Hot Rods Gennie, Lokar, American shifter. Which one to get?

I'm going to order a floor shifter for my 59 Chevy Apache project next month.

I'm looking to get one with a 23" double bend shifter.

So far I have priced ones out from Gennie, Lokar and American Shifter company.

Gennie is $360
Lokar is $302
American is $270

Obviously I am leaning more towards American. But any reason why I shouldn't be? Any other floor shifter companies that I need to look into that I may have missed?

Thanks in advance

 

If the American shifter is of the Hoffman Group forget it..............................

 

American shifter is from the Hoffman Group

 

Clue me, what's the issue with the Hoffman group?

 

Everything! Chinese Junk

 

There's several threads on the subject, please do the research.....................................

 

Lonnie!!! As was said by one of our Supreme Court Justices many years ago, " I can't tell you what pornography is, but I know it when I see it". Your avatar qualifies as seen it. My Lord, she's not on a balcony is she? Just ribbin' ya'! Still have that scattershield. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

partssaloon, thanks for the info. I will file that as valuable information...………..

 

Thanks for the info. Never heard anything about Hoffman Group before, now I know.

Guess I'll go with Lokar

 

I've had a gennie shifter and found it had an annoying rattle with drivetrain harmonics that I could never get rid of...I would try the lokar.

 

Yea, really only two choices. You could be a lone wolf and try the cheapest, you could be with me and a handful of others and get the genie or could join the masses and go with Lokar.
I know Lokar is well known and loved by most and guess that’s why I bought Gennie, to be a little different.
Sarcasm aside, Gennie pieces are hefty, and seem to be machined well.
Oh, and no button. Use what ever knob you want.

 

Butch maybe this one is more to your liking?

 

I just installed the Lokar shifter on my A518 behind the Desoto. I cant say enough nice things about a product that installed that easily, looks this nice and works this well. I added the e-brake assembly as well for a tidy little install.

 

Hopefully you will catch up on all the bad press those scabs have rightfully gotten.
If you have to pay twice as much to buy a QUALITY shifter, do it, ALL of the products from
The Hoffman Group are shit.

 

I only can comment on the Lokar shifter . I am happy with it. Has an easy-peezy neutral safety switch. The only draw back is there is nothing to prevent shifting it out of park when the car is unattended. But I suppose the same could be said about most of the aftermarket shifters and manuals also.

 

Ive used Lokar shifters half a dozen times and have been great, nice quality and great customer service, easy enough to install and offer a few products that fit together with it, (i have a light up gear indicator from them in a truck with one of their shifters). I'd like to use a Gennie sometime, mechanism seems stout and they have some pretty cool looking shifters and knobs.

 

Don't you have a locking detent ball on the shifter handle? I wasn't really happy with the plastic 8 ball shifter mine came with (yes, I picked it because the truck has a black and white theme going on) but you have to press that white 8 ball circle with your thumb to shift out of park or make it into reverse.

 

Yes, there is a button/detent that you need to depress before you can shift it out of park.

 

I used Lokar, and bought their shifter knob adaptor also which allows use of your own shift knob, rather then one of their choices.

 

I've been thinking of a 23 inch floor shifter myself, for my 57 p/u, I plan on going with the Gennie because of the detent shifting.
If you research the Lokar there are numerous complaints about the button and how the shifter can go into any gear once the button is pushed, so you could miss reverse and go right to neutral etc. Ironically there was a lot of complaints about being stuck with only one shift knob and breaking fingernails pushing the button.

 

Any chance you can try both before buying? I have Lokar. Nicely built, works fine I guess, but it I’ve never tried a Gennie, so can’t compare the two.



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I run Lokar on both a C4 and TH350, nice enough and common, but there is no D-to-N lockout so be careful not to manually over shift if running hard. I don’t know if Gennie is gated to prevent that.

 

I've used 2 different styles of Lokar on my last 2 builds. The only drawback to them is they take some getting used to because the detents are fairly small. You kind of have to pay attention when putting it in gear. Once you get used to them it's no big deal to me.

First was a floor mount with a solid rod to control the linkage. Bolted straight in with no concerns. Worked great. No complaints really.

My last build I used a floor mount again but with cable controls. It's basically the same basic shifter. In my chassis I didn't have enough room for the cable to loop to where it needed to be without binding it up. I ended up taking the cable completely off, flipping the lever on the tranny and creating a solid rod to replace it. Works just fine this way.

The newer Lokar stuff (last 5 years or so?) uses a slightly different methods of controlling the push button and they are easier to use than the older ones were and seem a little more consistent. Changing the shift handle is different between the old and newer shifters.

SPark

 

Hoffman group Junk !!
Lokar for a Hot Rod / Street Rod . Their shifter nice & reliable.
Not good or recommend ifor drag racing. Lokar has some issues with some of their other products.
I do not like that Drive /OD to Natural you have to push button ,Then you can go straight to Natural /Reverse / Park. So
I Re-gated So I can bump from D/OD to Natural, then push button for Reverse.
On a glide I Re-gated & adapted a low to drive RPM Activate Solenoid because a full race shifter to low on floor (30scar ) & did not want to make a pedestal and deal with the cable.

 

I had a Lokar for my C4 and in the middle of my build before I even drove it I switched to a Gennie shifter.

Why, because I didn’t like the way the Lokar worked just setting it up.
I felt that the push button would be a source of irritation in operation.

I really like the gated shift pattern of the Gennie shifter.
No push button.
And the neutral safety switch works good when properly set up.

As far as the American shifter company goes I wouldn’t touch the piece of Hoffman company garbage.

 

Gennie would be my only choice. I have had one in my RPU for 20 years. I know it's well designed. Once Tom had the design tested on his own car, and deemed it ready for production, we machined the main parts in our machine shop for many years, until Tom sold the business. I know the material was good quality, I bought it from our sources for military spec steel and stainless.

 

Has anybody tried the Summit brand? I am using a Lokar on th400 in my coupe but am a little aggravated by the push button. Noticed on the Summit site that they now build one but no reviews.

 

I've used a few Lokar's and have been very happy with them, but there's no way I'd consider manually shifting as say you might wish to in a drag race.
I've shifted into low gear to utilise engine braking on very steep hills and with the 700R4 trans I do shift between 3 and od if i'm looking for a bit more zip at freeway speeds.

Chris

 

I used a Gennie on my roadster when I put it on the road in '87, and it's still in use today.
Quality product!

 

I would use the shift knob adapter as well, if I decided to go with them.

Thanks for all the input everyone