@Betik, you are correct, my tower seems to be ok. Other than tagging
@1948Isaac for his input early on, I’ve been on the sidelines till now because I agree with most of what has been said to this point. Although I’ve been away from the quality engineering / failure analysis field for many years, I can’t help but see this situation from this perspective, but before I get into this, I need to say that I’m still shaken by what happened to
@swatski and his family. He was the only adult in his boat and this could have killed/paralyzed him, in front of his kids.
I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure if there are legal reasons as to why Yamaha has taken the stance that they’ve taken. One thing that I’ve personally experienced in a different industry, is that when my builder built me a new home in Texas 5 years ago, there were many items that were not covered under warranty that had me shaking my head, BUT, the builder responded to all of them saying “Although this is not a warrantable item, as a courtesy, we will correct it for you.” I kind of expected that Yamaha would be able to address this in a similar manner.
Ok, so this is what we know so far.
1. Swatski’s tower almost killed him. The female threads in the tower stripped.
2. Yamaha says that the root cause is a cross-threaded bolt.
3. Yamaha has not shared their report with Swatski.
4. Yamaha is not going to help Swatski.
5. 4wheeldeal shared that one of his bolts was cross-threaded when he received his new AR, and Yamaha corrected it under warranty.
6. ThatJeepGuy had to replace one of his bolts because it apparently stripped.
7. MajorSmackdown’s bolts were loose after the crossing.
8. Mine were tight after the crossing, but I did manage to snug one down by reefing on it with one hand and turning it about 4 degrees; while doing so, I was kind of wondering if I was overtightening.
I think that many things can cause these bolts to back out:
1. If they’re not properly tightened to start with.
2. Temperature fluctuations.
3. Vibrations and forces from towing, and regular use.
I think that these bolts can be easily cross-threaded, especially by someone who does not care about the boat who may just be going through the motions while doing their job; I say this because I think that these boats have too many minor quality issues when they leave the factory/dealership. If a customer receives their boat with cross-threaded bolts, how are they to know any different?
I think that if the bolts are not cross-threaded and they are tight, there will be no issues with the tower. If there is movement, then the tower will fail via the same mechanism as a slide hammer. If the scenario involves a cross-threaded bolt, then the failure will happen quicker as the threads are already compromised.
I doubt that any dealership has the ability to properly diagnose the root cause in Swatski’s case. I would expect that testing to see if the material hardness of the male and female surfaces is in spec, and verifying that the diameters of the bolt and nut are in spec should be done as a minimum. If I were Swatski, I’d consider taking this to an independent lab to have it analyzed, but this would be destructive. As an extra aside, I once worked in a factory that made aluminum parts for the auto industry; all of the parts were heat treated in order to harden the aluminum after tooling was done. Improper heat treating could be a likely root cause.
As a minimum, I hope that Yamaha will notify all of its dealerships of the risk of cross-threading, and of the importance of making sure that the tower fasteners are appropriately tightened, and that this important information is properly communicated to all AR customers. I believe that Swatski already mentioned that a warning label could help highlight the risk.
Lastly, I think that Yamaha is making a big error in judgement in not helping correct Swatski’s situation. Yamaha could learn a thing or two from Shoreland’r and from Carlisle when it comes to standing behind their product and fostering customer loyalty. On that note,
@swatski might be better off working with the tower manufacturer directly.
It could have been worse, and I'm very thankful that it wasn't.
Amen to that.
