Blackhawk gladius problems

Well I dont know how this is going to turn out, so I will keep you guys aprised. I've been lingering for a little while on here, very good info I might add thanks, that is why I bought a gladius, seems highly recomended from you guys.
heres the story.

I just got my gladius the other day, I might add it was rather late and barely got it before my big hunting trip(another story in its self) so I get to lake chelan WA and try to turn on my nice new $130 flashlight expecting it to work perfectly, it turns on then when I move to look at my tent it decides to turn off, I shake it and it turns back on. I think this is strange and pull the batts and check it out with my surefire G2(damn boy scouts always have backup) looks fine. So I put it back together and it still doesnt work unless I shake it or beat it on my hand. seems there is somthing loose inside of the tail cap. So you can say I was very disapointed and had to resort to my surefire for the rest of the trip. I love the flashlight and botach is sending my a return box for replacment but will be out my new flashlight for god knows how long, because so far they have been very very slow at even returning a phone call or e-mail.

Oh well rant off.

PS the gladius seems like a very good and cool light just hope the next one works. Do you think maybe I got an old model that had these issues? oh by the way I got a desert tan one because botach forgot to tell me that sniper grey was out, hence the delay in my shipment:huh2: I do not have a problem with botach they seem to just be a very busy company at the moment, every one that I talked to was very nice, altough english doesnt seem to be the main language for most of them? Out sourced call center?

welcome to CPF ....botach ..bad rep... you should have got the black one serial number above 5000 gives you a HAIII coating ( better then the cercoat on the others) what serial number is your light ? its not a 100% thing but you may have a old model with a tail cap that botach is pawning off on you( BUT that may not be the case ), that old cap was not real bad but there are a few issues that are fixed in the newer ones (id say from about 8 months ago) you sound like your from my area where are you at exatcly? if your near me ill let have my older but still good olive drab tail cap in exchange for your cap that i can turn in for replacement,thatll keep you up and running, till a new cap comes in. btw sniper grey i believe is discontinued and tan will be changed to a differnt tan (unsure), new OD GREEN and black that are (HAIII) are what you want for better finish durabilaty (the crecoat is not bad its just not as good as HAIII)

I dont mind the tan one, it kind grew on me. I dont really mind if the coating wears off, not to hard to paint it again. I just hope that botach comes though, I did manage to get the manager to call me back today, this is after the fact that i talked to a very nice customer service rep and got it squared away. Go communication Thanks for the offer on the tail cap, I'm prob gonna wait and see what happens with the box that comes in the mail. I'll keep you all updated. By the way I live on the out skirts of lacey. You?

ser number is 04969, guess I got one of the F up ones

look top right of my posts

kungfumo said:

I dont mind the tan one, it kind grew on me. I dont really mind if the coating wears off, not to hard to paint it again. I just hope that botach comes though, I did manage to get the manager to call me back today, this is after the fact that i talked to a very nice customer service rep and got it squared away. Go communication Thanks for the offer on the tail cap, I'm prob gonna wait and see what happens with the box that comes in the mail. I'll keep you all updated. By the way I live on the out skirts of lacey. You?

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Kungfumo

There are NO f****d up Gladius's! There are some poor (with the emphasis on the word some) tail caps, out there. Both my son and I and a friend who is a serving police officer bought early model black ceracoated Gladius's. All three are numbered in the early 400's and all three are working well and earning their keep as anticipated. My Gladius was the only one to have an intermittent fault on the tail cap which was soon replaced by Blackhawk.

Actually the only small gripe I have was that the tail cap was replaced with the newer HA111 coating because there was no alternative ceracoated tail caps left. On the positive side the HA111 is nearly identical to the ceracoat and I think most folks wouldn't know unless they were CPF members!!!

Stick with the Gladius as when you get one which works right out of the box you won't want to ever be parted from it!

Doug

I'm not saying I dont like the flashlight, I do like it thats why I'm pissed. I would figure that the light would not be able to go through QA in a non working order, if you move the light you can hear something in the tail cap shanking around. I'm hoping that the return box gets here today so I can get the new one, botach told me they were currently out of all of the gladius, I hope they get me a new one fast.

Any one think they know whats wrong with it? Do you think I should send it back to blackhawk for warrenty or back to botach and wait forever?

yes they know what the problem was, it was a issue with a dimensional call out that was not being maintained by a vendor, it was found and the situation has been since rectified by night ops, that was about 7-8 months ago new tail caps were issued free of charge to basically anybody who even though they might have had a problem

kungfumo said:

I'm not saying I dont like the flashlight, I do like it thats why I'm pissed. I would figure that the light would not be able to go through QA in a non working order, if you move the light you can hear something in the tail cap shanking around. I'm hoping that the return box gets here today so I can get the new one, botach told me they were currently out of all of the gladius, I hope they get me a new one fast.

Any one think they know whats wrong with it? Do you think I should send it back to blackhawk for warrenty or back to botach and wait forever?

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DOUG,

i know my friend whined enough and got gladius to send him an entire HA light since he had the old cermacoat...

Jared

kungfumo said:

I'm not saying I dont like the flashlight, I do like it thats why I'm pissed. I would figure that the light would not be able to go through QA in a non working order, if you move the light you can hear something in the tail cap shanking around. I'm hoping that the return box gets here today so I can get the new one, botach told me they were currently out of all of the gladius, I hope they get me a new one fast.

Any one think they know whats wrong with it? Do you think I should send it back to blackhawk for warrenty or back to botach and wait forever?

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It's normal for the switch to rattle a bit due to its design. If the switch is not functioning correctly, call night-ops and they will replace the switch. There is no reason to deal with botach when your problem is covered under the factory warranty. Save yourself the headache.

I have 2 Gladius lights (older ones) and each has had tailcap probs which keep the lights from functioning properly. Basically, the lights won't work at all, and if you remove and re-install the tail, they come back to life.

Gladius (or whatever the entity is) will send you a replacement tail for free, which fixes the prob. I requested one tail and received it. Need to do the same for the other light.

Despite this little speedbump, the Gladius is still on the Powernoodle Top 10.

peace

thanks for the heads up, I believe I will call night-ops.

well I just got ahold of black-ops today, I talked with a very nice lady. She suggested to try to tighten down the cap more, so I tryed a few times to no luck, she says this a problem sometimes. So I told her I would call her back and try again when I got home, so I torqued the poop outta it and got it good and tight, she told me there was no way I could strip the tail cap. I took her word for it. Works fine now, I cant get it to turn off when I bang on it I pulled it back apart to make sure there was no damage done with that much force seems fine. Now when I put it back together it doesnt have to be so tight in order for it to work properly

Funny thing is that I have an older version that I bought secondhand (grey no. 05344). It works beautifully and produces the most perfect pure even ball of light. With all its other features I was so impressed that I bought a new one to put away as a Christmas present for my son who is in the Australian Defence Forces (black no.16853). I tested it to make sure it worked fine. It does. But the ball of light produced is not as perfect as my old one. Most people wouldn't notice but if you look hard you can see a ring of darkness in the light ball of his light. My son won't notice it and it is still a great flashlight and provides wonderful illumination at night but it does show that some older versions are actually better than the latest models. It probably mirrors some of us humans in that respect don't you think. :laughing:

I also bought my gladius a few weeks back from Botach and it cost me 119 dollars. i thought it was a steal. it was coyote tan also and i twas ceramic coating. the tailcap and everything on mine works fine, but my reflector must not be round inside or chipped cuz the hotspot looks ore like an amoeba than a circle.. what should i do?? CAn i send it back to Blackhawk? or am i screwed and just deal with it...if i knew how to post pics i would...can someone tell me how..

PS...i just read about the lockout mode and that the tailcap has four toggles? mine only has momentary, strobe and on/off with dim. Am i missing something? mine twists only three times. im worried now...!

Use an image host like Photobucket or Imageshack (I personally use Imageshack). Once you upload images to either site, they'll automatically generate links for you to use. Imageshack will tell you which link to use for forums. I don't know about Photobucket.

I highly recommend reading your Gladius's manual. One of the many things you can learn from it is that the lockout mode is accessed by setting the light to constant-on/dimming, pressing the switch partway down, and twisting the switch CCW.

ow!myeyez said:

PS...i just read about the lockout mode and that the tailcap has four toggles? mine only has momentary, strobe and on/off with dim. Am i missing something? mine twists only three times. im worried now...!

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Press the button very slightly while turning the ring counterclockwise from on/off mode. It will slip into lockout.

It is tricky to use the lockout at first. I grip the ring with my index finger and the first nuckle of my thumb and apply a very slight twisting torque, Then I push the button very slightly with the end of my thumb, and it rotates into lockout.

Scott

thanks tiger and scott for the suggestions., ill go home soon and test it...

ow!myeyez said:

I also bought my gladius a few weeks back from Botach and it cost me 119 dollars. i thought it was a steal. it was coyote tan also and i twas ceramic coating. the tailcap and everything on mine works fine, but my reflector must not be round inside or chipped cuz the hotspot looks ore like an amoeba than a circle.. what should i do?? CAn i send it back to Blackhawk? or am i screwed and just deal with it...if i knew how to post pics i would...can someone tell me how..

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The gladius does not throw a perfectly round hotspot. There's nothing wrong with your light. Night-ops used a reflector that has no orange peel. While this maximizes throw it does allow minor inperfections in the hotspot.

My "new" OD Gladius (#2) is on it's SECOND trip to Montana.

They removed a piece of debris from INSIDE the lens the first time, and neglected to replace the smudged reflector! Arggh! Considering their lightning fast turnaround time I was disappointed it was not made right the first time. Fortunately Gladius #1 works superbly right from the box, and makes me feel it is worth the trouble to get the OD version straightened out.

The original tailcap "loose spring rattle" is also 90% gone. And the slightly rough threads responded very well to some grease and working back and forth several times to smooth the burred threads.

As an aside, I found that placing the light near one of my Home Theater compression drivers causes the light to come on, and it stays on while near the magnet.

Paladin