There must be a ton of different ways that a rod can break , either by accident or by negligence . I am putting together a warrenty on my rods for my customers and I wanted to give a few examples of accidental breakage (covered), and breakage due to negligence (not covered). What would some of the main causes of breakage be that I would be able to identify by looking at the broken blank ? also , I how do you identify breaks that occur do to blank manufacturer fault . I think that some of these things may be sort of grey areas , like is it the anglers fault if his rod breaks on a fish ? how do you tell ? I would like to be very clear in my warrenty on what I will and wont cover . Any ideas , experiences , and answers will bill greatly appreciated , thanx in advance .

There was a full article on this in a past issue of RodMaker. It's too much to go into here but it would really give you some great insight on how to recognize the difference between a break due to defect and those from other causes. Volume 3 #1.

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Sorry Shai but I couldn't resist. The same magazine that you said is lacking in depth and content has the very answer you're looking for in a very detailed article with comments from rod company warranty people. Almost any question you see here has been covered in Rodmaker at some time.




Re: Rod Builders Magazine : (

Posted by: shai plummer (24.21.88.72)

Date: December 17, 2004 04:31PM


My two cents on the subject , Rodmaker is a good magazine but it is lacking in depth and content , most of the articles only scratch at the surface and leave much more to be said

Not having read the RodMaker article (simply can't afford to buy every back issue), I'll give you my $0.02 worth.

As an individual rod maker, IMHO it is best to offer a limited term, no questions asked return policy. Reason being, if a rod is going to break due to a manufacturing flaw, it is probably going to break rather quickly and not 2 or 3 years down the road. As time goes by, the chances that a blank will break from a legit defect becomes less and less. When a rod is fairly new, someone who has paid a premium for a quality built custom, is going to be more inclined to take excellent care of it. So IMHO it is better to simply offer a 100% replacement warranty for breakage during the first 6 months or a year, then it is to offer a longer term warranty and then try to determine how the rod broke 2 or 3 years after delivery.

Lord, I wish that guys would take care of a custom rod because it's custom. I had one guy break 5 of them in one year. I had 7 broken rods that whole year, other 2 were older rods from previous years left in pole holders in the boat with braided lines on them. This guy broke all 5 of these on snags where he was pulling on them when they broke. I hand an information sheet out with all of my rods and also discuss these things with them. Learned the hard way, that's for sure...

Putter

I would think that the location of the break would be an indicator.If it were high sticked it would be broken further towards the butt,slammed in the car door somewhere near either end.Also if it broke at a wrap possibility exists the wrap was too tight and the blank could not change shape while bending.I also believe the time in reference to delivery to the customer and when the failure is a good indicator if defect or workmanship is at fault.With the braided lines now used I see people over lining salt water bottom or drift rods due to the thin diameter of the line.This results in broken rods especially while the rod is in a holder and drifting with too tight a drag.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Thank you all for the suggestions , I appretiate the help. I wrote up my warranty last night , and offered free repairs and shipping for accidental breakage and a bit of a tough luv program for negligent breakage , i'm having them pay me $25 for rewrapping tip and mid sections and $50 for rebuilding butt sections , and whatever it costs them in shipping and from the manufacturer for replacing the blank . I want to offer good service , but I don't want to give it away , and then see my rods come back broken time after time . hopefully the cost issue will be enough incentive for them to take good care of their rods.

(Shawn : I'll just ignore that comment ;) obviously you didn't see my second post in that particular thread its possible that it got removed , I may have put my email down with a dot com instead of a dot net . )