Good Service in Fyshwick ACT

The failure was not lack of lubrication, nor was it the brake grabbing. Two of the rollers in the outer (smaller) race had fallen out and one of the larger race rollers had fallen out too. I have never seen such a failure. Naturally, I am going to replace both wheels (and get a spare set as well), and definitely NOT from PRC. The bearings they put in were the original replacements which I received from AL-KO, which I replaced about 20000 km back. (That is an even longer story...) The AL-KO bearings had done nearly 70000 km and whilst serviceable, I thought that they should be replaced. Obviously the replacement didn't last as long. This may well be simply an unfortunate failure - a roller may have had a defect. Sadly I will never know because I didn't bring the dead bearings back with me, so I don't even know who made it.

I had kept the old bearings because they looked OK and may be useful in case of emergency. Glad I did. I had pre-packed the rollers with fresh grease and kept them in a tub of grease so that I could replace them on the roadside if required. It would be a case of just bop out the old bearing cups and races and then insert the new ones. The problem was that I was having a severe asthma attack at the time and the heat was making it worse, so there was no way I could do anything. I couldn't even jack the van up yesterday. I was lucky that I was so close to a service centre. Imagine if I was between Alice and Yulara, or similar...

There are a number of "big name" global bearing manufacturers today, who source their bearings from any factory in the world.

They also have less-than-stellar QC in place, with the result that numbers of their bearings suffer premature failure. Let's just call it the "Chinese-ation" of global supply chains.

These manufacturers will not put on the boxes where those particular bearings were made.
I believe this is a deliberate obfuscation to lull customers into relying 100% on their "brand name" for the bearing quality, rather than the country of manufacture.
I personally believe this is a marketing stunt doomed to failure.

I am not going to list those manufacturers, but they are particularly well known, and their names start with "SK" and "Ko".
I have both sighted those "brand name" early failures and also experienced them myself, from bearings I have purchased and fitted.

As a result, I am now very reluctant to buy those brand names, unless I can specifically see "country of manufacture" listed either on the box or on the bearing.

Naturally, you buy bearings from China at your risk, even if they come in a "brand name" box.


Good to read good feedback as a result of highly satisfactory customer service.

The old signs used to read, "Poor customer service, tell us (the business) - Excellent customer service, tell others" - but I believe the technique of public feedback on the internet relating to the level of service received, is quite important in todays world - so much so, the managers of many businesses follow feedback on many sites, and reply with alacrity to perceived or actual poor customer service.

I have had two experiences in recent times as regards feedback that resulted in positive improvements.

I bought a Smeg dishwasher several years ago, that performed so badly with electronic faults, that I went onto Product Review and related my woes and disgust with the machine.

Within hours, the manager of Smeg Australia came onto the P.R. site and replied to my gripe and negative feedback with an offer to fix the problem with a new replacement machine at no cost.
I contacted him and his customer service was superb and he did exactly as he said he would.

Unfortunately, the replacement machine was no better than the one I purchased previously, they just simply suffered from dud electronics.
I sold the replacement machine about 12 mths later, to a buyer who I suspected was installing it in a display home.
I just wanted to get rid of it, it was nothing but trouble.

But I couldn't fault Smeg Australia's customer service, it was faultless - but it's a shame their product was below par.

In the same vein, I bought a plastic fuel tank filter for a 13HP Briggs and Stratton on a 4000psi pressure washer (a Chinese B&S of course), from a local mower parts supplier - and got ripped to the tune of $27 for this tiny plastic filter.

I left negative feedback for the mower supplier, about how they were ripoff merchants - and within a couple of hours, the manager of the business was on the phone to me, extremely concerned about the negative feedback.

He explained that the Briggs & Stratton company set the prices and he generally had little say in what those prices were.
I explained that I was cheesed-off, because the engine was Chinese, the parts were Chinese - yet they were charging as if the parts were American-made.

He said he would be in discussions with B&S in the next few days and would bring up my complaint, and see what pressure he could exert.

To my great surprise, he called again a few days later and gave me the news that B&S had agreed to reduce the price of the tap to a more reasonable $15, and that I could come back in, and they would give me a $12 refund.

I did so, and the manager asked if I would modify my negative feedback to better represent their high level of customer service.
I did so, and left them highly positive 5 star feedback, which I believe they rightfully earned.

Cheers, Ron.

The old Lloyds caravans were in Kembla Street - when sold this business became Canberra Caravan and 4X4 Centre (an Iron man dealer).

Now there is a new Lloyds Caravans business located in Tennant Street which I assume is the owners of the old business starting back up after the original business was sold - obviously the business was sold but not the name.

Erad, you generally can't go wrong with genuine Timken bearings.
I have never heard of TCL or TSR bearings, and I can find no company information on either brand markings. I'd have to say they were Chinese bearings.

Anytime you need to remove bearing races for replacement, and they are exceptionally tight - take your electric welder, and run a small bead of weld, moving fairly fast, over about a quarter of the circumference of the bearing race.

Allow to cool, and the bearing race will fall out with a few taps.
The weld shrinks as it cools, and thereby shrinks the bearing race, making removal easy.

After removal with the welding bead stunt, just make sure you thoroughly clean the inner area of the hub, to remove any weld slag or spatter, that could come off later, and cause new bearing failure.

Cheers, Ron.