Severe Service

[chas9rr]

I am a truck driver here in Colorado and earlier this week I was on my way up the mountains for a delivery. I got to Georgetown (Elev. 8744 ft) on I-70 where the chain law was in effect. So, there I was, on the side of the road at about 5 am, with the temperature about 2 degrees, a wind chill factor about -15, gusting to about 35mph, with my trusty Dereelight CL1H laying in the snow so I can see what I am doing. The light didn't give me a lick of trouble. Later on, I kind of realized that might be pretty severe for a flashlight to put up with. I also started wondering what were the most severe conditions you guys ever put a light through.

Later
Charles

 

[Derek Dean]

Howdy chas9rr,
Well, I think my most severe service for a light could simply be called 'life'. Before I knew any better.... that would be anytime before a year ago when I found CPF, I used to treat my flashlights without any thought of runtime/brightness ratios, emitter type, or reflector design...... and they basically just got tossed around, beat up, loaned out, dropped, forgotten about, never lubed, used as a hammer or battering ram, and generally abused.

Luckily for me, my main light was a 3 D cell Maglite that I got somewhere around 1982-83. It was always loaded with Duracell primary cells, which never leaked and still worked well 5 years after their expiration date!

Of course, since I found CPF I've lovingly taken that light apart, cleaned and lubed it..... and yes..... put in a new set of batteries, so now it's ready for another 25 years of slightly less hard duty.

 

[fieldops]

The most severe here was the 2005 blizzard on cape cod. It was about 1am and the winds were gusting to 75-80mph. we had a massive snow band passing over us. it was snowing about 8-9 inches per hour for an hour. I initially used my Inova T3, but needed to change batteries. During the change I lost the tailcap in a big gust. I switched to my Surefire M3T. It really lit up the parking lot. In an added bonus, the heat from the bezel kept the snow from caking on the lens . The incan really shot well through the snow with less white out than the LED light. I needed a tough light that night and was sure glad I had it.

on another personal note:
Inova sent me two tailcap replacements free of charge....nice service :twothumbs

 

[Beastmaster]

My most severe service flashlight is a SureFire 6P - this is one of the first "current body" styles that was introduced as they first came out.

The flashlight has been:

- Run over (on I-17 in Tempe, I was in a MCSO marked patrol car helping Tempe PD with a drunk driver. He decided to run and we gang tackled him in the middle of the freeway. My 6P got run over at least once that I saw. Needed a new tailcap)

- Used as a hammer. Yep - I used the bezel part of the flashlight to drive in light wire brads.

- Dropped countless times. It's my primary 6P. What can I say?

- Survived a primary battery leak. Let's face it - black truck, Phoenix summers, and 170 degree interior temp. What wouldn't pop? That killed off a whole swath of anodization on the body.

- Used as a fishing weight. Yep - emptied the batteries out, and tossed the sucker out there with 10 pound line, fishing for catfish. Can't say that it worked - didn't catch any fish....but hey - gotta try something!

- Used as a string pull assist. When you're pulling wire, you can take the pull string, attach it to something convenient, and increase leverage. Yep. The flashlight works great with that.

- Used as a radius point for string pulls. Cover it with electrical tape, and place it near the pipe entrance. Great to prevent the pull string from cutting itself against the pipe, and the tape prevents the knurling from cutting the string.

- Dropped in an engine bay a few times.

- Left on a vehicle frame rail, then "shook out" when I left my driveway.

- Spare tire dropped on it. The weight of my spare tire - 160lbs (38x15.5Rx16.5 tire, plus 16.5 12 bolt 2 piece steel rim, plus internal beadlock).

That's all that I can remember off the top of my head. The 6P's been repainted with a rattle can countless times - some with standard gloss black, others (more recently) with spots of flat black, so it's got this blotchy look to it now. I might paint it with Polane T (Lauer's Duracoat, but far cheaper) it one of these days.

-Steve

 

[DM51]

- Used as a fishing weight. Yep - emptied the batteries out, and tossed the sucker out there with 10 pound line, fishing for catfish. Can't say that it worked - didn't catch any fish....

Maybe you should have left the batteries inside and kept it switched on, lol.

After all it has been through, this light should get a mention in the SF story book.

 

[Patriot]

Maybe you should have left the batteries inside and kept it switched on, lol.

LOL....that would have been good. It kinda reminds me of all the torture testing that the T1 has been getting recently by numerous members.

 

[Toohotruk]

This has the potential to be a great thread! :thumbsup: I love reading stories like this!

I encourage all of you that post in this thread to post pictures of your "severe service" lights here:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=120599

Because, the only thing better than reading about tortured lights, is looking at pictures of them! :naughty:

As far as my own story...I guess the best I can think of would be my 3D Mag "beater" light (years before it's current Malkoff incarnation), which I was told by one person that worked for me at the time, was run over by a truck while being used on a construction site. The story is unconfirmed though, since other parties involved have always denied their culpability.

The light definitely looks like it may have been run over at some point though...I can't imagine the head of a "D" Maglite becoming warped/bent due to a simple drop to the ground.

You'll find pictures of that light and others in the above mentioned thread.

Keep the stories coming!!!

 

[MikeSalt]

None of my lights have gone through anything particularly serious, but it is nice to know that they could.

I suppose the most severe conditions I have used a flashlight is to dunk underwater to find something at the bottom of a pond. Spent about 30 minutes at arm's depth with no leakage issues at all. It was a Fenix P1D-CE by the way.

I've used a Mag 6D as a tent peg mallet before. That was no problem at all.

 

[KeyGrip]

BeastMaster, PLEASE post pictures of that 6P in the "Beat up lights" picture thread. As for the original question, my "severe service" light would be my Arc AAA-P. It lives on my keychain with no less than eight other metal objects all bouncing around in my pocket. The finish is a little worn, but it works like its new and that's all that matters.