METALCLOAK VIDEO: MetalCloak's Rigs & Wrenches EP.1 – Raffi Kassardjian | K Suspension Grand Opening (Meridian, Idaho)
This episode of MetalCloak's Rigs & Wrenches takes us to Meridian, Idaho, for the grand opening of K Suspension’s brand-new 3,800 sq. ft. shop. Founded by Raffi Kassardjian, K Suspension has grown from a humble two-car garage operation into a premier off-road suspension and fabrication facility. The video features an exclusive tour of the shop, Raffi’s inspiring journey from junkyard parts flipping to running a full-service garage, insights into his favorite wheeling spots, and a busy day of CTI ramp testing with over 40 rigs. The event also brought together over 200 attendees, multiple vendors, and a vibrant community celebrating off-roading culture.
Complete Transcript with Time Stamps:
[0:14] Good morning, everyone. We are here in Meridian, Idaho, right next to Boise for the grand opening of K Suspension's new shop. Raffi has built an amazing place here. Will and I came up with the CTI trailer for the grand opening. We're gonna be testing out some suspensions. But first, before this gets going here, I wanna go inside, meet Raffi, get a quick tour of the place, see what this is all about. Let's go check it out.
[0:37] Hey, Raffi, how you doing? Good, how are you? Good. Right on. Good to see you. This is Raffi. I can never pronounce your last name. Kassardjian. Kassardjian. So, K suspension here in Meridian, Idaho, near Boise. Tell me a little bit about the shop. When did you open this place up?
[0:52] So this location here opened up just about two months ago. We've been building since May of last year. So it took about nine months to complete, but we finally, finally got it all squared away. Yeah. You know, few hurdles but we made it.
[1:04] So how'd you get started into this industry, and what were you doing before this building? So before this building, I was in a fifteen hundred square foot shop at my home. So it was just my home shop, six of us crammed in there. So I started this business on the floor of a two car garage in Boise. Used to go to the junkyard every weekend and literally collect parts and scrub them and clean them and put them on Facebook and resell them. You know, it was girlfriend money. But it turned into a really, really big thing, and it's been a blessing. And I have great guys working under us as well that I get to help take care of their families too. And our customer base is just amazing.
[1:41] Seems like a good community for off-roading. So one of the things I noticed walking in this place is the attention to detail. Like, the floors are amazing. But how about a little quick walk through and show us kinda what's going on with your building back there? Sure. Yeah. No problem. Cool. I'll grab the door. Cool.
[1:56] So it's a bit of a mess because we are having our event today, but this is the main shop area. So we got four lifts here. Ben is over here. We got Zach here. That one's currently open. So I work there occasionally. And then in the back corner here, we have Kane. This is roughly thirty eight hundred square feet. So we got plenty of space for activities and people don't bump into each other.
[2:20] This is cool. Yeah. What's going on here? This is actually getting some braided power steering lines because they're leaking. I know with all this stuff on it, that's the least of our worries but it sounds great. Yeah. So that's always fun. Very cool. Demonic, I like that. Demonic.
[2:38] And then, we have a mezzanine up there, which has about five hundred square feet of storage. So we just built a bunch of racks and maxed it out. We have a washroom here. The backyard goes that way. We'll eventually be expanding. It just takes time. And then in here, we have a full shipping and receiving station. We ship orders all over the place. We have a full online business as well. Wow.
[3:02] We have our plasma table here, metal storage, and then that bay over there is actually leased to Quick Tires. So he has that bay and he does all the wheels and tires in house, which is kinda nice because we get to work together on it. And he's an amazing guy.
[3:15] Tell me about the lighting. The lighting's actually from Nacho. Nacho Off-Road Lighting, I think is the company name. These things are twenty nine thousand lumens each.
[3:24] You've been in business for a month or two here. I mean, things are going well? Yeah! No, it's been it's been pretty great. A lot of people coming in. I think everyone was waiting for this. Yeah. Because, I mean we were busy at my home shop, but this is next level. Like, I could not handle this at the home shop. That's for sure.
[3:40] So, primarily Jeeps? That's what we specialize in. And older Jeeps too? Everything? Oh, yeah. No I got a '63 CJ5 out there. Yeah, that's pretty cool. My girlfriend's family has an original CJ5 Levi's edition. It's all stock. It's pretty cool. Nice.
[3:55] One question for you. Yeah. If you could take your Jeep, beam it anywhere in the world with yourself right now to go wheeling, where would you go? Honestly, I'd probably go to the Rubicon. Rubicon, nice! Which is right down the street from us. That's where we spend our time. It's awesome because there's no cell service, and my kids love it. They beg for it. Oh it's beautiful up there. So we get to go there and hang out in the springs. It's peaceful to me. Yeah. That's my escape. So I enjoy just crawling all day and then hanging out with the kids, you know, in the afternoon. It's our stomping grounds. I mean we go up there for the day.
[4:26] Raffi is one of our gold plus level installers. He is doing a ton of business with us. What do you like about MetalCloak? I just like the durability, the fact that the parts actually last and they can take a beating. I personally have tried almost every single lift out there, every single component out there. Bushings are failing all the time or parts will break all the time. I'll mute that, sorry. That's okay. And with MetalCloak, it just works, you know? And not only that, but anytime I ever have an issue and I call, I usually call Will. Will's the guy behind the camera by the way. But he answers the phone. Yeah. Or if I shoot him an email, I get a response back in about thirty minutes at most. I'm like, "Dude, don't you have a job?" Like, it's great. So the communication is always there. The support is there, and your parts actually work. So it's a, it's kind of a no brainer.
[5:20] Very cool. We focus on customers, and our jobbers are our customers too. So we take care of you the best we can. So we appreciate that. So how many people coming out today? I think we're expecting over two hundred. And a lot of vendors? I saw Factor 55 is out there. Who else? We have Dynamic Auto Detailing, Walker Audio Design, obviously, you guys. MetalCloak's here. MetalCloak. Across the parking lot, Integrity Auto Glass, he's gonna be setting up outside of his shop too. He's a great friend of mine. His name is Brent. Drop Zone Burgers, the Perking Spot Coffee, who should be here soon because I really need another cup of coffee. Yes. Will, Venture to Rome. Will, with Venture to Rome is gonna be here. He's got his JT. I think he's bringing both his rigs too. Yeah, he went home to get the JL. Yep. And then Blanco Bronco Adventures from... I think they just pulled up. Did they? South Eastern Idaho, they came up. They're here and they're gonna have their Bronco on display. They're running our control arms.
[6:11] Funny side note, we drove all the way up here to Idaho to find out that Raffi grew up like a mile from where I live. His dad still lives there, right? Yep. Yep, your brother. Yeah, he's up in Forrest Hill. He lives up in, up the hill and right down the street from my girlfriend's family's cabin, and it's just a small world. So pretty cool. So, we're gonna go do this open house, or this grand opening. Yeah. Do some CTIs, and have some fun.
[6:50] Alright. So, this is one of the coolest things I've seen here so far. I believe this is custom built. That is a cool sink.
[7:21] Alright. On this side of things, we have a 2.5" MetalCloak Lift Kit or fifteen hundred dollars to whatever build that you would like to put it towards. Tyler Dunkel.
[7:58] Grand opening. How'd it go? It went amazingly well. Yeah, good turnout. Very great turnout. Even with the weather, it was a lot more than two hundred people here. Yeah. And I'll say like, we in a four hour period, we would do usually like twenty five, thirty CTIs. Today, we did forty. So everyone was like working well together. Very nice. That was, I think that's a record so. Nice. You've set the bar on many levels. I'm excited. The golden bar. Alright. So cool. Thanks for having us up. Appreciate it. I appreciate you. And, we'll see you later at dinner. Absolutely. Alright. Thanks, guys.
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