Summit Kamado E6 Caster Issue

[Alan Benoit]

I just received and assembled my E6 last weekend. The cooks with it have been great so far, but I discovered an issue this evening when I was rolling it back from the patio to under my deck. It appears the left rear caster has come out of the socket or is mis-aligned. I tried removing it and re-installing it a couple of times but it doesn't seem to help. It will still roll with some difficulty, and if you roll it with the wheel straight it stays all the way in the socket. However, when the caster turns the opposite direction (as it inevitably will when rolling on an uneven surface), it comes out as shown in the attached photos.

One of the reasons I chose the Summit over the Big Joe II was its portability as in my situation I need to roll it from under my deck out to my patio over a bit of an uneven surface to do my cooking (brick and the tile surface shown in the photos).

Have any of you experienced this issue? If so, what was the fix? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Brett-EDH]

I checked mine for symmetry to yours and mine appears similar but I don’t experience the wheel falling out.

I do recall on assembling the wheels that each wheel required substantial force to fully insert them into the respective legs. Like massive hand pain and marks in my hands from the force.

Here’s a pic of mine if this helps you at all. My recco would be to contact Weber customer support and see if they can help with a new wheel and or wheel and leg.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Thanks Brett for the quick reply and that photo! Yes, yours looks perfectly aligned. I am going to try to re-install it again tomorrow when I have daylight and if that doesn't help will contact Weber as you suggested.

 

[Alan Benoit]

I tried again today to get it to work with limited success. I think the culprit maybe the leg is misaligned or more likely the plastic caster insert piece. The other two casters will not come out of the legs when I pull on them, while the bad one comes out fairly easily along with the insert piece. The vertical raised ridges on the outside of the plastic insert looked pretty mangled. I filed a claim with Weber via their automated system with photos and hopefully they will take care of me.

 

[Brett-EDH]

I tried again today to get it to work with limited success. I think the culprit maybe the leg is misaligned or more likely the plastic caster insert piece. The other two casters will not come out of the legs when I pull on them, while the bad one comes out fairly easily along with the insert piece. The vertical raised ridges on the outside of the plastic insert looked pretty mangled. I filed a claim with Weber via their automated system with photos and hopefully they will take care of me.

They should. Sounds like they’ll send you a wheel assembly. Otherwise a new leg and wheel assembly.

 

[Mark Foreman]

For me it was the front wheel. Bought floor model and it was pre-assembled. After getting it home, we noticed that the front wheel was not straight making movement harder. Turns out that the plastic leg insert was damaged. Called Weber. The sent new front plastic insert and leg. Received the parts in a couple of days. Once the new parts were installed, have had zero issues moving it around. Note that I do not roll mine around too much.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Weber responded overnight and are sending me the following:

Product Name	Part #
Caster kit, Summit Charcoal	65839
Rear leg set (qty 2), Summit Kamado E6	69441
Leg assembly hardware, Summit Kamado E6	69445

They told me the caster kit includes the plastic leg insert. Hopefully these are in stock and I will receive them as quickly as you did Mark.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Weber responded overnight and are sending me the following:

Product Name	Part #
Caster kit, Summit Charcoal	65839
Rear leg set (qty 2), Summit Kamado E6	69441
Leg assembly hardware, Summit Kamado E6	69445

They told me the caster kit includes the plastic leg insert. Hopefully these are in stock and I will receive them as quickly as you did Mark.

right on. as i stated above. this will fix your problem and you'll have some spare parts too. just be firm when inserting that wheel into the leg and go straight down when pushing it in. this way you won't torque the plastic housing the wheel clicks in to. it will take some heavy strength to get it it. i'd avoid using a hammer or mallet. just good ole downward force, if your grill is upside down when installing.

 

[Brian B Atlanta]

Might want to try a bit of lithium grease to help that caster slide in easier used that on a silver C and 1100 where I needed to insert new casters. They were a tight fit also.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Thanks for the advice Brett and Brian! The parts shipped yesterday and today so I should receive them before this weekend.

The hardest part of the assembly on my unit was fitting the bottom triangle to the legs. When it came time to fit the final side of the triangle (bottom wire shelf) to the legs, it was very difficult for me to make the rod of the triangle line up with the holes in the leg. There were 2 holes on either side of the leg when it seemed like the ideal place for that hole would have been in the front of the leg in the middle of those 2 holes. I kind of had to armstrong the thing together by tightening the bolts which I am sure wasn't ideal. I can't remember which of the legs was the "final" leg. Not sure if my issue with the casters was related to that, but maybe one of the new legs they are sending will improve that too.

 

[Brett-EDH]

Thanks for the advice Brett and Brian! The parts shipped yesterday and today so I should receive them before this weekend.

The hardest part of the assembly on my unit was fitting the bottom triangle to the legs. When it came time to fit the final side of the triangle (bottom wire shelf) to the legs, it was very difficult for me to make the rod of the triangle line up with the holes in the leg. There were 2 holes on either side of the leg when it seemed like the ideal place for that hole would have been in the front of the leg in the middle of those 2 holes. I kind of had to armstrong the thing together by tightening the bolts which I am sure wasn't ideal. I can't remember which of the legs was the "final" leg. Not sure if my issue with the casters was related to that, but maybe one of the new legs they are sending will improve that too.

so long as you have the correct leg in the correct position, everything should have had a firm but perfect fit. post of pic of your bottom rack as it's attached to the legs and rack supports. i'm assuming you have it installed correctly but it's worth a pic to look at. not that i think the rack and wheel are related to each other. just that each leg has its unique installation position.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Will these photos work? The caster with the issue is rear left.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Here are closeups of the rack attached to the legs; front, rear right, rear left

 

[Brett-EDH]

looks identical to my build. only thing i see, and this could just be the picture angle, is the bottom grate at the backside of the grill doesn't appear as "in" or recessed into the triangle leg support bars. again, it could just be the angle.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Thanks Brett. Yes, you are correct the back of the triangle doesn't extend to underneath the back support bar.

 

[MichaelF]

I know a guy who (after reading this thread) realized the casters on his brand new E6 were not even pushed all the way into place. What an idiot! Rumor has it he had to remove the lid and bottom bowl and flip it upside down to push them in all the way.

 

[Brett-EDH]

I know a guy who (after reading this thread) realized the casters on his brand new E6 were not even pushed all the way into place. What an idiot! Rumor has it he had to remove the lid and bottom bowl and flip it upside down to push them in all the way.

as him if it hurt his hand like all hell pushing in those casters. i read on this board that it was a true beetch to do so and left permamarks in this guys palms.

 

[Alan Benoit]

Glad to hear this thread is helping at least one other guy .

I guess that is what I am going to need to do also. Looks like I want to put the safety bolts back on the hinge and remove the hinge and lid. Then take the lid/bottom bowl off the cart, re-install the legs and casters then re-assemble. I have a slight smoke leak at the back so maybe I can put the lid/hinge back on more centered this time to fix that too.

 

[Alan Benoit]

I received the first box of parts today from Weber. It included the 2 rear legs, the caster inserts, the leg inserts for the bowl ring and all the hardware needed to install. It also included a great instruction book detailing how to disassemble and re-assemble the grill with the new hardware. The replacement caster kit is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

I was able to get everything in the kit installed this evening after work. The two rear legs are clearly marked. When viewed from the rear upside down the right rear leg has a bright red triangle sticker and the left rear leg has a bright yellow star sticker. The front leg has no sticker.

As it turns out, the idiot that built my grill installed the leg with the bright red triangle in the front and the front leg in the right rear. Amazingly when I re-installed the correct legs in the correct positions, the bottom triangle assembly went back on easily like it is supposed to. Attached are photos of the re-assembled mount and the mangled rear leg caster inserts I replaced.

 

[DanHoo]

Yeah, this is how mine was delivered. At least the legs were in the correct locations.