Turtle Innovation

[Dees_Troy]

Turtle Innovation's site says that they would be shut down from the 13th to the 18th for an Easter break. Given that it's the 20th today, I'm a little surprised that the message hasn't been shut down.

I placed an order with them for a delrin body last week. I asked for a few "extra" things including that a few parts be anodized, so I expect it to take longer than a week. Turtle was good about responding to my emails before my order and answering several questions I had. I'll keep you all posted on my progress. I don't have an estimated date for completion yet, though.

I have owned a couple of Turtles before, and they were well machined and worked quite well.

[Dees_Troy]

Good news and bad news...

Good: I received my body and the CCM Featherweight front block today.

Bad: It didn't come with a bolt, back block, pump arm, or bolt pin.  I also gather that Turtle normally uses the WGP mini front block with integrated ASA so I am ordering my own ASA separately.  Also, my feedneck was not anodized black, but that would have probably resulted in another 2 week delay.  Given that the clamping feedneck port covers most of the feedneck, I can paint what will be visible pretty easily.

They are overnighting me the cocking assembly which should arrive by Thursday afternoon.

[Dees_Troy]

The cocking assembly arrived yesterday, so I finally have pretty much everything I need to build the new marker and am finally done dealing with Turtle Innovation on this saga.  I hope to finish my builds this weekend, and, at that time I will take pictures and provide some feedback on the parts themselves, build quality, and functionality.

The service, communication, and speed obviously leave plenty to be desired.  The delrin bodies are a new product, and, in less than a month, from the sounds of things anyway, they have been through a few revisions to fix problems with the feednecks and to install an aluminum sleeve for the valve chamber to prevent leaks.  Still, paying customers shouldn't be left in the dark and should be told about delays as soon as problems arise.  A quick mass email could have saved a lot of grief.  Once I got hold of Robert Long himself, things went a lot better.  Before that time, I felt like my emails were just getting a "standard" answer to get me to go away.

[Dees_Troy]

Pics are going to have to wait until at least sometime tomorrow.  I found and reported a problem with the aluminum sleeve this morning.  The lip where the valve is supposed to seat was right at the valve hole.  This meant that the MQ valve (or any valve) can't line up with the valve hole.  With any valve, this meant poor efficiency and higher pressures.  With the MQ, things are teetering on a balance, so I couldn't increase the pressure too far before it started leaking.  I installed an extra spacer on one of the springs (included with the MQ for minicocker owners) and, when I increased the pressure again, the valve O-ring came unseated and pushed into the valve hole.

Anyway, the good customer service came out this time.  Bob and his machinists took a look at it after I left my message and noted the problem.  They are overnighting me a corrected aluminum sleeve that I should receive tomorrow (I'm going to D-Day on Friday this week, so I need it ASAP).  If you or anyone you know has recently received a delrin body with aluminum sleeve, contact him and he will arrange something for you.  Bob said he would be trying to contact everyone that received one of these parts as best he could.  Later parts won't have this problem.

A side note:  Bob may also be installing a set screw to hold the aluminum sleeve in place so that it doesn't move when you install a valve.  He originally figured that the front grip frame screw would hold it in place, but usually the frame is removed along with the valve set screw when you are installing a valve.  I managed to screw my IVG in too far and push my sleeve out a ways.  If you don't have this set screw, be sure to drop your grip frame screw into the front hole until you have finished installing your valve including the valve set screw.

This whole process has become quite the saga...

[Autockr01]

What is Bob's phone number over at Turtle??

[Snowman]

What is Bob's phone number over at Turtle??

First thing I would like to ask is that there is no flaming of Turtle Innovation or any of it's employees. I whant to know if anyone has had a good experience with turtle. 350 for a one color body kit cannot be beat, but many have had bad bussiness with turtle... and than again they continue to assure costomers their new location has solved everything.
thanks
Snowman

Please keep questions on topic... I just cleaned 6 pages of crap... as for getting the number e-mail him or PM any of the people in this thread who have had experience with turtle(Dees-troy,Stevenscocker,blackbean).
Thanks
(P.S. please let me know when you've read this so I can delete it)