&%#$@*%......not again......

[Jim Martin]

2 jobs today.....last one was pretty good size....

got to the first one..set everything up and got going and the shaft snapped again on the Hoss.....

and as always...I am way across town and cant run to the house to get my other one.....

Not the re-called aluminum one..but the new stainless one.....rigged the thing up with a bungee cord to get me threw the job.........it held the shaft in place and kept the height adjuster from falling off.........

got done and swung into the hardware store and bought a stainless shaft and had them cut it to size...and grabbed 4.......1/2 inch lock collars.....and put it together in there parking lot.......

got to the 2nd job and it held together and worked great..........

the shaft snapped the exact same place as the aluminum one did......it is where the grove is cut into the metal for the "C" clip.......once that grove was cut into it ..it weakened it at that point......

suggestion....when these shafts are made.....use lock collars like in the picture above to hold the height adjuster in place.........and stop cutting into the shaft........all your doing is stabilizing it from floating around......

I will order a new shaft on Monday....and when I replace it I will put the things that I bought in the truck for back up in case it happens again....I think I will buy another set up and put in the other truck as well.....

 

[Bill Bruders]

Jim I'm going to forward this to the engineering group today sorry for the bad ecperience

 

[Art Kelley]

I know this doesn't help, Jim, but I have really been kicking ass with my two year old 360i. Customers are blown away by the cleaning on thick heavily soiled carpets. It's not as flimsily as it looks. Nothing breaks on it and the motor runs cool. I'm thinking of buying the 15" conversion head to put on it.

 

[Jim Martin]

I know this doesn't help, Jim, but I have really been kicking ass with my two year old 360i. Customers are blown away by the cleaning on thick heavily soiled carpets. It's not as flimsily as it looks. Nothing breaks on it and the motor runs cool. I'm thinking of buying the 15" conversion head to put on it.

Mine is on its last leg......bad grinding noise coming out of it....360i is a good rotary...you just have to be careful what machine you have it hooked up to....
most have found out the hard way that it is a good portable/light weight TM rotary.....anything above that it sucks it down to hard and over works it.....
I was just talking to a guy the other day and he was telling me that he had to open a valve and release some vacuum while he was using his because it was locking down so hard it was over heating the motor and it got way to hot.....

IMO...Roto-vac seems to be heading the right direction...... ( if I seen the picture correct )...electric motor...wider head......but until they find away to stabilize it better and keep it from locking down so hard.......it will stay just that...a light weight/portable rotary........some people see the streaking and some don't......from everyone that I have talked to...a huge percentage of the ones that see the streaking have the bigger TM's...and the rest are just pushing it to fast and not allowing the machine to do its job because they are wanting more speed..and it just does not work that way.............

it is what it is...we have all been around this tree more then enough times to know.............what works for some...does not mean that it is the best for others........live and learn..
your making money with yours and I am making money with mine..........that's what it is all about.............

 

[Art Kelley]

360i is a good rotary...you just have to be careful what machine you have it hooked up to....
most have found out the hard way that it is a good portable/light weight TM rotary.....anything above that it sucks it down to hard and over works it.....
I was just talking to a guy the other day and he was telling me that he had to open a valve and release some vacuum while he was using his because it was locking down so hard it was over heating the motor and it got way to hot.....

.............

I have two 360i's and both work well with either my porty or under full blast vacuum from my Pro 1200. No overheating, no grinding. I don't have to cut the vacuum down ever. I doubt "most" have any problems with the 360i.

 

[Jim Martin]

I have two 360i's and both work well with either my porty or under full blast vacuum from my Pro 1200. No overheating, no grinding. I don't have to cut the vacuum down ever. I doubt "most" have any problems with the 360i.

don't know....I can only go off my personal experience and what " most" tell me when I talk to them...
either way...we all have what works best for us....just what it is.....glad your doing well with what you have.....

 

[ruff]

If only the rest of us had Jim's mechanical skills. We just hope that the tools that we buy will do the work they're supposed to do.
Taking Bill's word for it, it looks like SS will try and correct the problem.

 

[Jim Martin]

If only the rest of us had Jim's mechanical skills. We just hope that the tools that we buy will do the work they're supposed to do.
Taking Bill's word for it, it looks like SS will try and correct the problem.

the purpose of the post was now you know what you can do if something like this happens to you.....

not in anyway put down the machine...
or have my monthly pissing contest over rotaries with Art....

but a shaft can break on any type of machine or tool...and one day if it happens to you...you will remember what some skinny bald dude that lives in the desert heat did one day to help get threw a job.............and you might find it useful....

I am sure that Sapphire will take a look at this and decide one way or the other what to do about it...

 

[boazcan]

I don't use mine as much as most, but thank you for the tip and post Jim.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[ruff]

Agreed, Jim.
I took it in the exact same spirit that you mentioned. All new machines have kinks and what differentiates the good manufacturers from the others, is the effort to correct problems and improve their product.
SS seem to do just that. (though Bill seem to ignore my question about the Pro-1200 little flaw, though I intend to buy it.)

The rest was my personal envy of your mechanical gifts. My Hebrew trumps yours though, every single time!

 

[juniorc82]

my rx20 fell down a flight of stairs and I drug it back up into the apartment and worked fine. I almost got a hoss but all the cheap material turned me away. looks like I made the right choice. If its dirty enough where I gotta use a rotary the rx is king. Plus I know it will be good for at least 10 more years. cant say that about the 360 I owned and by the looks of it the hoss

 

[Ron Werner]

why would you order a new shaft, why not just keep using what you made

 

[Jim Martin]

why would you order a new shaft, why not just keep using what you made

the one I made works in a pinch...but you really need the ends to be threaded so hold the wheels......

 

[Larry Cobb]

I am awaiting Mikey's comment after he tested a new one on our showroom floor,

and was drenched for his efforts.

. . . WELL . . . . . . .

Jim; If you were an engineer @ SS,

had several hundred of these machines out,

would you be aware of this issue that shown up repeatedly ?

My point is that many companies have issues with their mass-produced products.

Larry

 

[Mikey P]

Drenched for my efforts?

I have faith in SS that if this isn't a one time event (first I've heard of it but Jim is the rare duck who uses his on every job) that they will either replace at will or do a recall.

Looks to be an easy fix.

 

[Jim Martin]

No...I would of never thought it would of happened....But until things get out there and get some time under them...no one will ever know....

seeing how 2 different types of material broke in the exact same spot...more then likely it has to be because of that grove....so you get rid of the grove..and try it again...
I have worked on a lot of different types of machines and things and have seen some pretty strange things happen...95% of the time it is things that you don't realize will happen until they break....and then there are the ones you can just look at and see it is a accident waiting to happen.....

 

[Larry Cobb]

Drenched for my efforts?

I have faith in SS that if this isn't a one time event (first I've heard of it but Jim is the rare duck who uses his on every job) that they will either replace at will or do a recall.

Looks to be an easy fix.

Billy Lewis - 10/16/13 @ MB - Used the HOSS for another month or so then when loading up for a job the cheap aluminum axle broke into. So I ordered a replacement axle and was told with the new axle I also would have to order new wheels which I did. I received my order yesterday again after a 3 week wait and to my surprise the replacements wheels were not in the box. So I have to call today to find out the status of my wheels and I'm sure I will have to wait another 3 weeks to get them. I was pleasantly surprised that the new axle was made of stainless (so I assume there have been many axles broken that we're made of aluminum) I was disappointed that I had to pay for this replacement when when it was obviously a design flaw.

Recall that the customer pays for ? ? ? ?

Larry