@Wee that video regarding the suppliers is correct in that the standard shocks in the Telluride are made by a company called Mando. It is a Korean company with an R&D facility in Michigan and Innovation Center in Silicon Valley and locations in Alabama and Georgia. It was originally founded by a family member of one of the Hyundai founders. It is unclear if they are also the makers of the Telluride self-leveling suspension or if those are the ZF Sachs Nivomats like the
Palisade that have made the same for GM, Chrysler, Volvo, for years. But the concepts appear to be the same if the Mando Self-Levelizer works like the Nivomat Self-Leveling shock. What I don’t agree with in the video is that the presenter is implying that the
Palisade suspension is somehow superior with the preloaded German over the Tellurides inferior Korean monotube shock (of course that's what a Hyundai engineer would lead you to believe). Mando is a global $6B company only building car parts for nearly all the major manufacturers and a leading supplier of brakes, suspension and steering systems worldwide. Sachs also makes bicycle parts and is under $2B. I think they are both decent and comparable systems and he is trying to sound like a Hyundai salesperson trying to get your eye away from the Kia sign because that Telluride looks so much cooler than the
Palisade. The perception of German meaning more quality might fool some but I don’t think that applies to mass produced shocks.
With Nivomats, I have read that when they go bad you can’t replace them with standard shocks, you are supposed to replace them with the same and they are on the pricey side. Without them you have your choice of aftermarket quality OE equivalent drop in replacement shocks at varying prices. If you carry a lot of cargo and wear out your shocks just one replacement of Nivomats could cost more than the cost of a nice aftermarket quality air bag system when you factor in the cost of the package and replacements. But you might go 100,000 mi without replacing too. The key is the self-leveling shocks carry a slightly higher risk of failure and cost of replacement because of added components in the shock. To validate replacement cost differences look up OEM part prices for rear suspension here:
Genuine OEM Kia Parts I also looked up the same on a Hyundai parts site and while the picture looked the same the self-leveling
Palisade replacement was listed for less than the comparable Telluride version.
Self-leveling shocks can mainly be viewed as a convenience and ride comfort feature because it does the same thing whether you are towing or not, it’s all about activating the shocks to get back to ride height and knowing that they settle when parked and must be activated again to get the height. Some ZF Sachs references say it takes a couple hundred yards, but that might have been on a very bumpy German road where they tested because in practice people say it take a couple miles and sometimes driving slow on a well paved road will not be enough to get pumped up. I think it requires the weight in the rear be enough to make the car bounce for the shocks to self actuate.
Here’s a video of a company that worked with the Nivomats for Harley Davidson and BMW motorcycles. They have a video that shows the ride height when the passenger sits on the back and then as the motorcycle picks up speed with every shift it bounces and pumps the shock up a little each time.
Wilbers USA is only official source for all Wilbers Products GmbH, including the world renowned, class-leading Nivomat and WESA suspension systems.
wilbersusa.com
The important thing to remember if you are towing and you have them is that you should distribute your weight and get you hitch height level in order to tow safely and it may be hard to do that parked if you have to activate the shocks. With an air bag system leveling your trailer and hitch height to distribute weight is easy because you can adjust (or the system self adjusts) when parked. With just standard suspension components it’s just as easy to load cargo and a trailer and get to a safe weight distribution and level hitch because the hitch height is what it is after you load the cargo and connect the trailer diving a few miles won’t change and there is no air being added when you turn the car on.
With all that said, I still have no idea why Kia calls this a tow package. I suspect they came up with a tow option and didn’t want to put the more expensive shocks standard in another trim like they do in the Telluride GT-line for other countries, so maybe they figured they could pass it off as a towing feature and it would sound more rugged than the
Palisade with the Convenience package with Tow Option and harness accessory.
With regard to the 2021 delays. If the delay is because of the new 7-pin harness being prewired, changing from tow package to tow option may not speed up delivery. If the delay is due to the self-leveling than it theoretically would. However consider that the 2020 4-pin harness does not have to be port installed and can be purchased as an accessory and added DIY or by a dealer. There is reason to believe the 7-pin harness might be the same. The
Hyundai Palisade advertises it is “pre-wired” which just really means there is a 12-pin connector under the rear fender that you plug the harness into. That’s the same thing I saw when installed the Kia harness on my Telluride. What I am not sure of is how they plan to connect the 7-pin harness in the back to the 12-pin connector and still give you a wire in the cab to connect pin #2 on the 7-pin harness for trailer brakes to the brake controller. (Could be part of the delay is adding more wiring to the 2021 12-pin that is not present in the 2020 12-pin since there are empty wire spots.) We may know more if someone finds a part number for the new 7-pin harness for 2021 as this would tell us if it is plug and play or requires a tap into another wire that may be more complicated for dealers to install quickly. It could be plug and play for a 2021 to the 12-pin but additional wiring to make it plug and play with the 12-pin connector on a 2020.
The only sure fire way to speed up delivery may be to just take the tow option and tow package out of the order altogether and add the tow hitch as an accessory and you will be able to hang a bike rack or cargo basket for now and reevaluate the 7-pin aftermarket options with the Kia part in a couple months if you plan to tow. The other unknown item is what the Amp rating will be on the 7-pin harness from Kia. We learned in a different thread that the 4-pin from Kia is only 5.5 A but the less expensive aftermarket options are 7.5 A. So if you tow and have a lot of bulbs with a filament you would need to swap them to LED bulbs to lower the power draw. Current aftermarket 7-pin harnesses that work on the Telluride today can be as high as 20A. If you don’t plan to tow anything that requires a brake right now, just get an aftermarket 4-pin harness and you will be fine and upgrade to the 7-pin if/when you need it.
It really comes down to patience in waiting longer vs possibly spending $50-300 more by not having the tow option or package negotiated into the purchase price. If you finance the Telluride consider that not adding it to the financing means you won’t be paying for interest on the cost of that option. I also think there might be some dealers that will sell you a Telluride with no tow option or package in the window sticker and sign a paper saying that they would get you the tow hitch, bumper cover and 7-pin harness at a later time. I took the first Telluride that matched my config and asked for some options that weren’t in stock be thrown in. Then I went back to the parts department when they arrived to claim my accessories and installed them myself.
