Equipment that failed you or...

just plainly sucks...

Everyone has something they bought and thought it was the best invention since sliced bread but it came up to be a total failure and disapointment. Please add your gear so we can all learn.

US Army Large Alice Pack with frame: I humped one one my back for 4 years in the service and it was the only thing I knew. It would hold a lot of gear and it was allright when it came to comfort. I got one as soon as I got out of the service. But it was to big. Airlines hated it. Pockets would open, there was no compartments and when filled up it looked like a giant boulder. I couldn't store it anywhere, couldn't make tight turns and with big hump on my back my center of gravity was pushed so much back that I was fishtailing during speed hikes. I dumped it in a favor of a big internal frame pack.

Matt

Has the Army completely switched to the MOLLE system over the ALICE now? (http://www.specialtydefense.com/MOLLE/molle.htm) I think MOLLE stuff is supposed to be more ergonomic.

Yes! And both were flashlights. The first was my LED-Lenser V2 Triplex that just stopped working. The switch mechanism apparently crapped out. The second light was my CMG infinity. It also just stopped working but I tapped the board with a tack hammer and it worked again. I know I could send either light back under warranty but by the time you pay for postage and handling it doesn't seem worth the effort.

Chris

in the begining wenn i had little experians in buying and using gear, i bought cheapo stuff like a immitation SAK, nothing on it actually worked, the saw was very effective to use to sratch those itching place were you hand just can't reach, with other word it was a wordless piece of crap, same goes for a cheap multitool, flashlights, etc.
Nowdays i make sure that what i get is GOOD qualtity stuff, which i can inspect before buying. Reading load of reviews and take mine time wenn i had to chouse, stopped most low qualtity stuff. Which is very importent to me, since mine budget is very LOW.

I've had lots of gear that was useless. My large alice pack is among them. Too small to hold enough gear, yet the back of sits three feet from the small of your back making hiking absolutely miserable, if not dangerous because the weight pulls you backwards when turning, running, crawling etc.

When worn with your fighting load its basically impossible. The military wants a fighting load around your waist, held up with a pair of suspenders. Then your supposed to wear a pack that has a kidney pad and belt over that. Unfortunately you already got your canteens resting on your hips so the kidney pad has to rest on top of that which grinds the alice clips into your skin and the pad is six inches off of where its supposed to fit. For eight years I never figured out a way to make that goofy system work.



Furthermore, I never had a quick release that ever held. They use a plistic clip going througha metal wire held together by a little snap. How in the world thats supposed to hold thirty pounds is beyod me.



Now I carry a modified CFP 90. With all the side pouches cut off the pack fits the contortions of my body. Usually when hiking with it I hardly know its their.

I cut off all the quick releases and added some black hawk plastic buckles. They disengage even faster than the quick releases and so far will hold at a hundred pounds. I've yet to force them beyond that.

Let me see,

My princeton tech pulsar 2 failed me in a blackout. My coleman peak one stove had a seal break inside the pump about two days into a field exercise. Never loan your prize gear out, I learned that. A bicycle pump broke when I was trying to repair a flat. I have had numerous cheapo knives just refuse to work, ie cutting, opening, etc. I bought those because I thought they were cool and all, but they were crap.

I have had articles of clothing fail as well, mostly in the zipper or button areas and I have had lots of shoe and boot laces break for no reason, or at least that is what I am telling myself.

Good thread, talk to you later,

garrett

Hmmm. well, a couple spring to mind...

As documented here, I bought and tried a number of lighters with built-in compasses. They ranged from $5 to $75, from no-name Asian knockoffs to some of the top names in lighters.

I wasn't expecting much- I don't smoke, but was carrying a lighter on general principles, and for the occasional gallant gesture. The only thing I often needed a compass for was orienting myself when emerging from the dark labyrinth of the local subway system into unfamiliar city streets- a general idea of where north was would be fine.

But not one of the lighter-compasses pointed north. Some just moved around randomly, some always pointed to the same point on the lighter, and some were shipped with enormous bubbles that kept the dial from moving freely. All were completely useless.

Then there was my first real try of a Marmot Mountain Works "Burrow", a tiny, expensive little Gore-Tex one-man tent that's little more than a bivvy sack with a hoop at the foot as well as the mouth. It was my first, and, as it turns out, my last Gore-Tex tent. I knew the ventilation between the mouth of the tent and the little "eyelid" window at the foot wasn't going to work when I noticed that the mummy bag, with me inside, plugged the diameter of the tent completely at about rib level. However, I was more disappointed to wake up in the morning in a sloshing pool of condensation. When I got out of the tent, I saw that the whole thing was covered with almost a quarter-inch of glaze ice from a full night of freezing rain.

Well, "duh", you say, of course no fabric is going to "breathe" when it's encased in ice...

Yeah, but a tent with an old-fashioned fly would have worked fine.

In it's defense, I used it for a couple of long backpacking trips later, and it did fine under more common conditions... but it was an interesting (and expensive) lesson on overlooked limitations.

I'm sure others failures will come to mind, but, mostly I wanted to say.. good question!

Goretex. I bought a 'first generation' anorak. It came in a bright blue instead of my requested forest green or red. The salesman ( being a salesman) informed me it was the hottest color that season and "the most visible on the spectrum for high visibility." I replied that was true, if one wanted to attract mosquitos. Another wait and a red one arrived. I went confidently out into a rainfall and got soaked. Then the salesman mentioned my premium anorak needed seam sealer. I said it was "unseamly" not to have mentioned it before and got a free bottle. Again I ventured forth into the storm, only to find more water forming inside than out. At least I fgured out what all those venting zippers were for. Trouble was I was getting as much rain through them as was being vented. Next the saleman wanted to sell a special cleaner and some sort of waterproofing supplement. I demanded a full and uncheerful refund. The very word still gives me a wet body chill and even influenced my vote in the last presidential election.

Anything Gore-Tex. That stuff is junk. You can be waterproof. You can breathable. But you can't be both, I don't care what Madison Ave. says. The only time I've ever had any luck with it was when it was well vented, arm-pit zips etc... What's the point of paying for the laminent, if you still have to carry around all those zippers, or worse... blow them out?
Biscuits

My Marine buddies say that the MOLLE system is junk. Too complicated and the frames keep breaking espcially in cold enviroments.

Garret,
You hit on one thing I had to learn the hard way, NEVER EVER loan your gear. I have made a lot of people mad but I can't help it. I loaned out my spyderco police, they guy brought it back with the tip broken off, his reply was, sorry man, I haven't loaned anything since. I now carry an AFCK, everyday I have someone ask to borrow my knife or my wave, when I tell them no they really get mad, I always tell them that they are for sale in the PX go buy their own. I have even had a senior NCO order me to give him my leatherman, I told him it was personal property and he could go to hell, which caused a big fight but he didn't touch my leatherman. I can't understand people that think I should pay 100 dollars or more for something and then let them ruin it.

You know the average person doesn't carry a pocket knife, they expect to borrow one if they need it. When I was a team chief I required all my team members to have a knife and a flashlight on their person at all times, and I had to mke them do it. JEEZ, I will get off my soap box, now I feel better. Chris

Ahhh, the ALICE large isn’t so bad. It is the best ruck we have these days. The MOLLE stuff is junk and a good many of the troops are buying aftermarket stuff (depending on unit SOP). IMHO, by far the best ISSUE large military ruck is the Brit Bergan.

The ALICE large will work with web-gear ok if you replace the suspender clips on the web-gear with lengths of 550 cord. Basically you drop the pistol belt below the level of the ruck’s kidney pad. Works like a charm. …Of course you have to be in a unit that allows for some individual freedom with respect to personal equipment. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

If Gortex isn't worth the money, what would you recommend?
I've being looking to buy a warm breathable jacket for a while.The "softie" range made with Pertex was top of my list. Any suggestions for a warm outer layer?
Joblot

Chris,

maybe a year ago or so I posted a formal complain to my friends that requested them to get their own gear. I was sick and tired of getting my knife back lubricated with peanut butter, or my MSR pot kits protected with double coat of bacon grease, or my powerful flashlight used all night becasue it was too hard to turn it off... I also lost blade tips on my Buck and Sog knives due to unfriendly use. Few sleeping bags I lent out had come back stinking and tent came back so dirty and wet that it took me week to clean it up.

My friends learned very quickly that I will not lend them any more gear. I compiled what I had and created pile of gear that I want to keep and pile that I don't need. Over the years I collected fair amount of lower end backup stuff which I gave away to my friends. Some of it I never saw again because there was nobody to clean it after the trip, some of it is well cared for and build upon.

It's hard to say no to your friends without sounding like a total selfish bastard.

Matt

I am a selfish bastard. I have seen people die due to lack of equipment and common sense! I work hard and pay a lot for the equipment.

I instruct debris tunneling with the most possible minimal equipment. In any of the teams I train or on my own team if I see anyone share equipment or lend equipment to cover the other one's fault (lost, forgotten etc..) that piece of equipment is gone. They will never get it back. (I even check spare boot laces:))

The tradition here says "Horse, wife and weapon" you do not lend or give these <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Turks were migrators in the past so these were the three things that kept the life going.

Burak
Istanbul

I bought a GoLite Breeze Pack and one of the tiny sleeping bags they make and both of these were worthless. I ended up tossing both. The Breeze just didn't ride well even though it was very light. The bag, which was more of a half sleeping bag ala Jardine just wasn't warm enough on cold nights. I also found that giving my rather vigouros style of sleep, that the bag did not stay attached to the velco points on the sleeping pad.

I could go on and on about military gear, but the rest of you seem to have that covered!

I guess each individual/team must handle equipment loan in a different fashion, based upon their personal philosophy of being prepared. I can also see your point of view in the value of teaching preparedness lessons during training. However, my fellow members of our team are my family, we depend upon each other in life threatening situations. While the team has now been in existence for over 12 years and we have a fair amount of team equipment, many of us who started early with the team purchased much of our own equipment at a time when funding was minimal. When we are on a rescue, I view my personal equipment as well as everyone else’s the common property of the team, it is there for the rescue. Yes, I have lost, had damaged and have had to replace personal items at considerable expense, but we all consider it an acceptable risk. Everyone on the team at one time or another has had to borrow and loan gear/food/water/etc.; it is just the way we do things. No way is right or wrong, just another way of looking at things. Pete

the one crap piece of equipment I bought was the British Snug3 sleeping bag. I am always cold in there. Instead of taking clothes off I start putting more on when I get into my maggot!
I now made my own fleece liner and now seems ok though - bulk and weight increrased considrably.

Personally I am not in favor of lending out equipment. In case anyone asks me (while out camping) to borrow a knife I just pass a cheap one. Everone's happy!

reinhardt

are you talking about the snugpak softie 3 ? i was considering to buy that one, is it the fault of the sleeping bag or did you just bought the wrong temperature rating foryour intended use ?

www.wiggys.com has a rather blistering appraisal of snugpak. Jerry is in business to sell his product, but his information and reasoning are free.

Boatman:

Short answer to your question about MOLLE being junk is, yes. And no. The MOLLE pack system is so complicated that it needs a video to show you how to use it. The frames on MOLLE I and MOLLE II were reported to be breaking pretty often in Afghanistan, and the manufacturing quality didn't seem to stand up to the harsh environments and the weights the Leather necks were carrying. <img src="images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> The major gripes I read about had to do with the pack/frame and, surprisingly, with the Camelbacks that come with MOLLE.

A complicated system may be fine for civilian tasks, but in the military, the K.I.S.S. rule, rules. As much as I hated humping an ALICE ruck while on duty, it was easy to handle and rugged.

This last July, the USMC adopted a militarized internal frame pack made by Arc'tyrex, with a new patrol pack. (Don't hold me to the spelling. I have an excuse - I'm an LSU grad!). But the system still uses the horizontal webbing that MOLLE used for adding additional pockets, so the MOLLE pockets should still work.

Disclaimer: I have a MOLLE II patrol pack and a MOLLE II waist pack. Put together, and with a few add-on pockets, I have my "basis only" weekend camping pack. It works well, and it has supplanted my old ALICE medium ruck/frame in that role.

Hope this helps,

…..CLIFF

Last year, I bought several SureFire lights and was really disappointed with the rechargeable ones (bad B90 batteries).
But I was satisfied with my own 6P, running on lithium batteries. I have worn it daily, with my EDC.
Up to now, I only have used up one set of batteries. I'm running on the second set.
Today, when using it, I drop it from exactly 4 cm, that's less than 2 inches : light bulb is dead !!!!
And this is supposed to be a tough light, that can be mounted on firearms ! I guess you can fire one shot and then you are in the dark...


Alain

Cliff, I heard about the instructional video.IMHO any thing that needs a guide book or video is much to complex. I too also go with the K.I.S.S.(Keep It Simple Stupid) rule.The less you have to worry about your gear the more you can focus on the mission.

The problem many people have with waterproof/breathable jackets is they fit them too tightly. They need to be very loose even over multiple layers of clothes. The other issue is that in very high humidity they do not breathe well. Pit zips and a loose fit will make or break it! Gore-Tex footwear for wilderness travel is the most overrated item I can think of. They DO NOT work, all they do is trap moisture inside the boot and make blisters more likely to occur!! It may work in the city on the sidewalk, never tried it. I do know what happens in the wilderness, they suck, plain and simple!

Pete, I understand and respect you totaly. In our concept of work each individual team member has to be able to work away from the team on his (or her) own to coordinate and lead locals and volunteers. Yes the equipment is there for the rescue and I need it week long not for a single incident but much more.

I expect my fellow man to be ready and equipped personally to work independently in isolated environments for long times. Equipment dicipline is essential.

I always stock and carry extra gear for team members. If they need gear they have to replace it from me not from someone else.

This may seem a little bit like Gestapo to you but I have learnt it the hard way that the road to hell is paved with stones of good intentions. My primary duty is to take my men back home alive and believe me it is really hard when the dead are carried on damper trucks around you.

Burak
Istanbul

yeah that is the one.
You could be right wrong intended temprature use but I slept three weeks in it during the English summer (herefordshire) and it was fine around 24.00 but at around 06.00 I woke up shivering when I wore pyama bottoms and a shirt.
Also in mid summer in Holland at around midnight I was lying in the maggot and very hot but around 04.00 the temprature decreased and again shivering.
Personally I would go for something else - at leat a two season sleeping bag. If I had the choice to would not have bought it. Esspecially considering the price (£60). I've seen better bags for the bang in Holland.


Anyway let me know what you plan to do - just interesting

I have no disagreement with your philosophy and support your position whole-heartedly under the conditions with which you deal with on an ongoing basis. You have obviously have set into motion/policies those things that work for you and your team. Pete

I have had a Princeton Tec Pulsar II for two years that I have loved, but now the on-off switch has stopped working. Any ideas on what could cause this or a possible fix?

mine does the same from time to time, open it up, clean out all the crap that's collected inside, bend the LED leads straight again, reassemble.
works for me.
steve

Princeton Tec has provided excellend customer service for me. I have 4 of their lights, & have needed to send one back for repair. It was replaced pronto.

Their Web site:
http://www.princetontec.com/entry.html

Regards,

David

Thanks. When you say bend the leads straight, that confuses me. When I open mine up, there is one straight lead and one that looks like it is supposed to have about a 120 deg. angle and a little piece of plastic tubing attached. Should I bend this angled part straight?

The same thing happened to me. I opened mine up and tried to bend the LED wires back into shape so that the switch would work okay. I couldn't get it right and finally gave up.

I have carried both a photon II and the pulsar II in my pocket with keys and other goodies. I have never had this problem with my photon II. I would have to say that the switch is better in the photons.

The pulsars are just as nice, though, when they work. I'm currently building a micro PSK and I have a pulsar II in it. Partly because I had an extra new one lying around. I figure it will be fine if I ever need to start using it, but I don't expect to be able to change batteries and keep going with it like I have with the photons.

This is one data point though; maybe I just had a slightly inferior pulsar. But hearing your similar switch problems just reinforces my preference for the photons.

Good luck trying to fix yours.

Cheers,
Mike

oops soory bout that poor use of english, what i ment was to bend the leads back so they are parallel with each other, like when you get a new one. leave the 120deg angle alone. its just that as the light gets used the leads bend away from the battery, so by bending them back in they touch it again. hope this helps
sc

Ah, now I understand. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm not familiar with Pertex, but that doesn't mean anything as I haven't purchased raingear in quite sometime but, it seems like nowadays every company that makes rain gear has its own waterproof/breathable laminate so you pretty much have to buy something like Gore-Tex, with some other name. I look for things on sale. There always seems to be something that somebody bought too much of and they have to unload it so that they can buy a bunch of junk that they’ll have to put on sale at the end of the next season, so I try to take advantage of that. I also know that I’m a pretty consistent XL so I can buy from places like http://www.sierratradingpost.com or another company that buys up stuff that other people want to get rid of. (Just make sure that you are buying close outs not 2nds.)
Having said that have a Solstice “Backpacker” that has one of those funky laminates, but it has a double zipper up front, pit zips, and adjustable cuffs. My wife bought me a Columbia windbreaker (remember the ubiquitous windbreaker) that stuffs into its pocket. It’s coated nylon and the vents stink, so I sweat like a racehorse in heat but it’ll work in a pinch. Finally, before a raft trip a couple years ago I bought my wife and my-self a Red Ledge jacket and pants set. They were coated nylon, but VERY reasonable in price. They had pit zips and vents and stuffed into their own stuff sacks that were about the size of a pair of socks. Mine did fine but my wife’s blew out. We sent it back with no problem.
Hope this helps,
Biscuits

Sorry Everyone but Snugpak is a quality brand - but as with all these things you need to reason it out. Thousands of British Army soldiers sleep peacefully every night in the Softie range, but you've got to pick the right one. I must confess that if I was in the Sahara in the Summer the Softie 3 would be absolutely my first choice... but for anywhere else you need the 6 or the 9 or even thicker...

http://www.wiggys.com/legacy/jul-aug00.cfm

I followed the link to Wiggy's site and read this:

"Wiggy's Guarantee is for a lifetime of use. If a seam opens, the zipper breaks or the Lamilite insulation deteriorates (such as losing its loft or separating, clumping in one place or another), Wiggy's will repair or replace your bag at no charge to you.
At this time, I know of no sleeping bag manufacturer that would even consider such a guarantee. The reason is simple: they already know the insulation they use will deteriorate. If you have ever compared information from the different sleeping bag and extreme cold weather garment manufactures, you will see that they have never guaranteed the insulation used-nor do they now. "

I had a North Face "Cat's Meow" synthetic bag that lost some loft over a few years' hard use. I submitted it to North Face and they gave me a new bag within a couple weeks.

I've not used Wiggy's gear (never seen it in a retail store) but he sure talks big.

There is nothing remarkable in North Face replacing your bag. Most of the reputable vendors will. It is called PR. The point is Wiggys makes this promise up front in writing. My status as moderator does not carry any wieght in discussing products. I merely give my empirical experience and whatever additional resources are available. I chose a wiggy unit on the direct advise of Chris Janowskie of WSI . I also was shocked to see Wiggy bags listed in THE WINTER WILDERNESS COMPANION by Garret and Alexandra Conover. These folks are major advocates of 'traditional' ( wool, leather etc.) clothing and related gear. I don't want this degrading into a "my sleeping bag can beat up your sleeping bag." Only one person normally climbs into one anyway, so it's a personal choice with personal consequences.

Okay Chris. No more Wiggy's talk. I don't understand why you bring such a defensive tone to your posts.