Will James Baroud / Adventure Ready stand behind their Warranty?

[maust]

I have been in contact with Ernesto and Tom at Adventure Ready for a James Baroud Warranty.

Issue is that the tent canvas started wearing through after it was installed by Tactical Application Vehicles in June 2018. Indication from Ernesto was that Adventure Ready is unsure if they would see a tent from James Baroud thus placing the warranty in question.

For background, The James Baroud Evasion tent was installed on a custom bed rack fabricated by Brute Force Fabrications with James Baroud of Portugal signing off on the design prior to the build. Bed rack. Bed rack is mounted to the bed bolts of the truck and uses 6 mounting points for the tent. Bed rack uses 4 cross bars running side to side and 2 running front to back. Between June of 2018 and March 2020 the fabric started wearing through on the leading edge. I contacted Adventure Ready April 1st about the 5 year tent warranty with follow up 4/23 and 5/11 with the only indication is that we must wait on Antonio with James Baroud seeing if they will honor their warranty.

Does anyone else have experience with James Baroud / Adventure Ready warranty or the tent fabric wearing through?

 

[moose545]

I would hope so, following to see what the outcome is.

 

[maust]

Update. So far it has been 2 months with NO indication from Adventure Ready or James Baroud. I have taken very detailed notes from every conversation.

Initial indication is that Tom does NOT want to warranty the tent claiming it was not securely mounted. Problem with that statement is that the rack is built out of 4130 roll bar tubing with custom tabs for the tent. Added problem is that James Baroud of Portugal approved of the mounting of their tent prior to fabrication. Last call the indication was that the tent was not supported and the wear on the sides is not covered, problem is the failure is on the leading edge, not side.

After 2 months, I feel that James Baroud should be capable of answering the mail on how to warranty a 22 month old tent. These should be premium tents with a 5 year warranty.

Photo is from the leading edge of the tent.

 

[adaml]

Thats a real shame to hear. I think some people may have issues with these tents and, if they do, you hear a lot about it because they're so expensive. I believe the vast majority of them are used problem-free but that's just my two cents.

When I've dealt with @Adventure Ready , they've been great (that's actually where I bought my tent from) and I know there's always more than one side to any story so I'd be interested to hear what they have to say about it (if anything)

 

[adaml]

That problem has nothing to do with how the tent was mounted. They're giving you a run around. As I mentioned above, I had exactly the same fabric issues, as did my buddy. This is a manufacturing/materials/JB problem.

How did you deal with it?

 

[maust]

Today at 3:54 MST, Tom keeps mentioning mounting. Unfortunately the design was approved by JB or Portugal. Then the rack had no cross bars, unfortunately the cross bars support the width of the tent. To me it feels that Tom / Adventure Ready does not wish to support their customers.

Problem I see with James Baroud is they have breached their 5 year warranty leaving the customer to absorb a $7k loss. At this point I'm exploring legal options and getting the FTC involved.

 

[adaml]

I pushed JB to refund me or replace the tent. They wanted to send me fabric, and have me drill out a bunch of rivets, likely damage a whole bunch of stuff in the process, and re-install new fabric myself, along with new rivets. Told them that wasn't going to happen, especially since my tent had a whole bunch of other issues, too. Luckily for me, at the time the wonderful folks at OK4WD were the main JB distributor, and they pulled their weight with JB to replace my tent (through Adventure Ready, as they were the closest dealer). Unfortunately OK4WD no longer deals with JB products, so people are stuck dealing with Adventure Ready.

Glad you got it taken care of. Sounds like you don't feel to great about @Adventure Ready - Any reason why? Just curious.

 

[adaml]

Today at 3:54 MST, Tom keeps mentioning mounting. Unfortunately the design was approved by JB or Portugal. Then the rack had no cross bars, unfortunately the cross bars support the width of the tent. To me it feels that Tom / Adventure Ready does not wish to support their customers.

Problem I see with James Baroud is they have breached their 5 year warranty leaving the customer to absorb a $7k loss. At this point I'm exploring legal options and getting the FTC involved.

Good luck with whatever you choose. If they're in Portugal, I'm not sure how easily any legal or FTC options would be.

Do you have any pictures of the set up as a whole? I'm curious to try and understand why Tom would deny it based on mounting.

 

[maust]

Agreed when dealing internationally there are challenges. This thread has generated quite a bit of interest and there is a US based distributor being Adventure Ready. The FTC with the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act provides quite a bit of protection for consumers. At least that what I'm being told...

From Adventure Ready:
5 Years Warranty: It includes the fiberglass, the mechanism, the canvas, the lift supports, the ladder and its fixings, the zippers, the mosquito net, the mattress, the rail and fixings, the upholstery of the upper shell.

2 Years Warranty: It includes the gel-coat, the color, the extractor, the flashlight, the tent locks.

No where in the warranty does it state mounting requirements. I will edit this post tomorrow with photos.

 

[maust]

It is apparent that James Baroud and Adventure Ready have no intention of honoring their warranty. Tom the owner of Adventure Ready blames James Baroud. Antonio of James Baroud takes no accountability for how their certified dealer Tactical Application Vehicles (TAV) installed the tent.

Photo of tent as installed by TAV.

Copy of Email:
Regarding where the tent is fixed, we see no problem.

The direction in which the tent is mounted can be a problem as it is not in the aerodynamic direction and when the vehicle is in motion it is forcing the top cover in the opposite direction.

Regarding the marks on the fabric, it demonstrates that you do not close the tent correctly, leaving the fabric out or badly positioned, causing friction and also contact with rivets and causing this situation.

This tent does not have any type of manufacturing defect and the consequence of incorrect use has resulted in the damage presented.

Thanks

Best regards, Cordialement,Saludos, Cumprimentos

António Martins Sales Manager

CAPAVENTURE LDA
Z.I. das Lavagueiras, 16
4550-536, Pedorido Castelo de Paiva
PORTUGAL

m: +351 937 166 741 t: +351 255 762 197
antonio@jamesbaroud.com
www.jamesbaroud.com

So Tom indicates there is an issue with the Rack, Antonio states it is installed and not used correctly. It seems we have conflicting stories. Claiming aerodynamics I find Antonio's claim as full of it, The tent is tucked behind the cab where it would be most aerodynamically efficient.

For a consumer to be out $7K over a substandard design is unacceptable.

 

[adaml]

Wow. Well, on the face of it, it seems pretty crappy but, I've got to say, with that tent mounted backward, I do wonder how much that rear lip may move around. Where are the holes? Are they on the back fabric? You said they had informally blessed the installation but, based on the email you have above, it sounds like maybe that's not true? Or maybe they didn't know you intended to mount it backward?

I would also think driving into rain with those vents that way would cause nothing but problems ...

 

[maust]

I had the same concern when TAV installed the tent. Walt Wagner stated that this is the recommended position per James Baroud with the Evasion on the Tacoma. All their tents were mounted in this fashion mostly using Front Runner racks that were shorter than mine.

Reason the rack was mounted to the frame was to avoid mounting to bedrails and all the bed stiffiners needed.

Wear is on the front, or mine the back. Buddy Chris down in Los Lunas has a Baroud tent with the SAME failure mode mounted to a front runner rack above a shell mounted forward. Basic failure analysis tells me these tents are not designed to last 5 years and JB knows it.

 

[adaml]

I had the same concern when TAV installed the tent. Walt Wagner stated that this is the recommended position per James Baroud with the Evasion on the Tacoma. All their tents were mounted in this fashion mostly using Front Runner racks that were shorter than mine.

Reason the rack was mounted to the frame was to avoid mounting to bedrails and all the bed stiffiners needed.

Wear is on the front, or mine the back. Buddy Chris down in Los Lunas has a Baroud tent with the SAME failure mode mounted to a front runner rack above a shell mounted forward. Basic failure analysis tells me these tents are not designed to last 5 years and JB knows it.

Well, whatever the case, I hope you get it taken care of. I sure sounds like you're having a bad time of it but it seems like there's lots of people out there loving these tents for a long time as well.

 

[VanWaLife]

I've found closing my JB tent to be more art than science, so the explanation that it wasn't closed properly seems plausible since it looks like it might be hard to access the side nearest the cab to tuck the fabric and the strap in. This in my opinion would be more the manufacturer's fault since the info on how to mount and close these tents is very lacking. I would never buy a JB tent again, given what I know now, and am actively scheming on how I'll patch mine if I get the dreaded fabric failure. No way I'm dealing with those idiots at Adventure Ready again. Trying to buy a tent from them was like the nerd trying to get the hot chick to go to prom with him. Still, in this case I don't think I'd be very comfortable with how the tent is mounted, and you really cant trust the info put out by Baroud, or especially AR. I ran my rack design by AR and got a thumbs up, but when I arrived for install it became clear the basic dimensions were a no-go. That was years ago, yet the frustration from the experience still haunts me. With all that said, I do love my JB tent. Yet the anticipation of it failing is beginning to weigh me down. Sad really; I do believe in the product, but the support and documentation is terrible.

 

[maust]

It does take a bit of art closing a James Baroud Tent making sure everything is closed properly. When the tent was first deemed a design flaw for the exact same failure the local retailer TAV confirmed that there was no user error introduced.

Claim of mounting direction being a viable means to refuse warranty I find flimsy at best. Buddy has a tent showing the exact same failure mounted on his Tacoma.


If a manufacture or distributor refuse to stand behind their product, where does that leave consumer confidence?