Anyone have problems with the American Adventure Labs?

[Alpine Warthog]

I installed the AAL slimline fender chop, and now about 4 months later, the passenger side DRL (white lights) have pretty much stopped working. The Amber turn signal works fine but the white lights show up when they want to. Which is pretty much never. Anyone else have problems with theirs?

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[Alpine Warthog]

Found my problem. I disconnected the lights and then took the connector apart. Sure enough there was corrosion and arcing marks in the ground wires in the connectors. Pulled the terminals apart, gave em a good cleaning and a fresh round of dielectric. Boom, all better. Hopefully I put enough in there to keep water from coming back in

 

[JTdiRtyD]

From what I've read AAL products are good quality. They had issues with delivery times for a while but I think thats been resolved with their computer system upgrade and a revamp of their processes.

I'm looking at getting their modular front bumper soon. I've been looking at the slim line fender chop as well, but I want to wait until I toss 37s underneath.

 

[Alpine Warthog]

From what I've read AAL products are good quality. They had issues with delivery times for a while but I think thats been resolved with their computer system upgrade and a revamp of their processes.

I'm looking at getting their modular front bumper soon. I've been looking at the slim line fender chop as well, but I want to wait until I toss 37s underneath.

I've only bought the fender chop lights and the packout first aid sign kit from them and it's been a very mixed bag. The sign kit came with screws too long and the panels weren't even tapped for the screws. The metal tabs used to hold the sign to the packout are rusting and leaving rust marks all over the lid. Took it back apart and rust converted them to stop the rust, replaced the wrong screws with a trip to Lowes and then tapped the panels myself. Not a horrible amount of work but it was still disappointing.
The fender chop kit came with the wrong brackets. (Rubicon brackets instead of overland) They shipped out the correct brackets quickly enough but still. Lots of little things.

 

[JTdiRtyD]

I've only bought the fender chop lights and the packout first aid sign kit from them and it's been a very mixed bag. The sign kit came with screws too long and the panels weren't even tapped for the screws. The metal tabs used to hold the sign to the packout are rusting and leaving rust marks all over the lid. Took it back apart and rust converted them to stop the rust, replaced the wrong screws with a trip to Lowes and then tapped the panels myself. Not a horrible amount of work but it was still disappointing.
The fender chop kit came with the wrong brackets. (Rubicon brackets instead of overland) They shipped out the correct brackets quickly enough but still. Lots of little things.

Interesting. Good to know.

As much as I hate to say it, I've been having better luck with non-US companies lately. Everyone says to support US companies, but IMO those companies need to step their game up, especially when it comes to quality control and customer service. Non-US companie are getting better at producing quality products at better prices and often times have far better customer service.

 

[Alpine Warthog]

Well, It broke again, so I took the light off the truck and pulled the harness apart. I have to say, this is probly the lamest wiring I've ever seen. They changed gauge size right after the pigtail and then the heat shrink tubing isn't even fully tightened down. (Look real close in the pics) The blue wire and white wires were completely separated. They are crimped together (you can see the green corrosion on the blue wire where I peeled the heat shrink off).

This is really frustrating. There have to be better ways to do a wire gauge change. And on a $400+ set of lights to boot. I sent the photo off to AAL, lets see what they say. These were installed in September. Driver's side is still working but I'm going to have to pull that apart as well, just to ensure it doesn't go bad as well.

 

[JTdiRtyD]

As far as stepping down gauges, theres better options vs just crimping like they did, but it's not uncommon to do it that way and if done right it wouldn't be an issue. If they would have used a better quality heat shrink with glue then it would have been plenty good, but the poor heat shrink allowed the smaller wire to flex too much at the crimp and it caused it to break.

It sucks seeing things like this. I get it, they want to make it as cost effective and easy on their end, but I expect a quality product regardless the price point.

 

[Alpine Warthog]

As far as stepping down gauges, theres better options vs just crimping like they did, but it's not uncommon to do it that way and if done right it wouldn't be an issue. If they would have used a better quality heat shrink with glue then it would have been plenty good, but the poor heat shrink allowed the smaller wire to flex too much at the crimp and it caused it to break.

The heat shrink is definitely what what let them down. Didn't even fully shrink down to seal the smaller wire. Once it warms up, I'm going to pull both lights off and rewire these. And since I've got a tazer and can set the truck to LED, I'm going to see if I can eliminate that annoying heat sink too

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