sschaefer3

Yes, even Marlin measured with the crawler in my truck. Then you just re-tube, reuse the ones you have now.

Albuquerque Jim

Yeah, look at the bright side, we got to hang out with "The Cheese" and this should give Caskey the time to get everything perfect.

Aurora Sandman

And I guess in your world no one takes responsibility for their actions -- they just tell others to stop whining. I'm sorry, but I fundamentally disagree. I'm not sure your point, Steve, because I'm sure you treat YOUR customers better that this.

Aurora Sandman

To elaborate, I can't imagine that if I arranged to get a custom bumper from you 4 months in advanced, pre-paid 75%, then drove out to Tempe (with my daily driver, mind you), then flew home, leaving my rig there for a month, then flew back to pick it up, that I'd have to wait around for over a week for you to complete the job because, while I was gone, you took on a bunch of other work, neglecting my truck. That'd be piss poor, whether it be you or ORS.

Aurora Sandman

I should add to this that I also told ORS when I dropped off the truck that I needed it back within two days because I had arranged with a friend to replace my ripped CV boot the evening of the second day (just prior to my friend leaving on vacation). ORS gave me no head's up that they had delayed the start of the work, and they didn't provide me the option to take the truck back to do the CV work and return it at a later date. I didn't find out from them that I had a problem until the afternoon of the 2nd day, at which point they had just begun to work on the truck, so I didn't have the option of temporarily taking it back.

Call me a whiner, but I expect the courtesy of being kept up to date when my job is being "bumped," especially when I tell the vendor that I have a deadline I need them to meet. Adrian's situation is similar. This is just really bad customer service.

Flygtenstein

I am back in the land of Cheese.

My rig is not.

My folks got a new puppy who has taken fancy to chomping onto my goatee and not letting go.

I will try to upload some pics and see how far I get, I also need to get some other things shipped and make arrangements for things I did not get done today since I was in the air.

The modern art is gone, as are most traces of me being around.

Last I checked, the crawler was leaking at the output bearing retainer, a part Marlin pre-assembled, so that is on his dime.

For the sake of needless slander, I will say nothing more than I already have. ORS is making all attempts to do things right by me, I have faith things will look basically stock except for a few new levers and such.

Again, thanks to the Brown's for being such excellent hosts and thanks to Caskey for deciding there was a time to make a terminal call on this.

I promise a complete, or fairly so, account of this. All will be made well and this is thankfully a moderate nuisance for the time being. ORS does competent work and Mike is a capable and expert wrench.

Where else are you going to go?

Aurora Sandman

What's that mean?

Flygtenstein

More thoughts.

Jim, I was truly impressed how your rig worked. You were driving well with the stick and just need some more armor and gears to follow Steve and Steve up RockChucker.

I appreciate the defense, enthusiasm and agreement with my state of affairs at the moment, but I would like to avoid a full account until the story is over. I would feel much more comfortable if well all kept it under our hats.

Flygtenstein

I mean I snagged the axle and my gear so it is not just all sitting at your place. I envisioned a lengthy pain in the butt getting the axle, etc. out of the way, but thankfully you and Caskey were accomodating.

Aurora Sandman

Oh, oh, oh. Okay, I understand. Let me translate for everyone else: Adrian bought a solid front axle from a guy when he was out here and had it in my driveway for a couple of days. His plan was to carry it home on his roof. But it turned out to be too heavy, so we were a little perplexed as to what to do with it. (Plus, he didn't have a truck.) However, Adrian arranged for ORS to pick it up, and for the time being, they're holding onto it for him.

On the topic of "needless slander," if the bottom line is, "where else are we going to go," I do find that really unsatisfying. Maybe that's the reality, but it is unsatisfying. And the reality also is, for some things, there are other shops available to do the work. I'm not black listing ORS. But hopefully the next customer can be aware of what sort of experience they might be in for. ORS does a lot of things right, but they need to get their act together in respect to how they schedule jobs. I'm not really pessimistic that they can't get things under control. But your sitution is that you're suffering for bad decisions they made in early May. Hopefully this is an episode which will motivate them to make a change.

Albuquerque Jim

Thanks for the props Adrian, I can't wait to wheel with you and your "new" rig.

And as far as the ORS stuff, you seem to have mastered the perspective of "great things come to those who wait". Way to keep cool, it will pay off.

sschaefer3

I told you..................................


Brown, you have not done enough mods to understand the way the 4X world ticks.


I do indeed do what I say, but I'm probably the only one. I guess I have had so many of these ordeals now, I just expect an ordeal going in.

Now that Marlin is in the soup, it's really gonna bog down.



Where else are you going to go?

Flygtenstein

My only concern is someone reading part of this and never hearing the end, so they pass an unfortunately wrong judgment.

Mike, I appreciate and acknowledge your thoughts on this, most are on the mark. I just want to have the whole story narrated in one place when it is complete so those who may find themselves in my shoes can make the right choices.

He now has theorhetically infinite time to make it perfect and I trust it will be done as such.

Steve, it is not leaking from where you said, I thought the same thing though.

My pics are coming off the camera slowly, but posting them to Monty is taking a while with dial-up.

Aurora Sandman

My luck has been better, but I won't dismiss your experience. Poor Adrain, though. He really bent over backwards to prevent an ordeal.

I've encountered bottlenecks, but not so much guys juggling jobs and not keeping me informed as to what's going on. I actually sense Caskey might be a little overwhelmed at this point in the life of his business. Hopefully he'll get through it. Being a skilled mechanic and running a business require two different set of skills. I actually empathize with the guy, because, being a software developer, I know what it's like to do custom work and not really know for sure how long it's going to take. You just needs to keep the channels of communication open, say "no" to new work when you need to, and not procrastinate getting things started. I'm sure Caskey feels terrible. Shoot, he spent his whole holiday weekend trying to figure out why the truck wouldn't start!

Aurora Sandman

We can delete the posts, if necessary. But this is indeed where it stands right now. And regardless of where it all falls out, ORS did miss a deadline, big time. And it did screw with your vacation and did majorly inconvenience you. If you really feel we should nuke these posts, give me a call at home tonight and we can discuss it.

SteveO

Schaefer, I gotta disagree with that one. It doesn't matter who does the mods, its the fact that customer service is lacking BIG TIME. I stated to Caskey that I only had so much time, and true to the ORS nature of doing business, they went over that time. Had I known this to be problamatic with Caskey's crew, I would have sat there in the bay and watched them do the work. Had I been told, "we're sorry its taking longer than expected, due to unforseen circumstances", I would have accepted that. But to have no excuse, and then give no excuse, well....that's just lame. On top of that, they don't know how to use a torque wrench.

sschaefer3

dooods-

Lighen up. I KNOW ORS SCREWED UP. I have been screwed myself so many times, Marlin (delayed), Kongs (gears), Rockstomper (everything) ORS (shipped my hub kit very late).



Yes Caskey SCREWED up. Big deal, the guys human.



I did everything I could to prevent the screw ups as well, set appointments called ahead, etc. Still happened.


ALL I'M SAYINGS IS THAT I'M NOT SURPRISED.


Why the heck are you 2 so obsessed about this? It's not the end of the world. Or is it?

sschaefer3

Where else could he have gone?

If Inchworm made a Tacoma crawler, there would be no doubt what my choise would have been.

BruceTS

I actually got a set of driveshafts from a local salvage yard and had them reworked before I installed my crawlbox. They were a perfect fit....

I guess I'm the fortunate one to have a crawlbox that doesn't leak oil. When I was at Marlin's shop, Dave was getting all the parts together, he asked if it was ok if he could press in a few parts to check clearances, we ended up putting the whole box together. I made sure that the sealer used to put the cases together went on properly. Also I took my time installing the box in my rig, especially putting the supplied seal in the transmission. Even Marlin was surprised that there was no leaks at all, back in January while we were out in Johnson's Valley.

Here's a link to my install;
http://home.earthlink.net/~sundancer...lin/index.html

sschaefer3

This truly is an AWSOME Moab thread.....................

All this info about Moab and the great fun we had there.



I spanked Moab and the Navajo Nation Spanked Me!



77 in a 65, violation of Navajo Tribal Law.