Not to throw fuel on the fire here, but rather to play Devil's Advocate for a minute:
Ray H said:
If my Jeep was brand new and I took it offroad and bounced it off a rock, busted an axle shaft which took out my carrier, could I expect DC to warranty it, probably not.
Depends on the circumstances under which it broke.
In the particular scenario outlined above, the real question is where to draw the lines of reasonable expectations. Yes, a Jeep is an off-road vehicle by definition (all model prejudices aside for the moment) - but, by the same token, it has its limits the same as any other vehicle.
Let's say you snapped that shaft on pavement pulling a trailer weighing 2000lbs. *less* than the vehicle's rated capacity and in accordance with the manufacturer's towing instructions. Should they replace it? Absolutely.
Now, the same shaft breaks crawling through a rock garden in 4LO - but still in accordance with manufacturers' specs. Yep, they should be held liable for the breakage, but you'll probably have a harder time convincing them to pay up.
OK, third scenario: you're in the mudpits next to the rock garden, still in 4LO, but the vehicle is overloaded with people and gear. The manufacturer's liability should be zero when you blow the axle, because you pushed it beyond what it was reasonably capable of.
Same thing here, If ya play-ya pay.
Fair point. Now, bearing the previous points regarding OEM liability and personal responsibility in mind, let's re-examine the issue. Remember that ultimately we are talking about an aftermarket part, but the expectation of the buyer (based on the vendor's claims) is that it should exceed the abilities of the stock item. To this end, we'll assume no user abuse of the aftermarket parts: they have been used in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions for all intents and purposes.
Shaft snaps on a stock 8.25 axle with an OEM warranty. Does it take the carrier with it? No. Liability rests with the manufacturer to replace the shaft.
Shaft snaps on an 8.25 with a Detroit locker in it. It takes the Detroit out at the same time, which is still under warranty. Should the Detroit be replaced under warranty? My personal opinion is yes, because there was a reasonable expectation on behalf of the buyer that it would exceed stock performance. Should the aftermarket manufacturer be held responsible for the shaft? No, because they didn't manufacture it - they just engineered and marketed a product designed to be used in conjunction with it. The OEM would probably argue that the Detroit caused the breakage if a warranty claim were placed against the shaft, but that's a tangent that isn't really relevant to the broken locker.
In short: it's reasonable to assume that parts billed as performance parts will exceed manufacturer's specifications. If an OEM part wouldn't fail under the same circumstances, then the aftermarket part is probably not living up to its claims.
The title of your post makes it sound like you believe the locker is an inferior product.
Based on his *experiences*, he may very well believe that. This may or may not be reinforced by anecdotal (read: hearsay) evidence from others who have had similar problems.
The Detroit locker has been around longer than you have and has prooven itself over and over. Sure they fail sometimes, what doesnt.
A reasonable question to ask. However...
Remember, the shaft went before the Detroit. The Detroit breakage was collateral.
This is the crux of the matter - we *don't* know which died first. If the Detroit bit the big one first, it could've been responsible for the shaft's death (remember: Devil's Advocate here).
Do you really expect TT to honor a warranty when another part caused the Detroit to fail. That would be a tough one to get by any manufacturer.
Agreed on making a manufacturer pony up on a warranty claim - that's never fun, especially with automotive parts.
However, the issue is whether or not that part actually caused the part to fail - the part could've failed first, or been incapable of living up to its manufacturer's claims.
I will not make any judgements on what caused this particular situation - nobody involved in this thread knows absolutely, precisely what happened apart from the driver - but a lot of informed speculation can be made as to its causes. Ultimately, though, it's just that: speculation.
Stepping down from being the Devil's Advocate, my personal hope is that TrueTrac warranties the locker and the shaft is replaced out-of-pocket. If they feel that it's up to a year of off-road use and abuse and it fails before then because of component failure that wouldn't hurt a lesser unit, they should probably redesign their product.
The real issue here is where the boundaries of both OEM and aftermarket parts lie in terms of expected performance. In either case, though, should inadequate guidelines be laid down by the manufacturers as relates to their use, it seems unreasonable to expect the purchaser to be penalised for the manufacturer's inability to inform.
