Well, with the end of summer rapidly approaching and with the kiddies heading back to school, it reminds us that one of our favorite events is coming up. We’ve been attending and displaying at the SEMA show for over 10 Yrs. and it is something we always look forward to. If you love cars and trucks there is simply no better place to go to see what the after-market provides for every conceivable model of car or truck.

Suspensions, along with tires and wheels, have always been a big part of the show. Maybe that’s why we’re so thrilled with it. Or, it could be all the great people and companies we’ve met there. As usual, it also gives us a chance to say ‘hi’ to many of our existing customers. Did you know that Otto-Max, and its McAllister Industries manufacturing division, has been a reliable, high quality supplier to many after-market distributors for years?

The best part of all this is that the SEMA show is held in Las Vegas baby! We really hope to see you there. Please drop by our booth and say hello. We’re at #32163

We will be bringing along some of our newest TufTruck applications and other suspension components.

Well, maybe not totally viral, but we’ve expanded distribution as far as Mexico now. The initial feed back from one customer down there is that he is VERY happy with the result. He bought one of our brand new TTC-1210 Dodge 1500 rear kits and loves the added capacity without the bone-jarring ride.

Our new warehouse in Greater Chicago area is taking off quite nicely, as well. We have a number of new request and orders from the mid-west. The main benefit to our new customers, is quick delivery and reduced shipping costs - significantly so.

It’s no secret that Otto-Max is proud member of a suspension manufacturing division headed by McAllister Industries. Since our coil spring plant, Chamberlain Spring, consolidated with Macspring at the beginning of the year, we have gained a great deal of flexibility and added abilities to our manufacturing and processing. One of the things we do for our customers is heat treating. We have recently invested time and money in expanding our expertise in this area. Here’s a bit more information about our additional heat treat processes from McAllister’s foreman ……

“Well here it is, the newest component that we have added to our existing inventory of programmable controllers and temperature recorders, a Partlow MRC 5000 portable digital chart recorder for monitoring the temperature of a workpiece, accompanied by a flexible high temperature thermocouple that we can attach directly to the heat treated part. This allows us to satisfy the documentation requirements for most standards, and expands our capabilities of our high heat furnace which runs up to 2000 degrees F.

Our tempering oven is more than capable of doing stress relief and tempering of HSLA and carbon steels up to 1200 F, but most stainless steels require the higher temperatures for heat treatment and stress relief.

We recently performed a 1950 F stress relief and water quench on some 304L SS with the thermocouple attached to the part during heating and quenching. We ended up with an interesting graph of the heating and cooling curves that we introduced into the part. We also performed a stress relief and air cool on some 347 SS with great success.

The benefits don’t end with the increased capabilities of the high heat furnace. We will be using the portable recorder to collect information on the time and temperature of our quench tanks and heat exchangers in an effort to improve the efficiency and consistency of our operations, and the quality of the products we produce.”

Fred’s a lucky man. His wife believed him when he told her that he needed a NEW truck. Why? Well, he just needed one, that’s why! Anyway, he got his truck and he really likes it. It’s a big extended 2010 Dodge 1500 4×4 (Now you understand why he NEEDED it!). Only one little problem - when he loaded it up with his Tidy Tank and buddies and golf clubs, it sat kind of low in the back. What to do?  Well,  fortunately Otto-Max and their superb line of heavy-duty truck springs came to the rescue. We had JUST finished developing a new rear HD spring for Fred’s application. We went with a nominal 30% increase in capacity to keep the ride from shaking out Fred’s fillings and protect his kidneys. The install went fine. And, why wouldn’t it. It’s a simple straight forward job that a good mechanic can do in no time flat. So, what does Fred think now? Well, he’s delighted. He got the increased capacity he was looking for and he says the ride quality feels about the same. That’s great to hear because that’s what we were trying for. Realistically, we did not want to try to turn a 1/2 Ton pickup into a real work truck. For that, we have our real Heavy Duty springs for the 3/4 T. and 1 Ton trucks. Next week we’ll tell you about our next new design that will make your truck WORK the way it should. Stay tuned, also, as we announce the winner of our contest for the best story of WHY I need a set of TufTruck coils!

Great news friends. Our first truck load of our famous TufTruck Coil springs are heading for our new warehouse facilities in the great mid-west. What does this mean to you?

Well, mainly it means that when you need a set of coils and you need them NOW, we can get them to you in as little as 24 Hrs.

So, if you’ve got a truck that’s sagging under your bumper, winch, or snowplow we can help you, almost immediately.

Check out our updated application page HERE and look at our newest products……

Don’t forget - our contest is closing soon - Tell us why you NEED a set of our TufTruck Coils. We’ll pick a winner after July 30th and send them a brand new powder-coated set of TufTruck coils for your truck (Must be an application listed on our site HERE).

Send us an email with your submission to Contact@Otto-Max.com or just go here and enter in the comments box…

Good luck to all. See you next week with more great news from the guys who love trucks at Otto-Max.

Customers are asking “Where can I see what your TufTruck Coils can do for me?”

We’re listening and we’re working on it. We will be posting some pictures and a video showing before and after installation of our springs. We’ll even load the truck up so you can really gauge the effectiveness of our springs. We’re not kidding when we say that our TufTruck coils are for working trucks and NOW……you can see for yourself.

Our aim is to continually monitor the marketplace and engineer and develop new robust suspension solutions that will keep your truck rubber side down and shiny side up where it belongs. Check back soon for pictures and videos that will help you decide how long you can wait until you beef up your wimpy stock springs.

Need further info? Just give us a call at 604-888-1871 or Toll-Free 1-800-667-6167. We’re here to help.

Well, not really……….and NOT us really…..

But! Our two sister companies - McAllister Spring and Chamberlain Spring, who have now joined forces as McAllister Industries, are getting ready to move to our brand new Web site. It’s not live yet, but it will be in a week or so if we can finish setting it up and the paint is dry!!

It’s nice in other ways also. It allows us to set up a brand new site which is more relevant and informative. You can click on this link but it won’t be live till next weekend or so.

www.mcallisterind.com

If you’re from out of town, you can see a beautiful picture on our banner that shows the skyline of Vancouver where we are based. You may remember us also from the recent 2010 Winter Olympics which we hosted.

So, back to the site….  Because we are really one big family, when you contact us through the links in the new site, odds are you will be dealing with the same guys who look after you at Otto-Max. We have five great sales reps to answer all your questions and solve all your problems. So, remember……..when you call us at Otto-Max we are wearing all the feathers in our caps from McAllister Industries, Macspring, and Chamberlain Spring, as well.

We look forward to hearing from you. Let us know what you think of our new site and any suggestions that will make it more useful and informative for you. After all, that’s the reason we’re here!!

As we continue our recovery from this, much too long recession, we are very pleased that the changes we planned and undertook last year, are starting to really pay off.

So, when I say we are adding horsepower to our suspensions, I mean in the form of doubling our customer service reps to help you solve your problems.  We now have five eager sales people just itchin’ to help you out.  Some of them are real specialists. If they can’t solve your suspension problem, nobody can!!

We scour the globe as well as our two bleeding edge factories, to source exactly the springs and parts you need at the price that will make your wallet happy. Best of all, we never sacrifice quality just to get a lower price. We want happy customers and those are customers who we don’t hear from again until they need new parts. We have a lot of customers like that!

We just unloaded a trailer of after-market replacement springs. I had a good look at them and they look great. We’ll be shipping out a lot of them in a few days to customers anxiously waiting for them.

Well it looks like spring is finally here. Officially it starts in a couple of days on the 21st of March. We’ve already moved our clocks ahead so it’s nice and light here till about 7:30 in the evening. So, what does all this have to do with us? Well, we are a SPRING company and our history tells us that people get busy doing stuff in the spring, and that includes working on the love of their life - their cars and trucks!!

One of the favorite things they do is modify the suspension - and that’s where we come in. We have almost 160 Yrs. of combined plant experience in making just the right springs for your vehicle. Yes, that includes our excellent quality TufTruck coils, superbly made by Chamberlain Spring as well as our high quality line of leaf springs made by Macspring. You may not even know it but chances are you, or someone you know has our springs on their vehicles right now. We make them, not just for our warehouse, but also for many of the biggest after-market distributors out there.

So, come on. It’s spring so let’s jack up the truck and junk those saggy wimpy OEM springs and put on something you’ll be proud of as you swagger down the highway.

Give us a call - that’s why we’re here!