I recently experienced a rod failure on a G.Loomis(Canada) Frontier blank. The rod "exploded" on a hook-set while steelhead fishing with floats. The rod blank is rated for 4-8lb test and I was running P-line CXXX 6lb test. My float dunked and I immediatley set the hook. In doing so, the rod broke in two places. The breaks were clean (very little splintering) and a perfect 90 degrees to the blank ...I've never seen anything quite like it before. The other strange thing was the proximity of the breaks. The first one was exactly 7" above the ferrule and the next was about 7" above that (between guides). I contacted a gentleman at G.Loomis(USA) and he instructed me to take it up with G.Loomis(Canada). He told me (without even looking at the rod) that based on what I've told him, the blank failure was due to the fact that I exceeded the structural integrity of the blank (with 6lb test?). He told me it was up to me wether or not I wanted to send it in for a possible warranty.
My question is, is it worth the cost of shipping the rod through customs when it seems that they already have their minds made up about the rod?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

How old was the rod?

Sometimes if their is a flaw in the blank the first time you load the rod up with a large amount of force it will break at this point. It is not common in my experience that the rod should break in 2 places.

I would send the blank in. If you crushed it in a car door it would be splintered. Most of the time companies don't like to tell you without seeing the blank that they will warrantee it our not. But most don't want the word out that they don't back up their products so if even it is perceived that your claim could be valid they will replace your rod.

The other option is if you can get the sales rep who sells Loomis to whoever you bought the rod from to assist you that might help. If you can get the store owner involved you may get some help.

I do not believe that there is an duty for a broken rod or for a replacement. I would send the rod back to Lorne Green "Loomis Canada"and let him decide .

Just my two cents

It's quite common for a rod to break and then shatter/break in successive spots farther above or below the initial break. But in such cases, you have a load failure and I'd be inclined to return the rod. Breaks that are the result of some previous impact damage do not usually shatter the rod in more than one place.


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Ray,
It is possible to put a much higher load on the rod than the 6lb. line rating with a fast hook set. In your case what almost certainly happened is you over-stressed the rod on the hook set and it broke first just above the ferrule. That is the point where stress tends to be concentrated with all ferrules. But when it broke that sent a very large and fast shock wave up the rod. This shock wave caused the rod to break again, just a few thousands of a second later, farther up the rod where the rod is less strong. As Tom said, it is actually fairly common for rods that are over-stressed to break in more than one place. I have had them break in as many as four places.
Having said all of that, it has been my experience that Loomis is very good about replacing broken rods. I would send it back to them and I will bet that they will replace it.

My concern is that all the signs point to load failure ...which I can assure you wasn't the case. Has anyone here had a similar experience or similar break? At this point I may just take a loss on the blank, but it hurts when you put so much time and passion into a rod that fails on the first outing. To be honest, it's got me a little spooked. I'm just searching for some possible reasons why /how such a break could occur.

BTW, I own several other Loomis rods that have over ten years of use, as well as a Lamiglas that's pushing 23. The only other rod failure I've had was on an early '80's Lamiglas S-Glass noodle rod, but that was due to the fact that it got whacked by another rod in some shoulder-to-shoulder combat fishing.

Send it back - it was a load failure but I suspect something about that rod was wrong and it was not up to withstanding the amount of load it was designed to be able to withstand.

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Ray,
It may not be the case and there may have been a flaw in the blank but from your description it sure sounds like the blank was over-stressed. The rod breaking in two places and where it broke are pretty good indications that over-stressing was the cause.
Something that we do not normally think about is the tensile strength of graphite and how it drops depending upon how fast we apply a load on the rod. The faster the load is applied the lower the tensile strength is. In other words a blank will tolerate a much higher load if it is applied slowly than it will tolerate if the load is applied very rapidly.

Whip-setting a hook places a powerful load on the blank. I saw a demonstration on one of the Salt water fishing shows using 20lb line where he showed a regular set and then a whip set and the 20 lb line easily broke. Most of the float rod blanks are like fly rods in that they have a parabolic action (bending somewhat evenly throughout the blank) and yours being rated for 4-8# test is a fairly light action rod.

Then consider the P-line 6# line your using. lots of ppl like that line brand but what is the dia of it? At 6# it should be .009" dia. if it is not, you paid a dia. price for what ever particular attribute that line boasts it contains. Lots of bass guys like P-line also because it is so strong, and that strength can be from being over sized in dia. Look at Berkley XL (extra limp) 8# line its .010" dia then look at Berekley XT (extra tough) 8# line at .011" dia...thats the dia of Berekley XL 10# line (.011") ..why not just have 2 more pounds of strength for the same amount of stealthy dia?

Heres the rub and I stated this in a recent post about self depricating blank failures as few threads below. Dry mono (not flourocarbon line) rated for 10# test will break at 15# when dry, after it takes on 8% water in the process of getting wet, the strength diminishes by as much as 1/3 taking this same mono line down to its wet rated 10# strength...So what this means is the 1st few casts your using 15# line which is well past the MFGline rating for that rod, Now factor in a hard whip-set and then consider an over size dry line and its potential strength. Most steelhead fisherman have to set a hook real hard because there can be alot of slack in their line they need to take up before they actually start moving the hook. but in different section of the drift this take-up slack can be very minimal while the hook set may not change. There are lots of factoors that can sneak up on a drift/float fisherman and any two could cause the light action blanks commonly used to fail. But send it in, over stressed or not, over anayalized as this may be, it was still 6# line on a 4-8# rated rod, and most MFG's want to keep the customer happy although they keep raising their mandatory return shipping charge.

Out here in the Pacific Northwest we will use weight below the float, attached with a swivel or on a sliding weight rig. If you are using something similar, be sure that the weight hasn't smacked the blank enough to have caused a small blemish that can be the start and finish of a broken rod. Don't ask me how I know this except that I have two very nice 12' two piece float rods that are now three piece!!!