I am not as big a fan of MAD RIVER as I use to be.
Having during my life owned two MR RoyalEX canoes I felt I have alway took care as to the royalex and gunnels each year.
To make a long story short: MR WONT HONOR YOUR ROYALEX BOATS EVEN IF YOU COMPLY ‘WORD FOR WORD’ WITH the care manual!
Each fall about OCT; I unscrew the 8 required screws and losen all the inside gunnels screw EXACTLY as it says in the MR Manual to ALLOW for cold constriction of the material when the temps dip low. I store my boat in a semi heated garage where the TEMPS DO NOT FREEZE AND THE GARAGE IS NOT OPENED AS WELL AS HAVING A HEATING DUCT RUN ALONG NEXT TO THE CANOE AS IT SITS ON SAW HORSES.
I know the garage doesnt freeze because I also build birch bark canoes in there and i use WATER CONSTANTLY TO KEEP THE BARK MOIST SO IT IS MORE PLIABLE TO WORK WITH…at last observation water freezes at 32 degrees (?) am i correct?
In other words when a COMPANY SUCH AS MR STATES IN THEIR WARRENTY PACKET EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DO TO COMPLY WITH THE MATHERIAL…AND YOU DO IT JUST LIKE THEY SAY…BUT THE MATERIAL STILL CRACKED AND MAD RIVER WILL NOT COMPLY WITH THE WARRENTY. I figured when i buy a product especially an $1300.00 canoe that if i take care of it the way they say to and it still cracks, I dont feel it is MY FAULT. Anyway, MR did pay to have the local dealer patch it with kevlar which they did a great job, but its still the point of the whole warrenty issue. If they are not going to replace it then CHANGE THE WARRENTY AND THE WORDING AS TO NOT MISLEAD PEOPLE THAT YOU WILL BACKUP YOUR PRODUCT WHEN IN FACT YOU DONT.
I talked with the MR Rep and it took them 6 weeks to make a descision! He said its really not MR’s call but the supplier of the RoyalEx.
Anyway, just to let any of you POTENTIAL FUTURE MR ROYALEX CANOE BUYERS TO BEWARE THAT EVEN THOUGH IT SAYS IN THE WARRENTY PACKET THEY WILL REPLACE THE DAMGAGED CRACKED CANOE IF YOU FOLLOW WITH THE WARRENTY PROCEDURES …THEY WONT!!!
SO WHEN YOUR DEALER SAYS 'THEY WILL BLAH BLAH BLAH WARRENTY" TELL HIM ITS NOT TRUE.
RECONSIDER PURCHASING A DAGGER OR OTHER ROYALEX CANOE.
NM
MR
There are current and former shop owners here who may know better, but MR blaming Uniroyal sounds like a cop-out. Uniroyal didn’t warranty your boat purchase, MR did. If MR is having issues with Uniroyal, that is their issue, not yours. You’ve got their written contract, and you have abided by it, they should too.
Unfortunately, if you have accepted repairs it’s probably too late to do anything about it, because I believe repairs can be legally defined as a settlement. Probably best to refuse repairs in the future until you investigate all your legal avenues. I would have at least filed complaint with the pertinent Attorney General’s office and the FTC. BBB can work, but I find it’s usually a waste of time (no investigation into stories, no enforcement).
ch ch ch changes…
Mad River is not the same company THEY were ten years ago either. Since the merger with Confluence and the movement of the manufacturing facilty to the southeast, there are noticeable differences in the level of customer service and manufacturing attention to detail. Someone I know literally had to wait for THREE MONTHS for them to get around to shipping out a pair of wood decks for a restoration job, even though the decks were for one of the most popular models. Another acquaintance had a four month lead time on ordering a Rx Explorer with wood trim - not exactly an exotic add-on to a stock Royalex hull.
It would appear that the Mad River line is dying, unfortunately - with the acquisition of Perception and Dagger, no doubt MR will get pushed even further down the Confluence food chain. They already have crappy poly canoes in the big boxes; look for more focus on that end of their business and less on well-built high performance hulls. Pity.