Premiere Widow lower spreader broke

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[JWilson]

Premiere Widow lower spreader broke. Can these be replaced with "better" parts? Widowmaker parts?
Any retrofit ideas would be appreciated

Thanks

Jack

[RobB]

You could replace the lower spreaders with 5pt nitros, but I'm not sure that you'd notice much difference. I've never flown the Premiere Widow, so I don't know how wiggly it is. It will never be a Widow Maker because the sail is a different material.

[DWayne]

Email Steve at GWTW/Chico Kites. He'll get ya hooked up with the parts you need.

Denny

[rwbford]

I had the same happen on my widow the first time I took it out. after looking at the kite to figure out how this happened being it was well in its wind range and it broke in the air, I found that the stand offs were not sewn to the sail right. the the right side had the stand offs attached to the sail about 2-3 inches wider than the left side. took it in to the shop and got an exchange. hasn't happened again and its been in some pretty heavy wind. so maybe check that out. could be the same factory oops.

also make sure your leading edges are both pushed all the way into the nose and are even. make sure spreaders are pushed all the way into the fittings too. they take a little muscle as the fittings are tight.

one other note, my local kite shop is run by the guy who designed the widow maker. he checked out the stand offs on the replacement kite before he let me leave with it and they turned out to be too long and he ground them down to proper spec. could have been another factor in the breaking of the first one. the widows are based on his design but built in china, so they might not have the same attention to detail he does.

go to the sky burner link on the side of the forum and there's a link to his shop. Kites and Fun Things. he may be able to help ya out

hope this helps ya, its my first post 

[Hadge]

I don't know it this applies to the Widow, but some kites have one end of the lower spreaders 'plugged' with a 2" length of carbon rod for extra strength - look at the ends of the spreader one may be hollow and the other solid - if the widow is like this then the solid end goes to the centre 'T' - a lot of HQ kites are built like this and it's easy to get them the wrong way round and if you do the spreader can break at the T'.

[JWilson]

Thanks for all the feedback.

RWB: Mine broke mid-flight as well. It just popped. Would you mind giving me your stand-off measurement? I do believe that may have contributed. I think there was one heck of a bow on the spreaders.

Hadge, Norm:
What broke is the fitting that is glued inside one spreader and slides (very stubbornly) through the T fitting. It's what joins the 2 spreaders together. It broke off right at the end of the spreader. Spreader is actually OK except for the piece that's still glued inside.

Rob:
A widowmaker it's not. It should be called "wiggly widow" if that gives you any idea how much it oversteers. LOL

Thanks

[st3307]

Hello  Mr  Wilson   the    piece  that   broke  is  a ferrule.   I  would   suggest   either   e-mailing  or  calling  Jon T   him  self  the  link  is  on the  right    Sky burner / Sky shark.   IIRC    some of the earlier  runs   of the  Widows   had  alot  of  over steer  in  them      but  it  is  correctable   but  for  the  life  of me  I can not  remeber   what  had  been  missed  in QC 

[Wayner]

hope this helps ya, its my first post 

Welcome to the forum!

[rwbford]

measured my standoffs and they are 10 3/4 in.

measured them still on the kite from the base of the fitting at the sail to the tip of the end cap.

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