Thank you for your report . It is very nice to know the good
and bad about those boats from someone like you.
No BS, just the way it is.
Thank you again.
Peter
Got email from Derek at NFO. My CF oars and repair kit shipped today and I got a tracking number.
The bag I ordered is out of stock and they don’t make them any more, so Derek said he would upgrade me to the roller duffel which normally costs more. That’s great, but they don’t have any of those in stock either, but some are due in sometime, so I wait for the bag.
I’m jazzed about the oars though! I’m headed up to Baum Lake again next Thursday through Sunday, so will have plenty of time to get used to the new ride.
SWEET!!!
Posted some pics of the anchor, rod holder and stripping apron setup: http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/Boats/...03723509_3TdAt
Posted some pics of the anchor, rod holder and stripping apron setup: http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/...23509_3TdAt
I love those photos from Eastern Sierra in fall. October
is a MUST for me. I make the trip every year.
Thank you for sharing.
Peter
Is there a trolling motor mount option for your Rampage? Off the back – where the anchor is?
Is there a trolling motor mount option for your Rampage? Off the back – where the anchor is?
Not really. You can put the whole Outlaw X5 frame in it backwards and run it Zodiac style, then you can use either a gas or trolling motor. But the standard boat has no way to accommodate one… there is no frame.
I would say if you want to go motorized, the Outlaw X5 (same size) would be far better.
I can see some advantages to both the framed and frameless style. I was just wondering if there were some in between options available.
In looking at them –
I like the frameless for its light weight, compact storage size, and its portability.
The framed version looks good for motors, cargo, and the standing up option.
Both of them look great if you want to float some moving water, or just float still water.
I haven’t put a motor on my own regular pontoon boat yet, but I am considering it as a good way to help me get back to port.
I wish I was rich!! I would love to try some of these new style “toons” out.
In spite of my having specified they ship the CF oars to me at my work address, they shipped them to my home, where there was nobody to sign for them. So I took a vacation day today to meet the UPS guy.
Box looks kinda small. Opened it up and assembled them.
They not only shipped to the wrong address, they shipped the wrong oars.
These CF oars are only 5’ 3" long. The stock aluminum oars are5’11" long and Dave Scadden told me the CF oars for the Rampage are 6 1/2’ long, so these are over a foot short. They won’t work on my boat. You can’t even put them into the stowed position, the blades run into the side bags.
I called (no answer, left a message on voicemail) and backed that up with email and asked that they ship the correct ones overnight as I am headed out on a trip tomorrow night. I told them I will pay for a second set so they can do the cross-ship, but they need to pay the overnight replacement shipping and the return shipping.
No response. Yet.
Wish they were the right size, because they are pretty cool looking.
That really sucks about the oars. By now I heard many
good and bad things about Scadden organization.
The bottom line is that they make a great product but
the customer service is not the best.
Best of luck with that and have a great trip.
Peter
I think it would be more correct to say they sell a good product. I don’t think they actually make anything except promises they often can’t keep.
I believe the boats are made in New Zealand by Incept. The CF oars are made by Sawyer. The frames are made by someone else and then powder coated by yet another someone else.
Absolutely no answer at all from them to my phone message or email, even though I let them know about this early yesterday morning.
Dave Scadden is a designer and a salesman, and he’s great at both of those. As the manager of a company, he could use some work.
That is too bad about the mix up on address and size. Not sure why/how that happens.
All the shows going on right now and the orders, it does get crazy out there.
They are selling thousands..but I agree, they need to step up shipping and handling.
I know they are trying…did I mention I was offered this position.. LOL
NFO told me the 5’3" yellow cf oars I received from them would work. They won’t. They are so short that the blades run into the side bags and you can’t stow them. They are a full 8" shorter than the stock aluminum 5’11" oars.
NFO says that they don’t have 6 1/2 foot ones like Dave said they would be, but they do have 5’11" ones, so I figure that’ll be OK.
They overnighted the box of oars to the motel where I am staying on my fishing trip. I opened the box.. inside, is another set of the aluminum 5’11" oars exactly like the ones I already have.
This whole thing has just turned into a sad comedy. I don’t understand what it will take to get Dave Scadden and NFO to send me the oars I ordered.
One problem with dealing with NFO is lack of solid info. For instance… the Sawyer/NFO oars that are currently the problem. If you look on their website you will find the oars at:
There is no hard info there, just marketing BS:
“Our carbon fiber wrap directional blade oars rewrite the book on performance oars. We took the superior attributes of high performance kayak blades and incorporated them into a carbon fiber full flex shaft. The result is the hottest oar on the market. No other oar made even comes close to the performance of these oars. You can literally feel the power with every stroke.”
No info as to how long they are, what sizes are available, etc. And the picture is wrong too. Those are the previous generation oars, not the ones they are shipping now. The picture shows these:
The current ones have a different paddle shape that is asymmetrical. The ones I received look like this:
Then there are the pics of the Rampage boat (the one I have and ordered the oars for) that shows these oars:
You can see that those are the asymmetrical paddles, and you can see that if they were raised into the stowed position they would easy clear the side bags.
When I was at the Pleasanton FF show I talked to Dave Scadden. He had an Outlaw Challenger there with the asymmetrical oars on it. Since there isn’t much info about the oars available, I talked with him about them. He said those were the same oars that would be coming to me. He said they were 6 1/2 feet long, and I commented that I thought that would be great because the 5’11" aluminum oars that came with the boat felt a little short to me. I asked him if he would let me take the ones he had, since I had ordered and paid for a set they were having trouble supplying, but he said no.
So because there is so little info on the website and much of it is out of date, and the people I have talked to at NFO don’t seem to know much about the oars, it is real difficult to know anything for sure.
The latest from NFO is this: They didn’t know we were talking about the yellow Sawyer oars (even though I had ordered and received and complained about those very oars not fitting right). They said they stock only the 5’3" ones that they sent me and 7’9" ones that are used on the bigger boats with frames. They said the ones shown in that pic with the guy spey casting in the background are custom ones that Dave had made up from a cut down set of the 7’9" oars, and are NOT the production ones.
So, they are now going to have Sawyer make a set like the 5’3" ones but 6 1/2 feet long as Dave had promised me. This will theoretically take a couple weeks, and I am OK with that.
NFO could alleviate a lot of confusion with a good website and online ordering system. Their old online store was so bad they finally took it down. Having all the product info kind of “floating around” with one story out of Dave’s mouth and the reality of the situation being something entirely different is pretty much bound to cause problems.
I have yet another unresolved issue with them. I ordered the bag for the boat from Dave, and he said it had been added to my order. I found out later from one of the people at NFO that Dave had “oversold” that model and it is no longer available, so they are going to upgrade me to the roller duffel version of the bag (which is a nice thing). However, they don’t have those either, and don’t know when they will. In the meantime, they have my money and I have no bag.
Interesting oars for sure. Don’t know what to else to say, but keep us informed, I am sure you will get what you want.
I am talking to two others on another forum that have no problems getting their order, so it is not a constant problem.
Show times get crazy there and more help needed, but then again, that is why his sale prices are soooo good.[;)]
I think it would be more correct to say they sell a good product. I don’t think they actually make anything except promises they often can’t keep.
I believe the boats are made in New Zealand by Incept. The CF oars are made by Sawyer. The frames are made by someone else and then powder coated by yet another someone else.
Absolutely no answer at all from them to my phone message or email, even though I let them know about this early yesterday morning.
Dave Scadden is a designer and a salesman, and he’s great at both of those. As the manager of a company, he could use some work.
For the Record…the boats are NOT made overseas. They are one of the few companies that have not sold out to the Asian market…or any other.
Plus, they are designed by people that actually use them. Made right here!!!
Even Outcast and Bucks are Chinese made now…paying the same price for a boat that cost less to make? Not me.
Incept is currently distributing NFO Outlaw X5 and Outlaw Renegade in the southern hemisphere…nothing more.
Wrong information there Michael
Incept Marine handles NFO’s southern hemisphere distribution and they do a great job. They have done a few procedures for NFO over the years. Scadden has 7 different fab shops and 42 employees and a number of various vendors that go into every boat he sells.
The reason I am writing this is Wrong facts are where rumors come from..
Head up to Ogden Utah and you can see the plants.