Guys, I wanted to update yall on my Val Air clutch. As most of you know, my stage 1 injectors and nitrous was too much for my LUK clutch. So when I started looking into clutches, I figured Southbend was my only option. I was not happy about the thought of having to spend a grand for it. Then my good friend Chris told me about Val Air Inc. So I checked them out. For a clutch that would hold the same amount of power as the Southbend, it was half the price. So I decided to call and see when they were open. I figured I would get an answering machine with the hours of operation.
When I called I got ahold of Dan Vallance (sp) who is a co-owner of the company. Or owner, I can't remember. Anyway, since I'm a night shifter I called after I got off work which to the normal person is waaaaay to early, about 6:45 am. I guess the phones forward to his cell phone. Whatever the case, he was in the process of waking up. In spite of that, we had a 30 min. conversation about his buisness, my truck, and what clutch would be best. I gotta tell yall, he is one of the nicest guys you'll ever talk to. Then on top of that, he gave me his cell phone # direct in case I had any late night questions or anything like that. Who ever heard of that????? So a couple of weeks go by and my LUK will no longer "limp" by. I called him back and said it was time to order. I didn't have to tell him anything about my truck, he remembered. That was cool. So I ordered a Ceramic/Feramic clutch that would hold 500hp/1000tq. It cost me $441 to my door. Which by the way it was at my door the next day. Even cooler.
I know this post is running long, but your gonna want to hear this part too. It speaks volumes about Dan and the kind of buisness he runs...
Two days before I was going to put my clutch in, my good friend Chris was going to order his. 05' Dodge w/cummins and the G56 6 speed. Chris calls me and says "I'm nervious brother". He directed me to a link on TDR that completely bashed Val Air. Apperently the flywheel spacing on the kit for the G56 was wrong and the guy almost tore up his tranny with it. But people were bashing Val Air bad. It went so far as Peter from southbend getting on there and talking smack too. Chris is nervious, I'm nervious now too. Even though I don't have to replace my flywheel. So I put off installing mine.
But since Dan had been so good to me so far, I thought I would forward the link to him. He deserved to know. Immediatly I got an email back from Dan saying they had put all their G56 stuff on hold and they were working to solve the issue immediately. Here's the kicker.
Dan asked me if my friend Chris would be interested in trying the revamped kit on his truck for FREE!!!!!! We're talkin' about a kit in the neighborhood of $1500. I didn't even have to ask Chris' permission, I said Hell yeah!!!! A day later after I put Dan and Chris in contact with one another, Dan tells Chris that he wants to see everything go together from start to finish. So he asks if Chris would be willing to come to Weatherford and have his crew put it in, FREE!!!!!! Again, who ever heard of that?????
Two weeks later, Chris goes up there and gets his new clutch. I had installed mine a day earlier. While he's there, they run into a few problems with the hydrolics. Dan goes to the Dodge house and buys new hydrolics out of his own pocket!!!!! I love this guy!!!! At the end of the day, Chris is hammer down back to Austin grinning from ear to ear. I wasn't with him, but that's what he told me....
So that was the first of the year, and now the clutches are broke in.
My clutch has been flawless. Since passing my 500 mile break in, I've had several blasts with the nitrous, and pulled my gooseneck loaded heavy. It hasn't slipped once. I've even gone so far as doing burnouts in my dually. I've slowed down in second gear and held the brake and mashed the throttle forcing the truck to either stall or spin the tires. 9 times out of 10 the result was a beautiful smokey burnout. I did stall it once. But the clutch held and I can't tell you how happy I am with it.
Chris' clutch has not had an easier life either. He's constantly pulling heavy in soft soil cuz he's a construction foreman. And of course when he's not at work, he beats the crap out of it just like me. No slippin' either.
In the end, Chris and I are two VERY satisfied Val Air Inc. customers. I've never seen a company or owner so deticated to making it's customers happy. Dan went above and beyond for me, but he went over the hills and far away for Chris. I can't thank him enough. THANK YOU DAN!!!!!
If you guys are looking for a bad ass clutch that will hold the big injectors and like saving money......Call Dan at Val Air Inc. Or check out Val Air Inc. dot com. I promise, you won't be disappointed. Later.
Sounds great! Keep us posted on long term performance.
My truck is fairly stock except for intake/exhaust and 10 mods. The 10k makes me hungry for a chip, but I am thinking I'll replace the clutch first so I don't tear up the stock DM clutch and be forced to replace it when I may not be ready or able to pay for it.
They sound like a company that puts the customer first and that is hard to beat when coupled with a quality product.
__________________
Kal
97 250 PSD Ex Cab Sd 4X4 ZF5 185k
Buncha low budget mods
"I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it."
awsome...i like hearing stuff like that! what happened in the thread where he was getting bashed? post the link up if you will, I wouldnt mind reading it.
The guy copies his clutches off of South Bend's pictures off his site, and uses his customers as his R&D department.. Not good!
Garrett, while I can't comment about how he builds his clutches (cause I don't know) I can comment on his R&D. Those were the articles I was talking about. What that guy failed to tell everyone was that he was a beta tester. i.e. Got the clutch setup for free to see how it worked. When you do something like that, you have to full well know that things can go wrong. All I know is that Dan has been really good to me and my crew. I can't say enough good things about him. I'm not knocking South Bend by any means. But when you are the only performance clutch dealer for our application, any competition is going to be highly contested. And of course you don't get to be #1 by selling crap. So of course Peter has a ton of support.
Dan never lied to us and denied the problem. He acknowledged the problem right away and worked it out.
In the end, I'm not saying one is better than the other because I haven't owned a SB. But I do know that Dan has treated me with a ton of respect, and his clutch is holding like a champ. And the price was great to boot. I like giving the underdog a chance. So I'm stickin' with the ValAir.
Was that price for the solid flywheel, pressure plate, clutch, throwout bearing, and misc hardware? If so that's an extremely good price.
I just put in a South bend Con FE and so far so good, but I think my dad's superduty may need a clutch here soon. Did they offer them for the six speed superduties too?
This is very interesting.. subscribed! Even if he is copying southbends design, he's selling it for so much less that it makes one wonder why southbend is marking it up so much!
So I just bought a valair. I'll let you know how it goes. Once i mentioned the forums, he dropped the price 50 bucks and asked that i provide my honest opinion. He's pretty upset about that beta tester in mass.
WELL WELL WELL! IT's IN AND ITS GOOD! There is a weird vibration ~1750 rpm... and it rattles a bit at idle with the clutch out, but valaire told me this.... ahead of time. It should go away with a bit of breaking in. I've been taking it easy on it, but so far, so good.
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But the clutch held and I can't tell you how happy I am with it.
