Another Zero air bites the dust....

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[Adamld13]

I broke another zero air spreader on my Ocius SUL....good thing I have 6 spares
Wind was 0-5km but suddenly a random gust hit and snapped the male spreader right where the ferrule ends.
Gotta love inconsistant dirty inland wind...

Im going to say this could not have been avoided to hopefully avoid any unhelpful pro/coach remarks.

Im wondering if using a longer ferrule might help?

This is also a first gen Ocius so im thinking that this might have been changed in newer models??
The total length of the ferrule in my ocius now is 90mm..thats about 40mm per spreader after the
center T....doesnt seem like much to me considering how fragile these sticks are.
Does anybody else have one and could measure the length?? It would be greatly appreciated

[chilese]

There are a few things that could be happening.

1 The lower spreader is sliding off the ferrule a bit and then cracks.
2 The lower spreader is just getting over stressed.

You might consider either tightly wrapping tape on both LS near the center-T
or putting some heat shrink to tightly compress the spars.

Fly the kite on very short lines and yank on the lines.
Look to see if the female lower spreader is sliding away from the center-T.

If it is, that's a different problem.

[gwm]

 Adam, If you know how to thread-wrap a fishing pole it will make a nice strong reinforcement where you need it.

[Will S]

A longer ferrule might help, but it also might put the stress point of the ferrule beyond the reinforced area of the spar. I'd give Jon T. a call. He'll be able to say for sure what the best length is.

One thing about the super light spars... You gotta be manic about getting a smooth fillet on the end of the ferrule, even on the male side. A simple chamfer often isn't good enough, it's really got to be a radiused edge.

[Adamld13]

You might consider either tightly wrapping tape on both LS near the center-T
or putting some heat shrink to tightly compress the spars.

The spreader that broke was reinforced with tape but it broke right where the tape ended.
The guy that i bought the kite off went thru a few spreaders also..

Im going to try a slightly longer ferrule and experiment with different types of reinforcement.
If that doesnt work ill maybe just replace the spreaders with somethign else....

[Ca Ike]

Will is right.  Round the edge of the ferrule before gluing it in so you reduce the stress point (think how your knee or foot works when breaking tree branches). Also since there is a gap between the rod and ferrule use a medium or thick CA that is capable of filling gaps.  CA has good bond strength but horrible sheer strength and we put a lot of sheer stress on glue joints when we trick kites. If the glue gives way you can break the rod pretty easily at the ferrule.

[jon t]

Having a longer ferrule most likely will not help. Most of our tapered tubes have a build up on the first 2" on the large end.  If you go longer you are going past the build up of the tube and putting pressure on the  thinner part of the tube. On the Zero we are using cut up 2P's for ferrules. It does not make sense to use a 6mm pultruded tube cut at 3.7 " because it weights close to half of the weight of the tube itself. My suggestion is to have an extra set of 2pt's for the days when you have the up/down wind and you want to do harder slack line tricks. I know I have been sending sets out with new kites when asked and it will give you the wind range you want and the added  strength for beating it around. Save the zero's for the no wind days.   
Jon
Sky Shark Tubes

[Adamld13]

My suggestion is to have an extra set of 2pt's for the days when you have the up/down wind and you want to do harder slack line tricks. I know I have been sending sets out with new kites when asked and it will give you the wind range you want and the added  strength for beating it around. Save the zero's for the no wind days.   
Jon
Sky Shark Tubes

This is a great idear...thanks Jon!

[Danno419]

Adam - i have lots of little bits of spars in my bag... we'll find something when we're at the field next.

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