Scott P4 Advice Needed

[stevied]

I recently purchased some 171 cm Scott P4 skis on ebay hoping my daughter could ski them this winter around SLC. They have arrived with 3 sets of binding mount holes already drilled, none of which is anywhere near what I need. I think I can get a railflex plate on the ski without interfering with the existing holes, but I am reluctant to do it since the conventional advice is 3 mounts max.

So my options are mount the railflex plate anyway or send the skis back and get a refund. Any opinions on what to do?

[Jarle]

Just mount them, I've seen skis with more holes without metal in them and they held up fine.

[toast2266]

how many holes were you expecting there to be in them? Did you pay an appropriate price for skis with only 1 set of holes?

[stevied]

I paid what I thought was a reasonable price for "rarely used" skis with up to two mounts. Its strange that the skis actually look like they have been skied about 1 day per mount.

[ill-advised strategy]

I think the effect of multiple mounts depends a lot on the patterns...if you have locations on the ski where a large amount of core material is compromised by many holes, you're looking at weak spots, but if the holes are well-filled and well-spaced, and particularly if you're dealing with a lighter-duty skier (in terms of skier weight/hard landings/bumping...etc) you may be ok. It seems like a judgment call based on what you see on the ski. It might not hurt to re-plug the holes with an epoxy that will bond to the core as opposed to the traditional plastic plugs, as core integrity is now at issue after 3 mounts...the plastic plugs are mostly about water penetration and don't provide a continuum of energy transfer within the core, whereas a good epoxy will be more structural than a plug (still less structural than unmolested core)....

I am heavy and tend to ski fast and stress a ski pretty hard, and have skied a lot of swiss cheese over the years of acquiring rock skis and such. I have broken swiss cheese skis where there were many mounts, but I have been suspicious at times that the weak areas were water-penetrated (mushy core). This is a factor, you might look at pulling those plugs and trying to examine the core integrity.

It's a tough thing to recommend on without seeing the ski. I, too, have had swiss cheese hold up very well for long periods of heavy skiing...the strength of the ski will really depend on a lot of things I can't assess from your post, and the quality of the previous shop work (hole plugs...hole pattern intermingling/proximity) that may be tough to know. Kind of a gamble.

"stevie d"...heh....that's the guy dexter rutecki asks about in the bar when he fucks up that drug deal. "stevie d, the stevester..." heh. You run with a rough crowd there stevie d, you and Tina need to lay off the blow!

[fat yeti]

Plug them and try the rail flex if you need someone to look at to see if it will work bring it by Level Nine and we can check that out.

[Chowda]

Generally you should get a a good price for a ski with three previous mounts. The P4 has been available for about $325 this fall. Do you think you paid the right price?

They're deffinetly a well built ski with metal, wood etc.. so you should be able to get away with a fourth mount unless your daughter is a heavy weight super charger.

[ill-advised strategy]

P4 in good shape but mounted 3 times should be ~$100 or less IMHO.