Bedford Sales & Outdoors — Local services in Morris

Last Dec of 2018, dropped off my Ranger z185 for service for mis aligned wheels and uneven wear on tires. Tires wearing excessively from the inside edge. John the head mechanic who i trusted, recommended a whole new trailer axel to fix problem due to the fact that it was bent. Also got lectured by him about how I most of hit big holes and curbs with the rig, and driving around with water in the boat and water in live wells...

So i went ahead and let them fix the issue with a new axel. It took them 3 and a half months to make this repair which is unsatisfactory. Upon checking up on my rig multiple times, i always heard the excuse from John, "The Open House Show." Wont be able to get to it for a while. Well the boat sitting outside with the bitter cold and no charge destroyed all 3 batteries.

Picked up the boat upon completion with a bill of over 1,000 dollars. A new axle was installed. Drove the rig down to texas and back. Half way down, i noticed that the tires have worn even more along with wheels bowed out even more along with loosing a brake line clip. Brake line was almost hitting pavement. Called Bedford and spoke to John, John being annoyed by my call said that it most be bad tires, call Carlie and have them warranty them out and zip tie brake line. He then asked me if the roads are rough down by Lake Fork, thinking the axle is bent again. He also did not make an attempt to welcome me back to the shop to have them look at what is still going on with the trailer. So, felt like i was not getting anywhere with there best mechanic in the house, so called Ranger when I got home. The drive back, vibration had increased along with bowing of the wheels. Trolling motor assembly fell apart, screws on the seats rattled loose, along with cracks in the fiber glass. There was defiantly something wrong.

Ranger recommended to bring the rig to an actual axle shop to examine the problem. So I went ahead and did that. Within an hr they found that Bed Ford Sales installed the Lug Nuts on backwards on both wheels causing excessive vibration and uneven wear on both tires after completion of there install of the new axel. Vibrations from 32 hrs of highway travel caused the lugs to become loose, since they were not properly mounted(installed backwards) and flush. (wheels sitting flat against hubs) It was also found that an alignment check by measuring, was not completed by Bedford Sales. If an alignment check was done by Bedford Sales, by measuring, this error could of been caught before releasing to customer.

Upon contacting Bedford Sales, Sam said he would look into it and would call back. He stated "There are some new guys back in the shop." and of course never heard back. A week later call him back for an update, in a aggravating tone said, "His staff would never put on lug nuts on backwards." Then asked him who did then after it left your shop in that 2 week window? So between going back and forth with Sam, I knew i was not going to get anywhere.

I contacted Ranger, and gave them the paper work from the axel shop. After the ranger rep and and corporate asking what is going on there, Sam cut me a check to the axel repair shop bill, but did not refund the money on service work of 1000 dollars at his shop. He did agree that his shop made a major mistake by paying for the axel shop examination and repairs that his mechanics caused once Ranger spoke with him. Then why did he not refund his shop bill (Bedford Sales) of 1000 for bad service? What did his mechanics do that was right? If i were to bring Sam (The Owner) to small claims, i'am sure he would refund me my 1000 dollars for unsatisfactory work for a Ranger Certified Service Center. Luckly the wheels never fell off to and back from Texas because of a careless mechanic. Ive been taken advantaged of and learned my lesson to not trust Bedford Sales, 1000 dollars later.

Below are pics of the poor quality of service for 1000 dollars. A brake line falling off axle, uneven thread wear from backward lug nuts, and improper torsion...

Hello all,

My family and I just finished purchasing and picked up our used Alumacraft from Bedford Sales. I will start by saying that we had already gone through the process with another company in the area, also a private seller and didn't get the outcome we were looking for. So we kept looking.

Now we already had financing set up before we walked in the door of Bedford.

But this was a phenomenal sale!!! The owners Sam and his wife Pat have been doing this for 50 years (next year) and it shows! All of the employees greeted us very kindly and communicated all the way through. We asked for some additions and fixes to be done before finalizing the purchase, and they were absolutely done in our time requirements. The process was smooth and clean. The boat was serviced and we look forward to using the newest addition to our family this weekend.

They have a great supply and tackle selection too. They sent us home with multiple fun additions and made a lasting impression on us and our children. Not to forget to mention, they were incredibly nice to our two year old and 12 year old. We will definitely go back!

Thank you Sam, Pat and...

Be wary of buying a Ranger from here or getting service done. You'd think after buying a brand new boat from them their service would be top notch, but that is far from the case. Sam is a nice enough guy, but he's got no control over the guys in the back doing repairs. Not to mention the lack of returned phone calls on Sam's end.

Anyways, my boat I bought from Bedford sales was rigged extremely poorly. About a year in I started to get issues with the electronics. Multiple trips back to Bedford and nothing gets fixed. I ended up taking the boat to Hennepin Marine and they identified and fixed the issue immediately. AND THEY'RE NOT EVEN A RANGER DEALER!!. Turns out the wrong gauge wire was used to rig the boat and was causing a bottleneck to my HDS units.

Anyone in Illinois looking to get in glass boat should consider buying a Lund from Hennpin Marine or consider other ranger dealers with solid maintenance teams such as M&W marine in...