Got my first Menard's car - Need to Replace Trucks. How to get trucks off?

looks to me that you just remove that E-clip, and the trucks will come out

That is an E clip. You need to get it off. I use pliers putting one jaw on the center pin and the other open jaw against the two ends of the clip and squeeze. It will come off.

We have a different name for those, J--us Clip, because sometimes, that's what you end up saying trying to get it off or on, or it goes flying across the room! Better then a rivet though.

Don 

It is a good idea to have a bunch of those clips.  they do fly, and other cars use then.

Also, will the MTH truck fit?  I thought it screwed on.

How about just replacing the wheel/axle sets?

Yes they will fit! There trucks are almost like the williams and mth or lionel trucks will work on it. I have changed some my older williams out to lionel trucks do to coupler height but the new WWB trucks are fine. I forgot to say if you use lionel trucks you have to buy spacer and the screws. I use to get them off of BoxcarBill if any you guys need part numbers. I can find them give them to you all.

All, 

Thanks. I'll try to yank 'em off tomorrow and get a set of MTH trucks on it pronto. I think that should solve the issues with this car's operation!

Throw it out and buy a real car from MTH or Atlas.You got the value you paid for.Nick

rockstars1989 posted:

Throw it out and buy a real car from MTH or Atlas.You got the value you paid for.Nick

I never said it was a bad car overall - just the trucks are pathetically terrible. 

I'm just not going to buy anymore. When Menards puts a good pair of trucks on their cars, with axles that actually fit, I'll buy more. I don't see the value in spending $28 (with shipping to my home) for a car then put another $20 in trucks on it. I'd rather spend the same or a bit more and buy an MTH or Lionel car from my LHS and support a local, small business. It was cheap enough that I thought I'd give it a shot and see what all the talk was about. Now I know. 

Hmm my friend has a long train of Menard's military freight cars and they track just fine. We have run them several hours at train shows with no issues at all. Rusty might mean it was an early issue car.

First, for the money they are worth it. If there is a defect, and some cars did, they will replace the car for you with no problem.

They have improved their cars and have made cars and buildings that neither MTH or Lionel have made.

I just have the flatcars, and I think the trucks are riveted on (they looked like it before I put a scribed wood floor on them).  I SAW no E clip.  I checked the axles and they look good and tight, not short.  I would have liked to replace trucks with archbars, but decided the rivets looked like too much trouble.  Not sure what period those truckframes were introduced on the protoype.

I have over 70 menards plain flat cars and run them weekly without any issues.  yes there were some issues with the first 24 but it was fun solving the issues and now menards has come through, every thing is great!!!

There has to be a joke here somewhere. Like "how to make a small fortune in Vegas---start with a big one.

i don't think the OP is grasping the concept of Menard pricing. They afford low cost items--not starter kits to turn them into high dollar items.

DMASSO posted:

First, for the money they are worth it. If there is a defect, and some cars did, they will replace the car for you with no problem.

They have improved their cars and have made cars and buildings that neither MTH or Lionel have made.

Maybe for your money they are worth it, but not for mine! 

GVDobler posted:

There has to be a joke here somewhere. Like "how to make a small fortune in Vegas---start with a big one.

i don't think the OP is grasping the concept of Menard pricing. They afford low cost items--not starter kits to turn them into high dollar items.

Maybe your not grasping my thought process. I know I'm not getting high-dollar items but if the total cost is very close to or equal to a high dollar item after the repairs (which shouldn't have to be done out of the box), it isn't really the "bargain" it started out to be. Why buy a $28 dollar boxcar and then put $20 worth of parts on it for it to work properly when I can buy a boxcar from my local dealer for $48 and support him AND not have to immediately start replacing parts just for it to work right? 

I got the trucks off my boxcar and have new MTH trucks coming to put on it. 

Sjc I will agree that if you are doubling the cost of the car to make it work to your satisfaction, it is not at all worthwhile to purchase in the first place.  That said, if it does not function at all, the particular car in question may be defective and should be returned for a replacement.  It seems most of the issues people are having are with finicky couplers, not axles and wheel gauge so it sounds like something is especially off with the car you are refitting.  It might still be worth the time to look into returning for another and see if the problem persists throughout the production run, or if it is just that you got the car made while someone was eating their sandwich,  before putting the money into fixing it.  

JGL

We call those 'E clips' 'By Gosh Clips'.......if you can get it off and then back on without it sailing across the shop you say 'By Gosh!!!'.......

I'd like to see the trucks myself.....I have not bought any of these after going scale AND having more than I need any way. 

Looked at buying Menard's. The shipping costs and on line reviews of the store put me off.

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Looked at buying Menard's. The shipping costs and on line reviews of the store put me off.

?????????????

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Looked at buying Menard's. The shipping costs and on line reviews of the store put me off.

I've bought a bunch of stuff from Menard's, the shipping costs have been very reasonable, don't know where that idea comes from!  I don't know why is figuring the shipping is excessive, but they're smoking something strong and not sharing!

Here's an order for ten boxcars to SE-PA, shipping is a lot less than most places.  Tell me another place that will ship at those prices?

John : I agree !! If I order by noon, I usually have it the next day. And as far as the shipping costs, I feel its pretty cheap. I couldn't drive to my local Menards for the price they charge.. My opinion...Bob

SJC posted:

Once I started running it, I immediately ran into issues with it on my Ross switches, particularly heavy sparking from one of the trucks. I took a look and found that the axles were so short they didn't even fit in the truck sides. Almost comically short!!!

So, I need to replace these trucks with MTH trucks. How on earth do I get these trucks off so  I can put new ones on?

Thoughts on the truck and couplers - seen lots of complaints about these. I likely won't order any again if I have to replace the trucks and couplers on each car I order. After I buy and ship the car and then buy (and ship if I can't get locally) MTH or Lionel trucks, there isn't much distance between the Menard's option and buying something from one of the bigger manufacturers from my LHS. And I'd rather support my small local guy than a large chain. At that point, I'd rather spend a few extra $$$ for something I can see before purchasing and do my small part in helping the small local guys. 

 

First of all, happy New Year everyone! 

My goodness! I’m offline for a couple days and suddenly the world goes completely to the dickens!

As of January 1^st, 2016, we have sold thousands of cars equipped with our new and improved trucks. By and large, we have had very little problems of any consequence and never a “comically short axle” problem such as you describe.

I think our reputation for customer service and replacing any product you may be unhappy with is pretty well known and I’d like to help you solve this problem.

Let’s work together for the good of our hobby here! We are not the enemy!

1. Which boxcar did you purchase? A SKU #, description and Order # would be very helpful to me.

2. Unless you are dead set on spending a lot of money replacing these trucks with another brand for reasons of your own, I’d be happy to (as I would for any customer) issue you a brand new replacement car at no cost. We’d like to bring the old one back for our engineers to study.

3. To comment on the question you started this thread with, the trucks were never designed to be routinely removed but it is a pretty simple clip mechanism that holds them on.

The type of trucks used on the boxcars and some of our 10.5” and 11” flatcars have (like many other brands of trucks) steel wheels mounted on steel axels that ride in a simple metal housing and have little contact with the outside spring/truck side piece. The side piece is really there for guidance more than anything else. Therefore, the actual length of the axle (which, incidentally, has never changed) is somewhat irrelevant to the operation of the truck.

 Occasionally, an axle can become bent and if so, it will need to be replaced or straightened.

 Please keep the axles lubricated with a little lite oil from time to time and they will roll freely.

 I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, just let us know.

Thank you,
Mark the Menards Train Guy

For the record, I have never had any problem with the Menards products. I think they are great buys.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Looked at buying Menard's. The shipping costs and on line reviews of the store put me off.

I've bought a bunch of stuff from Menard's, the shipping costs have been very reasonable, don't know where that idea comes from!  I don't know why is figuring the shipping is excessive, but they're smoking something strong and not sharing!

Here's an order for ten boxcars to SE-PA, shipping is a lot less than most places.  Tell me another place that will ship at those prices?

Yeah, that's not bad at all. I went to order one of their military flats with helicopter and the website told me that the shipping cost was same as the car purchase price. That was for a single car purchased sent to my house. I don't know what else to tell you. As far as reviews goes, I Googled Menard's reviews and read a lot of derogatory comments. While the reviews did not reference train sales in particular they were, overall, pretty negative. I really don't want to get any deeper in this discussion but offered this one rebuttal in defense of my initial post. If you are happy with Menards, by all means, shop there. If  I can get reasonable shipping I'll try an order. The O gauge stuff does look inviting.

Just read the post from Mark at Menard's. WOW Now this is a stand up guy that work for a wonderful company, to take the time to respond and address any problems here so everyone else can see who they treat the customers. Way to go Mark ! I wish more companies would take the time to see what there customers are saying about there products.

If you ask me a great company ran by wonderful caring people.

Mike

Semper Fi!

Michael, 

I don't want to get too side tracked on this one, but figure it is worth noting.  When looking at any product or company in general research on the internet you are likely to find the bad reviews will greatly outnumber the positive ones.  People generally do not bother to voice their opinion when they receive what they expect in service, or even better than expected.  On occasion folks will talk about outstanding service or products where they feel they have gotten much more than they expected, but for the most part you average joe only reports on products, services, and companies when they have had a bad experience, leading to a pool of data greatly skewed toward the negative.  

I've never heard anything bad about Menards corporate policies, but I expect them to have the same sorts of problems as any other large company with huge numbers of inexperienced, relatively low paid, hourly workers.  It IS my experience that the folks working in Menards stores are no worse than those in any of the other 'big box' stores, and that someone has always been on staff that was very knowledgeable if you needed them, with other associates directing folks to the more knowledgeable employees when needed.  

JGL

Your right about some of what you say. But from my standpoint being from Washington State, with no Menard's in site. When I went to N.D. and my first Menard's I was blown away! They had everything I needed, people who knew there stuff and I didn't have to search for someone. I just wish they could have read my mind, cause at that time I didn't know they sold train stuff.

Sure we have other big box stores here, but none of the treated me like they did when I was at Menard's. They must have one hell of a training program if they have to teach all there employees to treat the customer with pride and respect.

Mike

Semper Fi!

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Yeah, that's not bad at all. I went to order one of their military flats with helicopter and the website told me that the shipping cost was same as the car purchase price. That was for a single car purchased sent to my house. I don't know what else to tell you. As far as reviews goes, I Googled Menard's reviews and read a lot of derogatory comments. While the reviews did not reference train sales in particular they were, overall, pretty negative. I really don't want to get any deeper in this discussion but offered this one rebuttal in defense of my initial post. If you are happy with Menards, by all means, shop there. If  I can get reasonable shipping I'll try an order. The O gauge stuff does look inviting.

do the same review search with the other home improvement stores and see what you get.

I practically live at Menards.  And their return policy is one of the best I've ever seen.  Also, on their own line of hardware, they give a lifetime guarantee.  I had a tape measure stop retracting after about 5 years of use and brought it back to the store.  The model I had wasn't produced anymore and I was given an upgrade free.  

Menards posted:

SJC posted:

Once I started running it, I immediately ran into issues with it on my Ross switches, particularly heavy sparking from one of the trucks. I took a look and found that the axles were so short they didn't even fit in the truck sides. Almost comically short!!!

So, I need to replace these trucks with MTH trucks. How on earth do I get these trucks off so  I can put new ones on?

Thoughts on the truck and couplers - seen lots of complaints about these. I likely won't order any again if I have to replace the trucks and couplers on each car I order. After I buy and ship the car and then buy (and ship if I can't get locally) MTH or Lionel trucks, there isn't much distance between the Menard's option and buying something from one of the bigger manufacturers from my LHS. And I'd rather support my small local guy than a large chain. At that point, I'd rather spend a few extra $$$ for something I can see before purchasing and do my small part in helping the small local guys. 

 

First of all, happy New Year everyone! 

My goodness! I’m offline for a couple days and suddenly the world goes completely to the dickens!

As of January 1^st, 2016, we have sold thousands of cars equipped with our new and improved trucks. By and large, we have had very little problems of any consequence and never a “comically short axle” problem such as you describe.

I think our reputation for customer service and replacing any product you may be unhappy with is pretty well known and I’d like to help you solve this problem.

Let’s work together for the good of our hobby here! We are not the enemy!

1. Which boxcar did you purchase? A SKU #, description and Order # would be very helpful to me.

2. Unless you are dead set on spending a lot of money replacing these trucks with another brand for reasons of your own, I’d be happy to (as I would for any customer) issue you a brand new replacement car at no cost. We’d like to bring the old one back for our engineers to study.

3. To comment on the question you started this thread with, the trucks were never designed to be routinely removed but it is a pretty simple clip mechanism that holds them on.

The type of trucks used on the boxcars and some of our 10.5” and 11” flatcars have (like many other brands of trucks) steel wheels mounted on steel axels that ride in a simple metal housing and have little contact with the outside spring/truck side piece. The side piece is really there for guidance more than anything else. Therefore, the actual length of the axle (which, incidentally, has never changed) is somewhat irrelevant to the operation of the truck.

 Occasionally, an axle can become bent and if so, it will need to be replaced or straightened.

 Please keep the axles lubricated with a little lite oil from time to time and they will roll freely.

 I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, just let us know.

Thank you,
Mark the Menards Train Guy

Mark,

Appreciate your input. Very nice to see Menard's cares about their customers. Not something you see much these days in large "big box" stores.

Considering I've already replaced the trucks on my C&O Boxcar (yellow and blue one announced a week or two ago), I'm going to happily run it as-is. If and when I purchase more rolling stock from Menard's, I'm happy to know there is excellent support.

Menards posted:

SJC posted:

Once I started running it, I immediately ran into issues with it on my Ross switches, particularly heavy sparking from one of the trucks. I took a look and found that the axles were so short they didn't even fit in the truck sides. Almost comically short!!!

So, I need to replace these trucks with MTH trucks. How on earth do I get these trucks off so  I can put new ones on?

Thoughts on the truck and couplers - seen lots of complaints about these. I likely won't order any again if I have to replace the trucks and couplers on each car I order. After I buy and ship the car and then buy (and ship if I can't get locally) MTH or Lionel trucks, there isn't much distance between the Menard's option and buying something from one of the bigger manufacturers from my LHS. And I'd rather support my small local guy than a large chain. At that point, I'd rather spend a few extra $$$ for something I can see before purchasing and do my small part in helping the small local guys. 

 

First of all, happy New Year everyone! 

My goodness! I’m offline for a couple days and suddenly the world goes completely to the dickens!

As of January 1^st, 2016, we have sold thousands of cars equipped with our new and improved trucks. By and large, we have had very little problems of any consequence and never a “comically short axle” problem such as you describe.

I think our reputation for customer service and replacing any product you may be unhappy with is pretty well known and I’d like to help you solve this problem.

Let’s work together for the good of our hobby here! We are not the enemy!

1. Which boxcar did you purchase? A SKU #, description and Order # would be very helpful to me.

2. Unless you are dead set on spending a lot of money replacing these trucks with another brand for reasons of your own, I’d be happy to (as I would for any customer) issue you a brand new replacement car at no cost. We’d like to bring the old one back for our engineers to study.

3. To comment on the question you started this thread with, the trucks were never designed to be routinely removed but it is a pretty simple clip mechanism that holds them on.

The type of trucks used on the boxcars and some of our 10.5” and 11” flatcars have (like many other brands of trucks) steel wheels mounted on steel axels that ride in a simple metal housing and have little contact with the outside spring/truck side piece. The side piece is really there for guidance more than anything else. Therefore, the actual length of the axle (which, incidentally, has never changed) is somewhat irrelevant to the operation of the truck.

 Occasionally, an axle can become bent and if so, it will need to be replaced or straightened.

 Please keep the axles lubricated with a little lite oil from time to time and they will roll freely.

 I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, just let us know.

Thank you,
Mark the Menards Train Guy

Hey Mark MTG !   I could use your wisdom with a discontinued Alaska Flatcar with Lumber load that I just purchased in store ( not available online )   .   Enclosed are four photos of the one coupler that appears to have one end of the torsion spring protruding and the coupler does 'spring' open.   I am not sure if I could attempt to correct  this myself so I wanted your input.  If you feel this could be a defect on the original manufacture of the coupler, would you advise on what I can do ?  If Menards wants to just send me a new coupler assembly I can install that rather quickly, however, in your earlier posts you mention that QC would like to have the original product for R&D.  SKU is also enclosed.  If you know of an intuitive fix that I can do myself I would really appreciate it !

The "fix" for that is to cut off the rivet, remove the coupler knuckle, and then replace it with a new spring and rivet.  There's no other fix you'll be able to accomplish without removing the knuckle and rivet.

appears to have one end of the torsion spring protruding and the coupler does 'spring' open. 

TShearer,

Do you mean the coupler does not spring open? If that is the case, we can send you a replacement truck.

-Mark the Menards Train Guy

I've got one of the 4-car flatcar sets.  Good looking but the wheel gauge is too narrow.  The wheels are fixed on the axles and can be adjusted using care and a couple  pair of pliers, one on the wheel and one on the axle.  Only one wheel per axle needs adjusting of course.  The trucks did not have to be removed.  They work fine over switch tracks now.  RICH

Menards posted:

appears to have one end of the torsion spring protruding and the coupler does 'spring' open. 

TShearer,

Do you mean the coupler does not spring open? If that is the case, we can send you a replacement truck.

-Mark the Menards Train Guy

Good eye Mark !!     yes that is correct.  It does not spring open.  

TShearer posted:

Menards posted:

appears to have one end of the torsion spring protruding and the coupler does 'spring' open. 

TShearer,

Do you mean the coupler does not spring open? If that is the case, we can send you a replacement truck.

-Mark the Menards Train Guy

Good eye Mark !!     yes that is correct.  It does not spring open.  

Would you let me know where to send my address for sending new truck for flatcar when you have a chance.

TShearer posted:

Would you let me know where to send my address for sending new truck for flatcar when you have a chance.

Certainly,

If you would email Guest@menard-inc.com, I will make sure we get the new truck sent out right away!

Thank you,
Mark the Menards Train Guy

just love the way Menards stands behind the trains!!!

Get a bigger hammer!