Glenn Classen made a big move from South Africa to the US to expand his market for shock absorbers – almost 20 years in, he’s continued to grow and develop Radflo for the off-road market. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
3:46 – as a kid, being aware of anything socially or politically about how the country ran you weren’t aware of until much later
11:44 – let’s fire this thing back up, we made parts and started selling shocks
13:01 – in any business, there’s massive swings of good luck and bad
16:11 – that’s how I sold it to my wife, we’d come over to the US for two years and then go home
23:04 – I came over here and very quickly realized that this was a massive pond and I was a very small fish
33:23 – we are just a shock manufacturer
38:44 – we make shocks to suit the different lift kit manufacturers, we don’t do generic
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
Glenn Classen made a big move from South Africa to the US to expand his market for shock absorbers – almost 20 years in, he’s continued to grow and develop Radflo for the off-road market. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
3:46 – as a kid, being aware of anything socially or politically about how the country ran you weren’t aware of until much later
11:44 – let’s fire this thing back up, we made parts and started selling shocks
13:01 – in any business, there’s massive swings of good luck and bad
16:11 – that’s how I sold it to my wife, we’d come over to the US for two years and then go home
23:04 – I came over here and very quickly realized that this was a massive pond and I was a very small fish
33:23 – we are just a shock manufacturer
38:44 – we make shocks to suit the different lift kit manufacturers, we don’t do generic
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
[00:00:01.080]
Welcome To Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the offroad industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future Legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land-use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call Offroad. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and rebutes. We dive into what drives them to stay active in Offroad. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call Offroad.
[00:00:46.500]
Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust. For performance and durability, four wheels or two, Maxxis Tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for Work or play, for fun or Competition, Maxxis Tires deliver. Choose Maxxis, tread victoriously.
[00:01:13.010]
Have you seen 4low magazine yet? 4low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4Low is the magazine for you. 4low cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4lowmagazine.com to order your subscription today.
[00:01:39.930] - Big Rich Klein
On this episode of Conversations, I will be talking with Radflo Shock Technology owner, Glenn Classen. Glenn, am I saying the last name correctly?
[00:01:51.130] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, Classen. You're close enough.
[00:01:52.910] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, excellent. Glenn, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us this evening so we can find out more about you.
[00:02:03.920] - Glenn Classen
Thanks, Rich. I appreciate you having me on.
[00:02:06.500] - Big Rich Klein
Let's jump right in and start at the very beginning. I know that you were born in South Africa, but tell us more about it. Where in South Africa?
[00:02:16.210] - Glenn Classen
I was born in a relatively small town just south of Johannesburg in South Africa. It's a place called Tareinachan, which in translation means Association. It was a big steel town. My dad ran the Krasler dealership there. We moved to Johannesburg 1969 or so, and my dad was in the motor trade all his life. That's where I grew up for the rest of my time in South Africa. I was in Johannesburg. I went to school there, primary and high school. I went to boarding school for four years. I went to university there, and I got my first job working at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange there as a Stock Exchange dealer.
[00:03:08.140] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. What was school like? I have these visions of South Africa besides the wildlife. We had a daughter that spent a week or two there doing a dance and singing thing that they went around doing with the school that she was in performing. I've got a couple other friends that have come from South Africa to the United States, but I don't know anything about what the education system was like there. I'm only familiar with the United States. So can you enlighten us?
[00:03:46.380] - Glenn Classen
Yeah. I mean, the education system, first of all, I need to point out that I grew up in a country where black and white people were separated with Apartheid. And growing up as a small kid, you're not aware of that stuff until you become aware in high school and then you realize that there's a problem going on. But there's not much you can do about it. But my education was fantastic. I went to a great primary school and high school. We had a first class education. There was no doubt about it. I would say we were privileged to be able to have that. In South Africa, when I was growing up, there were middle-class people like my family, and then there were lots of poor white people. At the same time, there were lots of poor black people and everybody was separated by law. You never really ran into anybody else except people in your neighborhood. But going to school was similar to going to school here. You had all your friends and you played sports and all the parents got involved with all the different activities. But not being aware of anything socially or politically about how the country ran or that we should be aware of until much later when I was older.
[00:05:15.170] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So what sports? I would imagine more like rugby and stuff.
[00:05:23.680] - Glenn Classen
So in primary school, it's an interesting thing. The Afrikaans primary schools play rugby from the age of five years old. But English primary school is only... You played soccer in primary school and then you went to high school and played rugby. We didn't play soccer in high school. So I played soccer and cricket in primary school and in high school I played rugby and I swam.
[00:05:50.520] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, you were a swimmer. Were you long distance or short distance?
[00:05:54.220] - Glenn Classen
No, I swam 100, 200 meter races. That was none of the 500 or 1,500-meter races.
[00:06:01.830] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah. In high school I swam the 500.
[00:06:04.630] - Glenn Classen
That's too much of hard work.
[00:06:09.260] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, we just swam and swam and swam. That's all I can equate it to. We just kept swimming. Everybody wanted to be a sprinter, but I was not fast enough to be a sprinter, but I was fast enough to carry it for a longer distance. Do you know.
[00:06:26.000] - Glenn Classen
What I mean? Well, that works throughout all a lot, is people sprint to the finish and other people are in there for the long haul. That's just the way it is.
[00:06:36.020] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, you put it that way, and yeah, that's what I've done with the rock crawling.
[00:06:40.210] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, exactly.
[00:06:42.350] - Big Rich Klein
So then schooling, what subjects were... Was it the basic education there? Did they give you a lot of electives to give you more of an experience of what was available?
[00:06:55.860] - Glenn Classen
In primary school, it was general math, science, English, Afrikaans as a language, geography, history, and there was art and music and all this stuff. And then in high school, you could choose between doing biology and accounting. You did have a few lectures that you could choose to try and specialize in. And in South Africa, primary school went up to... You were 12 in primary school and you went to high school when you were 13. So there was five years in high school and seven years in primary.
[00:07:37.040] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. All right. And after primary school and high school, you did college then as well?
[00:07:48.720] - Glenn Classen
Yes, I went to... Well, I did two years of national service. Back in the day, we were fighting the war. We were fighting communism and everything else. So national service was mandatory. I spent two years in the military. I'm a veteran, I suppose you could call me. But it was an interesting time of my life. I met some great people and got to see things in different parts of Southern Africa that I would never have been able to do. But ultimately, it was two years of time wasted trying to get on with my life. But on the other hand, it was really, really good because it made you mature and understand how people work. There were so many different types of people in the military and trying to deal with all of these things. Going into the military as an 18-year-old, thrown together with bunches of different people. I mean, you really had to work your way around all of that.
[00:08:44.550] - Big Rich Klein
Right. I can understand that. That also you're in with people that you're not used to and you're not the ones you grew up with.
[00:08:54.310] - Glenn Classen
No. Yeah. And that helped me along in my life. And then after the military, I went to university. I wasn't really cut out for getting a university degree, so I never did finish, which always bugged me that I didn't quite finish that. But at the end of the day, I had the understanding that if I was ever going to need somebody with a skill that I didn't have, I was going to hire them. And that's where I'm at today.
[00:09:26.340] - Big Rich Klein
I agree 100 % %. In our industry, there's a lot of DIY guys, do it yourself, that are great welders and fabricators, and they may have a second job. But there's others that have made it a business. I learned a long time ago, I'm better off hiring somebody to do the fab work.
[00:09:53.130] - Glenn Classen
Yeah.
[00:09:54.250] - Big Rich Klein
It's just plain and simple.
[00:09:57.190] - Glenn Classen
I have to agree.
[00:09:58.490] - Big Rich Klein
So when did you start? You did a little bit of college and then you started a job and you said that you worked in the financial sector.
[00:10:12.690] - Glenn Classen
Yes. I got a job at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as a dealer and I worked there for two years. It was a really high paced, crazy time, drink too much, party too much. But you're young so you don't really feel all of it. But I had an opportunity to travel overseas. I stayed in the UK and did some odd jobs. I worked at a bar, and that was great. I spent three months working in Israel just because I wanted to see the country. At that stage, it was time for me to go back. That was a crazy thing because I'd said to, on my way back, there was somebody called my surname and I was like, What's going on? And he called me and I said, They said, No, it's a Warren class and then that's my brother. We ended up on the same flat back to Johannesburg. When we landed, we ended up moving in together as brothers. He had started a company called Rhino Shockabsorbers back in 1988. He was working with Toyota Motorsport in South Africa. He sold the business and he came to the US and he was working in Anaheim for a company called Raceco.
[00:11:44.060] - Glenn Classen
He worked there for 18 months and he came back home and the guys that had bought his company had messed it up. I said to him, I was working at a bank as a foreign exchange dealer at the time. I said, Well, let's fire this thing back up. That's what we did. We worked out in a garage and we had some parts made and we started selling shocks. 18 months later, I left the bank and we moved into a small building and we were prepping offroad race cars and building shocks. That's where it started. 1992.
[00:12:17.040] - Big Rich Klein
Nice. And was this an older brother or younger brother? Younger brother. Younger brother. And so when you went off to Europe, he basically did the same thing and you guys just lost track of each other?
[00:12:30.460] - Glenn Classen
No, we kept in touch. But back in those days, there was no email or anything. You wanted to talk to somebody, write a letter or have a phone number, or send a telex. And it was just by pure chance that we ended up on the same flight on the way home.
[00:12:46.440] - Big Rich Klein
Nice.
[00:12:47.640] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, it was great. It was a good surprise.
[00:12:50.520] - Big Rich Klein
Then you get back, you get into the shock business, and you're doing race prep and things like that. Then you did some military work as well, right?
[00:13:01.780] - Glenn Classen
We did, yeah. We built some steering dampers for an armored vehicle for the South African military. That was pretty good until there was a moratorium on defense spending, so we lost that. In any typical small business, there's massive swings of good, luck, and bad. We moved out of the workshop back into the garage twice. It was definitely character building.
[00:13:30.910] - Big Rich Klein
Right. How did he get into the shock business to begin with?
[00:13:37.120] - Glenn Classen
He bought himself a baja bug and he had some Bilsteins on it. It used to upset him because when you would go to a race and the baja bug was on the trailer, these bullstein shocks would just weep. He hated that. He thought, Well, he's going to make a better shock than that. That's how he decided to come up with making a shock absorption. He had studied hydraulic and fluid flow. He came up with his own piston design and he had the houseings machined and welded and everything else. The shocks were great for what they were at the time.
[00:14:16.300] - Big Rich Klein
In 1992, you guys partnered up and then that continued through the early two thousands?
[00:14:27.560] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, 2004.
[00:14:29.600] - Big Rich Klein
2004. Did he stay in South Africa or did he come over to the United States as well?
[00:14:38.760] - Glenn Classen
No, he emigrated to Australia, actually. Okay. The way I ended up coming to America was the market in South Africa was very small. We were making shocks for pickups and SUVs and off road race cars and motorcycle shocks for road racing and quads and all sorts of stuff. Of standard production vehicles, Formula V, Formula Ford. But he was going to immigrate to Australia regardless. I was looking for a way to grow Radflo. I came over here to see what it was like. I was only thinking off-road stuff. I wasn't thinking original equipment replacement stuff at all back then. We came over here and very naively, it looked like there's a big market. Obviously there was. Back in 2003, 2004, there weren't the resources that we have today on the internet. We'd go to the American consulate and try and do some research. I came out here and I met a couple of guys that I met on Race Desert. I met up with them here and we had a chat and we were talking about the business. Then I met a guy, a South African guy who lived in the US and he was interested in setting up and running a Radflo in the US, and I'd obviously stay in South Africa with my family.
[00:16:11.090] - Glenn Classen
Things weren't progressing the way we wanted. He suggested that I come over to the US and help him set it up the way I want for two years and then we'd go home. That's how I sold it to my wife. We'd go on a massive adventure and we'd travel and we'd do all these fun things. That's what we did. We came over here and I arrived at the suitcase in March of 2005 to find that nothing had been done for the business. The only thing that had been happened was the bank account that opened the previous August was still there with the money I put in it as a deposit. This guy didn't work out with this guy. After a year, we were no longer connected and the rest is history. We didn't go back to South Africa. We're here now and we are a US citizens and we live in a good life.
[00:17:06.150] - Big Rich Klein
Your wife didn't mind the move?
[00:17:10.080] - Glenn Classen
I know she did mind. She thought there was going to be two years and then when she realized it wasn't, it was, Well, you said two years, well, we're not going home. But she's been a defining person in this whole thing because she has always been full of encouragement. At no time did she ever say, I want to go home, I don't want to be here. And for that, I'm eternally grateful and I love her for that. She just stuck with me throughout this whole thing. And it's just like it is today.
[00:17:53.460] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So what a culture shock was it coming from Johannesburg to, and I'm assuming Southern California, L. A. Area?
[00:18:03.240] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, we're down in Orange County. We're actually in Southern Valley, where we're in my businesses now. That's where we moved. It wasn't really a massive culture shock. People speak English. We watch TV, so you get an idea of the accent and everything else. The biggest shock was the food. The food in South Africa is so good. You go to Denny's. We don't have anything like a Denny's or a Marie Callendar's or anything back in South Africa. We were just really disappointed with how bland the food was. It was like manufactured stuff for the masses.
[00:18:41.290] - Big Rich Klein
Yes. That's why I don't go to chain stores.
[00:18:44.720] - Glenn Classen
Yeah. We started hunting around for local restaurants that we could support. We've been lucky enough to be able to do that. But I think that is in terms of what it is. The other thing is that people are just so busy in the US. People are... Life is hard here generally. You're constantly working and people don't get much leave, they don't get much time off. That took an adjustment, without a doubt, it really did. But it all worked out. We have a great group of friends that we've met through the kids' schools. I can't really call them kids anymore because they're in their 20s. But we've been very fortunate with what we have.
[00:19:31.240] - Big Rich Klein
How did the kids transition? Was it pretty easy for kids? I know that my wife was what we call a military brat, where she traveled all around and never had friends for more than one or two school years because her dad was always relocated. It was tough to build friendships. Every year, people change because she was on military bases. But coming to the United States, also, and your kids are into a school system that's probably a little bit different. And then dealing with that, what was it like for them?
[00:20:15.380] - Glenn Classen
To be honest, it was pretty simple. I mean, they were like three and five. To them it was like, Okay, they're going to school and there's going to be new kids. And before you know it, they've got friends. And it's not like being an adult where people are a little guarded and they don't want to share too much because they don't want to be taken advantage of. With kids, everything's open, man. Let's go for it. Let's be buddies. So we were very lucky with that.
[00:20:41.290] - Big Rich Klein
Right. It's a lot easier transition at that age than it is. Even if they were 10 or 12.
[00:20:46.760] - Glenn Classen
Yeah. Yeah. No, without a doubt.
[00:20:49.320] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, good. So when you got over here, you were running Radflo, and you've continued to do that and build the business? Yes.
[00:21:00.300] - Glenn Classen
And.
[00:21:02.650] - Big Rich Klein
What was the first product? You brought over what you were doing there in South Africa and you went into the racing scene?
[00:21:14.510] - Glenn Classen
Yeah. So we started here, got a shop in Fountain Valley. I think it was 1,200 or 1,300 square feet. I bought a manual lathe and a manual milling machine and I hired a guy who was a machinist and we made the first components for the shocks that we were selling, offroad race stuff on these manual machines: 2.0, 2.5, coilovers, 2.5, bypass shocks, 3.0, bypass shocks. We didn't have a clue. We're just trying to find people that supply us with materials and trying to make sure they can supply us materials at a relatively good price. People in these big companies in this country want to sell to big companies that don't want to small the small guy, so you don't get a discount. So there's a lot of negotiation going on with these guys trying to convince them that they should help me. So I was very lucky that I managed to do that.
[00:22:19.540] - Big Rich Klein
That's great. And so you went into the desert racing scene first?
[00:22:23.880] - Glenn Classen
Yes. Yeah, desert racing and then into the rock crawling stuff. I've been involved in the rock crawling stuff since about 2006, I think. Right.
[00:22:33.790] - Big Rich Klein
I remember that time. So then when you had your business there in Fountain Valley, you and your machinist and you're trying to produce a new product for the US market, the hurdles that you must have come across, not so much a shock development because you guys had that, but marketing. Marketing must have been an intriguing avenue for you. Can you expand on that?
[00:23:04.640] - Glenn Classen
I can. Marketing, I came over here and very, very quickly realized that this was a massive pond and I was just a very, very small fish. The only way I was going to be able to grow my business and market it was to promote customer service, customer focus. Because trying to compete with Fox and King and Billstein back then, sway away. There was no chance I could ever do that. I was just a small guy. There was still advertising and magazines, do sports, and trying to get onto some of these forums and trying to promote your name. We would go to some of the Desert Races, Vegas to Reno, Parker. But slowly but surely, that's the thing about this country, which is so fantastic is that Americans love the underdog. Yes. And that certainly helped us. There were some guys who started buying product for the Nissan Frontier, Nissan TITON, a guy called Greg from PRP, one of my very first customers. And I made product for him for a long, long time. And I could make him what he wanted and he was happy with that. And I could supply him the stuff in a relatively good time.
[00:24:25.760] - Glenn Classen
So there was no marketing. We take out an advert in a magazine, but there was nothing. Nobody knew who Radflo was or how to get there. I didn't even know how to market myself. It was more seeing what my competition were doing and trying to emulate something along the same lines. But not having the money that they had to squash me if they really wanted to. It would have been pretty simple. But I thought, Well, if I could just get a few scraps that fill on the floor, this market is big enough for all of us. Fortunately, that worked out.
[00:25:02.460] - Big Rich Klein
You probably weren't on their radar at that point. When they saw the ad in the magazine, they probably went, Oh, okay, who's that? And that's about it.
[00:25:12.250] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, just a little fly on the wall.
[00:25:14.760] - Big Rich Klein
And then do you remember who your first real racer partner was that you got on their vehicle?
[00:25:25.290] - Glenn Classen
There was two brothers called the Dixon. It was called Dixon Brothers racing, and they raced in a Class Seven in the Best in the Desert Series. I had met Aaron when I came over in 2003, 2004. We ended up putting shocks on his vehicle and they won their championship. They sold the car subsequently and that car went on to do very well. Then we got into the Jeeps Speed stuff and we won the Baja 1,000 and then the Baja 500 in Jeep Speed. I forget the guy's name, I must apologize. But this was fantastic for us. It gave us some recognition. Shocks are weird things. It's not like you go win a race and then everybody wants to buy your shocks. It's not like a win on Sunday, buy on Monday deal. It doesn't work like that. But it did give us some credibility that we had guys who were well-known in the race industry that were using our product and that gave us a leg up.
[00:26:45.640] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, that's always good. That gives that credibility for sure.
[00:26:50.050] - Glenn Classen
Yeah.
[00:26:51.210] - Big Rich Klein
At what point did you look at it and say, Okay, this is viable. We're going to make this?
[00:27:02.870] - Glenn Classen
Well, so the flip side of this coin is that I came over here on a... It's called an L1 visa. And what it is, is an intracompany transfer. So I effectively transferred myself from my company in South Africa to here. And it lasts for seven years, and it's usually three periods of two years with the final one year. But they flipped it over that my very first year was a one year. I'd only just arrived and I was trying to apply for an extension. At the same time, I'm talking to immigration lawyers about trying to get a green card and we're putting these applications in, and they're denying us saying, You're performing the tasks you're supposed to manage. I thought, Well, I thought I'm managing my business. I didn't understand that. But I quickly realized that Desert racing, I was not going to make it with doing Desert racing because Fox and King owned that like they do today. I started making shocks for OE, the replacement stuff, and then the rockcrawler stuff. That's probably around about 2008 when I really thought, Okay, we can make a go of this. We had got an extension on our work visas and we weren't out of the woods yet, but we were making a run of it without a doubt.
[00:28:34.460] - Glenn Classen
We had moved into a bigger building in 2007 and things were looking good. It was just before the recessions. We were.
[00:28:44.310] - Big Rich Klein
Really happy. Just before the recession. How many of us can say that exactly?
[00:28:50.880] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[00:28:53.460] - Big Rich Klein
And how did the recession hit you? Was it hard? I mean, you were still in the process of building and growing the company. Did it come to a halt or were you able to weather it pretty well?
[00:29:09.930] - Glenn Classen
Fortunately, it was a rough time because we were trying to get our green card. But honestly, that recession did not hurt us at all. If I look back on it now, we didn't have one period where there was no growth. We were very, very lucky. It was a different recession to what we had recently, even now where people are really worrying their cash. That is a different recession. If you had money back then, you were fine, it was the people who didn't have any money. We were really fine. It was during that recession that we converted our work visa to a green card application. But I had to employ 10 people. I had to actually hire people in a recession, and I had to hire them for two years. But as it turns out, I needed the people and I've never fired anybody from... There were 12 of us and after the two years, I didn't let anybody go. The business just kept growing. Things just worked out for us.
[00:30:32.440] - Big Rich Klein
Right. That's great. That's really good. Then your marketing must have gotten a little better, at least. You went to OEM replacement, and that's just basically a stock number change and a little bit of design from the racing shocks, correct?
[00:30:55.520] - Glenn Classen
It is. A lot of the components crossover. I mean, obviously, lengths change and rod end lengths and everything else. But I had knowledge of damping and valving that goes into these things. We've done a lot of work with Nissan Motorsport on the Dakar projects. We were vying to get that business back in 2003, so we've done a lot of testing with them. We had an idea of what was required for independent front suspension and solid axel, which really helped us a lot. But at the same time, yeah. People know us in the Nissan Frontier market, but the Toyota market is where it's at. I mean, there's just-.
[00:31:38.020] - Big Rich Klein
So many of them.
[00:31:39.950] - Glenn Classen
-that market is owned by somebody else, and we just want a little bit of that. So we started getting into that and slowly but surely just building up following.
[00:31:49.370] - Big Rich Klein
So Nissan first, then Toyota? Yeah. And then what was the progression after that?
[00:31:55.510] - Glenn Classen
And now we make everything. We Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or RAM, and we export products to a number of countries for all different sorts of applications that you don't get in the US.
[00:32:13.150] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. And... Are you building them? You're not building them to OEM spec, though. Do you have more flexibility on the dampening and the technology that's built into the shock, correct?
[00:32:34.940] - Glenn Classen
That's correct, yeah. I mean, generally, a vehicle will have certain parameters that the manufacturer has build it around. But we know that you can get a little more droop out of some of these things by changing upper control arm. So you maximize those things and you come up with your own parameters. And that allowed us to make these coilovers using our components and our knowledge and know-how to build these shocks and to develop them accordingly. Okay.
[00:33:14.330] - Big Rich Klein
Are you just primarily a shock manufacturer or what are the product lines do you have if you have some?
[00:33:23.430] - Glenn Classen
We are just a shock manufacturer. We also make a hydraulic high-life jack, which we've had forever, and we're in the process of redesigning that. But our primary focus is shock absorption. People have always said, Well, why don't you make your own upper control arms, or why don't you do this, or why don't you do that? It's like, Well, true shock absorber manufacturers have become few and far between. It allows us the opportunity to deal with customers that don't feel like they buying from the competition with everything that they're trying to sell.
[00:34:05.410] - Big Rich Klein
If.
[00:34:07.020] - Glenn Classen
Somebody makes upper control arms, we're a manufacturer, we can help each other out, and I can supply them, and it works for all of us.
[00:34:16.630] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Okay. If you don't mind giving a list of what are some of the companies that you work with that are doing more of the suspension besides and you're providing shocks or you're working together with?
[00:34:34.430] - Glenn Classen
I mean, it's a bit of a mish-mash because King is in the same boat as we are. They don't have their own upper control as of yet. I'm not sure whether they plan to do something with it. But we make shocks for most of the lift kit manufacturers, we make shocks to suit the different lift kits. We work with Total Chaos. We make products to suit Dirt King and Baja Kits. We don't deal directly with these companies and they don't stock our product. But we work closely with them on getting the links from them to make sure that the shocks we do make to suit their kits are 100 % perfect in terms of how they fit and function.
[00:35:24.270] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, great. Your plans going forward, you're going to stay in the same venues that you've been in the markets that you've been running in?
[00:35:40.310] - Glenn Classen
Yeah. We continue to grow. It's a weird thing because we'll go to Offroad Expo and some 18-year-old will come up to me and say, I've never heard of Radflo, but well, I was around before you were born. It's amazing what people look at and what they see and what they read in the different age groups. But we plan to stay in the same space that we've been and continue to grow into that, developing new products. We were in the UTV market for a couple of years back in 2014, '15, '16. We exited that because the guy that worked for me, he left and I just wanted to focus on what we did well. But we're looking now, we're testing something for the UTV markets. We're having great success in the 4400 class. Ultra4 with Paul Wolf, he's a fantastic ambassador for us. He's a really hard racer. He's really savvy. He's doing well for us. Phil McGilton is another guy, Jaren Gunter, in the offroad industry doing really well for us. These guys, that's my roots, Offroad racing. But at the same time, we have some fantastic vendors that sell our products: Wide Open Design, Busted Knuckle, Metal Tech.
[00:37:12.630] - Glenn Classen
Some of these companies have been around doing business with me for a very long time.
[00:37:18.460] - Big Rich Klein
Do you private label shocks for some of the suspension companies? I know that there's suspension companies out there that are actually like TeraFlex. Okay, they started a suspension company and then they now do the Falcon shock, but there's others that don't produce their own shock but have a line of shocks that have their name on it. Are you doing any of that work?
[00:37:48.150] - Glenn Classen
Not at the moment. We did for a while. We supplied shocks to Toytech for their Toyota kits, and then they switched to Elka. Elka is making a lot of shocks for a lot of companies right now. No, we're not doing a bunch of private labeling. We do some cobranding with people overseas, and we're working on some stuff now with some of the lift kit companies and supplying shocks for their own development, supplying shocks for some of their bigger vehicle applications. When these things are released, then we will do a press release about that. I can't really divulge anything at the moment. But we're not doing any private label for anybody.
[00:38:32.150] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. And your OEM shocks, you got aligned for the JK, J-L, the JTs, all that stuff?
[00:38:44.060] - Glenn Classen
Yeah. And we make shocks to suit the different lift kit manufacturers. So I don't have a generic three to five-inch lift shock. I'll call Jeremy at Rockcrawler and get the links for his three-and-a-half-inch lift kit. What shocks are these designed around? I'll make the shocks to suit that. Whether it's working with Andrew at LetzRoll on a stuff with Metalcloak or whatever it is, we make the shocks to suit those different lift kits for the Jeep applications. And then obviously on the Toyota, and the Nissan, and Ford, and Chevy products, we do the work on measuring those things up and making sure that everything fits correctly.
[00:39:24.140] - Big Rich Klein
Perfect. Okay. And your kids are now, you said, in their 20s, are they boys, girls?
[00:39:33.750] - Glenn Classen
No, two boys. My oldest son, Nicholas, he actually graduated as a mechanical engineer in May this year, and he started as a design engineer with us in July. So he works for me full-time. And my youngest son, Thomas, he is in Cal State Chico, finishing off a communications degree, and then his plan is to come and work at Radflo. So we definitely are going to try to keep it in the family.
[00:40:03.280] - Big Rich Klein
That was my next question. So excellent. You led right into it. And how about your wife? Is she working with the company or she's...
[00:40:14.310] - Glenn Classen
I don't know. She's an integral part of this business. She handles accounts, payables, the receivables, and she does the invoicing. Now she's definitely 100 % part of this business. We're c0-owners. So although she works for me, we have a really special relationship where that allows us to work together.
[00:40:42.230] - Big Rich Klein
That's how Shelley and I are as well. It works out really good. Even though we're together 24/7, basically, we work really well together.
[00:40:53.320] - Glenn Classen
Yeah.
[00:40:53.840] - Big Rich Klein
Fantastic. It's important. It really is, I believe.
[00:40:57.280] - Glenn Classen
No, I agree.
[00:40:58.940] - Big Rich Klein
And so do you do you allow shop tours? So if I get down to Southern California and I swing by Fountain Valley, I'll be able to give you a call and do a shop tour?
[00:41:10.150] - Glenn Classen
Absolutely. You're more than welcome anytime.
[00:41:12.820] - Big Rich Klein
Sounds great. Is there anything else that we haven't touched base on that you would like to talk about or discuss?
[00:41:23.790] - Glenn Classen
I don't know. I think a few of the shining lights in my time running Radflo, besides just business being good for us generally. We won King of the Hammars back in 2011 with Loren Healy. We had a first, a third, and a fifth that year, which was unbelievable.
[00:41:46.270] - Big Rich Klein
Wow, that's great.
[00:41:47.980] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, it was. It was like a million years ago, though. For us, that was just amazing that we managed to pull that off with those great drivers. Then Nick Nelson, he won Vegas to Reno in his 4400 class, and he won qualifying at K-O-H many, many times. I think the highlights for me is the people that I've met and the friendships that I've made and understanding that we're ultimately all the same, but we are also very different.
[00:42:24.570] - Big Rich Klein
Very true. Very true. So you're going to be out at the Lakebed for here shortly in February or January, January into February. You're going for the three weeks?
[00:42:39.240] - Glenn Classen
No, I'll be out there for my sons. I've only missed one King of the Hammars. I've been there every single other time. I can't say I look forward to it, but I look forward to seeing great people. And so we'll be there the week of King of the Hammers, shock-tuning for a few days and then obviously just there for the rest of the events. So yeah, we just hope for good weather.
[00:43:10.150] - Big Rich Klein
Right. I read that you partnered with Wayne Israelson from Alltech?
[00:43:17.430] - Glenn Classen
That's correct, yeah. We're working on an internal bypass shock design with Wayne, which is in testing at the moment. He has a lot of knowledge with regards to testing and tuning shocks with guys who run trophy trucks and down. He's been invaluable with his advice. Yes, I wouldn't say we've formed a partnership, but we have a really good working relationship with Wayne.
[00:43:54.350] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. What teams are you are running your shocks this year? Yeah.
[00:44:00.460] - Glenn Classen
Off the top of my head, I can tell you, Paul Wolf, Phil McGilton, Jaren Gunter, the guys from TMR Customs. I think this is going to be the most guys going to be running our shocks this year at King of.
[00:44:15.840] - Big Rich Klein
The Hammers. Excellent. That's great. Then you're working with Andrew Mclawlin and Let's Roll?
[00:44:22.350] - Glenn Classen
Not on the off-road race stuff, no. But we have been working with them on the Jeep. OE replacement stuff for the Metalcloak kits that he sells.
[00:44:32.410] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, excellent. Well, great. I can't think of any more questions that I need to ask you. I think we've covered everything.
[00:44:45.520] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, I feel like I've just laid myself bare.
[00:44:49.770] - Big Rich Klein
You have, but you haven't embarrassed yourself for sure. That's a- No.
[00:44:54.760] - Glenn Classen
Well.
[00:44:55.100] - Big Rich Klein
Maybe- And no trade secrets.
[00:44:57.430] - Glenn Classen
Yeah, no trade secrets. None of that.
[00:45:00.020] - Big Rich Klein
We all had those early years of, like you said, the partying and the drinking and things when we were early in our life and before marriage and working, that thing. I can relate to that. Exactly. I worked for an ad agency in San Francisco for a while, and it was a little too much of all of that back in the early '80s.
[00:45:30.920] - Glenn Classen
That's for sure. Yeah, no, that's exactly right.
[00:45:35.870] - Big Rich Klein
Well, Glenn, thank you so much for spending the time and speaking with us and baring yourself, as you said, and I think a lot of people out there will get to know you better, and hopefully, it brings you some more business. I've been watching Radflow's development over the years, and I'm getting ready to do shocks on the Raptor. And when I do, I will be talking to you about that. I've been working with Total Chaos as well on some things for that and doing some other things with them with the magazine and stuff. I hope to try your product myself.
[00:46:19.530] - Glenn Classen
Absolutely. I appreciate that.
[00:46:21.330] - Big Rich Klein
Anyway, thank you so much. And Glenn, I hope you all the luck and the prosperity that you guys can handle in 2024 and the future.
[00:46:36.200] - Glenn Classen
Thank you very much, Rich. I really do appreciate that.
[00:46:39.260] - Big Rich Klein
All right, Glenn, thank you. And I'll let you know when this is going to air.
[00:46:43.320] - Glenn Classen
Okay, great.
[00:46:44.310] - Big Rich Klein
Thank you. All right, you take care and have a great evening.
[00:46:46.780] - Glenn Classen
Same to you.
[00:46:47.350] - Big Rich Klein
Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the gust of you can. Thank you.