Thank you I called that number as well and just keep getting transferred. It does suck big time. My wife and I went on a charity ride today on ours and I hung back from the pack and made sure I was the last one in the pack. I don't push it now like I was when I found it. The odd thing about mine though is that it takes corners like a dream. The only thing that really made me think some thing was wrong was the fact that you had to keep so much pressure on the right grip so the damn thing would go four wheeling in a field. That got me started on a search to find out why it was doing and that's when I saw the belt was too tight and it was misaligned on the pulley.

The dealership where I got this is coming to get mine on 6/22 but I'm not done with this and never will be because whatever process they use to inspect bikes is broken. They should have seen how badly the belt is misaligned and any attempt to fix that would have resulted in them finding the issue at hand. So something happened at the dealership and I told them if it happens again and I hear about I will come forward. The fact of the matter is I know enough people that go there from all walks of life and professions and there are a good number of those professions that do charity work or need charity work. Police, fire, vets, etc. I participate in a lot of that stuff with them so it's more likely than not that if something does occur I'm going to hear about it.

The dealership that just got involved and did an eval of the whole bike told me they have seen this issue and the brake issue I've report before but they think what they are seeing is odd. So my question then was a definition of odd and they said they've only seen it on trikes with a lot more miles than mine. I frankly don't see how a dealer could get away with saying that is a bearing and there for a wear item to anyone and refuse to fix it. Yes, it's a bearing but by design they are built to last for many many miles. We can all see that in people that ride around us. I have a friend that is 77 years old, been riding since he was 16 and not just putting around since then. He still rides across country at his age including Alaska. I can't even count the number of touring bikes he's had but I know all if them had over 100,000 miles on them when he got rid of them and not one of them has shown this issue. There are many others that haven't been effected by this. Therefore, anything that falls short of that and is much lower miles has to be a defect of some sort and I'll argue that to the bone.

An independent mechanic who I've known for 31 years start his career as a HD mechanic. He moved around a few times in the 10 years or so that he worked for dealerships but having his motorcycle repair shop was his dream and he pulled it off. He has enough customers to live very comfortably and i know a pretty good number of them. He came over to my house and looked at it then we took it over to his shop to look at it. He has better tool to measure things like axle alignment than I do. So he looked at it and he has the same opinion he's seen it before but on higher mileage bikes and trikes but something is wrong here. He does around $300,000 in parts from the dealer above that I mentioned and he trailers his customers bike to that dealer for warranty work. He was the person that made arrangements for me to take it to the dealer above and get evaluated immediately

This is going to grow. Some people with get theirs fixed and others are going to get rejected. That's why people need to come together on it and help others who fail to get theirs fixed. I don't know how to make that happen unless HD gets involved and I have so failed at that. So as I said, and given the number of people that are seeing it, ask that dealer to help me get this up the chain.

Please stay in touch. My email address is in here too.

 

i agree with you ! what happens at the dealerships is they don't care to look for defects. either that or they are told not to look. do i hear RECALL anyone ? this issue should be taken care of with updated parts, maybe urathane bushings ? something way more heavy duty than those rubber pieces of crap. the whole [roblem here is harley just retrofitted parts to make a three wheeler instead of really designing something just for the three wheel application. substandard parts is the norm with HD. everyone needS to file a complant with the NHTSA and and maybe something could be done. after all it's OUR lives on these bikes.

 

The mechanic at my dealer said in a two wheel bike those should last 100,000 miles. The big thing that will wear those out is towing a trailer. He said it is the side thrust from the trailer pulling from side to side. Mine are worn but not bad yet at 12800 miles. Never pulled a trailer.
THEORY : While the 2 wheeler has little side thrust, mostly leaning into turns putting most of the thrust up & down on the arm.
Trikes put pressure sideways on every turn. When you hit a bump or pothole with only one rear wheel it is like a sledge hammer hitting the bushing on both sides. One side forward & one side rearward all at once. A 2 wheeler puts impact rearward at the same time dividing the impact between both sides, so less impact. The bushing for a trike is a different part number from an ultra 2 wheel.
He also said that polyurethane bushings would be very rough riding and would tear up the frame tube.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT......

 

My '13 Triglide is in the shop for the "wandering" issue and they have replaced both rear axles and axle bearings and the panhard rod. The bike is supposedly ready for me to pick up. We'll see if the wandering problem is fixed. I will check the rubber swingarm bushings as soon as I can and post what I find. BTW, my bike has around 15 k miles on it.

 

make sure they look at all the engine mounts and the top engine mount dog bone that goes to the front head. i think once the swingarm bushings go it won't be long before everything else is out of wack. those top motor mount bolts are known to break on the trikes, at the head and at the frame.

 

Man, that is a bummer to look at those photo's.

I'm more inclined to think it is an assembly issue or alignment issue more than a fundamentally defective design.

I remember checking my 2011 many years ago and was surprised to see if off center, but if I recall correctly, the design does not call for them be centered.

On my '11 there was very little wear on my rubber bushings...there was some, but nothing like the photos above.

That TG had a lot of hard miles on it. All the way to the arctic circle and back, Yukon Territories, countless powerslides and wheelies, over 10K miles pulling a trailer, and over 50K miles total when it was last looked at.

I just went out and looked at my 2014. It has not seen any easier riding...my favorite thing is to power thru the curves, and if I'm lucky to break the back end loose and drift. This puts a LOT of lateral stress on the swingarm.

It has close to 45k miles on it, and you can see in the photos below that the rubber bushings are in very good shape. There was a very small amount of rubber shavings in the bottom, but not enough to fill a thimble between the two of them.

Left Side-






Right Side-

 

mine is off center big time and i can look in and see all the way to metal. it was full of rubber slivers. i jacked it up and can watch the pivot shaft move down into place where it should be.

 

sure would like to see your pic's and parts list.

 

The new bushing is offset on the hole. To what side I don't know. But in the photos of new bushings it is offset.

 

Hey Sloufoot, did the dealer say anything about the worn bushings being a regular wear item? I have an extended warranty and it's like pulling hen's teeth to get MOCO warranty people to pay for some items. The dealer service writer has to word the request for replacement certain ways for them to cover some parts. Really sucks. As I mentioned in another thread, I'm stuck paying for a new panhard rod because it's wear was "consequential" damage because another part failed. Kinda makes you want to buy a Honda.