JasonC8301
Flashlight Enthusiast
EDIT: New tailcap arrived in the mail. Works good. Just took 16 days, not all that bad though considering 9 of it was in the mail.
This past weekend was my required reserve drill dates (Friday and Saturday.) While in the utility uniform, I have my Surefire U2 riding on my belt in a Maxpedition 5" tube sheath. I always keep it there even during the daytime because you never know when you need to light up a dark area inside the building or look into vents.
The looking into vents was the thing that killed my U2 tailcap. There is a dryer (or something along those lines) vent near the roof of the building, about 4 stories up. I was sent along with someone else to go check out something that was clogging/blocking it. It was about 5:45 in the morning so it was still fairly dark. I had my U2 on when when I made a handoff of the light over, there must have been an error in communication and the light slipped and fell ~40 feet to the ground. I watched in horror as the light started to tumble and went crashing into the asphalt top. Luckily the corner of the tailcap was the point of impact and that took the brunt of the force. The light rested a few feet away in an unlighted manner.
The above pictures show what happened to the exterior of the tailcap and the tip of the bezel. Not so bad, BUT when I picked up the light and twisted the tailcap there was a terrible noise coming on from the inside of the light. Like a crunching plastic sound. The light CAME BACK ON! I continued to twist the tailcap off until it was off the flashlight body. A spring came bouncing up to my face and I dumped all the internal clicky parts onto the ground. It was a mess of crushed/cracked plastic, a metal plunger type thing, a metal ring, and some other little bits. I picked them up off the ground and threw them out (didn't want to have crushed parts in my pocket all day.) I also threw out the batteries because the o-ring on one of the batteries was exposed.
The above picture is the tailcap in its present state. All the internals are missing. Its just a metal shell with a rubber boot. The inside was illuminated with a Pelican M6 1 watt LED.
This past Tuesday I went over to a fellow CPF member's house and put my U2 through its paces using a SF G2 tailcap and a functional.
The light still works! All 6 levels are present. The glass is intact and the threads and actions are smooth. I compared my U2 to another U2 and it appeared to be on par with it (although not exactely the same tint and brightness wise, slight difference) and nothing different was recognized in the beam after the fall.
Notice anything wrong with the picture above?
There is a picture of my U2 with working U2 tailcap and another U2 (difference is one is in mint condition with clip and mine is clipless and 'used'.) I also said why not, lets snap some pictures of other lights (all LED based minus the Tigerlights and SF M6 in the background.)
I am still amazed the light lived through such a fall. It could have been worse and the glass window could of shattered and that means I need to send in the whole light. I like my U2 with very 'slight' donut on the lower levels and slightly pink tint. I also prefer my serial # so I want to keep it along with the clipless body.
I have put other lights through worse (falling from higher up, thrown with force, and used for a lot longer, years vs. months) but regular use of a light without intention of rough housing it is the worst when something does happen to it. Its similar to expecting a punch and opening a door and being surprised by a punch (lol, not that it has happened to me before.)
Thanks for reading,
Jason
EDIT: New tailcap will arrive in ~3 weeks as per Surefire CS.
This past weekend was my required reserve drill dates (Friday and Saturday.) While in the utility uniform, I have my Surefire U2 riding on my belt in a Maxpedition 5" tube sheath. I always keep it there even during the daytime because you never know when you need to light up a dark area inside the building or look into vents.
The looking into vents was the thing that killed my U2 tailcap. There is a dryer (or something along those lines) vent near the roof of the building, about 4 stories up. I was sent along with someone else to go check out something that was clogging/blocking it. It was about 5:45 in the morning so it was still fairly dark. I had my U2 on when when I made a handoff of the light over, there must have been an error in communication and the light slipped and fell ~40 feet to the ground. I watched in horror as the light started to tumble and went crashing into the asphalt top. Luckily the corner of the tailcap was the point of impact and that took the brunt of the force. The light rested a few feet away in an unlighted manner.
The above pictures show what happened to the exterior of the tailcap and the tip of the bezel. Not so bad, BUT when I picked up the light and twisted the tailcap there was a terrible noise coming on from the inside of the light. Like a crunching plastic sound. The light CAME BACK ON! I continued to twist the tailcap off until it was off the flashlight body. A spring came bouncing up to my face and I dumped all the internal clicky parts onto the ground. It was a mess of crushed/cracked plastic, a metal plunger type thing, a metal ring, and some other little bits. I picked them up off the ground and threw them out (didn't want to have crushed parts in my pocket all day.) I also threw out the batteries because the o-ring on one of the batteries was exposed.
The above picture is the tailcap in its present state. All the internals are missing. Its just a metal shell with a rubber boot. The inside was illuminated with a Pelican M6 1 watt LED.
This past Tuesday I went over to a fellow CPF member's house and put my U2 through its paces using a SF G2 tailcap and a functional.
The light still works! All 6 levels are present. The glass is intact and the threads and actions are smooth. I compared my U2 to another U2 and it appeared to be on par with it (although not exactely the same tint and brightness wise, slight difference) and nothing different was recognized in the beam after the fall.
Notice anything wrong with the picture above?
There is a picture of my U2 with working U2 tailcap and another U2 (difference is one is in mint condition with clip and mine is clipless and 'used'.) I also said why not, lets snap some pictures of other lights (all LED based minus the Tigerlights and SF M6 in the background.)
I am still amazed the light lived through such a fall. It could have been worse and the glass window could of shattered and that means I need to send in the whole light. I like my U2 with very 'slight' donut on the lower levels and slightly pink tint. I also prefer my serial # so I want to keep it along with the clipless body.
I have put other lights through worse (falling from higher up, thrown with force, and used for a lot longer, years vs. months) but regular use of a light without intention of rough housing it is the worst when something does happen to it. Its similar to expecting a punch and opening a door and being surprised by a punch (lol, not that it has happened to me before.)
Thanks for reading,
Jason
EDIT: New tailcap will arrive in ~3 weeks as per Surefire CS.
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Time to get out the black sharpie and "paint" that bare aluminium!
