74Weld Portal Review

[userdude]

Sounds like they're pushing too hard too fast into too many platforms. Victims of success (seeing a lot of their portals out there) often move too fast before the product's right. I agree, they oughta be paying more attention to what's happening than assuming everything's fine and spreading the issues around at higher numbers.

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[SierraBronco]

Sounds like they're pushing too hard too fast into too many platforms. Victims of success (seeing a lot of their portals out there) often move too fast before the product's right. I agree, they oughta be paying more attention to what's happening than assuming everything's fine and spreading the issues around at higher numbers.

The thing that gets me is “yeah we know those plugs leak but we fixed it going forward and we’ll send you something out to get it correct with your application.”

Then nothing is sent. I’d rather have no response like RPG rather than a promise for the thing and not following through.

 

[ScLeCo]

The thing that gets me is “yeah we know those plugs leak but we fixed it going forward and we’ll send you something out to get it correct with your application.”

Then nothing is sent. I’d rather have no response like RPG rather than a promise for the thing and not following through.

What pisses me off is if they know they leak they should be sending out the fix to EVERYONE.
They should also be giving people a heads up. "Hey we've had reports of oil leaks"
Might have saved me an entire day of clean up.

 

[userdude]

What pisses me off is if they know they leak they should be sending out the fix to EVERYONE.
They should also be giving people a heads up. "Hey we've had reports of oil leaks"
Might have saved me an entire day of clean up.

I feel ya man. It ain't easy being early.

Their IT game ain't great; their website was personally managed by Quinn when I spoke with him, and had multiple issues (not surprising in the main, it's what I do for a living and it's not as easy as many think).

Add to that Quinn is mostly a hype man for his products at this point, out in the field a lot, the other way to resolve it (get on the phone) is time consuming and you have a recipe for overlooking old customers hunting for new ones. Especially when good people are hard to find and train and rely on to follow through on what's kinda drudgery ("Yeah that expensive product you bought has a big flaw but I'm here to help!").

Sometimes I've wondered how much he loses running the machines on portals and steering racks instead of, say, Honda Aerospace contracts. The answer is to slow down (slow is smooth, smooth is fast) but in a sense, they already have your money.

I stopped being an early adopter years ago because canary builds are for the birds. It doesn't go well, but somebody's got to do it on both sides for progress to be made in the middle of growth and not have a pile six months to a year later.

 

[87-Z28]

The answer is to slow down (slow is smooth, smooth is fast) but in a sense, they already have your money.

and invest resources more evenly. Manpower and research to provide adequate solutions for early adopters. It sure seems that very little of these aftermarket parts properly invest in the iterative design and testing cycle just to get products out the door. The early adopters are then put in the design/testing loop which greatly benefits the product development and company bottom line. These companies should reinvest some of their gains back into early adopters.

 

[SierraBronco]

and invest resources more evenly. Manpower and research to provide adequate solutions for early adopters. It sure seems that very little of these aftermarket parts properly invest in the iterative design and testing cycle just to get products out the door. The early adopters are then put in the design/testing loop which greatly benefits the product development and company bottom line. These companies should reinvest some of their gains back into early adopters.

Especially when so much focus is placed on “we test these ourselves, we don’t use our customers for testing.”

Swapped out the oil and added crush washers to the back today. I may not have noticed it as Mrs. Sierra Bronco did a lot of the filling, but these o-rings weren’t even the same. Almost seems like they were just trying to get them out the door and were short on parts?

Rear caliper brackets were still tight.

 

[87-Z28]

Especially when so much focus is placed on “we test these ourselves, we don’t use our customers for testing.”

 

[ScLeCo]

Quinn emailed me today.
They are sending out new bolts and Nord lock washers on Monday.
Allegedly.

 

[SierraBronco]

Quinn emailed me today.
They are sending out new bolts and Nord lock washers on Monday.
Allegedly.

I haz no email. Or voicemail. Or returned call.

But I did have a whole bunch of smoke coming off of my driver portal when I pulled into Hurricane today. Tested temps and everything was fine. Hottest thing was the rotor at ~200F. Smelled like burning oil. I’m confident that it was the old stuff that’s all over the pads, but it appears there might be a leak coming out of the seal from the CV. Can’t remember if I wiped that down or not so I’ll clean it up and verify.

No leaks from any drain or fill ports.

 

[SierraBronco]

I haz no email. Or voicemail. Or returned call.

But I did have a whole bunch of smoke coming off of my driver portal when I pulled into Hurricane today. Tested temps and everything was fine. Hottest thing was the rotor at ~200F. Smelled like burning oil. I’m confident that it was the old stuff that’s all over the pads, but it appears there might be a leak coming out of the seal from the CV. Can’t remember if I wiped that down or not so I’ll clean it up and verify.

No leaks from any drain or fill ports.

Oh-this was from the same corner that had the loose caliper bracket. Coincidence?

 

[ScLeCo]

Oh-this was from the same corner that had the loose caliper bracket. Coincidence?

Quinn said I probably didn't clean out the bolt holes and that's why the red loctite didn't hold and the bolts came lose again. Oh and I used the wrong loctite.
(I did clean them and I did use the right loctite. I also know how to use a torque wrench )

 

[SierraBronco]

Quinn said I probably didn't clean out the bolt holes and that's why the red loctite didn't hold and the bolts came lose again. Oh and I used the wrong loctite.
(I did clean them and I did use the right loctite. I also know how to use a torque wrench )

You didn’t clean out the bolt holes from the bolts they installed at the factory and the end user doesn’t touch at all in any portion of the install? I did not run a tap through the aluminum threads. Nor did I blow them out with compressed air. (If that is what’s being suggested) But I did buy a new 8mm allen and cut it down so it would fit all three bolts with a torque wrench meant for mountain bikes on there. With red loctite.

 

[ScLeCo]

You didn’t clean out the bolt holes from the bolts they installed at the factory and the end user doesn’t touch at all in any portion of the install? I did not run a tap through the aluminum threads. Nor did I blow them out with compressed air. (If that is what’s being suggested) But I did buy a new 8mm allen and cut it down so it would fit all three bolts with a torque wrench meant for mountain bikes on there. With red loctite.

Or the loctite they failed to put on maybe that's the kind I was supposed to use?

 

[pwaicon]

Update on the portals-

Was originally waiting to share this until a solution was confirmed, but it’s been too long and the information needs to be shared with current owners.

We have noticed a leak on our boxes and originally thought it was from the drain plugs. After tearing everything apart to loctite every assembly bolt and caliper bracket, we discovered it was the fill plug. The design they decided to go with is a bit of a let down as it’s just a simple o-ring. Tighten the plug to where it feels sufficient to not back out, and the o-ring squishes out the sides. Loosen it a little and well, it seems inadequate. We tried to find a happy medium between the two and clearly didn’t get it perfect. The rig is washed (primarily underneath) after every outing to make it easier to spot leaks and verify paint marks on bolts, so the pictures only show one day of wheeling.

A call was made to 74Weld and they already knew of the issue and had made a redesign to future batches. Great, but that doesn’t help me or any of the other owners. Asked if they could get some kind of gasket material or crush washers that would seal better and was told they’d send something out. This was maybe two or three weeks ago-still nothing. Decided I’ll just buy some crush washers instead of waiting on them, but wasn’t sure the correct size and the specs aren’t in the instructions. When they call me back with a size I’ll update this post. Figure we’ll just change the oil again when the washers are added. Small price of insurance for a very expensive component.

Was initially very impressed at how quickly they’d respond to any inquiries during the install, but now it’s starting to feel as if communication is less important to them.

I guess it is time for a full inspection again...fingers crossed it's all good. I did tape the threads on both the fill and drain plug when I installed them and when I did the first oil change. I didn't trust the o-rings for the reasons you menttioned. I will say when I changed the oil the first time there were no leaks.

 

[87-Z28]

Sorry, not laughing at you guys. Just the absurdity of this. Wow.

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