In the fall of 2006, Steve Chase, President of Makin' Trax Suspension, became interested in purchasing a Yamaha Rhino. Having been involved in Off-Road racing for over 38 years, he understands the necessity of a well balanced suspension system that could withstand the punishment of the harsh offroad environment. While researching the available shock absorber packages, he found that at that time there wasn't an aftermarket O.E.M. replacement shock package that could be purchased. You had to buy a long travel kit in order to get a quality shock on your Rhino. Thus, the innovative juices began to flow. Why not develop a high quality O.E.M. replacement shock kit that will improve the ride and stability of a Rhino and still is affordable by the average user?

For assistance to this question, Steve turned to long time friend Dave Forbes. Dave's technical prowess and practical experience learned from 29 years in Offroad, Cart and IRL racing made him the perfect choice. His experience and success with 5 Baja wins and multiple championships in Score and Mickey Thompson Series with Bob Gordon, Albert Arciero & Frank Arciero Jr. and most notably Robby Gordon, provides the knowledge and attention to detail required to take on such a task.

We first talked about starting from scratch and develop and build our own shocks. But, because the UTV market was growing so rapidly we felt that might take too long. So we decided to find a company that already produced a high quality racing shock that may be interested in working with us to develop a UTV for us. Our search brought us to AFCO Racing Products. AFCO has been building shocks and springs for dirt track and drag racing for over 29 years. AFCO products are made in the USA by American hands. We approached AFCO Racing with the proposition of developing an Offroad line of shocks starting with the UTV market which made them very excited about the prospect of expanding into a new marketplace. It was and is the perfect match! Their high standards for quality and tight, consistent production tolerances are what provide them their long term success in racing. Makin' Trax Suspension provides the offroad knowledge and R & D, AFCO Racing provides the engineering and production of the products. Through this joint venture Makin' Trax Suspension is the sole exclusive Distributor of the AFCO Racing MT line of shocks.