Sunday 19 April 2015

Folding transom update

Unfortunately, Paul's transom motor mount repair was unsuccessful.
He is going to try again and see if he can repair it himself.

There is now a third report concerning the Alpha series folding transom from a new owner.
This is what he had to say:
"I was setting up my 12 foot Alpha in the garage this morning. I bought the boat in December 2014 and have set it up three times. Well I had the same thing happen to me, the motor mount just fell off! I haven't even had the thing in the water yet and this happens? The rivets just pulled out. I also notice that some of the other rivets holding the folding transom together appear to be very loose. Extremely disappointed."

Sandy's response to the problem was quite good however.

He stated the following:

"We will now have a team of quality control people examine the transoms still in the factory (both the ones that have been installed and the ones on the assembly line). An inconvenience no owner should need to experience.
Thanks again for letting us know. You are appreciated."

Sandy Kaye
President
Porta-Bote International


Problems may happen at any time in manufacturing. That is to be expected.

What also is important is how these problems are addressed.

Sandy has done quite well in looking into how this issue can be fixed.
Portbote offered to pay freight both ways to these  Portabote owners.

Cheers,
Matt

Saturday 18 April 2015

Alpha Bote owner - DIY/Repairs/Mods

Paul is a new owner of an Alpha Series Portabote and has started a new blog covering DIY, Repairs and Upgrades. He has called it "The floating Log" (An interesting story as to why he called his blog "The floating Log". Check that out too.)
He was able to overcome a problem with a motor mount falling off .
You can see the solution to his problem here.
He used Automotive "Goop" to effect a repair.
It will be interesting to see how it holds up.

Portabote offered for Paul to send his transom back and they would pay freight both ways.

Another Alpha series owner reports a similar problem but opted to use bolts and washers beside the existing rivets.
He says that his repair has held up for 2 years now.

Cheers,
Matt

Monday 6 April 2015

Suzuki 2.5hp = 3.5hp?

It's been a hectic week on the Portabote forum with a debate as to whether the Suzuki 2.5 hp 4 stroke outboard actually has an output of 3.5 hp.
What raised this topic was a couple of statements on the Portabote Suzuki Marine page where it was stated that a Suzuki 2.5 hp was as powerful as most 3.5 hp outboards and a 4 hp was as powerful as most 5 hp outboards. This topic was raised due to a query in the forum as to whether a 2.5 hp or a 3.5 hp should be bought by a particular new bote owner.
Once those statements were challenged things heated up a bit on the forum.
I decided to contact Suzuki Marine here in Oz and also in the US and ask for clarification.
Once I posted my findings on the forum, discussion continued with me copping a bit of flack from Portabote and a couple of forum members.
Finally Sandy decided to contact Suzuki himself and this was his next post:

"From Sandy

Because of the claims and counter claims made, I finally got through to one of the top people at Suzuki this morning.
I explained to him that years ago, when we first joined with Suzuki and were developing our site, we worked with a promotion company that Suzuki was using at that time.
When we asked them how come Suzuki doesn't have a 3.5hp or a 5hp in this country, they told us that the 2.5hp-was as powerful as a 3.5hp and the 4hp-was as powerful as a 5hp.


As a result, we had the statements on our site for many years.


Jon told me Suzuki hadn't used this company for years and to remove those two statements - which we just did.
I, again, asked him "point blank" is there any truth at all to this? He just reiterated, "Sandy, please remove those two statements".

So, thanks to Mat for "sticking to his guns on this topic. What we took as a given
was wrong. Thanks again, Mat. Now, we and two other Suzuki nationwide dealers no longer have this claim on our sites.

Ironically, we have found the main reason most folks purchase the 2.5hp model is the 29 pound weight and the good reputation that Suzuki has developed over the past half century (they make fine motorcycles, also)."

The 29 pound that Sandy is referring to equates to around 13kg.

I think it would have been a difficult thing to make that statement in a public forum so kudos to Sandy for his actions here. I only wish that he'd gotten my name right :)

Cheers,
Matt