Menards Metal Trucks - can they be swapped out for another brand?

Mark, send it back to Menards. Let them send you a new one or just get your money back. It's a shame you have to do this. Until their quality improves and I'm beginning to wonder if it ever will.

A lot of times it’s just the axle that’s bent a little. You can carefully straighten it out by hand or small pliers. You also can bend and straighten wheel with pliers. Sometimes easier than sending back.

You can swap the trucks, but it is some work.

I used MTH trucks for some Menard's boxcars.  I had to drill out the old truck rivet to free the Menard's truck, drill the mounting hole in the car frame out a bit to match the mounting post of the MTH truck, then use a washer to minimize the wobble, and then mount the MTH truck with the matching screw.

Thanks for all the replies.
Jim - eBay purchase, sold as new, seller has already accepted the return.

Ron - to my eye, doesn’t appear to be a bent axle, but it certainly could be.

GRJ - thanks for the pointers, but, it’s already going back.

Turn the car upside down and spin wheel and you can see where wheel wobble is and tweek.

I stick Lionel sprung trucks on my Menards cars. I just use the washer that the Menards cars come with and then I don't tighten the screw down too tightly. So far nothing has wiggled loose. Maybe I'll pay dearly in a few years though.

I use MTH trucks

Just some feed back. Seller accepted return, issued a full refund, but didn’t want broken merchandise returned. So, I boldly decided to attempt a truck swap.
Shell removal, simple - 4 corner screws. Truck removal - not as simple. Trucks were mounted on stamped metal floor with “E” clamps (nuts?) attached to rivet. Popped them off with a mini flathead screwdriver.
Ron - you’re 100% correct. All 4 axles were bent, probably when wheels were pressed on. Trucks swapped out for K-Line. Looks OK. K-Line coupler shank a little short, but so far no derailments on O-36 track.

Yup, that’s what I found on those an axles. Glad you have a fix.

I will say this - I will not again buy another Menard’s product, until they get a handle on QC at their Chinese facility.

Found a photo of a boxcar, mint, sealed, and both axles were out of the journals.

@BillYo414 posted:

I stick Lionel sprung trucks on my Menards cars. I just use the washer that the Menards cars come with and then I don't tighten the screw down too tightly. So far nothing has wiggled loose. Maybe I'll pay dearly in a few years though.

I do exactly the same thing. In my experience most of the problem has been with the tightness of the truck to the underframe of the car. ie, the wheels don't wabble but the entire car wobbles on the truck. I've added weight, but the only thing that does it is replacing the truck with whatever I have left over.

A trick I heard about on the forum, and it works perfectly. You don’t have  to replace wobbly Menard box car  trucks. Take shell off, just four screws. Then take thin plain wire and wrap it under and around washer between washer and base of frame than cut off remainder. Two or three times around usually does it. You can always do a little more to make tighter. No more wobble!!! Bam. I did it on most all of wobbly Menard box cars.

@LT1Poncho I've been wanting to revisit and find a better solution but the boxcars have rolling so it hasn't found a high enough spot on my priorities. I'll get around to it one of these days.