mindlissmetalfab
+1y
OK first off this is not a bashing thread. I am a Viair customer for life and I have tried my best to take this up with Lance, but am getting the feeling I am being brushed off. I dont like being treated like I dont know what I'm talking about, and that I am wrong for questioning a product...
I am noticing a trend with the 3/8" Leader hoses found on the new compressors. This summer we had a customer roast 3 compressors, which we found afterwards were leaking back through the hose and into the compressor head. I was told that it was probably a wiring issue if it happened 3 times, and that I could send the compressors in to have them checked out, but no guarantees they would be warrantied. Well he never sent them in and havent heard from him since. Last I heard he had 1 good one and 1 barely running, out of the 4 he had bought over the summer.
Well the bad wiring thing kinda rubbed me the wrong way because I know damn well the truck is wired properly, and is being run with a proper switch. PLUS they were leaking back through the fuckin head. What does that have to do with wiring???!! We've installed easily 25 Viairs in the last couple years and have never had an issue until now.
A few weeks ago, we had another customer drop off a truck that was started by another shop and left for dead. When tracing down the airleaks, I found 3 of the 4 compressors were leaking back through the head. These were DC 5000 comps with Viair leader hoses (and therefore Viair Check Valves).
So now I have 6 bad leader hoses in the last couple months so I go back to Lance. "well we can't warranty them because they are on Non Viair Compressors' Fine. I'm not asking for warranty. But the bottom line is that they are check valves. The compressor they are on doesnt matter. Lance tells me that they have not heard of a problem with the hoses and that there is probably something gumming up the check valves (3 out of 4 of them on a truck that hasnt been driven....sounds like thats definitley the problem). So whatever I say fuck it and order up 4 new hoses which I go to install today. the whole time in my head I am saying this is 6 hoses I have personally contacted Viair about now...how can you sit there and tell me you havent heard of a problem when you are in the process of hearing about it...
So I take the old ones off the truck, and sure enough I can blow air both ways through 3 of em. That tells me the check valves pooched since the new ones will only take air one way. OK so I start looking at the new hoses a little more carefully and notice something. 3 out of 4 of them are different. They are using a different check valve and the swivel fitting and check valve are installed in opposite order.
So if Viair is telling me that there is no problem with the old checkvalves, why did change them to new ones on the new hoses? Why not even TELL me that they have switched to new ones when I am questioning them?
My guess is a recall would be too costly. The cant just recall a leader hose, because Viair voids warranty if you remove a hose (Lance was nice enough to let me know my warranty on my brand new comps was void because I gave the leader hoses to my customer to get him on the road).
Anyways, I basically just want to get to the bottom of this. if anyone else has had issues with the 3/8" hoses please let me know. I have 2 brand new 480s waiting to go into my truck, and both the replacement leader hoses I have for them are the style of all the ones that have gone bad on me.
So someone please tell me WTF is going on because I dont like feeling like I'm getting jerked around.
On the left is the 'NEW STYLE' hose which 3 of the 4 I just received were.
New Hoses
Fucked Hoses: