- What's up guys?
Cody from Custom Offsets back again
with another video for you to make fun of my jeans.
The last time we talked about Rough Country.
Which is the only budget brand lift kid out there.
Right? Wrong.
Today we are going to talk about a brand that's
a little bit newer on to the scene.
It's kind of living in it's big brother's shadow
and that company is Zone Offroad.
Only been around 10 or 12 years.
Which is just a subsidiary of their big brother
which I'm sure you've heard of BDS Suspension.
They were born out of necessity.
So BDS has already been around for about 25 years
at this point.
Had a pretty good reputation as a higher end brand.
So all these retailers out there selling the BDS kits
just wanted to offer something a little more cost effective
but have the same great
(crickets chirping)
The same great engineering behind BDS at a lower cost.
They are owned by the same parent manufacturer
Sport Truck USA.
Home of you know,
BDS, Zone, JKS, Posi-Lok.
The whole company under the umbrella of Fox.
So that is why Zone can be upgraded
to those awesome Fox shocks
giving them even more of a little bit of edge.
While still retaining that baseline price
to get you into the game.
What else makes Zone better
than the other entry level lift kits?
Everything is made in the USA.
And a lot of companies say that.
Yeah, we're made in the USA.
We're manufactured in the USA.
We're assembled in the USA.
Zone really holds true to that statement.
Literally everything they make is made here.
Say for maybe some bolts and some hardware, small things
that everybody's gonna outsource anyway.
The main products are made right there
in a little town of Coldwater, Michigan.
There is literally a foundry across the road
casting knuckles shipping 'em across the road
to BDS where they're machined there.
Things like cross members, the skid plates
all of that is CNC laser cut right there in house.
It may be welded at a different facility in town still
in Michigan, not in China.
They're not cutting 'em out there shipping 'em across
the ocean coming back.
Everything is made right there,
brought in house welded there.
They have an entire team of 250 people
working at four separate locations
doing all of the engineering,
all of the marketing,
all of the sales
and all of the building right there all together.
So it's kind of a unique company
in that everyone is housed together.
They're really big brand running like a very small
tight knit family company would.
And I think that comes a lot from them being in Michigan.
From the heart of the Midwest.
That strikes home a lot
with us being up here in Wisconsin.
Where you're either a farmer or you work at Sport Truck USA
building these Zone kits everyday.
Kind of a pride thing right there.
Just still, hold on, pause.
Yes Brad.
We're just discussing how awesome Zone is
would you like to say anything?
- [Brad] I love Zone!
So are you gonna tell everyone
why you don't have a Zone kit?
- I suppose I could.
Brad brought up a good point.
Why do I run Rough Country instead of Zone?
And it's kind of a simple answer.
Rough Country makes a 7 1/2" and Zone makes 6 1/2"
And ask your girlfriend,
'cause that extra inch makes a difference.
Being that they have that small business mentality,
they put the engineering time into
making sure that they're NHTSA approved
for highway use for
the stability control of these newer vehicles.
So you can feel safe knowing that it was engineered properly
lifted your vehicle,
all of your controls are gonna function properly.
You're not gonna get any stabili-trac lights
or traction control lights.
As long as it was installed right by us here
at Custom Offsets.
Another cool feature is that all of these Zone kits
include the factory protection plus warranty.
So you can feel safe pulling a brand new truck off the lot
throwing this Zone kit in
at your affordable price range
and still being safe on the road.
Knowing that you're covered if anything suspension related
should go wrong and the dealership decides
to be a bully to you.
Another really unique thing about Zone
is that these guys are all enthusiasts themselves.
You can go to any offroad event,
and more than likely there will be
a Zone representative there.
Or they may have a truck in the event.
They have a lot of purpose built rigs
because they want to be out with you guys
abusing the product they make
as well as just enjoying the whole lifestyle,
the lifted truck lifestyle.
They really covered the entire gammet of lifted truck world
at a really reasonable price.
Because everything is made in house,
Zone literally ships everything from the same warehouse.
So every kit you get,
every component is coming straight out of Michigan
which really helps increase the timeliness
of getting your kit.
You're not waiting for something to ship across the country
or from overseas to get to you.
You're not waiting on different component boxes
to come in from different parts of the country.
Zone is shipping everything right out of that facility
there in Coldwater.
They also have a facility in California now.
Southern California.
That is directly,
Fox is from out there.
So what does the future hold for Zone.
They're going to keep engineering,
keep bringing out awesome kits for these newer trucks.
They have a shop there at the headquarters
where they're pulling these new trucks in
because they're in Michigan,
all the OE's are in Michigan.
They're pulling in brand new trucks
off the design to see how these kits match up.
So you just picked up yourself a brand new
2019 Ram 1500 will the '18 kit fit?
They're there to let you know,
hey we got one in the back we're making sure this kit works.
They'll be one of the first to release the new '19 product.
Or say hey it's still the same.
The '18 kit will work on your '19.
So that's really a big plus on their end
as far as the engineering side of everything.
And that's where Zone really shines is in their engineering.
And it's amazing that they can sell them
at the price that they do.
But because they have really consolidated the way
they build them.
Building cross members out of tube steel
instead of fully fabricated fancy high clearance bracket.
It's doing the same job.
It's rated the same safety.
It's not gonna wreck your truck.
But because it doesn't look as high end, as fancy.
You save some money right there.
The finish quality is right on par.
So you're gonna spend an extra $200 over the competition kit
you have the piece of mind knowing that hey
I'm spending this extra $200 to know
that I have an awesome warranty,
I have an awesome finish,
and really great engineering.
I'm not gonna be worried about blowing out my CV axles
or really stressing out my ball joints.
I think that's the big area that they shine.
They have a lot of really good kits.
They offer a lot of really good accessories.
Touched on the Fox shocks.
They offer the Adventure Series.
So where the BDS offers the full Fox factory style shock
now they're giving the Adventure Series steel bodied
it's still a Fox shock.
It's still valved awesome like Fox.
It's a Fox shock.
It's just at the price point where you can upgrade
in an affordable price.
They offer cool control arms.
One of the most popular kits we put in here
is the 3" Adventure Series kit for the Duramaxes.
Brad runs one on his truck.
Absolutely loves it
because it comes with the Fox Adventure Series
you can upgrade to.
And it comes with the really nice Fox control arms
that they have again built right in house.
In the future,
in the marketing world I think they kind of need
to step out of big brother BDS's shadow
and try and shine as their own brand.
One thing Zone really hasn't done
is a whole lot of marketing
since it's inception in like 2001, 2002.
And you can tell by their awesome tribal tattoo Zone logo.
Which they may want to address.
Not a big fan of that.
So that is the history.
The true Hollywood story and my opinion
on Zone Offroad.
Make sure you like us,
share this video,
drop a comment,
with what you think about Zone.
Maybe a picture of your ride
equipped with a Zone Offroad lift kit
and make sure to stay tuned.
Because I think we're gonna bring you some
high end kits coming up next.
Talk about why they're worth so much more money.
Why you should spend thousands and thousands of dollars
to lift your truck.
Peace.