On a serious note folks.....
Peter and I have heard lots about good old USof A hospitality and the large companies producing massess of products. But NEVER have we experienced BOTH! all in one company.
For various reasons stated throughout many threads Peter and I chose to to do business with Henry and Axis Products.
Quite frankly - what sold me was the manner in which Henry was so willing to chat on the phone and explain all the in's and outs of Axis products, and talk shop in a manner that I could understand.
Although it is a fairly long distance for us to drive - we checked into the shipping and customs fees and the cost was outrageous - so we decided to make the trip worth while and used the newly aquired overlander as a special cargo trailer
who would be getting new running gear too.
We loaded up MoonBeams old leg/axle into the SS. LH and headed out on a 1100 mile round trip that we had to do in 2 days as company was coming on Sunday.
Now lets step back a bit and reiterate the service that Axis Products offers through "Henry" spending at least 2 hours on the phone with us - serveral e-mails and the amazing service of making arrangements to meet us at the factory when ever we got in. Getting off to a late (okay really late start) we ran smack into the middle of rush hour across the top of Toronto - which set us back about 2 hours. We felt really bad but our only choice now was to bring Henry in on a Saturday.
Driving straight though we arrived at about 1:00am - and not to waste any time in the morning we decided to pull up the parking lot of Axis Products.
We were expecting a small building nestled in with some conglomerates but instead we had three huge buildings with really nice parking lots to choose from with trees and nicely groomed grass for the dogs to roll in after our long trip.
With no facilities in the Overlander ....YET.... we pulled up the pads and sleeping bags and settled in with the hum of axles being made in the wee hours of the morning. Did I mention that it was HOT really HOT - sure could have used the GT and her AC!!
Not wanting to wake Henry too early we called around 8:00am and hooked up around 9:00am. We spent about 3 great hours talking axles and the process. Extremely thorough in going through all the options available from your standard items provided by Dexter at our local trailer shop - to fully protected options to help us weather our tough winters. As we have learned by experience the hard way! The running gear is the most important part of the trailer. Since we will be trailering most of the time from and to home during the meat of our winters we wanted gear that would last - and it was really nice that we could get zink coatings and galvinized coatings as options.
Henry walked us through the order form every step thoroughly explaining each item and how it would affect the axle and it's longevity.
We can honestly say there are not too many axle makers out there- if any - that would provide this level of personal attention and service to a single customer looking for a onesy twosy okay for us it was 3 - not to mention the fact that our "baby" can be safely stored inside while her new running gear was about to be installed. MoonBeam should have been so lucky - and I am sure SS.LH will tell her all about it when we get to pick her up THIS COMING FRIDAY - not that 8 week turn around on an OEM and 5 week local on a Dexter - with some fandangling
. We will pick up our plug and play and have one trailer all set to camp in and the other sitting pretty as we add some serious toys over the next year.
I'll post some pics (compliments of Henry's Camera -as I broke mine last weekend - ooohhhh I feel so naked without one!!!).
Officially Peter and I want to thank this forum for providing an opportunity like Axis Produts to be known (Via people like Lou who share their great finds with forum members) and we most certainly want to thank Henry and everyone at Axis Products who will be taking real good care of our Axle needs and especially taking care of SS.LH who is sitting in their distribution centre today.
We would love to be going to the International this coming weekend but we have a more important trip! Back to Elkhart Indiana to pick up MoonBeams new axle and the SS.LH with her new running gear.
Stay tuned for some pictures.
Thanks again Henry - we can not wait to see and feel the results of the new axles on both our rigs.
Next weekend we will be breaking out the
No more scary rides with the Globe Trotter!!
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