Gorgeous countryside, informative guide, and an adventurous ride. Only problem was our Tomcar’s transmission went out about 3/4 way thru the journey, in an area our guide called “tierod alley” due to the extremely rough terrain that has been known to cause car trouble in the past. Further, we were never able to move car’s transmission lever into the “locked differential” position upon starting the drive. Given the high $300+ price of the excursion and the heavily advertised “military grade” aspect if the Tomcar, we expected a more robust, better maintained ATV.
Still a 4.25 out of 5 star adventure.
Réponse de l'hôte
Feb 2020
Steven,
Thank you for your feedback. We do apologize sincerely that you didn't have a 5-Star+ experience, and that we didn't create the proper expectations for your adventure up front. We truly do strive to provide the best experience in the industry, and are less than pleased to hear that we failed you.
I do, however, want to take this opportunity to explain our adventures and set the expectation for anyone reading our reviews.
We always bring a "guide" car, which serves as an additional tour vehicle in the event that something happens to another vehicle. While the vehicle issue you experienced could have been fixed on your tour, in the interest of your time and experience, we left the vehicle and sent our crew out to recover it. At that point, the provisional vehicle was utilized to complete your adventure. While we don't like car issues as much as anyone, we do utilize this backup plan to keep the tour moving without a huge disruption to your experience.
The Tomcars that we utilize are absolute tanks. These vehicles handle some of the harshest terrain in the world, day in and day out. Dry, dusty, rough, sometimes wet and muddy. Sometimes all in the same tour! 363 days a year, twice a day! They definitely take a beating! In fact, we are able to traverse some trails that other tour operators aren't able to feasibly take their tours on. We take maintenance of our vehicles very seriously, however, there are occasionally (very rarely) unforeseen issues that can occur, just as they can occur with any vehicle, even on flat, paved roadways.
On your tour, this particular vehicle broke the chain in the rear drive system. This is a sealed unit, called a Final Drive. This chain does not generally show wear and only breaks when put in a high-stress environment, where rather than stretching or straining, it snaps and jams inside the housing. We utilize a 15 minute rule. If we can't fix the issue in 15 minutes, we leave the vehicle and send someone to recover it. This keeps the tour moving, and is our backup plan in the event of an issue. This issue could have been fixed on the trail, but we knew immediately that it would not fall into our 15 minute rule.
Again, we are sorry to hear that you didn't have the experience you intended and that we didn't send you on the tour with the proper expectations. Please reach out to us so that we can have an opportunity to make it right with you. Anything shy of a 5-Star experience is not acceptable to us.
We appreciate your business and hope to have an opportunity to serve you again in the future.
Thanks,
Hunter
General Manager