Triton TRC-001 3.25hp Plunge Router

a review by Bill Esposito 11 Jan 2003

The Market Survey...

I wanted a big router. I wanted it bad. I had ruled out the Freud and Hitachi for various reasons and set my sights a bit higher into the $300-$350 range. What I found there was the Bosch 1619evs, the new Milwaukee 5625-20, and the Australian Triton TRC-001. I had been waiting for the Milwaukee figuring I'd get the big brother to my 5615-20 Body Grip, but it was November 10th and the Milwaukee was nowhere in sight. I knew the Bosch was a proven performer and couldn't go wrong with it. But ever since I'd seen the Triton last summer in a magazine, I had a secret yearning for it.

The Decision...

After going back and forth in my mind, searching the newsgroups and message boards, I finally decided on the Triton. It does after all, have the coolest depth mechanism this side of the equator...and the other side as well! It allows one handed bit changes from above the table, and its chock full of safety features. It was a no brainer, I got out my credit card and clicked the Amazon.com URL.

Cold Feet...

Ok, as soon as I clicked the order button I started having doubts. First, I had actually never seen or felt this router...suppose it was a piece of junk? I had also read some newsgroup messages which discouraged its use as a hand held router because of its balance. It also has feature which had escaped me before, a 1/4" reducer for the smaller bits. And lastly, service. I just spent $300 on a router whose parent company was on the other side of the world, and whose US operation was only a few months old as far as I could tell.

Communications with Oz...

It was Sunday afternoon on November 10th and I decided to email Triton and pose my questions and concerns. Within a couple of hours I received an email from Triton stating that they had forwarded my technical questions to the engineer responsible for the router, and my service and warranty questions to Triton USA. By 5:15 that same day I received my first email from Graham, the engineer, answering my questions. I wrote back and we exchanged a few emails and I was satisfied with all his answers.

To my surprise on monday morning at 11:40am I received an email from Mark, General Manager of Triton Workshop Systems USA, and we began our own exchange of emails. I was still having cold feet, not because of service or anything else, but because I still had never seen the router and Amazon's return policy states that unless the returns are defective, they must be in new condition. I had to leave on a business trip so I canceled the router from Amazon and got on my airplane. Mark and I continued our email exchange and then finally spoke on the phone. Mark assured me that I would like the router and offered to take it back if I didn't. I ordered the router from him and it was on my doorstep two days later when I returned home.

I tell you all of this because both you and I know that just as important as a tool's performance, is the performance of the manufacturer's customer support, and in my book Triton Workshop Systems has exhibited first rate customer support. Now on with the review!