Hoarder23's War Wagon build

High of 71 tomorrow with a forecast of jumping off cliffs.

And aren't you coming up here in like a week?

 

Where’s here?

We cancelled the Rubicon trip. Wasn’t in the books for this year. Try again next.

 

Seattle area

 

Oh, yeah! At the end of the month we’ll be up there.

 

Just your weekly reminder that the powder coat from @KB Voodoo is awful. I picked up a set of bed rails from a local member for a pretty price. I wouldn't have bought directly from them as their customer service leaves as much to be desired as the coating on their products. The rails were still sealed in their original shipping box, never opened. The packaging is actually really well done, they've got that right.

Upon opening it the first thing I noticed was what I thought would be printed instructions. Nope, a disclaimer about powder coating be shitty and to rattle can it when it fails.
Not sure how other feel about that but I find it insulting. Instead of actually fixing the problem by upgrading the process they use, they tell you to paint it yourself. And the actual coating they use is the bare minimum to meet the legal definition of powder coat. It's the powder coat equivalent of the 1-ply toilet paper in the Walmart bathroom.

The install is fairly simple. I had to chop a bit of the rail to fit with the @TOTAL CHAOS Bed Stiffeners but that was expected. I used foil tape over the holes in the top of the bedsides to hopefully prevent water from entering with the GFC. I finished last night after dark and all looked good.

This morning while loading the truck I noticed the stress of the sun rising had caused the coating to fail and start peeling. I had noticed scratches last night but I attributed that to not protecting the rails while I performed surgery.

Overall I'm satisfied with how they will work but annoyed I'll have to get them recoated before the GFC gets installed. Anyone know a good PC company in Hanford CA?

 

Are they just bed rails to replace the plastic?

 

Go to walmart and get some single ply, use it as sandpaper for the new paint you gotta throw down

but for reals, thats pretty stupid they include a note, btw we are cheap, and stole your money in the form of powdercoating

 

Yeah, and they are smoother and shorter then the stock set so supposedly provide a better fit for the GFC.

 

Oh I started very incrementally, first OME suspension and armor, then as I my use changed I upgraded to meet that use. That has helped me not have more truck than I would use as is frequently seen by the types that buy all the things then commute to work with a RTT. Buy once, cry once is cool if you know your end goal at the start, otherwise baby steps makes more sense.

I had a conversation this morning with a dude that had just put Kings on his truck and has some hammer hangers awaiting install but says he only plans on taking it down fire roads until his kids are older. They will work great for him but so would the Dobisons kit he just replaced.

 

Oh, I made a spreadsheet once to track expenses and very quickly quit in favor of ignorance. I enjoy it and I've done some fun shit in it.

 

Its pretty sad that they cant get a decent PC on any of their products. Its the reason they are no longer a supported vendor on TW. That notes a complete joke since their PC fails in areas with no damage.

 

The product that you purchased is not what we make today. We haven't included that powder coat note in years. We also haven't made side rail caps from steel in years (they are now aluminum).

We haven't had a legitimate powder coat complaint in over a year.

What you bought is not indicative of what we sell today.

 

Glad you finally fixed your process, too bad it took so long you alienated the largest enthusiast forum for your product.

 

It didn't actually take that long to fix the problem.

The biggest problem is that this forum continues to perpetuate a problem that no longer exists, and hasn't existed in a very long time.

 

Unfortunately the customer decides what they think is a problem, if it was just one buyer it wouldn't make an impact. From what I've seen it's not an uncommon situation and often your responses didn't help, I wouldn't want a coupon for a future purchase if the first one failed to meet what I feel are basic standards.

You were out at the front of a lot of the products you sell and still have some of the better options but your refusal to sell them bare metal or fundamentally change how you PC your stuff soured this forums opinion of you and your products. But I'm just some asshole on the internet and my opinion is worth what you paid for it. Enjoy your weekend.

 

That's exactly what I'm saying. We did fundamentally change everything about our powder coat system and the problem no longer exists, but there you go saying that we didn't change. We went to great lengths to change everything, and it's working beautifully for us.

 

Not sure if this gives you clarity on this but more of my friends have eventually sold their voodoo stuff solely because of the powder coat failure than those that still have them. If you got it used then I believe you paid for what you got fairly, but a new price IMO isn’t worth it with the gauranteed rust show that will come down the road regardless that you either tackle yourself or join the club and sell.

It’s kind of fucked up, but the next guy will be too focused on the deal to probably be bothered about buying it off your hands initially.

 

Oh, the pieces do exactly what I need them to so I'll just get it PC locally

 

Taking advantage of being up near the Sierras to explore the mountains.

First up was Bald Mountain near Shaver Lake. There's a lookout at the top and lots of rocks on the way up.

The lookout is a little spot in this picture.


Aired down at the beginning of the trail

It got fun and steep pretty quickly and plenty of great views


The granite is awesome for crawling, your tires stick no problem and it's easy to get super flexy.


The views from the top are great and I learned that Belle hates stepping on a metal grate.


On the way back down I decided to try out a big boy line. Got my front end over the first rock but couldn't see anything so got out for pictures and to spot myself. I wasn't stuck, I got another foot forward before that happened. Apparently I'm just a medium boy.

Both rear wheels were well off the ground, front passenger was barely touching loose sand and the driver's wheel was just leaving skid marks on the front edge of the rock.

The nice thing about wheeling out here is there are huge trees everywhere, it was easy to pull out the winch and hook up to a tree. I had to be careful pulling out the recovery gear as the whole truck was tippy. As I was setting up the Jeep I shared the lookout with stopped to help out. A straight pull didn't work so had to use the snatch block but eventually pulled myself off the rock and got moving again.

There are several more trails up in the Shaver Lake area and I'll try to check them all out.