Attention: TDR Forum Junkies Road Armor Installed
Below is the original message regarding my installation issues. After speaking with Jim C at Road Armor, we determined that there was a misunderstanding of my level of satisfaction during our previous conversations. In conclusion, they are working with me to ensure 100% satisfaction as their guarantee states.
Original Message:
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I'm not sure where to start on this, but I suppose I'll start with the good point. I ordered my Road Armor in October during the sale and received a pretty good deal on it as far as price. Okay, that's the good part, now for the rest. I'll apologize for the length of this now.
I placed my Road Armor order the last week of October and was told it would ship on 11/29/2004. I had planned work travel around this schedule, also allowing some leadway for a late shipment. I would have never guessed that it wouldn't arrive until after Christmas. Anyhow, them mentioned that they had accidently powder coated it the wrong color.
My long awaited crate finally arrived on 12/28. The packaging was good, no nicks, dings, cuts or anything. Good job Watkins Motor Frieght. I signed for the front and rear bumpers and scheduled an install date of 01/03 with a local body shop.
Today at 1:00 we began the install. The first problem we noticed is that there were no instructions whatsoever. I tried to call them, but there was no answer at the main number, or at either of two other numbers I had for various individuals. I referred to the invoice that stated "For any Customer Service questions, please contact Jim Medlock at 206-510-8648. " I left a voicemail.
Since I was on the clock at the shop, we proceeded without the instructions since it looked pretty simple. The front bumper was up first. We removed the factory bumper, brackets, etc and prepared to mount the RA brackets. They included two bolts in the hardware pack for the brackets. There were four original factory bolts and I knew two would not suffice for the new beast. We went to the bolt supply store and purchased a couple additional grade 8 nuts and bolts. After waiting nearly 3 hours for a call back, RA returned my call. They mentioned that I was supposed to use the factory bolts. When I asked why there were two bolts included, he said that they were for people who wanted to drill the frame for additional support. After reading this "Our bumpers offer a 'bolt on' application. " from their website, one would only assume without instructions that they did not intend for you to drill the frame.
I then asked where the instructions were. The answer was that they hadn't yet created any for the 3rd gen install. What a crock.
Anyhow, we had the brackets on the frame and were ready to install the front stealth bumper with Titan II guard. I love the look. Upon removing the packaging, we looked the bumper over very closely. Here's what we found:
A 1 inch by 1/8 inch gouge in the tubing. Not only through the powder coating, but all the way down through a good percent of the metal. Yes, into the metal, not just exposing it.
Messy welds where the tubing attaches to the bumper
When the bumper is perfectly centered between the fenders, the contours under the headlights only line up correctly with the driver side.
The shackels were ordered black but arrived unfinished
The left and right side I'm assuming should be symmetrical. There are seams welded on the inside of the bumper where on one side of the bumper it is tack welded, yet the other side the same seam is completely welded.
Here's the funny one -- The decals are messed up. Instead of the bumper saying "Road Armor" they drilled it so that the decals say "Armor Road". You would think they would at least get THAT right, wouldn't you?
Anyhow, I called them back about some of these issues -- the gouge, the shackel paint and the "Armor Road" problem with the decals. They said they were sorry and that I needed to have the body shop touch up the gouge in the bumper, to paint the shackels myself with Rustoleum black textured paint, and that they knew they had a decal problem. They said they would ship me some corrected decals when they came in, but no ETA was provided.
Here's the problem I have with their proposed solution -- I paid $3200 for a set of bumpers that were powder coated and clear coated. They are telling me to pay a body shop to use touch up paint to fix it. I also expected black powder coated shackles. I recieved unfinished shackles and was told to go buy some Rustoleum textured paint and paint it myself. Has anybody else had these issues, or am I the first??
On to the rear bumper. Again, no instructions. We inspected the hardware and realized two things -- we had ten bolts and zero nuts, and the cross member between the frame where the hitch connects wasn't going to fit with the new bumper. We learned from the front bumper that it is best to try to call first. This time I was able to reach Mr. Medlock on the second attempt. He informed me that on their "test" truck, they had CUT the factory cross member to allow room for their new hitch. That was simply unacceptable. He mentioned an alternative which we chose -- unbolt the bed and lift it up to allow removal of the factory cross-member. No instructions, simple bolt on bumpers as they mention on their site -- and they say to cut an integral part of the truck out??
One more thing I would like to mention. When I bought these bumpers and the accompanying hitch, I knew that my existing surepull class IV hitch would be replaced with the RA class IV hitch. What I didn't know was that the cross member would be removed and that the hitch would bolt directly to the frame. I've seen some aftermarket hitches that require the removal of the cross member and bolt to the frame -- But EVERY one of them is a Class V hitch. What gives?
In closing, I just wanted to apologize for the long message and lack of photographs. I took a few pictures during the install but cannot post them until tomorrow. I'm just appauled about one thing -- They claim that Road Armor (or should I say 'Armor Road') is "The Only Bumper Backed by a LIFETIME GUARANTEE!!" but yet they tell me to fix it myself when it arrives damaged and not to spec.
Below is the original message regarding my installation issues. After speaking with Jim C at Road Armor, we determined that there was a misunderstanding of my level of satisfaction during our previous conversations. In conclusion, they are working with me to ensure 100% satisfaction as their guarantee states.
Original Message:
------------------------------------
I'm not sure where to start on this, but I suppose I'll start with the good point. I ordered my Road Armor in October during the sale and received a pretty good deal on it as far as price. Okay, that's the good part, now for the rest. I'll apologize for the length of this now.
I placed my Road Armor order the last week of October and was told it would ship on 11/29/2004. I had planned work travel around this schedule, also allowing some leadway for a late shipment. I would have never guessed that it wouldn't arrive until after Christmas. Anyhow, them mentioned that they had accidently powder coated it the wrong color.
My long awaited crate finally arrived on 12/28. The packaging was good, no nicks, dings, cuts or anything. Good job Watkins Motor Frieght. I signed for the front and rear bumpers and scheduled an install date of 01/03 with a local body shop.
Today at 1:00 we began the install. The first problem we noticed is that there were no instructions whatsoever. I tried to call them, but there was no answer at the main number, or at either of two other numbers I had for various individuals. I referred to the invoice that stated "For any Customer Service questions, please contact Jim Medlock at 206-510-8648. " I left a voicemail.
Since I was on the clock at the shop, we proceeded without the instructions since it looked pretty simple. The front bumper was up first. We removed the factory bumper, brackets, etc and prepared to mount the RA brackets. They included two bolts in the hardware pack for the brackets. There were four original factory bolts and I knew two would not suffice for the new beast. We went to the bolt supply store and purchased a couple additional grade 8 nuts and bolts. After waiting nearly 3 hours for a call back, RA returned my call. They mentioned that I was supposed to use the factory bolts. When I asked why there were two bolts included, he said that they were for people who wanted to drill the frame for additional support. After reading this "Our bumpers offer a 'bolt on' application. " from their website, one would only assume without instructions that they did not intend for you to drill the frame.
I then asked where the instructions were. The answer was that they hadn't yet created any for the 3rd gen install. What a crock.
Anyhow, we had the brackets on the frame and were ready to install the front stealth bumper with Titan II guard. I love the look. Upon removing the packaging, we looked the bumper over very closely. Here's what we found:
A 1 inch by 1/8 inch gouge in the tubing. Not only through the powder coating, but all the way down through a good percent of the metal. Yes, into the metal, not just exposing it.
Messy welds where the tubing attaches to the bumper
When the bumper is perfectly centered between the fenders, the contours under the headlights only line up correctly with the driver side.
The shackels were ordered black but arrived unfinished
The left and right side I'm assuming should be symmetrical. There are seams welded on the inside of the bumper where on one side of the bumper it is tack welded, yet the other side the same seam is completely welded.
Here's the funny one -- The decals are messed up. Instead of the bumper saying "Road Armor" they drilled it so that the decals say "Armor Road". You would think they would at least get THAT right, wouldn't you?
Anyhow, I called them back about some of these issues -- the gouge, the shackel paint and the "Armor Road" problem with the decals. They said they were sorry and that I needed to have the body shop touch up the gouge in the bumper, to paint the shackels myself with Rustoleum black textured paint, and that they knew they had a decal problem. They said they would ship me some corrected decals when they came in, but no ETA was provided.
Here's the problem I have with their proposed solution -- I paid $3200 for a set of bumpers that were powder coated and clear coated. They are telling me to pay a body shop to use touch up paint to fix it. I also expected black powder coated shackles. I recieved unfinished shackles and was told to go buy some Rustoleum textured paint and paint it myself. Has anybody else had these issues, or am I the first??
On to the rear bumper. Again, no instructions. We inspected the hardware and realized two things -- we had ten bolts and zero nuts, and the cross member between the frame where the hitch connects wasn't going to fit with the new bumper. We learned from the front bumper that it is best to try to call first. This time I was able to reach Mr. Medlock on the second attempt. He informed me that on their "test" truck, they had CUT the factory cross member to allow room for their new hitch. That was simply unacceptable. He mentioned an alternative which we chose -- unbolt the bed and lift it up to allow removal of the factory cross-member. No instructions, simple bolt on bumpers as they mention on their site -- and they say to cut an integral part of the truck out??
One more thing I would like to mention. When I bought these bumpers and the accompanying hitch, I knew that my existing surepull class IV hitch would be replaced with the RA class IV hitch. What I didn't know was that the cross member would be removed and that the hitch would bolt directly to the frame. I've seen some aftermarket hitches that require the removal of the cross member and bolt to the frame -- But EVERY one of them is a Class V hitch. What gives?
In closing, I just wanted to apologize for the long message and lack of photographs. I took a few pictures during the install but cannot post them until tomorrow. I'm just appauled about one thing -- They claim that Road Armor (or should I say 'Armor Road') is "The Only Bumper Backed by a LIFETIME GUARANTEE!!" but yet they tell me to fix it myself when it arrives damaged and not to spec.
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