Question - RibCraft transom, small crack

[Trolli]

€ 1,1oo on the Q7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YMKw0ThAYU

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by Trolli

€ 1,1oo on the Q7

thats the uber cool version !

[IBWET]

Originally Posted by Trolli

€ 1,1oo on the Q7

Come on Trolli,your either subtly telling us nothing about the 4 mm plates on purpose,or you missed the question, I've the same boat hence the interest...

[IBWET]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

thats the uber cool version !

The wife last week shoved the hatch up when we were having a look at it with various lurches and what looked like too much force..then a salesmen came over pressed a button and shut it ..the same one she should have used to open it.. it's a barge.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Trolli

€ 1,1oo on the Q7

My mate has this fitted to his Porsche Cayenne. It is great for normal towing but when he wants to shift something heavy he uses his old Land Rover with a proper hitch.

I never paid much attention to it before but seeing that video it does look very flimsy if there are going to be any sideways loads.

[RAZZER]

Trollis boat was ordered as long transom he took the boat away and then decided to buy an extra long engine so his alloy is a bxxxe (sorry Trolli)to bring the transom height back upto extra long...
Not a factory approved mod.
The boat is now back with us for adjustment to be extra long without the use of any alloy plates
Enough said

[Trolli]

Originally Posted by RAZZER

Trollis boat was ordered as long transom he took the boat away and then decided to buy an extra long engine so his alloy is a bxxxe (sorry Trolli)to bring the transom height back upto extra long...
Not a factory approved mod.
The boat is now back with us for adjustment to be extra long without the use of any alloy plates
Enough said

That`s it! THX!

[quaoar]

Been in talk with several companies about repairing the rib.

Total cost for repair and strengthening is estimated to about 3100-3200 GBP.
This price includes:
- removal and fitting of the engine and A-frame
- removal and fitting of the tubes at the transom-part
- grinding down and building up the transom
- increasing the size of the knees so that they reach higher up on the transom thus making it almost impossible for the transom to flex.


As for the trolli-posts.
I do not see the relevance to this thread. I have a damaged transom, the boat in the photos is supposed to not have a damaged transom...
IMO:
Judging from the photos, the transom/boat was never hit. Seems like the engine was hit sideways and the energy from the contact dispersed in the engine turning at the point where outboard engines are supposed to turn. If the turning motion of the engine had in fact damaged the transom, it would imply that the transom would be weak to forces created from engine turning at high speeds.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by quaoar

Total cost for repair and strengthening is estimated to about 3100-3200 GBP. This price includes...increasing the size of the knees...making it almost impossible for the transom to flex

As no-one 'knows' the facts of how all this came about on your boat I guess I'm curious as to why you're paying someone a shed load of money for "strengthening" to make it "almost impossible for the transom to flex". Everything used on a RIB (or any other boat or a car or a plane) flexes, it's just a question of by how much and is it allowed for in the engineering.

The transom will 'flex' if the boat falls off its trailer on the slipway or if the boat is hit up the rear by a cross channel ferry. These are called 'accidents' and are quite likely outside the engineering specification of any RIB, regardless of the manufacturer.

The transom will also 'flex' with (amongst other things) outboard motor torque reversal and such as this will be catered for within the engineering specification.

Why are you assuming that operation of the boat within its design parameters must have cracked the transom and that you therefore have to pay to uplift the engineering specification?

[slimtim]

I'm inclined to agree. If the transom is repaired back to its orginal state, it shouldn't need additional strengthening (given that the fault is a result of overly keen angle grinding and not poor design/build?). You could also save a bit of money by removing the a-frame and engine yourself (should be cheap to hire an engine hoist/crane) and perhaps carefully removing the flaps of hypalon from around the transom.

Surely for less than £3000 you could bring the RIB back to ribcraft, although I guess its a lot of hassle for you.

[chewy]

Originally Posted by slimtim

I'm inclined to agree. If the transom is repaired back to its orginal state, it shouldn't need additional strengthening (given that the fault is a result of overly keen angle grinding and not poor design/build?). You could also save a bit of money by removing the a-frame and engine yourself (should be cheap to hire an engine hoist/crane) and perhaps carefully removing the flaps of hypalon from around the transom.

Surely for less than £3000 you could bring the RIB back to ribcraft, although I guess its a lot of hassle for you.

I'm sure if you bung Roguewave a couple of grand he'd bring it back!

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by quaoar

Been in talk with several companies about repairing the rib.

Total cost for repair and strengthening is estimated to about 3100-3200 GBP.
This price includes:
- removal and fitting of the engine and A-frame
- removal and fitting of the tubes at the transom-part
- grinding down and building up the transom
- increasing the size of the knees so that they reach higher up on the transom thus making it almost impossible for the transom to flex.

I know it seems a lot .. but I think for a proper job, it was always going to cost more than your original quotes. Is one of these quotes from Rib Craft ?

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by codprawn

I never paid much attention to it before but seeing that video it does look very flimsy if there are going to be any sideways loads.

I can assure you the hitch is good .. but I've never off roaded with it , and IMO, anyone doing so with a Cayenne, X5 or Q7 wants their head examined anyway .. without a trailer,..... let alone with one

For that you want a ring, and clevis .. a 50 mm ball was never designed for that sort of articulation

and .. man... that Porsche 'soft' roader is ugly

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

I can assure you the hitch is good .. but I've never off roaded with it , and IMO, anyone doing so with a Cayenne, X5 or Q7 wants their head examined anyway .. without a trailer,..... let alone with one

For that you want a ring, and clevis .. a 50 mm ball was never designed for that sort of articulation

and .. man... that Porsche 'soft' roader is ugly

I agree - it IS quite nice to drive but it is more of a jacked up estate car than anything else. The tyres are huge - great on sand but crap in snow or mud.

My mate goes to Austria several times a year and has now invested in much thinner snow tyres - he was shocked when an old Citreon 2CV stormed past him on a slight slope - all his 4 wheels were spinning and the 2CV didn't even have chains!!!

His pride and joy is his rebuilt LR 90 - he does use that for serious work - shunting artics around his yard etc. Also recovering them when we had snow. Got a proper NATO hitch on it as well.

[quaoar]

Last update to this thread.
Had the boat on water for the last month. It's quite good. Been on some fairly long trips, 200 to 400 miles, in various weather. I must admit that I really enjoy boating with RIBs.

To conclude the problems with the transom...
Service/support from RibCraft was non existent.
I asked for advice on how the repair could/should be done - got no response. Since this -clearly- is a badly done construction (of the transom), IMO it should have been under warranty. I suggested that RibCraft could cover the equivalent of what the cost would have been in man hours at their facility. No response.
The last response from RibCraft was quite bold - calling my statement regarding the transom untrue. Reason being, and I quote RibCraft:
"... we put more material around the transom than most other manufactures".
My response was that the statement was not mine, but made by representatives from two separate companies. One of the representatives being the most experienced person in Norway building / repairing plastic (glassfiber) boats.
RibCraft probably have years of experience building RIBs, but that still doesn't exclude the possibility of learning something new - especially when it comes from companies with (evidently more) experience in boat construction.
To RibCraft : It's not a matter of how much material you use, but how you use it...
Right now I probably have the RibCraft boat with the sturdiest constructed transom in existence

The result of this is that I'm not going to recommend RibCraft to anyone else in Norway. I will not consider RibCraft RIBs again. And as I write this, I'm having drawings made for my next RIB (I "need" a larger one) and hopefully, when I go to England later this summer, I'll be able to visit another RIB manufacturer (one which also begins with an "R") to talk about the new RIB...


Included one image from the last trip. Location is Kya lighthouse in Norway ( http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=64.46...4167,10.211944 )

[jace]

Hi
I'm sorry you thought that the Support was non existent, I offered to repair the boat Free of Charge as an act of Goodwill if you returned the boat to the factory.

As for the actual transom construction, we've already discussed this and as explained, this problem is extremely rare and not a common problem with our boats at all. In fact a manufacturer you named in your e-mail who you think build a more solid transom than us, perhaps you should tell the chap who's has two Outboards at the bottom of the sea after 10 hours of use on a new boat! I hope the owner will post it on here..

The final correspondence you basically gave me a bill for £3000 to make you a happy owner and not post any more about this issue, I don't like being blackmailed! I've already offered to repair the boat free of charge whether it was a manufacturing fault, damage or whatever had gone wrong, we even offered to pick it up from the port. It's not my fault that you bought a used boat from a private customer over the Internet without viewing her first, it’s also not my fault that the boat was privately exported to Norway.

Jason

[bedajim]

Originally Posted by jace

Hi
I'm sorry you thought that the Support was non existent, I offered to repair the boat Free of Charge as an act of Goodwill if you returned the boat to the factory.

As for the actual transom construction, we've already discussed this and as explained, this problem is extremely rare and not a common problem with our boats at all. In fact a manufacturer you named in your e-mail who you think build a more solid transom than us, perhaps you should tell the chap who's has two Outboards at the bottom of the sea after 10 hours of use on a new boat! I hope the owner will post it on here..

The final correspondence you basically gave me a bill for £3000 to make you a happy owner and not post any more about this issue, I don't like being blackmailed! I've already offered to repair the boat free of charge whether it was a manufacturing fault, damage or whatever had gone wrong, we even offered to pick it up from the port. It's not my fault that you bought a used boat from a private customer over the Internet without viewing her first, it’s also not my fault that the boat was privately exported to Norway.

Jason

[PeterM]

Having re-read the whole thread again I am going to come off the fence and say there are always 2 sides to every story & I'm glad to have been able to read both.

I think that if you buy a used boat there is always the risk you are buying into an unknown. (especially if you have never seen it !). If you want full factory / builder support - pay the price & buy new,knowing that you will be able to have any problems fixed if they crop up. (which I understand to be very rare on these boats anyway)

I have only ever heard very very good things about RIBCRAFT build & service, but guess what one person may see as fair - another will see as unfair. An offer to fix the problem if the boat is returned seems fair to me anyway.

The owner seemed to change from 'I dont expect RIBCRAFT to do anything' to feeling they should pick it up fix it & return it - all for no cost on what seems to be a 4 year old boat - all because the owner (by his own admission) didn't bother going to look at it himself or apparantly getting any kind of proper survey. God knows why RC should feel they should fix this for him - but to thier credit they did , but even that wasn't enough !

[chewy]

How long are the hulls guaranteed for?
The response from Jace seems more than fare.

[IBWET]

I've had one or two issues with Ribcraft re communications,however people like me anyway, will put up with trivia like that if the the product is good; after two and a half years of use and constantly looking at how other boats are made, (including the manufacturer eluded to by the bloke with the problem) and in my view I absolutely bought the right boat made by the right people and I'm annoyingly picky...

I think Ribcraft were more than fare.