as I mentioned in my last post, the intent of my first couple of posts was to offer a real review of a Nitro Z-7 with a 150 Mercury Fourstroke. I had originally hoped that I could knock that out in a single post, but due to all of the problems I had at delivery, the actual review will probably have to wait until my next post.
Rather than having to re-write everything, I am just going to post the main emails I sent to my Nitro rep.
 |
| Delivery of our 2013 Nitro Z-7 with a 150 Mercury Fourstroke |
Email to Nitro Boats:
"Hope you are having a wonderful
day. First off I want you to know that I am not emailing you because I want
something from you. My intent is just to inform you of a few things that could
be maybe improved on.
When I picked up the boat it was
inside, but the seats and other misc. items were sitting in different locations
in the bay, on a tool box etc. Visually it made us feel like they were not done
prepping the boat. My expectation of a prepped boat are more in-line with a
turnkey scenario, seats are all installed, lanyard in the kill switch, old
packaging and wire ties cleared off deck, etc.
As previously mentioned there
was the obvious bubble in the carpet, it was maybe 2 inches across. I pointed
it out to the kid and he said “wow, I don’t know how I missed that”. I am going
to keep an eye on that for a bit because after a few hours in the hot sun I put
some pressure/weight on that spot, hoping that it will re-bond with the glue.
So far so good but time will tell.
At the shop, Peggy mentioned
that she felt something was wrong with the console decals that said Nitro and
Z7. Sure enough we figured out that the Nitro portion, which is affixed to the
windscreen, was installed on the port side of the boat (which was corrected by
swapping them around). Again a minor thing, but my wife didn’t need to be the
one that caught that.
Then we get home with the boat
and I decided to toss some things in the boat, there was a plastic bag that had
misc. nuts and parts in it, some of which were the rubber rod holders that
belong on the deck. My first impression was that you gave us a few extras and I
could keep them in case one breaks. But after inspecting the boat I quickly
realized that they were never installed in the first place. My son bought some
screws and installed them for me so I could use them next weekend, but
again another stupid thing that was overlooked.
I hope you understand that my
perceived value is kind of low now, largely because I am wondering what else
was missed and will have to spend additional personal time going over the boat.
Hopefully my shakedown cruise next weekend will go well and restore my
confidence in the boat little."
Then in a second follow-up email:
After our first outing the
transducer cable became damaged (see attached picture) because it was routed in
such a way that allowed it to be sandwiched between the mount and the trolling
motor, thus damaging the cord which now needs to be replaced. I believe this
happened our first time out and Peggy and I didn’t realize that there is a
specific way that the motor must be pointed when you raised it to prevent the cord
from being sandwiched between the motor and the front of the mount when you
raise the motor. During the raising, there is a point where the motor
hits/slides across the trolling motor mount. I have a lowrance mark-5x on the
bow, but I do not see it on your website, is there a way I can order a
replacement cable/transducer. I will install it so it does not bub against
anything when you pull the motor up.
The textured surface on the
boarding ladder fell off on the very first use (see picture). My guess is that
the adhesive is not designed to withstand being in the sun. I don’t know of a
solution for this yet.
We were told that we should
purchase the retractable tie downs, which we did. But we could not initially
unload the boat because the transducer is mounted directly in front of the tie
down, (which was were bolted tight, in a upright position) and the transducer
would have been ripped off by the tie down which is positioned directly behind
it (see attached picture). As a short term fix, I had to loosened them up so
they hung down freely when released. But because they hang low under the
trailer frame they pretty much fill up with river muck and sand. One retractor
is already malfunctioning and not retracting so I am going to throw both of
them away and get what I originally wanted which were normal tie downs,
something like your pro series transom tie-downs.
The rear seat. The stitching is
already coming apart and the sewing on this particular piece is atrocious (see
pictures) but there is a larger problem. The foam padding is wrapped with a
plastic and when you sit on the seat it basically sounds like a whoopee cushion
when the air tries to find a way out. Whoever made the seats didn’t think
out the design very well, I know my wife was not thrilled about it. How do we
resolve this?
While I realize there is little
we can do about it now, I do have to say that the overall gel coat finish on
the boat is poor, it seems that the gel coat is super thin making the boat is
super prone to scratches from the slightest of things. My Champion never had
this problem, heck you could troll through heavy brush and never even see a
scratch. With this Nitro finish all you need to do is run a piece of reed or
bamboo across the finish and you will actually see the reinforced composite
material. SO my question here is this. Does Nitro offer any touch up bottle /
paint stick like you can get from a car dealer?"
As you can see my 2013 Nitro Z-7 Bass Boat with a 150 Mercury Fourstroke was off to a very rocky start, but I kept my fingers crossed that Nitro would do the right thing. One big obstacle both parties have is the distance from a service center. My boat is in Yuma AZ and there are no service centers for 100s and 100s of miles. While I would have preferred to drop it off for repairs, the lesser of the evils was to accept a box full of replacement parts and do it myself.
It took me many weeks to complete but I have managed to address all of the issues with the supplied parts. All that's left is the year end service, which I will perform with the provided filter (they didn't give me oil).
At this point I am going say that the delivery issues have been satisfactorily addressed and will begin the review process in my next post.
So lets wrap thing up with a fish picture. P.S. While I normally wear Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe while bass fishing, it's been so hot that t-shirts are the only garment that seemingly provides me with any comfort in the 110 + Arizona heat.
But give me a little credit for sneaking in the Hawaiian print swim shorts.
Remember, release so you can catch another day!
No comments:
Post a Comment