Vinyl on 2013 R20 and Tige support

[KyleRass41]

Obviously you could go back and forth with this but i will tell you if someone comes in 2 years after a warranty is up where I work we try and be fair....fair might be at cost, fair might be a little off, might be completely replacing it....we aren't out anything in MOST cases and we gain a customer for life. ALSO a lot of the time....our companies we buy from end up helping us out anyways....the vendors understand the route we are going which in turn is growing sales and allowing us to keep buying more product from them! You you will catch repeat offenders. At some point, yes you can't get taken advantage of.

Fyi....thats great that your getting your cpa or mba...but I don't know what that has to do with this topic...just saying...

[boardman74]

Was clarifying I was giving an opinion based on business and economics not as a Tige dealer, lover or leg humper....was just saying.....

[JohnnieMo]

Just to bring this back up.... I had a rip in my observer seat. I asked the dealer if they would do anything, they said no. In the end I ordered a new skin for it. Total cost of the skin was $190 CAD. Very affordable. At that price I could do the entire interior for a couple thousand.

My point is that Tige makes the replacement vinyl quite affordable, and that in of itself is pretty decent to me. These vinyl pieces are pretty complicated and clearly hand made to order. Now I'm not sure if they are using better materials than they did in 2013, or not.

[freeheel4life]

You make a good point. Skins won't be available in perpetuity tho. For a guy that's keeping his boat a long time at some point it almost seems worth it to buy a complete set of skins before you can't get them. Keep an in a box and do everything all at once so you don't have panels with differing amounts of UV fade.

[bsreid]

How long are skins available for?

[freeheel4life]

Not sure but most parts seem to fall into the 7 year mark. Vinyl may be a different story though.

[JohnnieMo]

The skins are custom built for your boat, so I assume the skins are available as long as materials are still stocked. It's hard to say how long that might be for. Chances are they could build new skins for decades if you were willing to adjust materials slightly. However at this price, I don't see it lasting. Given the observer is the biggest skin on my boat, I would think all the others would actually be cheaper.

Buying up a supply isn't a bad idea, but that's still a lot of money to hide in the shed.

[Germaine Marine]

Every dealer usually can do upholstery in house or has someone they use. This isnt rocket science. You are outside the warranty, it sucks but it is what it is. You can either call Tige and ask them if you can buy skins or you can go to an upholstery shop and do what thousands have done and get the boat re-done and most likely better then it was originally. Many boats have upholstery issues just outside of warranty whether it be due to care, environment etc, happens all the time.

As for Tige the company, they are around for a reason. While not perfect they are right up there with the big hitters, anyone who bashes for the sake of bashing is lame IMO. As for QC, every Mfg can improve in that department. Tige is kicking *** and taking names in the strive to better QC/ overall product.

Thats all Ill say about that.

[SlalomDude]

I bought a 2013 R20 in 2014, saw upholstery seams begin to split early last summer and brought it to the attention of the dealer. I was a couple of months out of warranty by then. Seams continued to split throughout last summer The boat is stored in my attached garage year round, kept clean and well-maintained. I am now getting the dance from the dealer that they are "working on it" with Tige. They have been working on it since October. I think I know how this ends. The lead mechanic told me that the issue was a lengthy run of bad vinyl from a vendor who supplied materials to multiple boat manufacturers. Master Craft was one of them. It's just a matter of time until the vinyl goes bad, unfortunately out of warranty for many of us. The lead mechanic also said that fixing the skins would put the boat manufacturers in a tough spot financially, since so many boats were sold with bad vinyl.

Step back and tell me there isn't something wrong with this picture. Upholstery typically holds up to a lot of abuse for many years--10, 20 or more, whether the boat is Glastron, Four Winns, Master Craft or Tige, high end or low end. This upholstery issue isn't a one in ninety case of random bad luck taking place after the warranty expires, nor is it a situation of people abusing the warranty. This is a pattern resulting from defective materials hitting a large group of buyers across boat manufacturers. In the auto industry, there might be a few complaints dismissed as random, a TSB from the mfr, attempts to avoid a recall, a class-action lawsuit and then finally a recall.

[JohnnieMo]

So it turns out my fancy new skin was manufactured with the wrong vinyl. So back to Tigé it goes. Perhaps this wasn’t as easy as first advertised.

[macteacher2]

So it turns out my fancy new skin was manufactured with the wrong vinyl. So back to Tigé it goes. Perhaps this wasn’t as easy as first advertised.

Too bad Johnnie! Hopefully the new skin comes in quickly for you.

[JohnnieMo]

New skin is installed. Just need to get it back in boat.