RDS ENGINEERING BE WARNED

[Tel]

i thought you guys should know about the products he sells, and his complete lack of customer service as i would hate to have what happened to me to one of you guys with your familys in the car while you were driving as we all know about recent events on the news with a certain landrover

i had a long chat with the guy who owns rds enginneering dave sharp back at the billing show and he convinced me that his radius arms and rear trailing arms are the ones to go for so when i got back home i bought both sets,
now my car doesnt get used much atall and is a lrm feature car so i dont abuse it but at a pay and play day the other day i noticed my steering felt abit funny so i took it back to the carpark to have a look and see what was wrong and to my suprise look what i see





i sent an email to dave that evening expecting him to be his once helpful self with pictures showing what had happened and warning him that its quite dangerous if they have just broken like that but after 4 days no reply so i sent another email asking whats going to be done no reply, so i phone him from his business card he gave me and he answered, i explained what happened and could he look at the email and ring me back guess what no call back, so i left it a few days and called back again and asked him what hes willing to do about it he said he needs to think about it and will call me back once he has, explaining i wanted this sorted out asap i said i would call him back again tomorrow now he is not answering his phone from my land line so decided to call him from my mobile from which he answered, after another conversaition of running round in circles asking why all of a sudden the pictures of the arms and all the pictures of the arms fitted to other peoples cars have majically dissapearred overnight from his website, it all started to get abit heated and now he is refusing to do anything about it atall so im

[auf_wiedersehen_pet]

Disgraceful - hope he gets lots of bad publicity from this.

 [-X [-X [-X [-X [-X

[boss]

shocking! truley shocking!

that is no way to run a business

could trade standards not get envolved?


hope all is well and no other damage was done.....

[auf_wiedersehen_pet]

could trade standards not get envolved?

When you consider the possible implications of a catastrophic failure of such a major component, Trading Standards should be involved.

[redhand]

I've cut and pasted this on LandyZone and Onelaughhaveit.

[auf_wiedersehen_pet]

I've cut and pasted this on LandyZone and Onelaughhaveit.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

[Tel]

hi guys theres loads more information on my thread on lr4x4
trading standards are involved and ive sent the initial letter off today to get the ball rolling on this

its not really the money i want back its his dodgy parts that i want to stop being sold to inocent customers

[Range Rover Blues]

That part looks damned unsafe.  Given that the QT arms fail with serious use and how much stronger thay look than this, wel I'm apalled.  Quite obvioulsy there has been little testing.

From what I can see I'd put money on that part breaking there, it looks to have failed in the heat effected zone of the weld, cracked across then snapped completely, probably in a short spaceof time.

Radius arms work under enormous strain, that part really doesn't look up tot he job.  I'm pleased in a way that he has removed them from his website, I'm also utterly relieved that this happened to you at a P&P site and (don't takle this the wrong way) that it happened to you, that you were ok and that you decided to share what you knew.

If anyone has a pair of these things, take them off, clean them very carefully and check for the very slightest signs of cracking, even a sharp rusty line, close to the welded part as seen above.

If in doubt, take them off!

Had this part failed at high speed then when the brakes were applied the car would probably lift up heavily on the side with the good arm, steering would be horrible if not inoperative and the car very difficult to keep under control.  And that's if it didn't cause the second radius arm to fail.

Serioulsy underdesigned

[V8MoneyPit]

Yes, that is a huge stress raiser at that point, let alone the weakness added by the welding process.

[Toppa]

Might be worth sending an email to VOSA as well, they may be interested in a car parts place selling what appear to be very dangeous parts  :O

[Tel]

i would strongly advise anyone with these parts fitted to remove them and throw them away as thay are dangerous dont even inspect them as its likely to make you angry

im going to billing this weekend so hope hes there

trading standards have told me i had to write a letter to him but the address on his website is incorrect so no post can get through to him

sounds like he is actually out to rip people off

[Saffy]

i would strongly advise anyone with these parts fitted to remove them and throw them away as thay are dangerous dont even inspect them as its likely to make you angry

im going to billing this weekend so hope hes there

trading standards have told me i had to write a letter to him but the address on his website is incorrect so no post can get through to him

sounds like he is actually out to rip people off

Try this address, it's what he used to register his website domain name...

    Domain name:
         rdseng.co.uk
 
     Registrant:
         Robert Sharp
 
     Trading as:
         RDS ENGINEERING SERVICES
 
     Registrant type:
         UK Sole Trader
 
     Registrant's address:
         145 Bishopton Road West Fairfield
         Stockton on Tees
         Cleveland
         TS19 7HD
         United Kingdom

[Disco Matt]

i would strongly advise anyone with these parts fitted to remove them and throw them away as thay are dangerous dont even inspect them as its likely to make you angry

Remove them, but don't chuck them yet. At the moment they're evidence of the frankly rubbish build quality, without them you have nothing to show Trading Standards to prove your case.

[Tel]

i would strongly advise anyone with these parts fitted to remove them and throw them away as thay are dangerous dont even inspect them as its likely to make you angry

im going to billing this weekend so hope hes there

trading standards have told me i had to write a letter to him but the address on his website is incorrect so no post can get through to him

sounds like he is actually out to rip people off

Try this address, it's what he used to register his website domain name...

    Domain name:
         rdseng.co.uk
 
     Registrant:
         Robert Sharp
 
     Trading as:
         RDS ENGINEERING SERVICES
 
     Registrant type:
         UK Sole Trader
 
     Registrant's address:
         145 Bishopton Road West Fairfield
         Stockton on Tees
         Cleveland
         TS19 7HD
         United Kingdom

mate thanks very much for this, i wonder who robert is, ive only ever met dave and thats his name on his buisiness card infront of me too

[Saffy]

i would strongly advise anyone with these parts fitted to remove them and throw them away as thay are dangerous dont even inspect them as its likely to make you angry

im going to billing this weekend so hope hes there

trading standards have told me i had to write a letter to him but the address on his website is incorrect so no post can get through to him

sounds like he is actually out to rip people off

Try this address, it's what he used to register his website domain name...

    Domain name:
         rdseng.co.uk
 
     Registrant:
         Robert Sharp
 
     Trading as:
         RDS ENGINEERING SERVICES
 
     Registrant type:
         UK Sole Trader
 
     Registrant's address:
         145 Bishopton Road West Fairfield
         Stockton on Tees
         Cleveland
         TS19 7HD
         United Kingdom

mate thanks very much for this, i wonder who robert is, ive only ever met dave and thats his name on his buisiness card infront of me too

dunno but.... i haves thoughts that the company name "RDS"  is too much of coincidence for the initials of ROBERT *somethign begining with D" Sharp... and now that you have mentioned that you have then name of Dave on a buisness card it fills the blanks... ROBERT DAVE SHARP = RDS  ;)

[dod51e]

I would go one further than Trading Standards.  If you, or you can get someone local to RDS to visit to make sure he is still there I would go to the small claims Court and put in a claim for the parts cost and a reasonable amount of compensation for remova and refitting of a replacement and inconvenience.  Small up front cost but what satisfaction.

[lurch_917]

I would go one further than Trading Standards.  If you, or you can get someone local to RDS to visit to make sure he is still there I would go to the small claims Court and put in a claim for the parts cost and a reasonable amount of compensation for remova and refitting of a replacement and inconvenience.  Small up front cost but what satisfaction.

as mark says but i would also have them inspected by vosa (the new minastry of transport ) you should be able to find your local one in the yellow pages / or ask at a mot station

[Discotel]

It was only a couple of years ago that LRM had an RDS disco as a prize giveaway...Good luck to the person who won it...I think it was scrapped anyway...This guy looks like a joke now, he should have just given you your money back and withdrew them, and would more than likely kept his good name...Next time you see him you should chin him mate.

[Tel]

there has been quite abit of talk about this on lr4x4 still looks like the guy has gone under as his website isnt active anymore

[Disco Matt]

I have to say "good"!

The thought of some innocent being talked into buying his stuff and then suffering a similar failure at 70mph doesn't bear thinking about. Not everyone can spot poor workmanship, especially if they buy via mail order.

[Tel]

exactly how i feel to be honest

[Range Rover Blues]

buying his stuff and then suffering a similar failure at 70mph 

It doesn't bear thinking about does it? 

[Disco Matt]

I always worry that bodgit and scarper traders will cause rules similar to those in Germany (where IIRC all aftermarket parts have to be TUV-approved at considerable cost?) to be brought in. At present there's limited regulation and anyone with a welder can make and sell components, thankfully the vast majority are skilled engineers and take pride in their workmanship but it only takes a few bodgers to cause mayhem.

[winchman]

I used to manufacture winch bumpers.
We purhased one from a well known company to basically copy it.
But first we drew it and calculated the stresses and loads etc and set up a design file incase of any future claims we could prove that it was properly designed.
It was interesting to find one of the bumpers we copied was very borderline on the loads it would take, to correct this cost almost nothing, possibly less than

[thermidorthelobster]

I'm no engineer, but the part seems to be tubular steel - surely tubular is totally unsuited to this type of application?

[winchman]

I'm no engineer, but the part seems to be tubular steel - surely tubular is totally unsuited to this type of application?

Good point arnt the originals cast?

[Disco Matt]

They are indeed. I seem to remember reading somewhere that welded arms aren't allowed for road use? This may be one of those internet rumours however!

[dxmedia]

Id suggest that it's an internet rumour. There's more vehicles than just landys out there ;)  All Isuzu's have welded tubular trailing arms on them for example.