Smittybilt Scout Trailer Reviews?

[ebrabaek]

It is so very easy to jump to conclusions, when a break happens. Breaks always happens in one form or another. Last break I was involved in (as was thousand of others) cost Honeywell aerospace hundreds of millions, and people were armed with pitch forks, tar and feathers, but they took charge... sort of.... ha, and problem was solved.
The worst damage to be done is fling the dirt on the manufacture, before they can get a chance to look at it, and decide what to do.
I for one, would be very interested in seeing the welds close up. I went to mine, as we have bashed that thing well, albeit at low speeds, over potholes five outings now. I observed a hair line crack on the left side. I am confident that it is in the top enamel, as it appears that the bottom flanges are NOT welded together. It does however mean that the joint is working.
Please keep us up to date of what happens.
In the mean time, I will take a look, and at the very least, weld the bottom and top flanges, as they appear to be NOT welded.

 

[tae73]

View attachment 468009

Looking at this picture is doesnt even look like they welded it together. Might of tacked it and forgot about welding it. Glad Smitty stepped up and fixed this.

 

[ebrabaek]

I was mistaken. It does appear that mine is welded on the bottom, but most of said weld have been ground smooth. That being the case it appears that my bottom weld is working, and have craked. IMHO that indicates that that joint is working.



You can make out the small amount of left over weld, and see the crack. The right side have a bigger crack than the left side.
I have reached out to Smitty, asking of their opinion on this. I plan on removing the tongue box and plate, and rewelding this bottom, and top joint.
I also will add square tube in between the cross members, to unload these two side joints. I might be wrong and this not be needed at all, but better safe than sorry.

I will admit that I have been using this on some rough roads, but the crack have me worried, and regardless, I will just fix it and be done with it, regardless if it is necessary.

 

[Silverback07]

Just inspected mine, its got a partially ground down weld on it. Not perfect but not as bad as some of the other photos.

 

[ebrabaek]

Just inspected mine, its got a partially ground down weld on it. Not perfect but not as bad as some of the other photos.

That looks a whole lot better. More important is the fact that you have no cracks, so yours don't appear to be a working joint, which is great.

 

[TxFireman]

When I looked at my scout, it looked like it was welded and ground flat/smooth. I plan on doing something just for peace of mind. My thought is that maybe trying to make it nice and smooth may have taken too much material away, combined with perhaps too thin of wall for the load on that area.

Today, I saw where someone posted this, .. this is a copy and paste of their reply:

Jut called smittybilt and they said they are actively reaching out to all customers who bought the trailer to send out a retrofit kit to resolve this issue jn about 2 to 3 weeks from now. They are trying.... I will keep you a posted as soon as I get mine.

I guess I'll see what their fix is and decide if it is on par with what I think will work, and go from there. So far I have not been contacted by SB, but it's still early in the process too. However, I wanted you guys to know they are planning to do so, so if you don't hear from them in some time, you may want to contact them yourself. Funny thing is, when I got my scout, they didn't include the receiver tube that goes between the tongue and the 2" coupler that comes with it. When I called SB and told them what I needed, which was just the 2" square tubing piece that is roughly 12-15 " long, they sent me a whole tongue. I wasn't home and my wife was there when the driver brought it. I told her it's not what we need and just refuse to accept it and send it back. SB told me I could have just kept it. Kind of wish I did now so I could just improve that one and swap it out. lol... oh well.

I will say this this though, I'm still happy with my scout trailer. Anything manufactured can have issues, it's how the company reacts to issues that really matters in the end, and if they're willing to make it right. SB clearly seems to be willing to do that. I really doubt I could build a trailer that offers this much, for less or probably even the same price point... and that's not counting all the headaches that comes with building it from scratch. This issue does concern me, as it should most, but once it's taken care of I'll have plenty of faith in the little scout.

 

[XJOverlander]

It looks like some may not have been welded correctly or they were ground down too much. The weld on silverback's looks correctly welded ( beveled edges then welded) then they ground it down a little leaving a 2mm weld height. I wouldn't be concerned seeing that weld, the other ones that are smooth id be concerned and run a bead. I've talked to them and they have a bolt on fix in the works and is currently under going testing.

 

[Silverback07]

I also have one from the first batch made.. they got somethings right and somethings wrong with that batch it appears. My wiring needed to be completely redone with a new harness provided by Smittybilt. (I created my own though)

 

[McDowra]

Will have to go inspect my trailer this weekend, thanks for the heads up.

 

[ebrabaek]

Wires were disconnected. Tongue box removed to inspect the welds.


Top welds are a bit thin..... but no cracks are evident. On the bottom however.... one side is cracked with very thin weld.....






In the next few days..... I plan on welding both bottoms.
I also will get a 2 inch square tube and weld that in between the crosmembers.... full length from parking brake to aft of the tongue.

 

[Tkhawk]

I looked at mine last night, it was ground flush as well. I was looking at it in the dark with a flashlight, but I didn't see any cracks appearing yet. I'll have to inspect it better in the day light.

 

[YYCRod]

I examined mine, very minor crack (in the powdercoat finish at least) on one side. All welds a completely flush ground, with no visible weld protruding above the surface. My date of manufacture is 07/2017. I called SB today and the person on the phone had not heard there were issues with the Scout. I was transferred to a voice mail... we shall see if they call back. EDIT- Matt from SB did call back and said they will have a bolt-on solution in the next few weeks. Great customer service for sure.

 

[McDowra]

Matt is supposed to call me Tuesday

 

[honda250xtitan]

looks like an easy enough fix. good thing that one failed on the trail and not the highway, trailer would've gone for a ride lol.

 

[ebrabaek]

Matt is supposed to call me Tuesday

I sent two emails to them about a week ago, and have yet to hear back.

Edit. Matt just called me back, and we are now tagging each other....