Slider plates? What are those? My Spark bindings don’t use slider plates. 😉

Seriously though, yes they can get hairline cracks. I’ve only seen them on plates I’ve had for many years and that have seen a lot of use. The holes where the slider pins go can bore out a little too after lots of use. Again, both issues solved with Sparks. 🙂

I haven’t heard of any tabs actually breaking in the past though but if the cracks get large enough I guess they could.

Out of curiosity was the guy you spoke to a boarder or skier? If boarder what was he using?

I am the stranger :bananas:
wish i put this info on this site earlier.
My issue with broken heel tabs has been going on for the past four winters.
Early season 05/06 I was up the Asulkan valley in Rogers Pass and was putting my Prior split into
board mode when I had the strange experience of sliding my front binder right off my toe edge!!?? :scratch:
My heel tab was no more, broken off at the bent point. Some zap straps and thin rope helped me ride board mode to get some pow stoke and then old skiing skills helped out the rest of the way. Not a huge epic….but my concern is what would happen if I was in tight rock chute going mach 10 and my foot slides off my toe edge? This thought worries me. I have since keep a close eye on my plates and now have a collection of 4 badly cracked plates and the one with the tab completely broken off. I have had a pair of stronger aluminum plates sent to me from Volle and have put a bit of time on them this winter. No cracks yet.Volle has been rad with customer service and has gone the extra step in making me a stronger plate.
I asked the R&D dept about a lower binding set up with better board feel, not just the same old plate but stronger. I thought we deserved better. something progressive like the soul of snowboarding.
I ride a stiff soft boot set up: Driver X boots with power wrap Intuition liners, C-60 binders and a Prior 165 Kyber.
I have since heard about the future. Spark R&D is a breath of fresh air for our stale technology :rock: I have yet to try them but I already see how much sense it makes. So stoked to check them out.
Go Will Go :headbang:

I feel so alone with this problem cracking heel tabs. It sounds like not many people are having this trouble. I have looked at as many splits as i can get my hands on and have pointed out many a weak cracked heel tab on those plates.
I worry that many split boarders just don’t realize that they have these dangerous cracks on their plates. Please take a good look at the underside of the plates, they show there first. I have stared to see cracks on the stronger prototype plates Volle had sent me this fall. :banghead:
I have since ordered a set of Spark R&D binders and I am waiting for them to arrive. So stoked to check them out :headbang:
Yeah WILL :clap: Thanks for giving us another option.

I checked my slider plates yesterday as I was reassembling my board and noticed that I too have cracked heel tabs on both of my slider plates. Both crackes are clearly visable to the naked eye and each one is roughly 1/8″ long. As I was showing my buddy the cracks he kind of chuckled and said “Dude, you just justified a set of Sparks didn’t you?”. “Yes I did” was my happy reply :bananas: .

If you haven’t checked your slider plates then you need to do so imediately. I don’t even want to imagine the carnage that could ensue from a spontanious binding ejection at the wrong time. Voile should be doing a better job in the QC dept. as the cracks that I have are clearly a heat treat/metal fatigue issue. They either need a proper heat treatment after the plate bending process or they need to switch to a different Alu. alloy that will be more resilient to the induced stresses that we put on the plates during use.

Dude, I just got my sparks last night. Brown Santa fucking rocks, I love that guy. Anyway, I bought a set of Ignition II baseplates and mounted the highbacks from a set of Step Ins that I already had. Pure Gold. High five to Will for his quality craftsmanship and attention to detail. These things make the voile slider plates look like some kind of garage sale reject piece of crap. I can’t wait to get out on the new binder set up.

FKNA Will :drinks:

Thanks for the info – mine are cracked too, after only a season and a half. This is good to know before heading into the mountains.

I thought of two things that might be apply extra force to the heel tab: 1) too much gusto sliding the plate on (busting through the built up ice and snow), or 2) a small amount of play between the pin and the pucks.

I had zero play in my slider plates. The cracks appeared to be fatigue cracks and in, my opinion, came from poor QC / heat treatment which resulted in less ductile aluminum.

@treetop wrote:

I just wish the slider plates were made stronger.

This fall I received a set of red plates that the Volle r&d dept made of stronger alum.
They were starting to crack within 20 days of touring (very small cracks but in the same spot as before)
I have five badly cracked plates and one with a tab completely broken off.
Been splitin’ for six seasons and have always kept my system tight and without play.
My thoughts on why this is happening are….
1. The aluminum heel tabs are taking all of the energy that is being sent up from your board when charging a line. This transfer of force from board to heel tab to binding has shown a possible weak link?
2. When in touring mode the tab is resting on the heel lifter. After walking and putting your weight on that small bent tab of aluminum would it be enough to cause cracks?
3. The most obvious and easily fixed reason for this problem is……….
YOU HAVEN’T BOUGHT A PAIR OF SPARK R&D BINDINGS YET!? :headbang:
No more worry of my foot sliding off my board at high speed and they make riding a splitboard feel like a real snowboard set up. :rock: