B/A Products 17-1N 9-Inch Winch Roller Guide - Heavy Duty Boat Trailer Winch Roller for Smooth Loading & Unloading - Perfect for Marine, ATV, and Utility Trailers

This COULD be well made - but it is NOT! First - almost ALL of the steel - is totally BARE. Zero protection from rust and corrosion. Unless you want to count the black oil coating from the Steel Mill... Then - when my particular Winch Fairlead was made - I guess they got to the end of a tube steel - and decided that a roller which was around 3/8" too short - was 'ok'. The purchaser might not notice? So, from the photos - you can see a significant GAP on one of the rollers. If I installed it - we now have a good chance that my steel winch cable is going to go up INTO that space while pulling and it is taut - and wreck havoc on the bronze sintered bearing and also destroy the steel shaft the bearing is riding on. SO - I emailed & called the Manufacturer - for warranty assistance. The Manufacturer (B/A Products) got back to me - and stated I needed to contact the Seller (whom I had purchased it from - who had it DROP SHIPPED from the Manufacturer to ME) - and the Seller would get in contact with the Manufacturer. What total BS. I contacted the Seller and requested a replacement roller of correct length - and they soon got back to me and requested I return the entire product and they would have a replacement shipped out after they received the return. But any replacement is going to be all raw steel - and I had already taken the one I had apart - and Painted it all. The main frame work for the Fairlead - does come with a lite Zinc protective coating on it. Since I had already painted it all up - I really didn't want to have to do that again. And since use will slowly wear paint away - and I had to take it apart because it was all BARE steel - AND one roller was to stinking SHORT - I ended up ordering seamless Stainless Steel tubing (304L [NOT cheap]) - which I am going to use to fix this Winch Fairlead. So, the rollers will not rust - because they will be 304L. Or at least - significantly corrosion resistant. They DO use thick steel for the rollers - basically 0.313 thick / 1.000 ID & 1 5/8" OD And they install Sintered Bronze bearings with a 3/4" bore for some internal pins to ride on. The bearings have a 1/8" thick flange. So, they somewhat 'try' to make a quality product - but to routinely make this and have ZERO corrosion protection is just incomprehensible. And when we short a roller - cutting it to F'n short - and the customer calls you on it - you should be willing to support your product - which you made - and send them a roller of correct length! And not state that you don't deal with the customer for warranty - and you have to contact the seller - who in this case - never even saw or put their hands on the offending product - since it was DROP SHIPPED from the Manufacturer. And since I have a fairlead on my winch already - and have had it for a number of years - and that DID come with corrosion protection on the rollers and all of the product - and NOW - I wanted to get a 'tensioner' to help control cable handling - I was REALLY disappointed. Especially considering the cost of this! But B/A Products needs to do much better for their ultimate customers - the USER - and be supportive. Which they were NOT. But, I am taking care of it...