Monster Tower Crack

[time2kyl]

oh Kyle... what are we going to do with you?

Lay off the drugs man!!

Or at least share with the rest of us!!!

[Engloid]

My advice: Call them up and be 100% honest with them. Just come right out and ask for what you want...a replacement. If they can't do that, ask if they will give you a discount on the part or something. All they can do is say no, and if you're nice about it, you might just wind up happy with the outcome.

I will also add that with aluminum towers, some level of failure is just the nature of the beast. Any metallurgist or welding engineer would reccomend stainless steel, but who wants to pay twice as much for a tower?

Anyway, Monster Tower has been improving on their welding quality through additional training and education. These occurrances of failure will likely be fewer and farther between than they used to be. They do believe in improving their product, and failure testing has proven improvements have occurred. In other words, pulling the tower to the point of failure has proven they are stronger now than they used to be. If I'm not mistaken, the latest one pull tested didn't fail until about 1900-2200 pounds was put on it. Monster's joining efforts with XTP has helped to improve both companies.

[kko]

Here's my experience with Monster I shared a little while ago when they sent me two new board racks no questions asked or pictures required. I had chrome ones that all the chrome was peeling off of. The guy I dealt with was Chris, I can't speak highly enough about those guys.

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...stomer+service

did you go back with the chrome ones or did you switch to the brushed alum.?

[dogbert]

did you go back with the chrome ones or did you switch to the brushed alum.?

I'd stay away from the chrome ones. I have to change mine out.

[kko]

I'd stay away from the chrome ones. I have to change mine out.

yeah i agree thats why i asked him i was hoping he switched we have had much better luck with the brushed alum. ones.

[mneal]

Inherently there is nothing wrong with aluminum as a structural material, if fact it has about the best stiffness to strength ratio of the common metals (airplanes). Don't mean to sound like a ALCOA guy (I am not) but failure is certainly not nature of the beast, a properly designed aluminum structure will have a life far beyond what is required. What causes almost every metal structure to fails is not initial loading, it is repeated cycles causing a reduction in ultimate strength (fatigue). Stainless has has issues as well and although the S-N curve is somewhat better then most aluminum alloys I don't think it is as easy as saying stainless better then aluminum, pros and cons of both. It is hard to tell without seeing a good image of the the interior of the crack, but at first glance I do not think the failure was from the welding (heat effected zone). I would suspect it had to do with clamp deforming the tube in that regions causing a stress riser or something else. (pulling tubes from tower etc.) I am not a "metallurgist, but I am a mechanical engineer and minored in materials for a short while (and have stayed in numerius Holiday Inn Expresses) so I know a little about the subject

I am not sure where you are located, but take the parts to a local university mechanical engineering department head and ask them if they have anyone that is specialized in failure analysis. It is a very very common for those guys to moonlight as FA guys and I bet they would look at the parts and tell you the root cause for free. If nothing else then you would have great info to feed back to Monster.

Sorry for the long winded post, I am battling a cold and I am bit bored today.

My advice: Call them up and be 100% honest with them. Just come right out and ask for what you want...a replacement. If they can't do that, ask if they will give you a discount on the part or something. All they can do is say no, and if you're nice about it, you might just wind up happy with the outcome.

I will also add that with aluminum towers, some level of failure is just the nature of the beast. Any metallurgist or welding engineer would reccomend stainless steel, but who wants to pay twice as much for a tower?

Anyway, Monster Tower has been improving on their welding quality through additional training and education. These occurrances of failure will likely be fewer and farther between than they used to be. They do believe in improving their product, and failure testing has proven improvements have occurred. In other words, pulling the tower to the point of failure has proven they are stronger now than they used to be. If I'm not mistaken, the latest one pull tested didn't fail until about 1900-2200 pounds was put on it. Monster's joining efforts with XTP has helped to improve both companies.

[time2kyl]

Spoke with Tom and exchanged emails. Monster Tower is going to send me a new top section and a shipping label to send the damaged one back all under warranty. They rock.

[chpthril]

Spoke with Tom and exchanged emails. Monster Tower is going to send me a new top section and a shipping label to send the damaged one back all under warranty. They rock.

Sweet deal

[xpjim1]

excellent!!!

[xpjim1]

The only thing better than Monster Tower service are their models

[slacker661]

The only thing better than Monster Tower service are their models

Well said!!!

[hoopykat]

Amen, bruddah!

-Mike

[tessa]

l

[Engloid]

Inherently there is nothing wrong with aluminum as a structural material, if fact it has about the best stiffness to strength ratio of the common metals (airplanes).

Look into the grades of aluminum used. There's quite a difference. For towers, you need something that will bend well. There's not much (if any) bent tubing on an airplane. The fatigue strength of the grades of aluminum used on towers isn't anywhere near what stainless would be.

Don't mean to sound like a ALCOA guy (I am not) but failure is certainly not nature of the beast, a properly designed aluminum structure will have a life far beyond what is required.

But how many boat manufacturers are willing to pay for towers that are made out of 3" pipe? The majority of towers made are 1.5". If you put too many crossmembers in it, nobody will like the looks. If you don't put enough, it will have increased failure rates.

What causes almost every metal structure to fails is not initial loading, it is repeated cycles causing a reduction in ultimate strength (fatigue).

Are you comparing fatigue to Ultimate Tensile Strength? It's quite a bit different.

Stainless has has issues as well and although the S-N curve is somewhat better then most aluminum alloys I don't think it is as easy as saying stainless better then aluminum, pros and cons of both.

In what way is aluminum going to be stronger than stainless?

It is hard to tell without seeing a good image of the the interior of the crack, but at first glance I do not think the failure was from the welding (heat effected zone).

I believe it was a welding issue. I'm actually an AWS Certified Welding Inspector. It's part of what I do for a living. I'm not trying to criticize the company, as things like this will always happen. You just can't xray every weld on every tower. I do know they have taken some big steps in improving their welding quality. Test results have proven improvements in strength.

BTW, good to hear that Tom is taking care of this issue. He's a good guy.

[talltigeguy]

Great service! I do not think they had to do that.