Trouble with my Weldbilt

[KMixson]

Definitely a Weldbilt, lots and lots of c**p sorry very poor welding. Rough as guts! They did not even clean the welds after they were done. Very poor workmanship.

You got that right. I would be ashamed to send out a product I welded looking like that. I would have protested this welding job. I am not a professional welder but I can do better than that. It looks to be a lot of splatter on that job. There seems to be too much heat on some of them also. I know some welders that can make it look like a machine welded the seam. They have to because their welds are x-rayed to make sure the weld is right.

 

[onthewater102]

Safe to say Weldbilt did not earn any new customers through this. I deleted any bookmarks I had for them as a possible future build platform.

 

[mbweimar]

Thought I'd throw this out there. Here's. Comparison between Weldbilt's welds (bottom) and a kid I know in Port St. Lucie who does a lot of welding. Day and night difference. The weld on top was one that Weldbilt overlooked, so I had him fix it.

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

The difference is like night and day.

 

[surfman]

Dang I have never welded before and I bet I could do better than that. :shock:

 

[KRS62]

I would email it in to them and ask if they can identify which one was done at their factory. (I think they will know which one since you are sending it to them!) Anyway, I can't imagine that they are okay with that quality and understand that it is going out the door like that.

KRS

 

[mbweimar]

I wrote a review on Google this morning. I wrote one on Facebook too, but it mysteriously disappeared.

 

[turbotodd]

Thought I'd throw this out there. Here's. Comparison between Weldbilt's welds (bottom) and a kid I know in Port St. Lucie who does a lot of welding. Day and night difference. The weld on top was one that Weldbilt overlooked, so I had him fix it.

The bottom picture appears to be a spool gun MIG weld. The top appears to be a tigged bead. HUGE difference. But there is also a difference in pricepoint as a spoolgun and mig machine can create three times as many welds in the same amount of time it takes to make one with a tig machine. Time=money in production, unfortunately. There are boat manufacturers out there that take more pride in their work and it shows in the welds. And the price. Weldbilt was one of the brands I looked at closely when I was shopping, and I spotted the corner cutting real quick. First clue was the "commercial" rating, meaning zero floatation, meaning cheaper cost to the end user. That also shows other things such as an attempt to get as many boats into and out of the factory as possible. But that is one reason they're popular, because they're "cheap" and plentiful.

Sucks to see problems with them, well with any boat for that matter.

 

[Wyatt]

Just as Todd stated, huge difference between MIG and TIG welding! Kinda ironic being that they have "weld" in their brand name lol

 

[jimboat]

WAs the original deck carpeted floor wood ? and was it attached other than deck options? thankyou

 

[gunz]

Sorry to hear about this, Unfortunately you are not the first to find out about inferior manufacturing of these guys. A friend of mine in Alabama had to beach his boat to save it from sinking due to broken welds. Only been in the rivers down there but still broke up.

Hope you take legal action against them. As for the boat, I am not sure if I would run it, or scrap it . Make a mobile display for weldbuilt and drag it around to boat shows.

 

[skipper123]

WOW am I glad I returned to Tin boats before buying a new alu boat. I have been looking at the weldbuilt crawdad for a year and saving my nickels for the last three months to buy a brand new one. One things for sure NO FREEKING WAY will I buy a weldbuilt or drive very far to buy one. Both is a nightmare. Never thought much about long distance buying until reading this. I have to find a good 1648 close to Augusta GA

 

[mbweimar]

I'd go to Bass Pro.

 

[elrodphil]

Man! I wish I would have read this post before I bought my boat. So far my boat has done great...I had a Key West 1720 with a Yamaha 115 that was a lemon like that...awful experience! I am so sorry that happened to you...At the slightest problem I'm going to be on the road to Backwoods Landing...I only have a merc 25 on mine but man I don't want issues...