This is unbeleiveable, I just got bit by the defective product bug again!!
I just got 14, yes 14, brand new Walthers Goldline Bi-Level Autoracks, and 13 of them have defective trucks, the wheels don’t roll freely. I’ve tried all kinds of lubricants, Labell oil, Teflon Wax (which I use on my other cars and it works great).
Nothing seems to work getting the wheels to roll freely. Only ONE out of 14 seems to roll good.
This is just crazy, everything I buy nodays is defective. What gives?
And these things were expensive, I paid $32 /each.
I know you are not going to like this, but have you checked, whether old Murphy has moved into your house recently?
I see only one way of avoiding the hassle (and the cost) of returning defective products - buy ´em at your LHS and check them thoroughly before paying and taking them home. You may pay a little more, but you are sure to get stuff that works.
I bet, with the amount you are buying, you can negotiate a special discount.
Have you tried The Tool, a truck bearing tuner? It is a special ream sold by Micro Mark, among others, designed to clean and shape the bearing surface inside plastic trucks.
So Micheal, they all roll, just not well? That is pretty much normal for most of us that grew up with Athearn Blue Boxes kits. That why there is what I call the Truck Tuner that Miro Mark sales.
Great tool, and I would bet 80% of the people here has one.
When you get yours, don’t go nuts with it. I install the cutting tip, give it three turns, then flip the tool and do three more turns then test fit the wheel set. If you cut to much (and you do have to work at it to mess up a truck) wheel set will not be centered and will ruin the truck.
I guess the RTR cars that are being made today are a lot better than the kits may of us started with. Or you would have all ready asked how to make cars roll easier.
Micheal, do you have a Kadee Coupler Height Gauge? [swg]
This is one of hazards of buying online but it also could have occurred if the cars were purchased at a LHS. The major difference is that a LHS may have given you some help.
Last week I purchased a ‘new, unopened’ Athearn SD 40 over EBay from Grand Central Hobby in Cranberry Twp, Pennsylvania. I took it out of the box and numerous parts started to fall off and none of the headlights or the beacon light worked. So their solution was to contact Athearn and flle a warranty claim. I buy many things on line and this was the first instance of any kind of problem. I will contact Athearn but I was surprised at the response. I will be thinking twice before I purchase from them again.
I have never ran across a hobby shop that lets you open up the boxes and check items before purchase by putting the items on a test track; especially not rolling stock.
Quite the contrary, a hobby shop in Phoenix, Arizona that I no longer patronize had signs all over the place warning that “Absolutely NO refunds or returns!”
There’s only one hobby shop left in Tucson, Arizona, in an Ace Hardware store. They have no test track and none of the employees are modelers who can answer questions about anything they sell.
But, getting back to the original problem: I have a few Walthers products, and all of them have had to have new trucks installed. Out of the box, they roll like a brick.
I feel for you. You have gotten 7 replies so far and very little, if any, sympathy. Paying nearly $460 for a set of 14 freight cars would seem to require that you get a problem-free product in return.
But, I have to agree with those that replied that, in this day and age, you pretty much have to anticipate that you will have to fine tune what should have already been fine tuned for you by the manufacturer.
From my review of the Walthers web site, you apparently bought a set of $39.98 cars on sale for $32.98 apiece. So, in effect, sale price aside, you were purchasing a $40 freight car. The trucks ought to turn freely. If that proves to be the result of a bad production run, you would have the same problem if you purchased them from your LHS since they would have been purchased from Walthers by your LHS.
Having said that, I concur that you should accept your fate and fix the problem yourself. Buy a Truck Tuner. It is essentially a reamer and that tool is a must for all serious modelers.
You can call Walthers on Monday, and I am confident that they will have you return the faulty cars and replace them with new ones, which may or may not have better running trucks. But that is a lot of hassle. Since Walthers does not carry the Truck Tuner, maybe they would be willing to resolve the problem by crediting your account for the amount of the Truck Tuner, a good solution for both sides.
I too have had the same problem with Walthers trucks on several cars I’ve bought from them. Some were easy to correct but on a couple I changed them out with Athearn trucks. Not an exact fit but they can be made to work.
Yes, the truck tuner is something we all ought to have. But accepting your fate I disagree with. I would definitely call Walthers, explain my problem, and hope that they would send me replacement trucks instead of me sending all the cars back. If you get 13 pairs of trucks back that still don’t roll, then you can try the Tuner.
And why call Walters in the first place? Because if we don’t call them and let them know there are problems and we are disappointed, then they won’t know there’s a problem and will continue to provide the same poor quality items.
I am not discouraging him from contacting Walthers. In fact, my suggestion is to get Walthers to credit him for the purchase of the Truck Tuner. As far as accepting his fate, my point is to get the Truck Tuner and be done with it. Sending back 13 cars or swapping 26 trucks is a lot of hassle. A lot easier to get and use the Truck Tuner and then you have it for the future as well.
They sure do still make metal trucks. I replaced the plastic trucks on a set of Con-Cor passenger cars with metal trucks. Much more reliable and heavier which promotes better tracking.
Micromark says it’s tool-steel, so in theory it would work in metal frames – though if they’re solid metal you might have a hard time getting the tuner inside without deforming the frame…
I know that Kadee’s sprung trucks are all-metal. Quite nice too – not worth the $6 or so per pair for every car… though I have used them on some of my more “high-end” kits.
