Yukon hubs and Off Road Designs customer service problem.

[WARWAG]

Today was a very disappointing day for me. As you all know I spent some serious coin and picked up everything I needed to rebuild my Dana 60 King Pin axle. $1200 on parts and about $600 on labor and I had all new bearings seals king pins stage 8 lock nuts, 35 spline Yukon Chromolly Axles and there super stout Yukon Chromolly selectable hubs. I wanted the best so I paid for it. I ordered everything from Off Road Design and they were a one stop shop.

Last week I took my beautiful wife out for a quick run in the desert. I engaged my Yukon selectable hubs. All was right in the world. After only a few hours out in the desert we head home. This was pretty much a 2wd trail with a small slope of gravelly incline. That's when I locked the hubs. Not a big deal. Back at the main road I unlocked the hubs. HHmmmm. That's when my problems began. There was no longer that "Detent" click when they go into "FREE". I head home. 15 minutes later I pull into the drive and expect that they locked back into free. NOPE. still flopping around (the select dial can roate freely loosey goosey). I back up pull forward ect ect no locky, nothing. The next morning I roll into my mechanics shop. An hour later he cant figure out whats going on. When we jack up the wheel and spin it the tabs engage. BUT we notice that one side even though its in "FREE" the axle is still locked. He can see the spring doesn't have enough force and that sometimes the spring after we rotate the wheel gets cocked sideways in the hub. Since he didn't provide the parts I pay him his hourly rate of $85. I call Yukon.

Yukon has me take a few pics of the detents. 4 days later I get a call from Yukon (today) and the detents are good. So I head back down to my mechanics shop. 3 hours later and two Yukon reps later they all agree the selectable hubs are the correct one but want me to mic everything to see if there is a defect. Im now looking at 3 more hours of labor at $85 an hour and they want me to mic all this stuff? The other option is to send them the hubs after I call Off Road Design and get and Return Authorization Number. I explain this is my only vehicle and don't feel like driving it without hubs. They cant do anything about that. (Im not getting that good customer service vib about now) OK so I place a call to Off Road Design.

Now Off Road Design I feel will step up and help me out. Ive spent THOUSANDS of dollars MANY times with them. **** Im even getting ready to order there Magnum box and newly rebuilt NP205 from them. So I spend about 20 minutes on hold which was ok as she said it would take awhile. I get "Chris". Chris also wants me to Mic everything. Im sure he called Yukon or Randys Ring and Pinion as he placed me on hold for a bit. He says he can send me a new set of hubs but I need to pay for them and that if Yukon cant find anything wrong on there end then I would be stuck with the bill. Now I have been told by this point that these are great hubs and they have almost NO problems with them. Im sure they are correct. They are a SUPER STRONG HUB. But Im having problems with them and they are assembled correctly (more than 3 times now). My mechanic even played around with them and found the best combo for them to kinda work was with the spacer up front. Of course Yukon said the spacer needs to go to the rear which is not a big deal except they don't work that way. Im not sure what happened to customer service but if a product you sold me does not work and I complain about it the least thing you should do is send me a new set of hubs. Everyone agrees these are the correct hubs. Yukon said there might be some burrs in the teeth keeping them from free popping in place. But that's a guess. So Yukon wont help me and ORD wont help me without me paying another $335 for another set of hubs. Whos to say when Yukon gets them they wont say everything is fine? and now im into a set of hubs for $670 bucks Plus what my mechanic is going to get to reinstall them plus this another 3 hours for today? That would add up to about $425+$670=$1095 for a set of hubs. That to me is unacceptable! So my Mechanic steps up and and offers to swap out a new set of Warn 35 spline super hubs. He will play around with the Yukon hubs and find a combination that works out. So He swaps them in and they work perfectly.

Conclusion. I feel that Yukon (Randy's Ring and Pinion) as well as Off Road Design pretty much left me out high and dry. Im not exactly happy that I don't have these so called super heavy duty ultra stout selectable hubs. But the Warns work without any headaches. So you decide for your self if you want to take a chance. Will they back up what they sell? I don't feel they did for me. I would suggest though that you have your shop order everything. That puts the burden on them at least. Everything I ordered from Off Road Design was directly ordered from Yukon. EVERYTHING. I ordered the best that was available. I paid for the best. But I did not receive that in turn when there product did not live up to its reputation.

NOTE: I have pretty much always praised Off Road Designs for there customer service. All you need to do is read any of my posts (except this one).

 

[sschaefer3]

I have Yukon 35 spline inner and outer, I had to shave the inner down to get it through the knuckle. U-Joint is a Bobby Long Super Joint and I went with Warn 35 spline hubs.

I have not had an isses with the Bobby Long or Warn parts, but like I said, I had to shave down the Yukon stuff. I saw those new hubs, they look neat.

ORD is a re-seller for Yukon, Yukon needs to make this right for you.


Amazon takes returns.

http://www.amazon.com/WARN-62672-Premium-Manual-Hubs/dp/B000CQDQTO

Just saying................

 

[Skinny]

Sorry to hear that!

I cannot stand to hear about poor customer service and businesses need to be smarter than that in this electronic day and age. For one, I agree your mechanic should not be doing work for free regardless of the part quality...the man needs to get paid. The dealer or parts manufacturer should be stepping up. If you have done business with ORD and they aren't going to help as a retailer, then I think they just showed you that you can spend money at a competing Chevy shop. Don't get me wrong, I like ORD, bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff from them, the owner has a CUCV, and continue to do business with them. When a business won't help out, they pretty much show to me that it is time to find another retailer. If Yukon won't stand by the part, return it and buy something else. Warn is a great alternative. Sucks you have to play games but if I were you, I certainly would not want to be out a few hundred bucks on a pair of hubs that don't work.

I hope everything works out in the end!

 

[doghead]

What are you guys running for motors(HP)?

I can't see the stock setup failing with mild use.

 

[WARWAG]

Thanks Skinny. Since I basically swapped the Yukons for his Warn Super hubs Im only out about $170. I agree the Mechanic should not loose money on an Item I brought him to install. Since I have always been honest with my Customer service from ORD when other have bashed them I thought I would be honest about my negative customer service. Im not bashing them as they have excellent products and are indeed an easy one stop shop. Today they showed another side. Maybe he was having a bad day and I just called at the wrong time. Oh well stuff happens and I now have Warn Super Hubs. Now I need to get that Chrome that Warn puts on there hubs and replace it with either Flat Black or OD Green.

 

[WARWAG]

Hi DogHead,
Its true I still have a stock engine. But I now have 37" tires and plan on running some extreme Low Range tranfercases ect. The stock Warn hubs are pretty much garbage and are pretty much the number one fail point when serious 4x4n is done. The second most common fail point would be the skinny 30 spline stock stub axles. Again if your running stock tires then all would probably be just fine. My next upgrade will be a built 700R4 and an extreme low range underdrive as well as a Banks sidewinder set up. I may however decide to go with just a Lo-Max NP205 and forget about the Magnum underdrive.

 

[Cucvnut]

War Lowmax is bad ass stuff!

 

[WARWAG]

Yah Cucvnut,
I think I may just go with a 3:1 transfer case VS 5:44. I really don't need to go that low. I just wanted my rig to have it "just in case I ever needed it".

 

[sschaefer3]

Maybe all these pictures will help you. They seem to work for these folks, but some of them did bring up some issues as well.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...85-yukon-hardcore-locking-hubs-install-5.html

 

[WARWAG]

Thanks SSCHAEFER3,
Yes those are all of the problems I had (except mine would assemble without any hangups.) Reading those posts really chaps my hide since ALL I HEARD from YUKON (Jeff and Dale) and ORD (Chris) was how good these hubs are and how they have had very little problems (BS). Reading that thread on Pirate tells a whole different story. I will add to those problems that sometimes even when the hubs are "Unlocked" they are still engaged. Even after we jacked the tire up and spun it stayed locked. Maybe a class action Law Suit will expand there minds and open there ears a bit to what the customers are saying! They KNOW there is a problem. Most likely a batch of bad hubs. Unbelievable!

 

[sschaefer3]

They have an entire process to unlock the hubs, put it in 2WD, rock the steering wheel, then turn the dial and shake the tire. Really? That is lame.

 

[Triple C]

Thanks WARWAG, I don't personally need this information but I know some folk that might. It sounds like Yukon and ORD are definitely two companies to stay away from. Appreciate your candid information.

 

[NDT]

My 2 cents: SOP with defects in almost any industry is get a RMA and send it back. You did not want to do that, so you left the vendors in a bit of a quandary. They offered to assist you with dimensional information. I can promise you, if ORD sent out free replacements for every component that a customer has ruined, they would have gone out of business a long time ago.

Please don't get mad at me, it's just that I have been in manufacturing for a long long time, and 99% of the complaints about products turns out to have something to do with abuse, faulty installation or lack of maintenance. Try to see it from the vendor's perspective. I feel strongly that if you follow the established RMA process, you will get a properly functioning product.

 

[sschaefer3]

It seems to me, that these hubs are not for the average person. They are for the banjo player that some how blows up a Dana 60 axle on a regular basis. In that case the ridiculous procedure for locking and un-locking would be acceptable. But the original poster just wants hubs he does not have to hassle with. I would return them and say not as described, I am not a hard core Pirate4x4 guy and that is who these are for.

Put a note in there, I don't own a banjo, the description is not accurate. Reference the Pirate post.

That being said ORD should have ask if you where a "hard core" wheeler and if you said no, not sold them to you, and if you said yes, told you this is the answer to Dana 60 destruction.

 

[Skinny]

Wait! When is it acceptable to sell a simple locking hub without a clause like "it requires a stupid procedure other than turning from the lock to unlock position" in order for the product to work?

Return them and get Warn hubs. That is a joke and speaks volumes about the quality control and product reliability.

Yeah, they will hold up to abuse. You just cannot get them to lock and unlock correctly. From where I stand...it sucks at being the one thing it needs to be...a locking hub!!! At that point you may as well just run drive flanges or convert it to 2wd.

 

[sschaefer3]

A-man brother!

 

[Sharecropper]

Ahem..... thats AMEN, not A-man.

 

[WARWAG]

My 2 cents: SOP with defects in almost any industry is get a RMA and send it back. You did not want to do that, so you left the vendors in a bit of a quandary. They offered to assist you with dimensional information. I can promise you, if ORD sent out free replacements for every component that a customer has ruined, they would have gone out of business a long time ago.

Please don't get mad at me, it's just that I have been in manufacturing for a long long time, and 99% of the complaints about products turns out to have something to do with abuse, faulty installation or lack of maintenance. Try to see it from the vendor's perspective. I feel strongly that if you follow the established RMA process, you will get a properly functioning product.

I am definitely not going to get mad at you for your advise. First of all I didnt pay for it. Secondly you have a valid point for most situations and I would agree. The problem is that YUKON Asked my mechanic to keep going through the hubs trying to figure out if they were even the correct ones. After he measured the spacer they determined it was indeed the correct part for that axle. After 3 hours of going back and forth (remember I'm paying my mechanic $85 an hour and they know this) They end up saying well we dont know if these are the correct wheel hubs or if there is a problem with wrong bearings blah blah blah. I tell them there YOUR bearings. Everything was directly ordered from you through ORD to rebuild my DANA 60. They wont cover any mechanic fees and tell me I need to send them back and that I have to call ORD to get an RNA. After more time with ORD I get the same run around as stated earlier. My mechanic offers to eat his time and just swap my hubs with a set of the super Warn hubs and he will work on the Yukon hubs. As stated earlier all that YUKON had to say was MY HUBS are in SPEC and then I would be into a set of hubs for over a $1,000. As it stands I bowed out loosing under $200. ORD and YUKON will now loose my business and maybe someone else s. This is not a bashing of ORD or YUKON. Its fact. As far as doing there unlock procedure I did everything under the sun to try and get them to work properly and so did my mechanic. They were just a defective set which I found out was not Uncommon as they kept telling me. They knew they had problems with these units and that everything I was saying what problems I was having was nothing new to them. In fact everything I told was almost verbatim of what everyone who has had issues has been telling them! Look guys. As I said maybe I caught ORD on a bad day. I can accept that and even get over it. But YUKON or Randy's Ring and Pinion Definitely Lied to me. There is no doubt about that. They could care less. I cut my losses and took my mechanic up on his offer as he was at that point pretty ticked off at the run around I was getting with YUKON.


On another note: NDT,
I do not believe a quick trip on pretty much a 2wd two track with the truck hubs being locked in one section qualifies as abuse. I only locked the hubs in as I had NO weight not even my Camper shell in or on the bed that day. Going up a gravelly 2 track road for about a hundred feet is not abuse in fact it was the first and only time I ever locked my hubs since they were installed I left them locked until I made it back to the main road. **** I dont even think we went over 20 mph on that 2 track.

 

[Lebowski]

Well thanks for the post on the Yukons. I was thinking of a set, but now I'll probably stay with my Warn's. I've had 35 spline Warns for 25yrs on my k30 (civvy m1028 equivalent) with 454 and 39" tires. The front is open diff, but I've never had any problems with my Warns. Guess I should listen to the "don't fix what ain't broke" !?
Sorry to hear of all those frustrating problems.

 

[K9Vic]

So why is this ORD fault for a defective part from Yukon?
Yes ORD sold you the hubs, but I do not call Best Buy to trouble shoot my HP Laptop I bought from them; I call HP.

I have and friends have bought some of their custom made parts and had no issues with fit. My friend installed the high clearance engine crossmember and was a perfect fit, but took a little manipulation to get the last bolt on. Nothing a pry bar an C-Clap did not fix. Likely the frame had some tweak as it was a aggressive off-road K5, but did not need any customizing. I installed on my Suburban the steering gear box brace and it was a simple install and will likely add the engine crossmember soon as well.

So I am saying from personal experiences that ORD has good custom made parts, but I do not see how they can control the quality of over the counter parts like Yukon hubs.