JackMac4

While I see that this may be a no-brainer in your eyes, I don't see how it's unreasonable for them to ask for a little more information before they just start sending you stuff.

It may be a small dollar amount of parts, but from a business perspective its still a cost that must be justified, and therefore they need more info.

This is how this thread reads to me:
It appears to me that you're being a bit harsh when the reality is, according to you, they are trying to take care of the problem but you're being inflexible in providing more info because you deem it insignificant.

Why don't you just send them some more so they can take care of you and possibly fix any issues they hadn't foreseen in their product?

jsmoriss

Not at all. It's bellow freezing outside and I've adjusted/taken-apart this tire carrier about 4-5 times now. I sent 'em pictures but they're not satisfied. They'll change the bearing cone if they see a completely mangled piece of metal, where-as I want this thing done right. The dark gray grease on the top bearing cone clearly shows significant wear compared to the bottom bearing cone. To ME that means there's been an effect on that bearing cone from being improperly installed. To make it right, I think it needs replacing. Oh, and I didn't mention the bottom grease seal yet. That seal got squished just as bad as that top bearing cone. I'm surprised it's still in one piece, which is why I'm going to replace it also.

How much time should I dedicate to this issue to address THEIR screw-up? I've already spent many hours trying to adjust this carrier 'just right', then taking it apart and taking pictures for them. Now I'm saying enough. When I get the parts, I'm going to take it apart one last time -- probably in 2 feet of snow -- and that'll be it. In a year, I don't want that top bearing cone failing because I was too cheap to change it at the time. I like to do things once, and do them properly.

js.

glwood6

I feel it's only fair to chime in here and follow up on the 'issue' that I had with my bumper/tire carrier after installation.

The connecting coupling that is between the tailgate and tire carrier rubbed slightly against the mounting bracket on the tire carrier ever since it was installed, causing the powdercoat to rub off within the first few times of opening the tailgate and tire swing. I took extensive photos and emailed them to Expedition One. More time than I thought reasonable went by so I shot them another email to inquire about their take on what the fix was.

James answered my last email within 30 minutes, and said they had been moving to another building recently and were still unpacking and setting up shop, hence the delay...they are going to send me a replacement coupling that will be modified somewhat to prevent any more rubbing, and offered to send along some touchup paint in case any of the finish on the bracket was messed up.

In spite of the answer being delayed somewhat, I am more than happy with their solution and offer to send me a replacement coupling. I haven't seen it yet, but at this point I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are going to follow through. From my perspective, Expedition One is doing what is necessary to fix my problem. I can only hope that in the end you get your problem fixed also.

knotaddicted

I have to be honest looking at the bearing pictures the upper bearing is not in that bad of shape considering it is not a high RPM bearing. It only rotates about 120 degrees and stops, not down the road at 60 miles per hour. The bearing was installed upside down. I did read the instructions that expedition one has on their site. it does not have any kind of diagram for bearing orientation. Considering how long the bumpers have been around, the instructions floor me. They are not complete, or even close to it. I really hope you can get what you want from them. I am attaching a diagram of how a bearing assembly should be installed. (note: not to scale, and does not include top washer or adjusting lock nut)

I would recommend writing down the numbers to the bearings, races, and grease seal to make sure you can get them. any auto parts store should carry them, possible a marine or RV store if trailer parts are used for the spindle or bearings.

Expedition One

Hey Everyone,
This is Sarah with Expedition One. This might be a lengthy post so grab your Adderall and a Redbull....I generally do not get on the Forums but I do handle phones, emails, orders etc. for Expedition One. I've been monitoring this thread ever since becoming aware of it and feel the need to clarify a few things...

First of all, this has been a learning experience for me and some important information has come to the table. We're a smaller company that has been experiencing alot of growth in the past few months and years. These forums, that we are very appreciative of, have been great for our company in assisting our growth and it has allowed us to gain helpful information in making our company better.

We've never had any real specific or negative feedback on our install instructions for the JK Rear until recently when Member GLwood contacted us in regards to some questions he had as to what order to assemble components in the hub. This has never come up before but since GL wood has been good enough to mention it we realize it is an addition that needs to be made in the instructions. Also from this thread we have noted that the question has arisen about which way the bearings should be positioned in the carrier. This is also an addition that will be made in our install instructions as we can see that this will be helpful.

There are a few things that I would like to make sure get clarified considering that this thread may be floating around for some time.

1) At no point in time have I refused to supply part #'s-this is just straight up NOT true. All the part #'s requested have been supplied in the order requested.

2)Standard warranty policies require at the very least a photo documenting damage. I got the same photos that are posted in this thread. Its even admitted in post #4 that the "wear" claimed to exist is difficult to see. None of the photos we recieved show any clear damage, hence our request for more photos.

3) I'd also like to note that the sum of parts demanded went from wanting a new top bearing (post#1) to needing all 5 parts in the assembly, probably partly due to my suggestion he double check to make sure the bottom race was in place as well and document with a photo as per our warranty. This suggestion was disregarded.

4) I would like to note that much of the posts are exaggerated in comparison to our email corispondance. For Example: In the emails I received, this was the "second time" the carrier had been taken off and it would "NOT" be taken off again until it was going to be fixed (this is echoed in post 10). So in later posts in this thread its claimed to have been taken off 4 or 5 times now.

5) The race pictured in post #6, though the same part #, is not the exact same part we use (althought it could work). My cost on the top race and bearing is around $10 and my cost on the bottom race and bearing is around $19 from our current supplier(s) . Bottom grease seal is another $9, add in approx $30 shipping to Canada we're looking at more like $70. This still wouldn't have been a big deal had our attempts to properly diagnose the issue via written communication and phone calls been cooperative, and had digital photos been supplied in accordance to our warrently policy.

6) In regards to the dispute on this thread, we've agreed to send the demanded parts despite lack of evidence of need for these parts in hopes a solution can be determined and we can all get back to doing funner things like getting excited for that next trail run....

Overall, I'll let you all know that I'll be emailing anyone who has bought a JK rear bumper from us within the past few months to make sure install and parts are satisfactory and have gone well. We'll be working on additions to the install instructions. Should any of you have questions on install, please email or call me! Should any of you have recommendations on install, send me an email as well.

We pride ourselves on customer service and reputation and do what we can to work with customers to fix any issues that may arise in a reasonable and timely manner. Its unfortunate that I even had to put this post up (none the less at 2am-hope my 17month old will sleep in past 6am tomorrow!)

If anyone is having any issues with their product, let us know via email or phone and we'll get back to you asap. And thanks to those who have expressed support and glad we had the opportunity to share our perspective.

PS-If you've had difficulty contacting us for tech questions this week please note we are in the middle of a major relocation! Make sure to leave us a message if you don't get us right away and we'll get back to you ASAP. We hope to be settled in and running in our new shop very soon.

Thanks,
Sarah
Expedition One
info@expeditionone.biz

RedneckJeep

Congrats on the new move, Sarah!! See, I told yall they were good folks.

glwood6

X2.

When I was installing my rear bumper and got lost on the bearing issue, James talked me through it, and had some good suggestions, and we had a good conversation about updating the instructiions at that time.

racer83l

is this the rear carrier that opens with the rear tailgate, and not independantly????

jsmoriss

Thus my posting about waiting for part numbers, which you eventually gave me - I posted what I had at the time. Here are the final part numbers I received yesterday:

Top race and bearing: 15245 15123
Bottom race and bearing: LM102949 LM102910
Grease seal: 3" OD and 2 1/4" ID

I requested parts as you shared information about what might be missing, and my knowledge of what was installed. At first you suggested the top race, so I asked for a top race and top bearing. Then you suggested the bottom race might be missing, so I asked for both. I cannot request parts which I don't know are missing.

I think that if you re-read my posts, you'll see that I mentioned adjusting it a number of times (over the past months), then finally removing the carrier to take pictures, before re-assembling it and doing one more adjustment. There's no need to take off the carrier for adjustment, although removing the tire and tailgate plate has been part of it. As you can imagine, it's difficult to adjust a tire carrier when you're missing a few parts. In _my_ opinion, I've done more than my share of f*cking around with this tire carrier, and the next time I dissassemble it, it'll be to fix it. I have other things to work on and I've had it up to here with always going back to adjust something on this carrier. Try working on your Jeep parked on the street, bellow freezing, in the rain/slush/snow, and see what your mood is like after you've gone back to fix the same part 3-4 times.

I posted prices from etrailer.com (first choice in google search). I think everyone understands that prices vary depending on manufacturer and retail mark-up.

Thank you. In fact, I asked you to send me whatever you liked, and I would get the rest somewhere else. So thank you for coming through and satisfying my need. All I wanted was to fix this carrier 'as new' the way it was supposed to be installed. I think this is where our values differed -- you wanted to fix the broken/missing pieces, while I wanted to fix the broken/missing pieces AND address the parts that were affected by it. I saw significant wear on that top bearing assembly, which I think you'll agree, would not have happened if that top race wasn't missing. So to _me_, in order to _properly_ address _all_ the problems, that top bearing had to be changed. The seal had also suffered from being pinched and pulled because of the angle, so I figured I'd change that too. In the end, I just want a tire carrier that I don't have to dis-assemble ever again -- I'm pretty sick of it by now.

So I think that pretty much clears everything up.

js.

racerx

yes, it is.