Surefire U2 bites the dust...Think problem solved.

JasonC8301

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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.

w53988713.jpg


w53988718.jpg


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.

w53988714.jpg


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.

w53989108.jpg


Notice anything wrong with the picture above?

w53989110.jpg


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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*Bryan*

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Re: Another one bites the dust...

Man o man,
Your U2 gets more use than anybodies I know. Used a hammer, gets dropped 40 feet..man!

I say you call SF and let them know it survived a 40 foot fall. That is a awesome in itself.... :rock:


PS...I would recongnize some of those lights anywhere. I am however suprised that the HDS is not in the picture.
Sorry, I stand corrected by myself. It is in the pic.
 
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IsaacHayes

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Re: Another one bites the dust...

The G2 tailcap matches the selector ring well!! :D Time to get out the black sharpie and "paint" that bare aluminium!

BTW asphault is softer than concrete. Otherwise you'd see a lot more dent in the aluminum.
 

luxlover

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Re: Another one bites the dust...

GarageBoy said:
That's Luxlover's house, ain't it?
You should know the answer to that question Sonny Boy, since you have been there a few times. I like to call it "Luxlover's Laboratory", only when visitors bring their lights with them.
 

wquiles

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...

Glad your U2 still works. Pretty tough lights!.

I would definitely contact SF and share with them your story and photos. They might use it for their sales/marketing - your story might become famous ;)

Will
 

luxlover

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...

wquiles said:
Glad your U2 still works. Pretty tough lights!.

I would definitely contact SF and share with them your story and photos. They might use it for their sales/marketing - your story might become famous ;)

Will
Will is right, Jason. With SureFire's knowledge of your "harrowing" experience, you could become rich and famous, and we would all want to rub shoulders with you so that some of your U2's good fortune would happen to us too. How do you feel about having 12,000 good buddies?

P.S: Mine is a keeper as well, most recently being fed with an LG Chem unprotected 2,400mAH 18650 Li-Ion pup.
 

revv11

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...

I have put other lights through worse (falling from higher up, thrown with force...)

Sounds like you have had some interesting flashlight experiences. I'll bet there's a good story behind "thrown with force..."
 

JasonC8301

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...

Just got a new U2 tailcap in the mail from Surefire! Works fine, just have to put some lubricant on the dry threads.
 

JasonC8301

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

Today I was over at CPF member luxlover's lab and was playing around with my U2. Nothing abusive or abnormal to a CPF'er. Just sitting at the table turning my light on and off. Then the tailcap has a brain fart. I keep clicking and it goes on and off, until I hit one point after 5 clicks on/off and the tailcap locks and doesn't click on. I was like WTF and have luxlover look at it. He twists it on and off and it doesn't work. I then hand it over to another CPF member and he tries to make it work by twisting the tailcap on/off and it still doesn't work.

In under 2 weeks the new U2 tailcap is broken. Should not happen on a $270+ light. I tried luxlover's tailcap on my U2 and it works fine. There has been no hard use on my U2 for the past 2+ weeks. Just sits in a holster either on my waist or in my bag.

Time to call up Surefire Monday morning. The U2 is a nice light, it has replaced all my 2 X CR123 lights (incandescent and LED.) I am just a bit pissed because now my light will sit on the shelf unused until this problem gets fixed. I am contemplating sending in my light BUT I like my tint and fairly small donut hole (only visible on white walls and on lower brightness levels) plus the serial # means something to me. I'll see what happens when I call up SF.

Thanks for listening to my rant,
Jason
 

greenLED

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

:awman:
Jason, take the tailcap apart and lube the innards. Also, adjust the height of the metal tabs inside the switch. Changes are, one of those (or both) things will fix your switch.
 

JasonC8301

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

Thanks for the tip greenLED.

I am going to do this once SF gets a new switch to me. I don't want to tinker with a switch and do something wrong with it and be stuck with a even more broken switch and no replacement from SF.

This problem should not have happened considering the price of these lights.
 

greenLED

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

JasonC8301 said:
This problem should not have happened considering the price of these lights.

That's what I kept saying to myself (and anyone who would listen)! :) Hopefully your tailcap will arrive promptly; my replacement took 3 weeks.
 

wasBlinded

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

I certainly agree that Surefire needs to make a better effort to permanently fix their clicky tailcaps. I haven't had one fail myself, despite having at one time 3 different U2s, but I have repaired a couple sent to me by others, and it just isn't that hard to do.


I guess we know why most SF tailcaps are twisties, not clickies. I'm not sure there is a clicky out there by any flashlight manufacturer that hasn't had some CPFer posting about a failure. I personally like twisties better...
 

turbodog

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

If it hangs up, try to turn the rubber button to the left while clicking.

I agreee that SF's tailcaps are overall pieces of crap. I have had dead/quickly broken ones on 1/2 to 2/3 of my SF lights.
 

IsaacHayes

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

Seems all clickies aren't that robust. Krolls, SF, and Fenix. Is there any clickie that people have never had a problem with? My SL jr Luxeon clickie has lasted a lot of abuse, but others say theirs go out though...
 

turbodog

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

IsaacHayes said:
Seems all clickies aren't that robust. Krolls, SF, and Fenix. Is there any clickie that people have never had a problem with? My SL jr Luxeon clickie has lasted a lot of abuse, but others say theirs go out though...

I've never had a problem with a mag clicky.

Mag sells an entire light for less $ than a typical SF clicky.
 

greenLED

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

I'm partially with TD on this one; the actual mechanism on Mag clickies has never failed on me, but the rubber button is not durable (they get crummy and fall off).
 

ZeissOEM2

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Re: Surefire U2 bites the dust...Now lives on..then dies!

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