Thanks to Nitto, Loren Healy, HMC, and the crew. You just made our day.

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Just 46 days till the start of the 2016 King of the Hammers, hoping your race prep is moving right along. We’re running around the clock keeping up with new builds, upgrades, and spare parts. It seems every year teams across the board are stepping up their racing programs, all fighting for that chance to be King. While we’re busy building parts, we’d like to make one quick note on the shortened holiday times up ahead.

We’ll be closed December 25th & January 1st. Also, we’ll likely have shortened days on December 24th and December 31st. That hasn’t exactly been quite ironed out yet… we’ll make sure to update those times next week though. This is just a nice way of saying be sure to get that axle shaft order in before December 31st if you’re racing KOH.

With that, back to work we go.

The Ultra4 trend these days seems to be “go big or go home”. Granted, if you want to be on top there’s a fine line of making things just strong enough, it’s this that separates basic design from solid engineering. In the case of IFS outer stub shafts however, moving over to 40 spline just makes good sense.

First, we work with the same billet material as 35 spline IFS stubs, so there’s no cost difference in manufacturing. That’s a big win, but it gets better still. While outer IFS stub shaft failures are near non-existent, as we continue to push the boundaries of Ultra4 racing, increasing the stub shaft diameter will likely become necessary. Since we already manufacture  Ultimate Unit Bearings in 40 spline, making IFS 40 spline outer stub shafts was an obvious fit.

So there you have it. Spidertrax 40 Splined 300M Billet Series 30 Outer Stub Shafts are available on our online store, in-stock as of this post.

SEMA never disappoints. Wes and the folks over at Amanda have been busy crafting something very unique for this year’s SEMA, and we couldn’t help but share. This video shows off a prototype JK IFS suspension, using Spider 9 IFS components, and without a question this one wins the “thinking outside of the box” award. Sort of a hybrid between a TTB & a-arm suspension, with one goal in mind — packaging as much travel as possible into the smallest space possible. In the end, they pulled off 16″ of front wheel travel into a very tight space, and it’s just a cool thing to see. Hope you enjoy this one, with that make it a great weekend!

Outboard Spider 9 seals are quickly becoming an Ultra4 racing standard. They are selling fantastic since their August debut, so best to continue serving that demand for ALL of our Spider 9s. Now available are Outboard Seals for 4″ Housings, same great product but for 4″ OD tubes. Sometimes it’s the little things. Head to http://www.spidertrax.com/Outboard-Seal-400 for details.