Bad Wheels on Recent Athearn LPG Tankcars

[lock4244]

Got a response from Athearn... they were not aware of the defect and will send all of the replacement wheels I require. IMO, that's some good customer service.

[peteski]

Got a response from Athearn... they were not aware of the defect and will send all of the replacement wheels I require. IMO, that's some good customer service.

Now if everybody else in this thread who noticed that they also have defective wheels would contact Athearn, that would give them a better idea that this might be a real problem, not just one-of defect.

[ljudice]

I think I said I posted this on their Facebook page, and they have ignored it.

[jagged ben]

Athearn seems to be one of those companies that doesn't put any sauce on their customer service, but will respond to your needs.

I lost a windshield on my F45.   I e-mailed them about it, and included the scale and my address in the e-mail.   They sent me a new one in the mail without even responding to the e-mail. 

[peteski]

I think I said I posted this on their Facebook page, and they have ignored it.

I don't think one FB post will do much good - especially since FB presence is usually ran by the sales weasels (not customer service).  But having customer service receive a dozen of complaints that the wheels have flat spots might raise a flag.

[nkalanaga]

I'm not sure mine have flat spots.  They look more like very slightly raised ridges across the tread, like the metal squeezed out between the jaws of the chuck.  Since that isn't likely, I don't know what would have caused them, but they don't seem to be flat spots.

[peteski]

I'm not sure mine have flat spots.  They look more like very slightly raised ridges across the tread, like the metal squeezed out between the jaws of the chuck.  Since that isn't likely, I don't know what would have caused them, but they don't seem to be flat spots.

Whatever the defect is...  I was going by the initial post, and I quote: "A look under sufficient lighting revealed that the wheels were scored perpendicular to the flanges in several areas, almost like they have N scale flat spots."

[nkalanaga]

The original poster's might have flat spots.  There may be more than one problem, or I may be looking at mine wrong.

[peteski]

The original poster's might have flat spots.  There may be more than one problem, or I may be looking at mine wrong.

He pretty much described a problem similar to yours: "were scored perpendicular to the flanges in several areas, almost like they have N scale flat spots". I just latched onto the "flat spots" part of it.

[ljudice]

When I push two cars along the track it sounds like a buzzsaw.... 


BTW - otherwise these are really amazingly nice cars and honestly I could fix the wheels in 10 seconds from my pile of wheels sitting here.  I raised this on FB only to help improve future quality.

[nkalanaga]

I doubt that I'll fix mine.  They're no noisier than some of the prototypes I hear on the NS, and a little "bad wheel" noise actually sounds good in a train.  As others have said, they roll fine, don't derail, and don't wobble, so I'll live with them.

If it becomes a common "feature" of Athearn cars then it will be a problem.  Hopefully they'll fix it before their next production run.

[lock4244]

I forgot to update this... Athearn shipped me enough new wheels to replace all on my 14 cars, no questions asked. Have only re-wheeled a few cars as I'm mired in at campaign to finish body mounting couplers on all my TLT NSC boxcars, but the new wheels are fine.

Pretty decent customer service 

[nkalanaga]

And it's good to know the problem seems to be fixed.  As I said earlier, mine aren't that noisy, so I can live with them, but a company has to keep after suppliers to maintain quality.  A little flaw today, a bigger one tomorrow, and pretty soon your customers are looking elsewhere.  Catch it early and you can either get the supplier back in line or find a new source.