million square feet in the manufacturing space. We don't share public numbers because we're still privately held, but we are one of the largest metal fabricators in the US.
Speaker 1:And I will say, if you have never gotten a chance to be up there and tour it, it is impressive and staggering all at the same time, somehow.
Speaker 3:And it's changed a lot. Even in the last 10 years that I've been at Mooride I mean the campus that I'm at our, our sterling location, which is right downtown Elkhart has changed dramatically in the last few years even. So then, since then we've opened a state of the art powder coat facility and we work with more customers both in the RV space and outside. So not only are we big in the RV space, which is what a lot of people know us for, but we work in, you know, military counts and agricultural and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Right, I was actually going to say because you said customers before, but that's a wide gamut of a term for you guys. Most people just assume it's it's the components you see on the RV and that's really it. And the end of the day, there's so much more that goes into what Mooride actually does.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we have a great team. I mean, I'm more particularly on the aftermarket side, so the parts that customers will see day to day, that they'll interact with, such as suspension and steps, things that were known for that's. That's going to be a big part of what I work with day to day. But we also have a full team of engineers and account managers that will go out and they'll pursue a new business outside of the RV world or even within.
Speaker 1:Very cool, yeah. So getting into some of those products and obviously we're probably going to stay away from the military grade stuff. We're going to. We're going to live in the RV world because we're on an RV show. So the cannons no, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:The rocket launchers we'll talk about those.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, perfect, yeah, so they're with rubber. So what are some of the most popular products that come out of more Consumer level? Let's say consumer level initially, and then I'll say components later.
Speaker 3:So I would say one of the main things that Morrides known for on the consumer side is going to be steps. We came out with them in 2016. A little bit before that, there was also R&D that went into it, but in 2016, we launched the steps. The step above steps, they go into the doorway, they go all the way to the ground. So it's kind of a game changer for dealers in particular, because lot management was a big thing. They would crush. These RVs right next to each other could barely squeeze into them. Well, our steps came down to the ground and it forced them to spread them out. They didn't like it at first, but customers that used RVs loved them, and so they started pushing more and more.
Speaker 1:Especially the ones that are shaped more like Ryan, not just because they're super stable and the other ones are not so much, and you feel like you're going to end up on the ground faster than you want to.
Speaker 2:So all of that style of step are created equal. We have first hand experience with that, and yours are step above and much preferred.
Speaker 1:We appreciate that it's like they thought about it and named it there.
Speaker 3:We like to think so. I'm in sales, so I pitch it all day long, but it's great to hear from other people that have actually used the product.
Speaker 1:I'm giving you a line.
Speaker 1:I can tell you when we got our new RV oh, there's money. I'm sorry, I was unaware of this. I was supposed to say that on here oh shoot, we just renegotiate ourselves back out of it. No, we were super excited to be getting steps and we didn't realize that was another manufacturer's at the time. And I remember pulling our brand new coach in and them going are you sure I'm like yup? And they ripped every little piece of it off and put the step above in and I could not be happier about that.
Speaker 3:And you guys have the Stratocyst right, the ones that the hydraulic level Very good?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. So now I say that in terms of you know, that's a lot of aftermarket stuff that you can do, which the steps are part of that. Is that also the most popular product that you serve out to, like the OEMs and the manufacturers, I would say probably the most popular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, today I don't know the exact number we're over a million that we've sold, so there's between OEM and aftermarket. So, and we still work with a large majority of the manufacturers in some capacity. Not every floor plan, every model has our steps. There's some other guys out there, different models, different brands, but I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:Not in our world. They don't exist. They don't exist, yeah, we just turn a blind eye.
Speaker 3:But, no, that's probably still our most popular customer and OEM facing product Gotcha.
Speaker 2:I was going to tell you we were coming out of one of the Valor's. I wasn't with you earlier and we have the safety rail.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And these don't yet.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 2:I nearly made a fool of myself.
Speaker 3:You went to reach for it, wasn't it yeah?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you forget. Like that's one of the other things that they said do you want safety rails? And at the time they were newer. I mean they're much more common now, but then they were. You only saw a hand flow, I'm like sure. And I got on like okay, where was where has this been my whole life? Because they just. It's just one of those things like why don't rails extend to the bottom of the stairs or at least closer to the bottom of the stairs?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, if you go to any residential place or business, you have a handrail with every step.
Speaker 1:It's to code you know and you expect it, yeah, and so at my house, for instance.
Speaker 3:Our house is a hundred years old. So it's a really steep set of stairs and we have that handrail. I would die if I didn't have it. So it's it's nice that we had a product finally that we came out with.
Speaker 1:Especially in the winter, in Elkhart, exactly, that's exactly right. So are there any other like products that are just like? I have one in particular and that's why I'm bringing this up that you kind of look at and you're like, why are we making this? And then all of a sudden it just takes off and you're like, oh okay, I understand now.
Speaker 3:So we have a wide variety of products. So, like I said, we have the steps, we have step accessories like the safety rail and the latch extender, some motion active lights which by the way, one of the stairs are one of our favorite things.
Speaker 1:The lights are the second favorite, because I can't tell you how many times I forget to turn on an awning light and almost fall down the stairs and then that light kicks on like, oh, thank God.
Speaker 3:So what we try to do is we come up with products that always make the RV experience easier and allow people to enjoy their time longer, because the longer they enjoy their RVs, the more products we can sell, the more they can enjoy the industry, and it just builds everything up.
Speaker 2:It's so true, and I think your other slogan should be stuff you didn't know you needed, because once you have it, you can't imagine before I'll pitch it to the team.
Speaker 3:We'll see how it happens.
Speaker 1:You didn't realize this is going to change your world. You didn't know you needed this. Yeah, it's got a little catchy tune. Yeah, like Hayden came out right before we left the factory and he's like oh hey, I forgot to give you this and he handed it to me out of a package so I didn't know what it was. I'm like what it was is the cord reel, oh yeah. And I'm like what is this thing? And he's like it's a cord reel. I'm like, or a cord keeper.
Speaker 1:Or a cord keeper. Sorry, I'm like what, how okay. And he had to actually show me. I'm like, oh, no joke, I didn't realize how much I wanted that thing. And it's not even that expensive of a product, to be completely honest with you, and it literally just lives underneath our rubber pin box.
Speaker 2:He is so excited about this little thing. It works its way into videos more often than any of your other products.
Speaker 3:Well, and it's one of those things, like you mentioned, we have our what's called our easy reel spooler, our cord reel and that holds a 50 amp cord or 30 amp cord Great product. We've sold it for a number of years 10, 15 years and so I don't know I don't even know where the idea came from, but Someone rolling up a 50 amp cord and it's like five degrees outside and it doesn't bend.
Speaker 1:That's where it came from. Well, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3:And then, outside of that, the cord keeper. The inception was probably just like hey, why don't we do this with the seven way cord that gets stuck on the bottom side of the pin box? So it's been a fun product. Anytime we come out with something new on the sales side too, it's just a fun new thing to pitch. And so it's been going over. When it goes over, well, it makes it more fun to pitch.
Speaker 3:And so it's been a really good product. It's very easy to use, and so that's been a cool product for us.
Speaker 1:So all those little products are well and great. They definitely make RV life easier, more fun, all of those different things. But I will tell you the one thing that I am most happy that you guys do is suspension systems, because I've towed a lot of things and a lot of things don't tow great. That is accurate. So I eventually were going to get to the independent suspension. But just for some frame of reference, I do want to talk a little bit about the CRE 3000, the All-Trek 4000, just because those in themselves you wouldn't think would be this massive upgrade, but they really are. And a lot of OEMs now are starting to realize that and put at least on mid-level and higher trailers that CRE 3000 as a standard option. But why are they wanting to do that so much more versus just a standard suspension system that comes with the frame?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So for reference, the standard suspension is going to be, basically we call it a wishbone. It's a steel rocker that rocks from side to side. That gives you about two inches of wheel travel, meaning as you go over rough roads your wheels can move up and down about two inches, and that's working in conjunction with the leaf springs. So that's standard across the industry, especially lower-end models.
Speaker 2:And I don't know about you, but I've seen a lot of potholes bigger than two inches.
Speaker 3:There are especially in Indiana, in Michigan and most of the Midwest actually.
Speaker 1:It's where you get the ice and then it breaks, and then going down to Louisiana and through Shreveport and come back and have a conversation.
Speaker 3:I have heard that. I have heard that I haven't driven it, but I've heard that's pretty bad. Be thankful.
Speaker 1:Avoid it. Yes, just in general.
Speaker 3:And that's so. Potholes that's a great example Railroad tracks, expansion joints in the highway, all these things that you know. As you're going over them it's going to jar and basically create an earthquake in the back of your RV. So more I'd got again back in 1966, we started the company not me personally, but the owner started the company with that shear spring using rubber and it's going to allow the wheels to move up and down. It's basically like a shock absorber for your RV. And so we moved from. Our idea was basically take that wishbone, add rubber in it, just like what we came out with back in 1966. And we incorporated that into what's called our CRE 3000.
Speaker 1:A lot of people call it the Cree. I was about to say so. Which one is it?
Speaker 3:You can call it the Cree if you want to. We'll know exactly what you're talking about. The CRE stands for compression rubber equalizer. It's a compressed rubber equalizer.
Speaker 2:Look at us learning stuff.
Speaker 3:You know that's what I'm here for, and so the CRE 3000 is going to sit between the wheels. It allows for three inches of wheel travel instead of two. It allows you to go over those rough roads a lot easier. And you're exactly right, we've been working with more and more manufacturers over the years. Alliance uses them on some models, staring at one right here. I think that's right. Yep, certain floor plans use them, certain models, and so across the industry. That's kind of the next step up over a steel equalizer. It's going to reduce that chattering of the frame. It's going to protect the inside of the components on the inside, such as cabinets and whatever valuables you have in there, and the biggest benefit, in my opinion, is the sidewalls. I mean, you basically have a house on wheels, and so our philosophy is you know, every RV going down the road is a house on wheels. The better you can do at protecting your RV from the floor up, from the ground up, the better it's going to last in the long run.
Speaker 2:My understanding correct me if I'm wrong is that this is a relatively cost effective upgrade and it's easy and quick to get put onto your coach, so this isn't a large task.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean. Any do-it-yourselfer that has some bottom-nose jacks and some basic tools can do it themselves. You can take it to a dealer to get it installed, but you're basically just taking your wheels off, unbolting the old one, putting the new one in. It's called $300 retail would do both sides of the coach on a 10 axle trailer.
Speaker 1:So for 300 bucks, so that looks inexpensive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so not much, and it makes a world of difference. Again it's basically like imagine your knees. If you're to jump off a cliff and land with your knees locked, that's what a steel equalizer is With us. It's you know, you're bending your knees, you're kind of gliding over those rough roads.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think it's important to know too that when you couple that with your wet bolt system as well, you're going to that travel is just going to go a little bit smoother and it's not going to gunk up. Now, that does require a little bit of maintenance, but that, at the end of the day, things that require maintenance also help, and there's a reason why they require maintenance is so that they continue to rub and go, versus just using a standard carriage style bolt and not ruin the bolt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, yeah, maintenance is kind of like going to the doctor, it's not fun. It's not the most, yeah, it's not the thing you look forward to the most, but it's kind of a necessary part of life and it helps you in the long run.
Speaker 1:So then the all track. What does all track stand for? I'm just kidding. All right, Every track all of them, so the all track 4,000 is essentially the same thing, just with more travel.
Speaker 3:Yes, same concept, same design, more rubber, larger travel slot. So what we focus on is that travel slots, a vertical travel slot that allows your wheels to move straight up and down instead of just rocking from side to side. So the all track.
Speaker 3:I talk about its price and performance. So a little bit more expensive, a little bit better performing. So instead of three inches of wheel travel, you get four with all track. You can pair it with wet bolt kits if you'd like, and it goes on basically every model that fits the CRE 3000. So as long as they have 8,000 pound axles or less, this will fit.
Speaker 1:So, and before we dive too far into what I really want to talk about, I do think it's important.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the hand rub is what we're doing. It's the giveaway, yeah, this is an audio podcast too, so not everybody knows what we're doing.
Speaker 1:We've had to explain some stuff before. In addition to those two systems, you guys now also have something called X-bracing, yes, so where does that come into play in the suspension side of things?
Speaker 3:So the it's called the X factor cross.
Speaker 1:member and we've got close.
Speaker 3:Yes, we also have what's the X brace, which are the stabilizers that we came out with a couple of years ago, but the X factor cross members are basically. There's really three things that can go wrong in an RV suspension, Broken leaf springs, which a lot of people have experienced. Broken shackles, which probably more people have experienced, which is what ties your equalizer to your leaf spring. That's the connection point that moves up and down.
Speaker 3:And then after that is frame hangers and that's that little welded two inch wide U bolt that's welded to the bottom side of your I-beam and those crack a lot of times. I mean, if you're backing into a tight spot and you look at your wheels, they're kind of bending out, they're bending in, they're creaking and popping. All that stress goes right into that frame hanger. And so we have a product that basically braces both those cross members together laterally across the bottom side of the frame and it reduces the stress at each frame hanger by over 90%. So it's yeah, it's just like all cross bracing in architecture it's pulling against itself. It's much more sturdy and much stronger and allows your RV again to last a lot longer.
Speaker 2:How does that attach?
Speaker 3:It's just a direct bolt on. So, yeah, it's just a thick metal plate that bolts on the backside of both frame hangers and then it's fully adjustable as far as the width goes. So there's slotted holes and circular holes and two different C channels, and they just bolt right together.
Speaker 1:Cool. Yeah, that's really cool, and just the fact that it adds essentially longevity to the end of the deal. It's just less things that you have to fix, hopefully down the road as you drive and travel. That's the goal. All right IS Now. A lot of people hear that and I think they get scared of a dollar sign and run the other direction to be completely on, because we did initially.
Speaker 2:Or maybe they're even just not familiar with it. Sure.
Speaker 1:And so what IS does stand for is independent suspension. So not as I've learned now, it's not like your truck, because that was the first thing I asked. But so what exactly is independent suspension?
Speaker 3:even though it's very self-explanatory, yeah, so IS independent suspension, iss, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 3:It goes by a lot of different things, but the performance is going to be much higher than anything that's going to be bolt on. So with the independent suspension, we basically take off your leaf springs, we take off your shackles, we take off your frame hangers, and so the three things I just mentioned, which we have solutions for, are now gone. So we're basically taking a full suspension system where each wheel moves independently of one another, where with the traditional axle there's a steel tube that stretches from one side to the other. So if you hit something on the left side of the road, the right side of the RV also feels it, because it's interconnected With the independent suspension. Each wheel, just like an automobile, each wheel moves independently of one another. It allows you to glide over those rough roads much smoother, much easier, protects the RV much longer, and so you get a total of five and a half inches of wheel travel. So not two, not three with our CRE, not four with the all track, but five and a half inches and independent wheel action.
Speaker 1:Which I can, I can attest for this is it literally feels like your coach is gliding across things. I still remember. So we took our coach from Alliance over to you guys. You guys did your thing. We took it back to Alliance to have them wrap some stuff up and then I started making my way back to Texas so we could actually move into it, because we were just suitcaseing it at that point and I came up on some road junctions and our old coach that it did have the CRE 3000, it was really heavy in the back end. But you'd come up on some bridge junctions and we all know what those are like If you tow a fifth wheel, especially a big fifth wheel you'd prepare for the rodeo.
Speaker 1:Yeah you, there's some shucking involved. We'll just say that, Well, I would tense up when that happens. Right, and so I'm with. The IS is installed, the coach is done, alliance is done with it, and we're heading back to Texas and when we get down I'm starting to come up on some of those bridge junctions, especially through, like the south side of Chicago and all that, and some of those were bad, they're not good, and I remember the truck would hit it and I'm like, okay, here it comes. And then nothing, literally nothing.
Speaker 1:And I called her the second day and she's like, because I remember I just I had to break a habit almost when I was towing, because I was, I would tense up so much when those got there because I'd have to prepare to grab the trailer, break or something to help smooth it out, your white knuckle. When you get up on those and you're just wondering, like is it? Do I need to accelerate to make it better? Do I need to break to make it better, because they're all a little bit different. And when you get into them and I remember calling her and I'm on the phone and I go, oh, no, no, no, no, no and nothing, she's like what I go nothing, I guess nevermind, and so it just. I took a few days to break the habit, but it literally feels like it's gliding and I will say my truck suspension is now officially the worst suspension I have, because the you don't feel the coach behind you, essentially when it hits things.
Speaker 2:And you guys have some railroad tracks very shortly outside of your facility where we had it installed, and that was one of the first things that we did was went over the railroad tracks and we were both so amused that you know the truck makes it, but the coach just glided just glided right over.
Speaker 1:So are there any any particular coaches or anything that benefit from IS, or is there really some coach out there that maybe doesn't benefit from IS?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so anything under there's not a specific weight rating, but we'd say anything under 10 or 11,000 pounds GVW probably doesn't make sense to utilize and articulate the full motion of the rubber shear spring on there. Okay, the high end fifth wheels, especially full timers, the people that can notice an immediate difference the most, and so, yeah, I mean there's really no one in particular. Obviously it doesn't work on motorhomes. It's going to be specific to heavier travel trailers or fifth wheels, toy haulers. But a tandem axle or a triple axle it works with any, yeah, any, system.
Speaker 1:So let's say somebody takes the dive and says you know what? I just don't want to deal with this anymore. I want the best that I can have, which I do believe the IS does increase your longevity of your coach, because you're just getting that there's a lot less vibration that's going to transfer up into the frame which at the end of the day, it just sounds like a good thing to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what does the maintenance start to look like at that point? As far as so, they've bought it, they're installed, because obviously on regular axles you have to grease those every so many miles. But on the IS it's a little different.
Speaker 3:So with the IS there's kind of a differentiation because you can do just the independent suspension. You can keep your current drum brakes if you want to. So if you're maintaining the independent suspension, you have a little greasess irk on what is called our torque bracket. That's basically there's an arm that runs all the way through this torque bracket and that's the part that's going to be moving up and down as you go over rough roads. Instead of your leaf springs and equalizer equalizing the way from side to side, we have this arm that runs all the way through our torque bracket and there's just a little zerk fitting and you're going to grease that once a year or a couple times a year, just enough to lubricate the inside to keep things running smoothly. Other than that, there's really not much maintenance to it.
Speaker 2:Which is awesome.
Speaker 3:It is awesome and it's great. I mean the rubber blocks themselves. They're not going to last 100 years On average, I'd say about 10 years. They're going to last 10 years or more so you can change out those rubber blocks easily. We have an installation guy and owners may not be able to go through all that, but there's really no maintenance to the independent suspension. Now if you add disc brakes, that's a different ball game because you oftentimes will change out. You'll do grease packs and all that stuff as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're going to take a quick break. So you touched based a little bit on this already. But you said if you have your drum brakes, still maintenance and all that so do disc brakes come standard with IS? Can you use drum brakes with IS, or is this kind of talk? Us to the braking systems.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you have the option, which is one of the other benefits of the IS. You can either stick with your traditional drum brakes, which is what comes on most RVs, which are a good way to obviously stop all the weight that's sitting behind your truck going down the road. You can also upgrade. We use D-Max brakes at our factory so you can upgrade to D-Max disc brakes. There's different tests that we've done out there. There's different tests that they've done at the factory. We've seen anywhere from 40 to 60 percent quicker stopping distances compared to drum brakes. So, especially in what we would call the emergency stop situation so if someone pulls out in front of you, if there's a deer or something along those lines, the 40 to 60 percent quicker stopping distances is where that's really gonna make the biggest difference.
Speaker 2:That is huge. It's a big deal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it doesn't seem like a big deal until it is, you know, until that one time. We've heard stories from customers that have had the independent suspension and disc brakes installed. They left the factory. And there's one customer I'll never forget. This is when I was working in a different department at Moride. But he said he left the factory and not less than 20 minutes later there was a truck that pulled out right in front of him. He said he 100% would have T-boned that truck, totaled it, maybe hurt someone severely. He said that he missed it by 100 feet. It's cool stories like that. That again doesn't seem like a big deal until the one time you need it. It's worth every penny. So, and there's also some incentive to, if you come to us to get it installed aftermarket To retrofit your current, current RV, there's some cost savings there. Or we're working with some manufacturers to have an option from the factory as well.
Speaker 2:That was one thing we made sure to put on our valor, to just to make sure.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say can I exit test, because we actually have the DMAC system on ours as well. We got it from you guys. So yeah, we, yeah. The first thing that I noticed is I was going under 20 miles an hour somewhere in like a parking lot. I'm like I'm just curious and I went to go pinch and I could actually stop the entire rig truck, everything, and I never actually touched the brakes in my truck, I mean the trailer brake. I did, yeah, which was crazy. I know I'm not supposed to do that and I'm not gonna do that again, but it's a good test, it's great for you to.
Speaker 1:I don't recommend perfect. So we have a couple of listener questions, and by a couple I mean you were officially the most asked question person from our live shows here at the super show, so very cool. You say that I haven't still not asked the questions you said that earlier.
Speaker 3:I'm hoping that's very. I'm along for the ride.
Speaker 1:So whatever, yeah, whatever, right. So I'm gonna ask this one first, cuz Lauren collected and I'm not exactly Sure who it's from, but is more right considering any kind of airbag suspension systems.
Speaker 3:So we actually have two Officially two different suspension systems that have already been developed for OEMs. So there's what would be called our air one suspension. It's still. It's not an independent suspension with air, but it is. Each side gets their own airbags. It gives you several inches of wheel travel, similar to the rubber shear spring Set up with our independent suspension.
Speaker 3:Okay, the plans would be down the road. Maybe that's something we could develop into being something that's retrofitable, just like the independent suspension. So things that we are looking into, things that we're considering, we're not there yet, but we do already have that air one suspension available for OEMs. On top of that we have another suspension system that's not officially named or readily available to our aftermarket friends, our customers, but we sell that to a Customer of ours called pause by Palomino, so for a striver brand. It gives something like 12 to 14 inches of wheel travel, independent. You can also use it to raise and lower the unit. So if you need to drop the air out of it, you can do that to load in product or if you want to raise it up for extra ground clearance. That's more of a high-end overlanding Suspension system, but it's something that, as that space kind of grows and develops. We're always looking for new opportunities.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I would say stay tuned, things are coming, we're working on it, we're looking into it.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say just our conversations with everybody that was up there. I mean, the R&D is a never-ending circle, at more right is what I've understood so, and there's some pretty cool things that you guys have been working on along with that as one.
Speaker 3:Yeah okay.
Speaker 1:So the next question is coming from Eric in Colorado. Does more right independent suspension with hydraulic weight hang on, I got this right now. Does the more right independent suspension with hydraulic brakes have an ABS system?
Speaker 3:It does not have an ABS system and I would have D max come on here and talk about the logistics and specifics about how all that works, but they so. D max is what we would call electric over hydraulic, so it still uses an electric signal to convert Hydraulic pressure to actuate the brakes, right?
Speaker 1:So again, that's one of those things I'd say stay tuned, we're looking into it, but as of right now the disc brakes are just a standard electric over hydraulic disc brake setup, right and I think it's important to know too, that more right obviously makes the suspension system in there, but then, just like anything else, that braking system, which is what ABS is gonna be a part of, is a vendor for you guys, correct?
Speaker 3:And so yeah, and that's a yeah those are parts that we source. We have a good relationship with them. They've worked well for us for a long time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. So this next question comes from Caleb. He says in Utah, but he's also been standing right over there a couple of times, so he's around here somewhere. I'm not sure if he's actively here at the moment, but so he asked what our trailer, why our trailer, axles limited to 8k. A two-axle toy hauler would be easier to maneuver and maintain if it had to 10k axles. Do wheels acceptable for that versus standard three, seven k axles? I'm not sure there's a more. Writer. An alliance question. To be honest with you, I would say a little bit of both I can kind of give you my perspective.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of these questions. This one in particular would be a collaboration between our engineering team, right, their engineering team and yeah, I would get alliance to answer that specifically. But as from our perspective, there are Larger weight ratings for axles more, right in particular, has different weight ratings for our independent suspension six, seven, eight, eight and a half and nine. You don't want to over build an RV. Even if you over build, it's not giving you the benefit of what you're paying for. So I think alliance would have a similar stance that we would, that putting a thicker material underneath your RV doesn't really give you much benefit. If you're looking for larger weight capacity, that would be where you know. Maybe getting with alliance and the different axles setups would that would make more sense to them.
Speaker 1:Well, and at that point too, now you're talking about, what can the frame actually handle? And so you open up a lot of engineering questions when that dives in, and I think that's a pretty Extensive question.
Speaker 3:It is yeah, and there's. There's a lot of different nuances that go into in specifics, but yeah, everything from the frame manufacturer to the Axle spread, there's a lot that goes into that.
Speaker 1:Awesome, sorry it started raining here and so it got really really loud over here, so but honestly, in the recording they're not gonna hear much of that, so that's okay. Very good, very cool. Well, where, if anybody wants to learn more about all of the independent suspension stuff and really all the products at more I'd, where's the best way that they can do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So there's a couple different ways they can go about that. You can reach out to us at sales at more ride calm. If you have any Questions, that'll go to a generic inbox and then gets forwarded to the appropriate party. A lot of those will go to me and my team. You can reach out. You can go to our website at wwwmooridecom where we can call our phone number. We havea State-of-the-art High-end phone tree phone, yeah, phone system. So that will also get forwarded over to our parts department. So if you have specific questions about parts and how they work and costs and stuff like that, I'd also say our Shopify if you put in their code. Do you guys have your code on hand?
Speaker 1:We do it's. I think it's just the Millers or millers. No, we'll link it in the show notes if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, or the description on the YouTube video Yep and so we sell some products direct through our website, where our affiliates get a small percentage and you actually get a discount Freishipping.
Speaker 3:So yeah, a few different ways to get in touch to find some information. If you're interested in buying, you can go through those routes.
Speaker 1:And, like I just said, with a Spotify, we will also put that information down below, if you didn't happen to catch it in the audio version of this, and so that you can go back and screenshot what you need or copy and paste. Very good, austin man, I cannot thank you enough for us taking some time out of your day and coming over and chatting with us for a little bit.
Speaker 3:It's been a delight in this. This tent here has been a godsend so we're getting out of the rain, so I appreciate you guys having me, though it's been fun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and a big Thank you to Alliance RV again for allowing us to set up shop here and chat about all things RVs. And, yeah, hopefully you have a great rest the show and maybe we'll come see you over there here in a little bit, please do. Thank you guys, so much for listening and we will catch you next week.
