I live a few blocks from Howe and have had their parts on a number of vehicles...if I deal with Jeff directly, I get decent service and communication but still feel like I am being treated like an idiot when I say what we're running and why. With his other employees, I've had less than stellar service for sure. All in all, I had just as many failures with HOWE parts as anyone else's. However, that's not to say HOWE is doing something wrong...they do what they do and have developed a number of great parts. Attitude on the phone is the one area where they seem lacking...again, I like Jeff, would deal with him when he has a competitive price or a part that I need, some of his other guys, well, not so much. Although, I will say George has always been alright too, but still, it's always seemed like they treat rockcrawlers as more of an oddity than a customer. I will say that I have a PILE of dead TC pumps from there, but won't blame them, even though early on, I ran their entire system from the res, to the box, to the ram, and his spec of hose. Truly, I have no better luck with his TC over others and in our case, think that their desert-oriented hopped up TC is NOT the way to go as pressures and cavitation from steering to max angles all the time and leaning the res so far you create air pockets, do not mix. In the desert, you don't hold at max steer like we do, and if you're over at that angle in a fast rig, you've got problems beyond steering pump. If I was building a rack setup, Jeff would be the place to begin for sure.
PSC...well, they've had their obstacles as well. There was a time where I watched system after system fail with the blingiest parts they had...that was about 5 years ago when they went through a trial and error period as they really pushed the limits of the parts they had. As they pushed so hard, they actually cost their competitors with numerous failures...BUT...welcome to the way this sport seems to work with teams taking higher risks of running newly developed parts without actual testing time to see if those parts will last. That lasted for about a season and a half and everyone seemed to work the bugs out. All the while, even with the negatives of failures, Tom and his crew was RIGHT THERE at the events, servicing and supporting those teams. That kind of thing makes a bad thing sting a ton less and in the end, they ended up with a nice line of parts earned the hard way...now, over the last few years, people have seen PSC really taking positive steps and they have become far stronger on ALL fronts.
West Texas Offroad has been our go-to company for ram assist and our P pumps as they not only have amazing service and great pricing, but all-along they didn't fall into this trap the aftermarket steering companies created, which was a pressure war. Everyone wanted to tout higher pressures, where Matt stuck with delivering FLOW, instead of pressure. Our rigs turned as good as anyone elses but the benefit was longevity. I give Matt huge kudos for keeping me on track with that attitude and we continue to use him for ram-assist and p-pumps. I have NEVER had a negaitve experience with Matt, however, his offering is pretty limited if you're in need of wild stuff. For straightforward hydro assist though, he's the man.
Station at POS is the last guy we've had experience with. I place him above all others when it comes to knowledge and building systems that flat-out work. He's somewhere between Howe and PSC in pricing but when you call with a question, he actually OVER-delivers on info, teaching you the hows and whys of what you're after, and making valid recommendations on avenues you can take, even recommending other people's products over his if they'll fit your needs better. The downside is sometimes Station is harder to reach and as he has such a diverse amount of offerings, but is a small company, does not always have everything on the shelf so there may be a few day's delay. He does tell you that in advance though. Overall, Sean is my go-to-guy for full-hydro.
And regarding Nolan's statement about sponsored teams...I'll state this...although we are the kind of team that doens't bullshit...we tell the positives AND negaitves of the products we run, sponsored or not...in the case of steering, we don't have a common "sponsorship" from ANY steering company. When Station can cut us a break in price down to his wholesale, he does it. Matt does the same, but due to the size of his company, like Station, he doesn't exactly have a lot of room for marketing. But in both cases, often enough we pay full-pop. Still, those guys were there with SOLUTIONS versus just telling us that our problem was that we didn't run their entire system, when that's not much of a solution in the first place. That kind of service is the reason we continue to go to those two for our primary needs, but again, we also source parts from PSC and Howe, when they happen to have a better price or a part we need.