Hey tri-gliders!

I was just wondering what you guys are seeing with problems on these models.
I service 3 of these and all have some sort of issues.
So far i have seen:
Steering damper leaking
3 oil cooler mounts getting loose
all 3 had the transmission trap door bolts loosen up and the exhaust mount bolts fall out.
Left side mufflers hang down a slight bit more than the right side
Shift arm on transmission loosening up
all 3 needed rear rotors/pads at 4k-8k miles.
starter was loose
exhaust bracket at rear of trans case bolts falling out
parking brakes not working
reverse assembly loosening up

Do you guys see the same things as i do? Are my customers beating on these things? (I know they are a ton of run to ride)
I dont seem to see all the same things on 2 wheel bikes, but i was just curious. Once i fixed the issues, they didnt seem to come back at all.

 

The parking brake has been an issue since they rolled em out in 09. The lean on the left is not only the muffler, it's the whole left side on the 10's and 11's. I would add the trunk leak to the list also. Additionally, they run way too hot (until you modify em). I have a 2011 FLHXXX and the rear brakes are wearing out (grinding) at 1700 miles. Loose bolts in my opinion are a just a product of the factory they built them in (York PA) and their lack of QA.

Bubba

 

I got my tri glide this spring and after break in rode it from central canada up to and all around Alaska. I dropped it at a dealer in anchorage to run a wrench over it when i got there and they found nothing loose at all. I returned home...total round trip was over 5k miles (8k kms) I had an oil change and new set of tires installed after I got home and once again..no loose nuts and bolts...brakes were still good.I likely had enough tire left to make it the rest of the summer, but threw on a set while it was in for the service.I put just over 11k miles on the tires and as i say, they had some life left,but since it was in the shop anyway......besides, riding on suspect tires is not my favorite activity.

 

Yeah, i fixed the heat problems on them all. Went with fullsac x pipes and rhinehart 3 inch mufflers for clearance. TTS v-tuned them and life is good there. But man that heat stock was unbearable. Had to keep my right leg on a highway peg to not burn it.

Been changing the front tires at about 7-8k miles or so. No issues with the rears yet.

Didnt know about the left side lean, is there a bulliten on that?

thanks

 

We (wife and I) have two, an '09 and '11. We have had no, zero, nada, zilch problems with either. The dealer, Antelope Valley Harley goes over EVERY bike it sells, just like a dealer should before delivering it. Both bikes had slip-ons and a stage 1 intake and remap done before delivery, neither has heating problems. We live on the desert in Southern California, and have a vacation house in Arizona. Neither bike has overheated in either state, both run great. When I came to this section of the board, I couldn't believe how unhappy everyone was with their POS trikes. I never understood why someone would drop 2 or 3 grand fixing something under warranty. If your oil is running 300+ degrees, something is wrong and you shouldn't have to change the head pipes to fix a factory problem. AV Harley is to be commended for their customer service I guess. If your dealership is delivering trikes with the reverse motor falling off, it would fall back on the dealer, not the MoCo.

 

Haven't had any real problems with mine. I did the cool down stuff; Fuelmoto pipes and mufflers, air cleaner and a PCV but thats about it. I would have changed the mufflers and air cleaner anyway, so no big deal. Brakes are fine at almost 7000 miles, no leaks or hanging mufflers. Trike didn't lean at delivery either and reverse is fine.

 

I'm not trying to be smart but do you actually ride them or do you trailer them from 1 state to another. I have an 09 and the oil emp was 300 + by the HD oil temp gague I exchanged for the air temp gague in the fairing. I was fortunate there were no cats in the head pipe for 09. There are 2 reasons they run hot and they are the lean fuel mixture to meet EPA requirements and the cats in the head pipe. I'm not really sure how hundreds of TG owners could be wrong. That is beyond anything I can understand.

 

Wow talk about a laundry list of bad news. I have right around 15,600 miles on my 2010 with 80 % of the miles being freeway miles. I have the original front tire which should last me until the 20,000 mile mark. I changed the rear brake pads to Lyndall gold this past winter at 10,000 miles, could have gone another 5 - 10,000 more. I never used the parking brake and never had it adjusted, matter of fact I removed it this past winter. If I think there is a need for a parking brake I keep a Velcro strap in the windshield pouch which I use to hold the front brake on. I have had no loose trap door bolts, exhaust bolts or reverse bolts. The only thing that I've had happen with mine is the start button failed which caused the starter to engage and stay that way, luckily it happened at home and still under warranty, the servicing dealer replaced the switch and relay per HD.

My dads 09 has had a few more issues than mine and his mileage is around 70% freeway. He has about 25,000 miles and change on his. No loose trap door, exhaust, or reverse bolts. Surprising he hasn't had a steering damper go because that was a problem with some early 09's, which HD released an updated version as a replacement. He had 20,000 miles on his rear brakes when I swapped them out for Lyndall golds, could have gone about another 5,000 miles. Some of the big hitter issues he has had is leaking trunk which took a whole year before HD came out with a fix. The rear O2 sensor failed right around 15,000 miles. His start button has failed twice, once when the trike was only a few months old and the 2nd time this past July, his switch failures had the same symptoms as mine.

Maybe we've been a little more trouble free with loose parts because most of the loose stuff you've seen I have already removed and reinstalled during the various modifications the trikes have gone through. I'm pretty much convinced those who get low mileage on their rear brakes are doing the majority of their stopping with them. My dad and I both brake with the trikes just as they were 2 wheels, which is the majority of the braking being the fronts with a slight amount of rear. Both of our trikes have the original front brake pads on them yet.

 

We have a member here who lives in the desert area of Arizona and he immediately began modifications on his 2009 Triglide to deal with the heat and poor performance. Most of his modifications were cams, exhaust, tuner and oil cooler. I think I can explain why someone would spend 2 -3k on fixing something that HD should have fixed. I spent plenty of time talking with both the dealer and HD customer service when I first took delivery of my 2010 Triglide. When I told them it was under powered and running hot the dealer looked at it and both them and HD said it was normal. When my dad was experiencing 300 degree oil temps HD said it was within design limits. One of the longest phone conversations I had with HD resulted in the transmission sprocket being changed from the 32 tooth to a 30 tooth for the 2011 MY, that phone conversation lasted close to an hour.

So the long and short of it is HD perceived there to be no problems thus no warranty work provided to deal with both 300 degree engine oil temp and a burnt right calf. I will say this, folks need to do what makes them comfortable, modify or don't modify. I will be interested to see how many people reach 100,000 miles on a bone stock Triglide engine without anyone having to crack into it, I'm betting it will be very few. I'm not a casual back yard mechanic, I've built tuned and maintained a $30,000 blown alcohol racing engine along with a host of other muscle car and hot street engines over the years. Some of the changes HD has made to the Twin Cam engine over the years are purely money saving ventures with the only care is they last long enough to minimize warranty claims, after that its the customers problem.

Like my dad ask.... Do you actually ride your Triglides some distances or just putt around on short hops and trailer the long distances. I'm curious on how many miles in 1 day you ride and what the longest round trip you've ridden the trikes without putting them on a trailer.

 

His don't run hot because he doesn't have a temp gauge, no mystery there. They all run hot especially in hot areas like Arizona but if you dont know it I guess it is OK. Oldmsocko I agree all Triglide owners work hard to over come the heat problems, before I made changes which Screwball says are not needed, I saw 300 degrees several times. It would mostly run between 250 and 270, now it stays below 230 on hot days here in Carolina. I ride with a lot of trikes and all are really close in performance and other measurable areas such as heat and gas mileage, brake pad wear. I have not had any real warranty problems or loose bolt issues but I do keep a check on and do most of my own service and tech work. It has taken some effort and money to get the heat issues in hand but I feel I have reached a vector point that I can be happy with. Over all I feel the Triglide is as reliable as any Harley Davidson product which all take some TLC. Thanks, Jerry