What have you done to your 5th Gen 4Runner today?

Thank you for your service.
Wow! I was also born in Omaha. Around 4yrs old we also moved to Scottsbluff (mid 80's). Then back to Omaha till we moved to Arizona and finally back here. Now I am almost 40 & own a business so I am here for a while longer!
It was 1° this morning & 26° now. Snow coming next two days... You have any extra room? Lol
Ryan

 

There are times I miss seeing snow, ok I’ve had enough...lol.

Got two empty rooms, come on..

Nope still got family in Bridgeport and scattered relatives out in eastern part of the state.

 

Hey Backwoods did you ever order that filler plate? I think I’m going to order it in the mourning. Just wanted to see if you had it or not, thanks.

 

Still can't believe what a hassle this has been for you. Did you ever get a reply from @victoryrunner or anyone from Victory?

 

No I didn't yet... Spent way too much money the last couple months and trying to recoup a little first. It'll likely be a couple more weeks before I order it.

So you'll likely get yours first if you order tomorrow. Keep us updated!!

 

Not a word.

 

That’s bad business, guess my money (eventually) will be going to other companies

 

I just reached out to our tech support team to look for your e-mail. It may have gotten trapped in a spam filter, we do our best to reply to everyone in 24 hours. Sorry if we missed this one!

Our aluminum products are prepped the same whether we powder coat them in-house or ship them out bare. Which is with many of the welds ground smooth and then a DA finish over those. We don't need to DA the whole part to coat these, so that is why you see two surface finishes on there. I can't see from your photo if there are scratches that are too deep for a coating that were missed by QC, but you can certainly discuss that with our tech support team. Because of our design, we can't really leave the raw aluminum surface, and polishing after sanding would be a more expensive step than powder coating. Our $80 aluminum upcharge on that skid really just covers material cost, the extra equipment and tooling we need for aluminum, and extra fab time. Sorry if that wasn't clear on the website, that's on us. We really expect these products to have some kind of coating put on them by us or the end-user. We will do our best to add that information ASAP. That said, that's a nice finish you have on there now, and what you paid for is seems very fair.

If you aren't 100% happy, please bring it up to tech support and they will do their best to figure out a resolution. Sorry for any hassles or misunderstanding!

 

Aluminum will oxidize without upkeep or a coating on it. It's why you sometimes see the oxide layer on old wheels where they are missing clear coat. You can either keep it polished or put some sort of finish on it to keep it from happening.

 

You can reach them pretty easily from the top. Clip nuts don't work great on the thicker material and they space the access plate down the thickness of the clip. Rivnuts are a good option, but be really careful with them in aluminum. If they ever spin in the holes it's going to be a BEAR to get the bolts out.

 

Getting ready to drive back to Austin from Houston. 16.6mpg Not bad ha ha

 

popped out the map light/crawl control ceiling console to access the map light socket that i accidentally pushed up. it was very easy to drop the selector, unhook the plug and then pull the rest of the console down. good thing is that the map light sockets are only held in by tabs with a quarter turn, so the socket actually twisted and popped up instead of being broken like i had originally thought. put the bulb in, which still required some force, then reseated the socket in its housing. pushed the console back in and reconnected the selector. took less than 10 minutes. interior led swap complete!

 

I’m done, you dropped the ball, i have been working on this since i got it. I took it to a powder coat shop, and they said the grind gouging would show, but they could sand blast it. I did not have the money for that, so i took care of it myself. Bottom line is it should not have left the shop in that condition.

 

You're done in that you won't accept customer service or a resolution from us?

 

At this point i do not know what kind of resolution there could be? I am not here to see you lose money on your product, i just wanted a decent product for my money, and i now have that. Let’s just chalk it up to a learning experience for us both.

 

What we can do is apologize for it not being clear on our website what bare aluminum meant and offer you something for that hassle. It's not losing money, it's remedying a situation for you and for future customers.

Anyway, Chris here in CS sent you an e-mail back this morning.

 

I might be missing something here, but isn't that a skid plate? As in, something that will get scratched and beat up if used as intended? And it was ordered with a bare metal finish?

 

O.k. Apology accepted, as far as bare aluminum goes, i understand the meaning, it does not include frankenstein grinding, what it does include is ready for powder coating or finish of my choice. The way to remedy it is quality control.

 

Your not missing anything, i would prefer to make it butt ugly on my own, but thanks.

 

Goes to show people will bitch about anything

 

No, I think bare metal is an absence of finish, which is what you received. That's why it's a cheaper option, so that the buyer can choose their own surface prep and finish.

Typically, part of the cost associated with powdercoating is that they usually do the sandblasting and surface prep in house. That way the metal is as fresh and oxidation free as possible before coating.

I agree that Victory can clarify what bare metal means on their website to prevent future confusion, but I don't think this is a quality control issue.

 

There are many companies out there selling aluminum skids. None of them look as horrible as this when they are delivered to the customer. They should have a uniform finish, clean welds, and ready to bolt on as is should the end user choose not to coat them with anything other than a little wax or clear to stop oxidization. Most of us care about how our vehicles look, a hand full of us don't. The "finished" product victory provided is 100% unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. My RCI skids looked great upon delivery, not a single scratch or mark on them. Truth is, if you have to grind a weld smooth, you don't know how to weld to begin with. Especially when it comes to aluminum.

 

With that mindset, every skid, Rock slider, and aftermarket bumper should be accepted despite the look or finish on them.

The first think most people comment on after receiving any type of armor is the finish. Fit and finish are the number one things reviewed on any type of product. People don't expect a beat up "brand new" item just because it's made to be abused. Most people will never really abuse these items.

I only bought front engine skids for easier access to service my 4runner and I'm not alone. Most people with sliders never go off-road at all and only got them as a status symbol, or for looks... Nothing wrong with that... But people shouldn't be scolded or looked down upon for expecting a new item to have a good quality finish, even if it's a raw finish.. raw doesn't mean beat up.



All that said... Again I will say my victory 4x4 skid came looking great, but was powder coated. Though I do think they should explain in their site the shape bare aluminum will arrive in, that shouldn't be something people only find out after receiving their item. They definitely should upload pics so people can see what they're buying.

I also think they should explain when using their skid the radiator skid is no longer useable, and they don't offer an aftermarket replacement.

 

Lots of people blend down welds, especially MIG welds with lots of spatter. The flapwheel marks I see seem to reflect that. What's the point in grinding down material that isn't to clean a weld joint?

This isn't beat up, it's mill-finish sheetmetal that's been hit with a flapwheel (which is the difference in color/appearance). It lacks finish because it's literally a part ready to be finished. Lots of people order parts this way because they want to apply their own paint for easy trail repairs, or they have several other parts that they want the powdercoat to match with. It doesn't mean "we're going to grind the entire part into one color of bare aluminum" because labor costs money and there's no value-add to doing that, especially if the customer will provide their own finish.

I'm not saying that Victory shouldn't have communicated better with their customers. From now on I'll bet that they are very descriptive with what the expectation should be. But I don't think that they need to change their process. It would be like ordering a bumper kit and then complaining that it's not welded together.

 

Clean your material before welding. Most people don't MIG aluminum either. Stick or TIG is the way to go, TIG being the best. If you have lots of spatter, your wire speed is off, temp is off, material was not properly prepped, or a combination of those things. If you fabricate something and have to clean up after the weld, clean the whole product. A little pride in your product goes a very long way. Doesn't matter what it is.

 

Compare.

 

Exactly my point. RCI clearly cares about presentation as they should. Some others seem not to care at all and there is no excuse for it at all. Assuming the end user is going to paint it is just plain stupid. Quite a few people run them as is, no paint, no nothing and they should be able to do that without spending hour after hour prepping their skids. Now, if Victory was half the price, that would be a different story. That's not the case though. Close to the same price point, half the finished quality. Not a good way to run a business.

 

We're arguing that Victory 4x4 is not RCI? They don't have any bare metal photos of their product, and maybe they should so that expectations are clear. I just don't see any indication that they sold a defective product.

 

I agree, my concern is the timeliness of their reply. It should have been a quicker response when a customer has a question or concern over a product

 

We are not arguing they are not RCI We're proving fact. They by far have an inferior product in terms of finish quality and they think that's OK When every other company on the market offers a similar product in the same price range with a significantly better finish, you won't last long. That on top of 3 days to reply to an email............ They just don't get it yet.