SnapOn adds insult to injury

[Chris Adams]

Short rant that I would give to a SnapOn guy, if I had one;

Today my slides came in for the 4114 box I just refurbished. One set of slides as the others were rebuildable.

Took a week, but that's normal.
Paid 26 bucks, but heck, no warranty on SnapOn so that's normal.

Put the slides in, slid the drawer in, I hear the tinkle of falling ball bearings when the drawer was in halfway.
Pulled the drawer out, the cage had fallen in. Inspected the cage (something I didn't do, it was a NEW slide, after-all...
The cage was bent in at one end, the back end. Of the 32 bearings 6 were missing. Upon inspection of the shipping box I found one of the missing balls, under the paper. It had 'leaked' out of the plastic bag, which wasn't sealed.
Another was in the plastic bag, I missed it when I pulled the slides out.

Great, I had to bend the cage straight, and use 4 of the old bearings to make it work.

Quality control? What's that?

[Diesel_Crawler]

Or They used your slides you hit there nerf ball around the post office.

[Chris Adams]

Or They used your slides you hit there nerf ball around the post office.

Box was perfect. No, the cage in the slide was BENT.
It has the slide around it, the drawer insert slid it.
You could kick it across a football field, wouldn't loss a bearing, unless you opened the bag and pulled it out.

The cage must have been bent before being put in the bag.
Nothing else would be possible.

Someone in Taiwan must have pulled the center out, bent it a little, then shoved it back in, ignoring or not seeing the bearings fall into the bag. Then in shipping 5 bearings must have migrated out of the bag, the 1 I found, and the missing four.

[Merkava_4]

Someone in Taiwan must have pulled the center out, bent it a little, then shoved it back in, ignoring or not seeing the bearings fall into the bag.

Do they say 'Taiwan' on them? Because I was under the impression that Snap-on was still using Accuride as their slide supplier and Accuride is an American company (or at least they used to be....)

[WSMC633]

Do they say 'Taiwan' on them? Because I was under the impression that Snap-on was still using Accuride as their slide supplier and Accuride is an American company (or at least they used to be....)

Accuride IS an american Company. I've been to their Factory numerous times. Really nice people too!

[nate379]

Call them up and get a new one sent over.

$26 each or for a set? The ones I got for my box were around $30 a set. I'd need to replace most of them, many are missing balls.

[Merkava_4]

Accuride IS an american Company. I've been to their Factory numerous times. Really nice people too!

That's what I figured; I thought they'd still be here. :thumbup:

[HandyManny]

Gees, you'd have just been better off buying a new different brand box.

[Skyline]

Call them up and get a new one sent over.

$26 each or for a set? The ones I got for my box were around $30 a set. I'd need to replace most of them, many are missing balls.

Just so you know for future reference, if you send your old broken slides to Snap-on, they will send you replacements for free. I just did this with 6 slides on a box I was fixing up to sell....no problem at all. As has been posted here before, if you contact customer service before hand, I hear they will even send a UPS label to pay the shipping back to them, (but I have not tried this).

As far as I'm concerned there is no middle ground on a slide; either it works properly or it does not. If, after cleaning the slide completely, and then re-lubing; it does not function perfectly smoothly, it goes back. If there is a bent or broken piece to the extent the balls are falling out, it goes back. They WILL honor this. While the lifetime warrantee on boxes is supposed to be for the original owner only, I have (so far) not been asked for proof of ownership. I just send an enclosure note saying: "Here is a broken slide from my KRL1234". I have also had no problem getting warrantee on top lid shocks or "lock 'n roll" plastic bits either.

Given the huge cost of their boxes, and the very high quality that comes along with the price, (meaning not too many failures), I would assume they are pretty easy going as far as authorizing warantee replacement; it's the least they can do.

[Chris Adams]

Just so you know for future reference, if you send your old broken slides to Snap-on, they will send you replacements for free. I just did this with 6 slides on a box I was fixing up to sell....no problem at all. As has been posted here before, if you contact customer service before hand, I hear they will even send a UPS label to pay the shipping back to them, (but I have not tried this).

As far as I'm concerned there is no middle ground on a slide; either it works properly or it does not. If, after cleaning the slide completely, and then re-lubing; it does not function perfectly smoothly, it goes back. If there is a bent or broken piece to the extent the balls are falling out, it goes back. They WILL honor this. While the lifetime warrantee on boxes is supposed to be for the original owner only, I have (so far) not been asked for proof of ownership. I just send an enclosure note saying: "Here is a broken slide from my KRL1234". I have also had no problem getting warrantee on top lid shocks or "lock 'n roll" plastic bits either.

Given the huge cost of their boxes, and the very high quality that comes along with the price, (meaning not too many failures), I would assume they are pretty easy going as far as authorizing warranty replacement; it's the least they can do.

Cost to ship slides is about 12 bucks per pair. Cost of new is 25. Sounds pretty close. One pair I sent them they waited four months before telling me no warranty, you pay to have them shipped back.

Slides came from Taiwan. Not marked Accuride, marked SnapOn.
They come from Taiwan, not Southern California.
Accuride is a nice company to deal with, but their support is pretty clueless, nice, but clueless.

[Skyline]

Cost to ship slides is about 12 bucks per pair. Cost of new is 25. Sounds pretty close. One pair I sent them they waited four months before telling me no warranty, you pay to have them shipped back.

Slides came from Taiwan. Not marked Accuride, marked SnapOn.
They come from Taiwan, not Southern California.
Accuride is a nice company to deal with, but their support is pretty clueless, nice, but clueless.

I wonder why they denied the warranty? So far, I have had no problems. But the slides I sent in were definately bad. If slide can be restored by thorough cleaning and re-greasing, I don't think free replacement is necessary. Did they give you any reason? If it were me, I would wnat justification for that.

[SpiderGearsMan]

I've had the same box for 21 years , never lost my balls

[Chris Adams]

I wonder why they denied the warranty? So far, I have had no problems. But the slides I sent in were definately bad. If slide can be restored by thorough cleaning and re-greasing, I don't think free replacement is necessary. Did they give you any reason? If it were me, I would wnat justification for that.

They said the slide was 'worn out'.
It was, no argument. The slides came off the top drawer of a box that had seen plenty of use.
Slide problems locally are usually from sand getting into the bearings, then they wear out pretty fast. Grease just holds the sand in place.
You have to clean the bearings every few years, and re-grease.

The slides on the present box are a mixture of worn and bent. When a slide goes South, it starts to hang. Keep pulling on the box and if the box is pretty loaded it will eventually turn sideways slightly, warping the rail the cage rides in.
When the rail is warped it is not worn, but oddly, not considered broken, but abused.
Most the rails I see damaged (about 50 in the last year, all brands) are damaged this way.
So if you catch the rail, just between the time it starts to wear and the instant it sticks, and warps, it would be a warranty claim.
A good truck guy would warranty one that was getting hard to pull, or even after it warped.
A normal truck guy would refuse to warrant the slide when it was just worn, and would never warranty it when it breaks.
So if you have a normal truck guy (means you don't owe him lots of money) you have to catch him just when the slide starts to fight you on pulling it out.

Lots of luck...

Those with warm fuzzy relationships with their drivers can warranty the slide as soon as it balks, or after it breaks.
The rest of us are SOL.

[Chris Adams]

I've had the same box for 21 years , never lost my balls

Maybe you don't use your balls enough...
Sorry, you started the bad puns...


On the serious side, around here the balls wear out pretty fast if you work in a shop that gets any wind. The wind carries sand. Sand eats the ball bearings pretty fast.

Any shop that is open a percentage of the day gets blown sand.
Any box that is used in those shops looses its slides.

Slides used in a cleaner environment last a LONG time.

I've got a box from 86 KR1000, original slides. The rubber detents all died, the rubber stops (look like little bowties) all crumbled, but the slides are GREAT, even after 20 plus years. Nicer than the new boxes. This box was used in a machine shop, in a very clean room.

[isr2kba]

Pulled the drawer out, the cage had fallen in. Inspected the cage (something I didn't do, it was a NEW slide, after-all...


Apparently they don't teach students to inspect new parts anymore. It's a shame, too because it's still true that assumption is the mother of all f**kups.

Not to excuse snapon or relevant subsidiaries from their responsibilities -- certainly not. OP lost some balls, but endemic 'failure down the line' is what causes shuttles to blow up.