G3 Zed Heel Turret Failure

[jdadour]

I thought Ions and Zeds use the same pattern.

I checked with G3 prior to mounting my Zeds, and its the same mounting pattern as the Ion.

[jdadour]

Thanks. M in contact with the shop. Think the stomp pad was correctly installed but shattered in the wreck. How do I investigate further?

Did you check your box to see if the stomp pads are still in there? After the fact, I guess thats one way to know if they were put on there when mounted.

[hafjell]

Hi again. Send us a note at G3 so we can sort out your situation. Just mention the TGR post and you'll get some quick love at our end. Talk soon.

Done via Contact Us on your site.

[hafjell]

Did you check your box to see if the stomp pads are still in there? After the fact, I guess thats one way to know if they were put on there when mounted.

Retailer didn’t give me the box. Either they didn’t ship to the retailer, they’re in the box, or they were mounted and are now detritus on the John Shelburne Ski Trail.

[XXX-er]

Over at wild snow there is a pretty good breakdown on the ZED heel

https://www.wildsnow.com/25455/zed-g...ding-review-2/

[hafjell]

Will reread tmrw. I glanced at it, and it seemed short on experience but there’s a ton of knowledge with Lou and his team.


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[hafjell]

G3 is definitely on the case. Had a great call and am currently texting. They have been very responsive

Edit: just spent 30 minutes on the phone with another engineer from G3. Pretty impressive company. Guy was definitely not prompted by lawyers or sales directors. Full on engineer trying to sort out a lot of info.

It’s unresolved but he gave an easy verbal commitment to handle it whichever way I want.

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[cmcrawfo]

In the few dealings I have had with G3, they have always been amazing.

[retirwntm]

Hey. I work at G3. Something is not right about your binding breakage. The ZED binding comes with a SKI BRAKE or STOMP PAD (in lieu of ski brake to support boot). Your pictures do not show a ski break or stomp pad. Was either of them installed? If not, I think that may be the root cause of your binding breakage; although we have a bunch of questions for you. Give us a call and we can discuss next steps for your warranty. We're happy to work with you or your shop, no problem but often its quicker through the shop. Bummer breakage.

I didn’t necessarily think of G3 for anything because I don’t need it. But this makes me want to.


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[hafjell]

In the few dealings I have had with G3, they have always been amazing.

+1. Currently making other companies look bad.

[::: :::]

G3 stepping up

Props

[Wapow]

I bought first Gen Ions back when they first came out a few years ago and they broke on my second outing. G3 was totally unprepared for that occurrence and terrible to deal with. If I went with their solution (send them in for inspection and then repair or replacement), I would have been without my brand new boards for weeks, during a major pow cycle. Wound up buying Dynafits to replace the G3s paid the shop to swap them, all on my dime, entirely. Dealer who sold me the G3s (Sturtevants) barely even gave me a discount on the Dynas. Whole thing sucked. It's great to see that G3 has gotten their shit together regarding customer service since then, but I call bullshit on the "stomp pad theory". Pin bindings float the boot (i.e, your weight is on the pins, not the pad) and the OP was "just skiing along", not landing an air or some such. If I had Zeds waiting to be mounted, I'd abort.

[SumJongGuy]

I bought first Gen Ions back when they first came out a few years ago and they broke on my second outing. G3 was totally unprepared for that occurrence and terrible to deal with. If I went with their solution (send them in for inspection and then repair or replacement), I would have been without my brand new boards for weeks, during a major pow cycle. Wound up buying Dynafits to replace the G3s paid the shop to swap them, all on my dime, entirely. Dealer who sold me the G3s (Sturtevants) barely even gave me a discount on the Dynas. Whole thing sucked. It's great to see that G3 has gotten their shit together regarding customer service since then, but I call bullshit on the "stomp pad theory". Pin bindings float the boot (i.e, your weight is on the pins, not the pad) and the OP was "just skiing along", not landing an air or some such. If I had Zeds waiting to be mounted, I'd abort.

Ya, it should take a sledge hammer to make a binding look like that. Even the most horrible mount, missing brakes, pads, etc it shouldn't crumble like that. 30 year old plastic on a minus 30 degree day is the only thing that I expect to shatter like that.

[doebedoe]

Glad to hear they are handling it well.

Scary nonetheless to read about. Will be very interested in seeing their response. These are no doubt made in big batches.

[cmcrawfo]

I bought first Gen Ions back when they first came out a few years ago and they broke on my second outing. G3 was totally unprepared for that occurrence and terrible to deal with. If I went with their solution (send them in for inspection and then repair or replacement), I would have been without my brand new boards for weeks, during a major pow cycle. Wound up buying Dynafits to replace the G3s paid the shop to swap them, all on my dime, entirely. Dealer who sold me the G3s (Sturtevants) barely even gave me a discount on the Dynas. Whole thing sucked. It's great to see that G3 has gotten their shit together regarding customer service since then, but I call bullshit on the "stomp pad theory". Pin bindings float the boot (i.e, your weight is on the pins, not the pad) and the OP was "just skiing along", not landing an air or some such. If I had Zeds waiting to be mounted, I'd abort.

Let me paraphrase...

I had a bad experience with this company once. And most of my bad experience was because the shop sucked. I don’t consider the manufacturers possible explanation to be valid , despite it being offered with little info to no info about the mounting/ event. Since I have heard of one example of this product failing, I would not consider them in the future. ( buys marker king pin instead)

[mall walker]

G3 stepping up

Props

+1

[Wapow]

Let me paraphrase...

I had a bad experience with this company once. And most of my bad experience was because the shop sucked. I don’t consider the manufacturers possible explanation to be valid , despite it being offered with little info to no info about the mounting/ event. Since I have heard of one example of this product failing, I would not consider them in the future. ( buys marker king pin instead)

You're totally wrong in your analysis. There is way more to my G3 experience. After having to buy Dynas to replace my broken Ions, I sent them in to G3 and they repaired them and sent them back. I wound up remounting them in the existing holes on my Vwerks Katanas at the beginning to the next season, because the Ion mount was "on the line" and I had to mount the Dynas 1cm forward due to hole interference. Always bugged me/pissed me off, as the skis were brand new when the Ion failure originally happened. So, I have skied those Ions ever since and they have broken 3 more times during that period (two lifter springs, and another complete lifter failure, which was part of the first failure). So, 4 failures total, so far Customer service was meh on the springs (they sent me replacement doohickeys and I inserted them myself), but they came through nicely last year when the lifters fell off. Sent me replacement used heel units (just the heels, not the post/mounting portion), which they were never willing to do on prior failures, despite my offer to pay full retail, etc. They claimed it was "unsafe" and the complete units had to be tested at their headquarters. Dynafit never had that objection, and it was always easy to get spare parts from them. G3 would not even sell you a spare for an expedition. FWIW I like how Ions work better than Dynafit, but all the failure BS has sucked. And I'm hardly alone in dealing with Ion failures. Just look on this board and you'll find plenty of people reporting repeated Ion failures. So in summary fuck you Crawfo

[TripleT]

This is disappointing to hear. Had high hopes. +1 for anxiously awaiting more info

[cmcrawfo]

You're totally wrong in your analysis. There is way more to my G3 experience. After having to buy Dynas to replace my broken Ions, I sent them in to G3 and they repaired them and sent them back. I wound up remounting them in the existing holes on my Vwerks Katanas at the beginning to the next season, because the Ion mount was "on the line" and I had to mount the Dynas 1cm forward due to hole interference. Always bugged me/pissed me off, as the skis were brand new when the Ion failure originally happened. So, I have skied those Ions ever since and they have broken 3 more times during that period (two lifter springs, and another complete lifter failure, which was part of the first failure). So, 4 failures total, so far Customer service was meh on the springs (they sent me replacement doohickeys and I inserted them myself), but they came through nicely last year when the lifters fell off. Sent me replacement used heel units (just the heels, not the post/mounting portion), which they were never willing to do on prior failures, despite my offer to pay full retail, etc. They claimed it was "unsafe" and the complete units had to be tested at their headquarters. Dynafit never had that objection, and it was always easy to get spare parts from them. G3 would not even sell you a spare for an expedition. FWIW I like how Ions work better than Dynafit, but all the failure BS has sucked. And I'm hardly alone in dealing with Ion failures. Just look on this board and you'll find plenty of people reporting repeated Ion failures. So in summary fuck you Crawfo

Well, they could probably tell u were a dick. Maybe the shop tipped them off, as it sounds like they didn’t like u much either.

I bought 4 pairs of ions, had an Pre release issue with one heel piece. Was in contact with G3 direct. Without much convincing they shipped me 4 pairs of updated heel pieces ( even though only 1 had an issue and the other two were unmounted).

Anyway. IME, everyone (shops, companies ..) suck a little bit. There are no fucking unicorns out there. Some people have good experiences with some things while others do not. It’s complex and multifactorial. In the end, the important part of this story is, i was treated better than you, so that’s how you know I have more bro cred.

[Jongle]

Retailer didn’t give me the box. Either they didn’t ship to the retailer, they’re in the box, or they were mounted and are now detritus on the John Shelburne Ski Trail.

Check if the plastic toe shims have been installed. IRCC, the tow shims and stomp pads come packaged in the same plastic pouch, so if the shop missed one it's likely they missed both.

[kid-kapow]

I have more bro cred.

Cool story bro.

in all seriousness - it sucks that some people have poor experiences with one brand, others don't. Neither end of the spectrum is representative of the whole though. Maybe the guy you refer to as a dick - after he not so kindly asked you to go fuck yourself - trying to resolve the matter when his issues first occurred is a main cotributing reason your issues resolved quickly when they occured, maybe not. At least he did not put words in your mouth trying to be a smart ass since his experience was different than yours. I guess the difference between being a bro and just being a counterproductive is narrow. Not that i would know eh.

I am glad that the folks at G3 have treated the OP very well since becoming aware of the issue. Then again they do not really have a choice as this thread is a disaster for the Zed binding if left unresolved or a brand disaster (binding) in the making if met with tardiness.

[skibrd]

Hey. I work at G3. Something is not right about your binding breakage. The ZED binding comes with a SKI BRAKE or STOMP PAD (in lieu of ski brake to support boot). Your pictures do not show a ski break or stomp pad. Was either of them installed? If not, I think that may be the root cause of your binding breakage; although we have a bunch of questions for you. Give us a call and we can discuss next steps for your warranty. We're happy to work with you or your shop, no problem but often its quicker through the shop. Bummer breakage.

I was thinking about swapping out 2 pairs of Dynafits for a pair of Zeds, and this just sold me on them.

[hafjell]

After a 30 minute call with the engineer at G3 last night, I awoke to find an email detailing next steps. Return, replacement or swap is still up to me.
They are thinking the stomp pad was not installed. I sent a photo of the carpet test the night before and that seemed conclusive.


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[tuco]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. G3 is Canada's version of AMF. They do have good ideas and such, but always seem cheddarbuilt.
I've already pretty much written off G3 products, this definitely does not help that. Even with CS stepping up, cuz really, I don't want to get to know you guys(at least not in that setting)

[nickel]

what a bloodbath. they're handling it better than marker but it's still a bad scene. A few more reports of same will elevate it to dumpster fire in a hurry.