Salomon QST Pro 130 swappable soles

[thefortrees]

I've been looking for a single boot for my lift served and touring adventures this season. I picked up a pair of the new QST Pro 130 boots with a pair of swappable tech compatible soles last weekend.

The safety issues from the 2010 version of these boots are now resolved. See the Wildsnow test of this "new" design from 2 years ago (https://www.wildsnow.com/9594/salomo...bc-120-review/)

However, I plan to swap soles frequently and the threads that receive the screws are plastic. These will definitely strip after multiple uses.

Are Helicoils a valid option for plastic? Any other ideas for threaded inserts in plastic?

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I've been looking for a single boot for my lift served and touring adventures this season. I picked up a pair of the new QST Pro 130 boots with a pair of swappable tech compatible soles last weekend.

The safety issues from the 2010 version of these boots are now resolved. See the Wildsnow test of this "new" design from 2 years ago (https://www.wildsnow.com/9594/salomo...bc-120-review/)

However, I plan to swap soles frequently and the threads that receive the screws are plastic. These will definitely strip after multiple uses.

Are Helicoils a valid option for plastic? Any other ideas for threaded inserts in plastic?

What alpine bindings are you using? I don't switch the soles on mine and leave the WTR tech soles on all the time, I use STH/STH2/Drivers or you can use a Warden or Lord. They seem to work just fine with Driver type toes, the flat spot for the afd on the toe block is in the right spot and the toe can get high enough. Of course the best answer it to put STH2 or other WTR compatible bindings on your skis.

I would not change sole blocks more than a couple time and would not put helicoils in the boot.

[gregL]

What AaronWright says. Don't swap the soles, they are only good for a couple changes. I believe the Salomon QST Plus soles are stamped WTR, in which case the Warden 13, Griffon and Jester ID, Lord SP, and Aaatack 14 AT will all work.

[XXX-er]

I had the Garmonts with swappable soles, at the time I wasn't sure how much touring I was going to do and they actualy did fit my foot

I could change the soles in about 15min, there were 9 screws into plastic on each boot, run all the screws out with a drill but replacing the screws I would turn the screws BACKWARDS by hand with a bit until I felt the screw drop into the old threads using this method I never had a stripped screw

I would swap soles once or twice a year but I was mostly riding lifts at the time, IME it was better to eventually just get dedicated AT & Alpine boots

[LC]

I thought about getting some Quest Max 2 or 3 years ago as my alpine boot for occasional tech binding outings but not all of my bindings were WTR compatible so I would have had to swap the soles every time I wanted to use them in tech bindings. I was wondering about installing the soles with t-nuts & machine screws but wasn't sure if the frontmost toe holes would accept t-nuts after seeing Wildsnow's photos. Lou was doubtful about it but never confirmed absolutely, and recommended not swapping the soles a lot.

Better to switch all your alpine bindings to WTR-compatible models and just use the tech soles all the time. For what it's worth, all of my alpine bindings are now old Salomons and I'll be skiing WTR soles in them exclusively.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

The patrollers here tested WTR in older STH/9xx Driver toes and they released within spec. The WTR tech blocks are so much nicer to walk in.

[thefortrees]

The patrollers here tested WTR in older STH/9xx Driver toes and they released within spec. The WTR tech blocks are so much nicer to walk in.

Good point - I guess I could take all of my skis to a shop and test with the tech blocks... I've got multiple pairs of skis I want to use, and would prefer not to remount with WTR compatible bindings (ie - buy WTR bindings x 4).

Bindings I'm currently using:
- Plum Guide
- STH2 Driver (pre "official" WTR)
- Salomon Guardian (pre "official" WTR)
- Marker Griffon
- Marker MXC 14