Second trailer, still POS

Boatmate trailer on '06 Supra 21v. They were awesome in the beginning after I contacted them about the jig being off when the built the original. They built another one and threw in a spare mount with tire and rim for my trouble. Sad thing is, this trailer is no better than the first one. 3 of the 4 bunks are not welded in the correct location. Contacted them again and they told me they disassembled the first trailer and rejigged it and there was no problems. Bull. Initially they were going to have a local welder fix the second trailer then backed out of that saying there is nothing wrong and I needed to learn how to load a boat.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. Buddy of mine just buys a '99 Supra Launch with a Boatmate trailer a rookie could load that boat because the bunks on dead on against the straits. Guess that's back in the old days when they cared. Now I'm going to be out approximately $500 if I want it fixed.

Boatmate customer care: satisfaction none.

Can you take pictures of yur buddy's trailer that is "perfect" and pictures of your trialer...and send them to Boatmate. Unless you've already done this?

I going too and send them off. My boat's been in the shop for a month getting warranty work and gelcoat repairs done. I have a local guy coming today to give me an estimate. Thing is though Adam, they claim there is nothing wrong and denied the first one had a problem. Right now heres how it works. We load the boat and lock in the bow then hit reverse to center the boat as much as possible which still looks screwed up when it's centered.

Take pics for us Randy. Let me see how and if it my differ from my trailer. I have not had any issues, but I would be happy to snap some pics of mine and take some measurments to see where it is off.
Good luck!

I'm curious to see how it looks on the trailer. I know my boat (22SSV) will load off-center if my trailer is too deep in the water.

I'll get some pics of mine and my buddies if he doesn't mind. I just came back from the dealer and had a welder out there who specialized in trailers. He looked at it and shook his head. The trailer itself is IMO is awesome construction. The bunks however look as if they were just thrown on there and welded down. I've looked at a lot of trailers on the 21v's at the dealer and they all look different. They did have an '07 22SSV Limited there and the trailer was dead nuts on. My dealer claims that Boatmate told them they've done all they are going to do.

Welder only charges $60 an hour. Bad thing is they can spray and clearcoat, but not powdercoat which he said these trailers are. He also said trying to match powdercoat color is difficult, but it's underneath and won't be seen.

Talked to Owen Shelton at Boatmate and told him how nice the 1999 Supra Launch loaded on one of their trailers. He said that they quit putting the bunks that tight against the strakes around '01-'02 because it was wearing out the carpet on the corners and sometimes the if a person wasn't loading it right, it would load on top of the strakes. This is something nobody explained to me and my dealer sure as hell didn't take the initiative to find out. He said the brackets are put on with a jig but could vary a 1/2" or so. If you're off a 1/2" on all bunks, that could make a big difference. The boards are then eyeballed to center and bolted on. He is willing to call the dealer and have them re align the boards to have a somewhat better fit. That was some effort and something that is just going to have to be excepted unless I want to come off the hip with $500.

Unfortunatly thats what can happen when a boat manufacturer doesnt make their own trailers. It's not rocket science, but boatmate is making trailers for different manufacturers and trying to use the same basic trailer and jigging the bunks to the boat manufacturers specs.

Byrd,
There are several good trailer builders out there that don't build boats. DHM, Extreme, Roadrunner, and Zieman all build great trailers. There are also several different levels of quality that most trailer builders offer. I would rather have my boat builder specialize in building boats and my trailer builder specialize in building trailers. But then again some people like to have their boats built by companies who also build bowling pins and pool tables, I guess it's all personal preference. A good boat builder should be able to get outsourcing done with the same quality that they build boats with. It's the dealer's fault if a boat leaves the showroom floor with a bad trailer. Outsourcing is a very good way to run a company and improve overall quality and is a fact of running a business this day and age! Any welding shop should be able to move the bunks around for you for way less than $500.

Red, I respectfully disagree with your statement. IMO, outsourcing does not increase quality, it increases profits at the expense of quality. I will state that CC does the best in quality outsourcing, but not all manufaturers uphold the same level of commitment. For example, a buddy has a 06 Malibu and the bimini is not a very good design, and neither are the boardracks and tower combinations. Each are very well built, but they dont work well together. To change ropes, or rope lengths, for different riders, you need to be 6'feet tall to do so without it being very difficult. When you turn around to pick up a downed rider, it is common for the rope to get caught on the boards in the racks or the racks themselves. This is just one example that shows that outsourcing everything is sometimes not the greatest for quality. I love my buddy's boat, and I would consider buying a Malibu, except for the fact that the accessories dont work well together like they would if it was all done in house. You would have to agree that it would be easier, but not cheaper, to handle issues under one roof instead of phone calls and emails across the country. Plus you have to worry about backorders like my friend did. He bought his boat at the beginning of the summer and it was August when he finally got his boardracks and bimini on his boat.

I think that is the manufacturer's fault for not watching their suppliers close enough. Any company that outsources needs to pay close attention to what that supplier is doing and why. Outsourcing can improve quality since it will let the parent company do what they do best and concentrate on their key element without worrying about the every detail all the way down the line. At my company we outsource everything we can, but in the end if we have problems with our suppliers we let them know and make them make changes since in the end they represent us since it's our name on the product. A company that doesn't watch their suppliers is just asking for trouble. I worked for Walmart Corporate for 5 years before opening my business and learned a great deal at Walmart on how to work with suppliers. Everything that you discuss sounds like poor design and poor supply chain management which all can be worked out if a company actually cares. The problem is that there are a lot of companies that don't see a problem and don't really care because people don't expect any better and dealers and buyers keep putting up with it. Stop buying from XYZ and they will either go broke or fix things.

As far as the trailer goes, a boat company should be able to provide a boat or hull to the trailer builder and get good results. I know that a lot of the innovation we have on boat trailers is not a result of any boat manufacturer, but the result companies like Extreme and Zeiman trying improve their product. Torsion bar suspensions, swing away tongues, tongue actuated disk brakes, LED lighting, etc.. are examples of this.

I agree with Byrd, if a company can be in total control of what goes out the door they can also handle problems down the road quicker and more efficiently. I know that Red gets his feelings hurt because CC outsources most everything, but from what I here is, now that they are in the new factory they will do more things in house ie.bimini tops. The local dealer here has had major issues with finding a bimini top company to gel with the ever changing tower designs and still look like it belongs on a 60k boat. Now maybe that CC is going to build more boats they might have a little more pull with Ramlin as well. CC has good Quality items, just sometimes it looks like it was from somewhere else and it shouldnt, it should look "Factory". It can still be supplied from outside it just needs to be factory installed, so there is no passing the buck, like what happened to dudeman.

(Message edited by woreout on November 08, 2006)

I don't get my feelings hurt, I don't even own a CC. I think Sanger is the best deal out there and CC has the best quality and warranty response. All I am trying to say is that a company should concentrate on what they do best, build boats. They do have complete control over the outsourcing they use, those contracts are worth a lot of money and companies will fight to get them, if you don't produce you shouldn't get the contract. In the end it's up the to the parent company to control quality and then ultimately make the outsourcing company do the same in order to maintain the contract and relationship. It's called good management.

CC has recognized this and totally revamped their supply chain in the new factory. They even had Steve Davidson of Walmart fame come in and help them design the new system which includes strict quality guidelines for their suppliers. From my understanding that is one of the reasons why Bill Yeargin was named president. He supposedly completely turned things around at Rybovich and made quality control along with innovation his key concerns.

While I can see Boatmates point, I don't agree with it. There is play between the strakes and bunks, but on my trailer 2 of the bunks don't even follow the angle of the strakes. I don't believe eyeballing something to center is a really good quality control practice. Then again, there are so many people now the way the sport is growing that lay down serious money on a boat and don't pay attention to any detail or quality what so ever. They have no clue as to what to look for. I believe that is the crowd that Boatmate is producing for. Quality takes longer which in the short run affects profit. I have never been a big advocate of the saying "I don't have time to do it right, but I have time to do it again".

Just got a call from the welder who told me approximately $500 to fix the trailer yesterday. Said it would be $1100. WTF. He'll be getting $0. Guess ripping peeps off is the lay of the land now.

(Message edited by dudeman on November 08, 2006)

dudeman where do you live?

Do you by any chance have a local wakeboard web site? I had issues with an older trailer I used to have and asked on our local website. Come to find out we had a few welders in the area on the board, and fixed my trailer for free.

Winston-Salem, NC area.

There is the EORG that's sort of local. I was thinking also after hearing that estimate that my next door neighbor is the Director of Maintenance for Joe Gibbs NASCAR flight department. I'm sure he knows plenty of welders the way they have to constantly build cars. Would just have to see if they had a lift for the boat or schedule it on a day were I could launch it and give it to them.