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Dear Garvin Manufacturing,
My name is Mark Carroll and
my twin brother Mike and I bought a Garvin Expedition Roof Rack
for our 1995 Jeep YJ in the winter of 1999.
Aside from the rapid rusting of most of the metal surface
on the rack, we were pleased with our purchase.
We recently gave the Jeep and 3-inch lift and decided to
go on our first serious off-road trip. This is where we ran into some significant problems with our
Garvin roof rack.
First, the right rear
support arm completely broke apart.
The arm actually broke in two.
The top portion of the right rear arm began to bang on
the top of the right rear brake light, which then broke the rear
right brake light. After
the right rear arm broke, the left rear arm began to sway so
severely, the metal that the rack was drilled into began to tear
away as if it were tin foil.
The entire area that surrounded the left rear arm on the
roof rack is now gone, torn away from violent the moving of the
roof rack. It ended
up shaking so much, the left rear brake light also began to
break away from the body after being knocked from the side every
few seconds by the dislodged left rear arm.
At this point in the trip,
we had to stop to tie the roof rack to the bumpers to keep it
from completely tearing off the Jeep.
As we continued on the trip, the shaking became so
severe; we had no choice but to end the trip early.
Since we were miles into the deep woods of Connecticut,
having to take the same rough trail to get out didn’t help our
situation at all. We
got back home yesterday and I haven’t driven the Jeep since.
Today I photographed the damage that resulted from the
original breaking of the right rear support arm and tomorrow I
am going to totally remove the Garvin roof rack and attempt to
fix the damage it caused.
I am really mad at the
damage this rack caused to my Jeep.
Out of all the things to go wrong on my trip, my rack
braking was the last thing I expected to happen.
I have recommended your products to my friends to get for
their trucks, which I now regret doing.
I even went so far as to put a link on my website for you
guys. (
http://www.jeepmud.com/ )
I get a lot of hits each day which gave you god knows how
many hits on your website.
I regret doing that too.
I think this situation sucks bad and I want to know what
you will do about it.
Along with this e-mail, I am
including two more e-mails with nine images of the damage caused
from the roof rack. I wanted to also inquire about the “Wilderness Racks and Accessories limited lifetime warranty on the
structure” that is listed on the Garvin website.
I would also like someone to either write back to me
about this problem or call me at 203-xxx.xxxx to discuss the
warranty and the damaged caused by the roof rack damage.
(Body damage and rear tail lights)
I hope to hear from someone
soon about this matter.
Sincerely,
Mark Carroll |
