Mike Visser, President, and Gerry Lamberti, CEO, SuperSprings International, Inc.
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Evidently it’s no longer taboo to talk about your rear sag. And
it’s okay to say that you sway. In fact, Gerry Lamberti, CEO of
SuperSprings International, Inc., talks with people all day about their
rear sag and sway. Is he the next Dr. Phil? No. His
company specializes in products that help trucks with heavy
loads. Know any trucks that carry heavy loads? We sure
do. We talked to Gerry to learn more about SuperSprings
International, Inc. and their products.
TCM: Tell us about the history of SuperSprings.
Gerry: The springs were originally invented by an elder sister
of mine. We grew up in South Africa and experienced $3 a gallon
gas going back to the 80’s. At the time, people there drove
Toyota’s, Ford Rangers, and other light trucks. And they would
load these trucks very heavily for business, recreational, and
contractor work. All that weight made suspension enhancement
necessary. My sister worked with an engineer and created the
springs. She was very successful and got a world-wide
patent. Another sister, brother-in-law and I got established in
North America and found ourselves a totally new market. The
trucks here were so much bigger and heavier with duallies. Our
product had to be re-invented for North America. Now we cater to
everything from the Chevy Colorado to a C5500 to a Ford Ranger to a
F550.
TCM: What might you be doing now if you weren’t running SuperSprings?
Gerry: I came out of school with a degree in Civil
Engineering. For several years I was in design consulting before
switching to construction and specializing in bridge
construction. Then I started my own company that specialized in
large concrete structures including bridges and water towers. I
later sold that business to move here and start SuperSprings. I
saw SuperSprings as a way to get out of South Africa as it was being
ripped apart by violence.
TCM: Does your Civil Engineering background help you to run SuperSprings?
Gerry: Yeah sure, engineering is engineering. Whether it’s
bridge beams or SuperSprings, you can draw parallels. Also the
business acumen of building a company in South Africa has been helpful.
TCM: How involved is the rest of your family with SuperSprings?
Gerry: SuperSprings North America is run by myself as CEO, and
my brother in law, Mike Vasser, as President of the company. We
grew up in the same city and town; Durban, South Africa. We run the
company on a consensus basis. One sister runs SuperSprings in
South Africa and Australia. My other sister moved away from
SuperSprings to launch a start up company called Sport Wall
International. She invented video games that make you sweat. Time
Magazine has featured her twice in the last six-months. I come
from a family of thirteen and every one is an entrepreneur.
TCM: Why is SuperSprings headquartered in California and not South Africa?
Gerry: It was tough to leave, but I had a young family and I
didn’t see a long term future given the pandemic violence. I was
looking for an opportunity and place that was better suited for my
wife, my kids, and I. Unfortunately, things back in South Africa
are not getting much better. We keep in touch with family and
friends there.
TCM: Tell us about Super Coils.
Gerry: Super Coils is another line that we brought out over a
year ago. During my travels in Canada we found a company that
makes coils for pick-up trucks that work snowplows in the winter
months. We formed an association with the company to carry a line
of coils. They are very intelligently designed and allow you to
carry a snowplow on the front while the Super Spring allows you to
carry a salt spreader on the back. In Texas, where heavy brush
bars or bull bars with heavy-duty winches are popular, our coils bring
the front end back up.
TCM: Tell us about your new product, Super Sway Stops.
Gerry: Super Sway Stops are a suspension enhancement geared for
Ford and Dodge trucks with top mounted overload springs. We
consider our major competition to be the air bag industry, for which we
have a lot of respect. With heavy loads, airbag owners have to
pressurize their airbags to their full extent. This separates the
frame from the axle in such a way that the factory overload springs no
longer make full contact with the perch. When that happens, you
lose the added support and lateral stability that is afforded by the
factory overload spring. In the RV forums we read that some guys
were drilling hockey pucks and attaching them to the overload
perch. We thought there had to be a better engineering solution
so we looked into coming up with a polyurathane block. We talked
to our polyurethane suppler who told us about a new age material with
German origins called micro-cellular foam. It’s polyurathane
injected with nitrogen which results in millions of minute little
nitrogen bubbles. This gives the Super Sway Stop ideal spring
properties which normal polyurethane doesn’t. This new age material has
proven itself for many years in Baja rallies and in Europe for
strength, durability, flexibility, and progressive suspension. We
introduced the Super Sway Stops at the NATCOA show this summer and at
SEMA in Las Vegas to a great reception.
TCM: How do you know if you need Super Sway Stops?
Gerry: At many of the shows we exhibited at, we met people that
were complaining that with the large truck campers they had real sway
issues with airbags fully pressurized. They experienced body roll
and sway from side to side. The factory overload springs become
largely redundant with the airbags under full pressure. People
invest up to $1,000 on airbags with on board compressors. With
Dodge or Chevy trucks Super Springs can work in tandem with axle
mounted air-bags. However on the Fords, the Super Spring goes on
top of the spring pack in the same location as the airbags so they do
not complement each other. If we were selling airbags we would
have come out with Super Sway Stops to complement them. We
respect that people have invested a lot of money in their airbag
systems so Super Sway Stops gave us an opportunity to offer a solution
to the problem.
TCM: Tell us about Super Springs.
Gerry: Super Springs are an alternative to an airbag
system. Super Springs are purely mechanical and very simple to
install. Most people install Super Springs themselves.
Super Springs are also maintenance free which differentiates us from an
airbag system. They are very much a “fix it and forget it”
solution as there’s no maintenance regime. What makes Super Springs
unique is that they give muscle on demand without hurting your ride
when you are empty. This is facilitated by the tapered blades and
patented rolling shackles, which allow the springs to kick in on demand
and self adjust to the loading. When the load is removed the Super
Spring shackles adjust out relaxing the Super Spring so as to not
compromise your unloaded ride quality.
TCM: How do you know if you need Super Springs?
Gerry: Even with the lightest campers on a small pick-up truck
the truck’s headlights are often are no longer on the road. This can
make driving very uncomfortable. One customer called it, “like
herding sheep down the highway” because their truck was all over the
place. Our Super Springs are a solution to the rear end sag and
sway and this is facilitated by redistributing the load to the
front. After installing our product,
customers tell us that they
can drive down the highway with one hand on the wheel. That’s
peace of mind. We’re not promoting exceeding a truck’s GVWR, but
SuperSprings allow you to carry a load up to your GVWR without rear end
sag. We’re very excited that Lance Camper has already placed
their first Super Spring orders with us. We’re very excited to be
on board with them.
TCM: Would SuperSprings be of benefit on Ford F450 and F550?
Gerry: Yes. We have been working with Lance and Camping
World on the new Ford F450. We have a new solution that allows
the truck to carry heavy loads better. Ford lengthened the spring
pack by 8” to give passengers greater driving comfort. The
downside of an 8” longer spring pack is that the truck doesn’t carry
the load as it had been intended, especially if the load is at the top
end of the truck’s payload. Our #SSA22 spring fits the F450
exceptionally well and works in tandem with the factory overloads to
redistribute the weight towards the front to keep the truck level and
for much greater stability. No more sag and sway. No more white
knuckle driving.
TCM: Where are these products installed?
Gerry:
Most RV Dealerships, including all Camping World locations, offer them
across the counter for home installation or installed at their
facilities. Installation is simple. First you jack up the rear end of
the truck on the truck body or frame, not the axle, to get a little
daylight under the wheels. With truck rear end jacked up and axle
hanging, the factory spring should be relaxed making for an easy
installation.
TCM: Talk to us about SuperSprings’s customer service. If
someone does their own installation, will you help them over the phone?
Gerry: Our tech support line is open seven days a
week. We cater to a lot of weekend installers. And when you
call us you won’t get a machine. You’ll get a warm body who can
help with your installation. Just keep in mind that we’re Pacific
time.
TCM: Tell us about your warranty.
Gerry: Our Super Springs have a lifetime warranty. They
used to have a five-year warranty until about three years ago. We
found that our warranty was about 1/10th of one percent. Most of
those people had just ordered the wrong springs and we just changed
them out. So we extended our five-year warranty to lifetime
warranty. We have not been seduced by cheap imports from
overseas. We’re using top-drawer North American steel from
Rockwell out of Dallas, Texas. We have stayed with the
consistently high quality steel out of North America. The steel
coming from India and China is often good quality, but it’s not
consistent. During the monsoon season the quality can been very
poor. Consistency is so important.
TCM: How much do these products cost?
Gerry: The price depends on the application and will range
between $250 and $390 for a Super Spring set. And generally a
retailer will flag an hour’s labor to install the Super Springs.
We just completed training for eighty-four Camping World
locations. Installing Super Springs shouldn’t be more than an
hour’s labor.
TCM: Is there an instance where airbags may be a better solution than SuperSprings?
Gerry: There are Lance dealers who install both, like Galaxy
Campers. When they see Chevy and Dodge trucks they’ll go with
Super Springs. When they see a Ford Super Duty and it’s got no
factory overload spring, they go with Super Springs. When they
see a Ford Super Duty that does have factory overloads, they’ll
generally go with an airbag system and complement it with the Super
Sway Stops. More and more installers of the larger truck campers
that we talk with on our tech line are using Super Springs in tandem
with airbags. They get the best of both worlds.
TCM: What can we expect to see from Super Springs in the future?
Gerry: We have found our niche in the pick-up truck
suspension market. We’re not going to diversify. The market
is changing and we are continually morphing and adapting to offer
holistic solutions to suspension issues. GM is looking to put out
an electric pickup truck in 2009 that is going to be completely
electric up to 40 miles per hour and then switch to gas, which they say
it will be 40% more efficient, which is fantastic. This also involves
modifying truck frames, making them lighter and ultimately optimizing
the suspensions. We intend to stay on the cutting edge of the
pick-up truck suspension industry.
TCM: Is there anything I didn’t ask you about that you would like included in your interview?
Gerry: SuperSprings as a family business is largely driven by
customer satisfaction. The RV industry is close knit and word of mouth
is powerful. We work closely with our distributors and customers on one
hand and our engineering and manufacturing on the other to continually
optimize our product to our customers needs. For this reason feedback
from our customers is paramount. We’re always open to feedback
from our customers and strive to build better products. Our phone
line is open. Call the factory any time to talk with myself or my
colleagues. We have a very open door policy.
For more information about SuperSpings International, Inc., visit their web site at www.supersprings.com .
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