Winch line? Synthetic replacement

DWiggles said:
Well I ordered my Viking winch line from quadratec, the only problem is, it doest say viking on it at all nor did it come with a Viking branded thimble. I contacted quadratec, and they insured me that it authentic... so I contacted viking just to make sure... I'm waiting on a reply from them probably tomorrow. But here is what I received from quadratec... $450 is a LOT for a non authentic winchline if that turns out to be the case...
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So here is what Viking has to say regarding the product I received:

"Hi, Dwiggles

Thanks for this information. We were unaware. It's likely a benign error on behalf of Quadratec and UTP. UTP is the company with which we formalized an agreement to make our winchlines and to work directly with our old dealers. We get a commission from the sales that occur from UTP to our old dealers for all Viking Offroad namebrand products. We still control the Viking namebrand, the design of our products, and the online store. We discontinued the manufacturing and sale of Viking Safety Thimbles due to a disagreement with the guy that made the Safety Thimble and had us actively selling it.

We did communicate with UTP that the production and sale of the Safety Thimble was discontinued by us, the Viking Offroad namebrand, and had seen that UTP created an item that looked simliar to the Safety Thimble. We didn't agree with that move, but it wasn't our place to direct them not to do it. I suspect what you have is possibly their copy of the Safety Thimble. We were aware that they were selling it on their own winchlines. What I'm not sure of is whether they installed that Safety Thimble on winchline or whether Quadratec purchased it separate from the winchline and installed it separately. I don't even know for sure whether the winchline you have is a Viking winchline because UTP sells their own winchlines, and some of them look similar to ours. We're OK with that. We're not OK with a product that is not a Viking namebrand product being sold as one.

We're friend s with both Quadratec and UTP, so I believe there could have simply been a misunderstanding in communication of what was acceptable to do, or it's possible that there was simply an error in the fulfillment of your order. Could they have accidentally sent you a winchline that was not a Viking winchline at all? I don't know. Please explore that with Quatratec. On our side, we will figure it out with UTP so that they can be in touch with Quadratec about it and correct the situation.

Before I do anything else, can you please send me pics?

~VIKING~"

I followed up with pictures and received the following responses:

"Thanks for this, Dwiggles. I contacted the parties that need to know and I expect that Quadratec already contacted you today. I waited until now to contact you in order to give them the opportunity to reach out to you. In a nutshell, though, this appears to have been a packaging error made somewhere between Quadratec and Ultimate Trail Products (the company we sold the rights to make Viking Products in-house and to have our old dealers, including Quadratec). That item on the line is not a "Safety Thimble;" it is a product made by Ultimate Trail Products called the "Fairled Thimble," and it would appear to have the same function. However, Viking had nothing to do with its design or manufacture, and it has never endorsed that product. We don't have anything positive or negative to say about its functional integrity because we simply have never tested it or personally used it.

I don't believe there was any deliberate effort to sneak in a different product; that wouldn't make any sense and we know that Quadratec and Ultimate Trail Products are good companies because we've known them for years. Nonetheless, you didn't get what you believed you were paying for. Quadratec now knows that, and I am pretty sure they're going to contact you with a reasonable solution if they haven't already.

~VIKING~"

I have yet to hear anything else from Quadratic regarding this issue. But it does seem like viking is confident the line is authentic, just not the thimble. Which I guess I can live with, I only wish it wasn't misrepresented on quandratec's site. HERE because Being able to put a shackle though the thimble was a BIG plus for going with "the viking safety thimble" over the Factor55... I'll keep updates as They come... May try to call quadratec and see what they have to say.
 
DWiggles said:
I have yet to hear anything else from Quadratic regarding this issue. But it does seem like viking is confident the line is authentic, just not the thimble. Which I guess I can live with, I only wish it wasn't misrepresented on quandratec's site. HERE because Being able to put a shackle though the thimble was a BIG plus for going with "the viking safety thimble" over the Factor55... I'll keep updates as They come... May try to call quadratec and see what they have to say.
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Well, at least they gave you a damn-good detailed response. Hopefully they'll get it handled for you.
 
^^^ I had the same issue as you DW. I didn't pay nearly that price though. Wondering if Viking is supplying the product images, but the fulfillment is elsewhere...thus the mid-match. My line had zero indicators it was Viking other than a piece of paper I side the shrink wrapped package.

Long story short, I returned the "Viking" line and went with a stronger MasterPull line for basically the same price. I kind of scored on this front!

I don't really blame Qtec on this as I thing they are in the middle of a Viking production and supply issue.
 
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