mvweebles
Guru
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
- Messages
- 7,745
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Weebles
- Vessel Make
- 1970 Willard 36 Trawler
Okay, that makes sense, although it is unfortunate. For me, a company requiring a wire transfer to pay for their product would be a HUGE red flag. . . . Maybe they've had a history of people purchasing with CC's, who they treated shabbily, and who disputed their charges?!? I like to have some recourse in the event the purchase goes south. I did note where you approved the change to 12 volt, but it is unacceptable that they left it for you to finish the engineering/spec'ing of the final part of the installation. Thank you for the heads up, Wesmar is now permanently off my list of stabilizers that I want to put in.
Given the cost of the system, even a small one, a wire transfer did not strike me as unusual, especially from a company with whom I've seen in the trade for so long. But as I say, they had a change in ownership a couple years ago, so maybe something changed.
To start the process, I filled-out an online form to give Wesmar some info to qualify me (size, location, etc.). Their form hasn't changed in the 6-months since I initially contacted them - you can find it HERE (note the pull-down menu that asks for 12v or 24v system). When the system showed-up, I saw it was a 24v system. No problem I thought - we'll just swap-out the controllers for a 12v system. No need to ship the heavy stuff back, right? Wrong - first, it ain't that simple. Second, 24v is the only flavor produced these days. The 12v system is simply not made. Wesmar immediately went into defense mode and claimed the only way this could happen is if I authorized it, and I must of done so during one of the phone calls or they would have never done it. Now, I can tell you that I've been around boats long enough to recognize 24v and 12v components aren't interchangeable. Why Wesmar would think that a 36-foot boat built in California would be anything other than 12v is beyond me, but that's their story.
To their defense, what I did find was on the original invoice - the one that I paid via wire transfer, was a very long laundry list of parts. Buried in the middle of about 75 line-items is a controller that, as part of a long part number, the alpha/numeric "24v" is indeed included. I just wasn't looking that closely since I clearly ordered a 12v system.
The tragedy of this though is that this is a very well known conversion. I guess small plane avionics bump into this all the time and there are some very high quality 12v to 24v step-up converters available (I purchased a Newmar for about $350 or so). They are small, reliable, and compact, but you do need to size them properly (I ended up with a 9A@24V to give some idea). As a matter of fact, I looked at a Naiad quote I received and they had included a $500 12v to 24v transformer as part of their package (I'm pretty sure they use the same Eaton controls Wesmar uses).
The 12V/24V workaround I received from Wesmar was two 12v Group 31 batteries in series with a 24v charger - basically, what is needed for a 24v thruster on a 12v boat, and way overkill for ~10A of power requirement for the controls on the stabilizers (only the controls - heavy lifting is done by hydraulics, of course). After some googling, I discovered the 12V to 24V transformer so asked Wesmar about it - that's when they really shut-up, and would not provide the power requirement needed so I could size it (their manual was blank on this). Someone on this forum gave me the name of a technician at Wesmar who quietly answered my question about power requirement, and I ordered the appropriate sized Newmar. Problem solved, but it's a shame I had to re-invent the wheel. Simple question took hours/days to resolve.
Now, when I originally posted this tale of woe, I got a few comments about using a qualified installer which I did, albeit a small one that doesn't install a ton of systems. Definitely would have helped, but I am still baffled as to why Wesmar couldn't answer some very simple specification questions, especially since I'm the guy writing the check. Even if I was entirely off-base (and I wasn't, though I did get a bit pissed-off at times so may not have been as nice as I might otherwise have been), I'm stunned the CEO ignored my repeated messages.
Bottom line, in my opinion and in my experience in this very expensive (to me) transaction, there was a misunderstanding that could have been easily resolved had Wesmar been more focused on solving a problem versus denying their culpability and going into radio-silence mode. I cannot speak for others, all I can say is I'm really sorry I chose them for my stabilizers. I hope they work well. And I do appreciate the technician who assisted, even though he did so on the DL.
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