Forums Splitboards Broken Voile Slider Plate Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total) Author Posts March 31, 2005 at 12:33 am #566601 cj 9 Posts After 4 years of (ab)use I have finally broken the slider plate on my Voile system. The last time I had it out I noticed that I had broken off the tab at the end of the plate – the one that prevents the slider from sliding off the pucks. The tab on the other slider is cracked. It took a while to figure out why this happened. I was skinning up a steep slope (35-40 degrees) on hard pack and to get an edge as I was zagging up I would stomp the board into the snow. The problem is that the full force of the stomp is taken by that little tab. If you take a look at how the slider contacts the heel pad it is the tab which makes all the contact. To fix this problem all Voile would have to do is make the pad higher so the plastic contacts the flat steel instead of the tab. This would make the heel pad an 1/8″ higher. Since I am now in the market for a new board I am just wondering if anyone else has had this problem? Has Voile fixed this with newer versions of the slider or is it still the same? March 31, 2005 at 6:43 am #581299 jared 56 Posts I just had out my old plates for use on a splitboard loan out and noticed small cracks on both sides of the tabs. These are the old black plates, the new ones are silver and have a different design. I promised cowboy (the inventor) I’d send him my plates a few years ago and just remembered that I’d forgotton it. I think he (and Voile) would be interested in this problem. It might be worth an email or private message to cowboy or djbarney. A quick solution comes to mind of using the screws on the heel pad to mount another small riser that’d take pressure off the tab. March 31, 2005 at 6:01 pm #581300 dave 100 Posts Since I am now in the market for a new board I am just wondering if anyone else has had this problem? not yet, but thanks for bringing this to our attention. with due time this might happen to everyone who either stomps hardpack like you were or kicks cornices, etc. it’s bound to happen at some point. 4 yrs is pretty good, but there are ways to solve this issue. i bet if you had a board made by NS they would move up the heel lift hardware on the board and put a riser underneath it to bring it up a little bit. this would solve the contact with just that tab every time you step or stomp. i’m sure there are other ways you might suggest and they would make it happen for ya. thanks again. March 31, 2005 at 6:06 pm #581301 rms56 121 Posts Pics would be great!!! March 31, 2005 at 6:19 pm #581302 Killclimbz 1165 Posts After 4 years? If ride as much as I do, or many others on this site, that is a pretty good record. How many days a season do you average? April 1, 2005 at 7:14 pm #581303 cj 9 Posts I have 70-80 days on the board. The abuse certainly comes when peak bagging on wind hammered snow but really 70-80 days is not that much. I will see what I can do to scrounge up a digital camera for some pics. April 1, 2005 at 8:00 pm #581304 psychomac 17 Posts i looked at the setup and see that it is really a weak point of the binding design. putting all the force on the bent aluminum at that point will lead to failure with repeated impacts – i’d even be so bold to call it a defect. like dave said, you could get somone to mount the heel risers a bit forward, and then even without a shim the elevated plastic tab would keep the ‘faulty’ bent aluminum piece from hitting the topsheet, but then the angle of rise will be greater, so this is probably not a reasonable fix. design improvements are hopefully forthcoming – but having a monopoly on the market (via patent or whatever), will not speed the evolution of this stuff up, so i hope the voile crew acts in good faith and keeps improving the product (like grooves i nthe bottom of the plate so t-bolts can be held with thumb pressure). April 3, 2005 at 2:38 pm #581305 Killclimbz 1165 Posts I checked out my slider plates on Friday and found out I was suffering from the same problem. Now I do have around 160-180 days on the board so I’m not upset over it. Checking out the plates, it is definitely the weak point of the system. I’ll try to get some pics posted in a day or two. April 22, 2005 at 5:49 pm #581306 powderjunkie 1669 Posts I bent both plates, I think in tour mode, last weekend. Was still able to muscle on the plates so I could ride it though. The middle bent upwards just front of center. I must have leaned back with a full pack and they bent. I’ll be pounding on them tonight, but I thought I’d ask for suggestions on how to do this. Vice, rubber mallet, elephant? April 22, 2005 at 7:00 pm #581307 mtnrider 740 Posts PJ- I’d be careful how much actual bending you do. I didn’t take a moment to check yours out on the hill but the slider plates only seem to be CAST aluminum so there is going to be even more *dirt/imperfections/sand* in the material when its made. A cast aluminum is also usually softer than say the same slider plate cut from 6061-T6 Billet (solid block) aluminum. Where are the slider plates manufactured? China :roll:? As far as the little tab goes…maybe a bead of weld can be tacked on and then file it down so it doesn’t interfere or mabye cut it off flat and drill and tap a new piece on…even w/ access to a full machine shop I’d probably just buy new ones though. April 22, 2005 at 9:19 pm #581308 powderjunkie 1669 Posts Well, I didn’t want to f*** with em in a vice or something so I just brought it to a machine shop in town and they pressed it flat for me. I figured if I tried it I wouldn’t get it flat without bumps and kinks in it. Make me some titanium ones dude. 😉 April 25, 2005 at 4:49 pm #581309 mtnrider 740 Posts If you buy the titanium…no prob. 😉 glad you got them back to normal. May 18, 2005 at 4:09 pm #581310 dj barney 19 Posts Splitters- if anyone is having any issues with Voile products, contact us for warranty replacements asap! CJ, everyone I know would be skinning with their climbing bars up on a slope that steep. If the bars are up, the tab at the back of the slider track never comes in contact with anything. Your issue is probably metal fatigue, and is happening from use with the bars down. Contact us, and we’ll hook you up! The black slider tracks are ancient, the silver ones haven’t been manufactured since 02′, and the blue/gray are the current vintage. They are made entirely in SLC, including the heat treating and anodizing processes. I have personally handled all warranty issues since starting here 1 1/2 yrs ago, and have seen maybe 3 total pairs of tracks come in for replacements. I would not call this a “design flaw”, but rather bomber durability. If the tracks were machined from solid billet, the end cost would dramatically increase for the consumer. Not a good idea when price already keeps some out of the bc. Additionally, the added strength of the track would move the failure to another location- the climbing block, or the board! Again, contact Voile with any failures, and we will get you dialed! May 18, 2005 at 7:43 pm #581311 Killclimbz 1165 Posts @dj barney wrote: Splitters- if anyone is having any issues with Voile products, contact us for warranty replacements asap! CJ, everyone I know would be skinning with their climbing bars up on a slope that steep. If the bars are up, the tab at the back of the slider track never comes in contact with anything. Your issue is probably metal fatigue, and is happening from use with the bars down. Contact us, and we’ll hook you up! The black slider tracks are ancient, the silver ones haven’t been manufactured since 02′, and the blue/gray are the current vintage. They are made entirely in SLC, including the heat treating and anodizing processes. I have personally handled all warranty issues since starting here 1 1/2 yrs ago, and have seen maybe 3 total pairs of tracks come in for replacements. I would not call this a “design flaw”, but rather bomber durability. If the tracks were machined from solid billet, the end cost would dramatically increase for the consumer. Not a good idea when price already keeps some out of the bc. Additionally, the added strength of the track would move the failure to another location- the climbing block, or the board! Again, contact Voile with any failures, and we will get you dialed! Hey DJ I can’t speak for the others but I appreciate your offer. I don’t think anyone here is trying to diss Voile on this thread. In fact I am very happy with the product and super impressed with the durability. Now if you can warranty my board for the absolute thrashing I have put it through…. I know I called it the weak point of the system. Right where the stopper tab is on the slider plate is where I experienced the cracking. Again this is after 3 solid seasons of abuse. I am probably over 200 days on this board. All that banging around, dropping cliffs, having to slide the plates on rather forcefully at times, does have an impact. I am sure this had a lot to do with it. It’s just an area that I think you can expect this issue to constantly appear, therefore a spot for your design guys to look at for improvements in the future. Again, it is a major stress point and it took 3 seasons of abuse for this to happen. If you are interested in seeing the slider plates I still have them and would be happy to send them in. Shoot me a pm. May 20, 2005 at 11:19 pm #581312 cj 9 Posts Hi DJ, thanks for the response. I think it is great that suppliers take an interest in the forums. I am not sure that I would change the tracks I would look more at the climbing block. In the current design the tab is definitely the weak spot but making it beefier is probably not the answer. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it but it is broke so a fix may be in order. In general though I do not have any issues with the Voile system and will definitely use it on my next board. Speaking of which the Mtn Gun looks rather interesting. I will contact you about the tracks. As a side note – normally on slopes like the one I was on my bars are up but what happens is that half way across, with a big cornice hanging over my head, is the bar pops down. For obvious reasons I do not stop to raise it again. August 17, 2005 at 6:44 pm #581313 cj 9 Posts Kudos to Voile on their excellent warranty service. It went beyond what was expected. Thanks. 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