Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

I had my string break while my bow was in the case so I took my bow to my local Forge dealer to have a new cable and string put on my bow I also asked him to install a new pad under my grip and new screws for the grip and I asked him to find out from the company about why the string was coming in contact with the bottom part of the limb where it Vs before the cam.So my husband went and picked up my bow for me and when I got the bow out of the case I couldnt believe what I was seeing. My bow had 6 new dings on the riser and the limb pockets it so deep thet they are down into the shiny aluminum with metal burrs on them.I thought the string would be okay so I took it out back to the shop and shot it 4 times through paper brought it back inside the house and the serving was already sererating after only four shots. But here is the icing on the cake. The dealer said that the company told him to solve the string contact problem to just grind down my limb where the string was touching and then Just spray paint it. So that was exactly what my dealer did to my bow without asking me if he could do this to my bow.I kept thinking this limb is going to break in the back of my mind every one of the 4 times i shot it Im now scared to shot it I feel that the integrty of my bow limb my have been compromised and I am no longer comfortable shooting my bow and i used to really love this bow it shot wonderful for me. Now i am not a bow tech im just your everyday archer but I would like to know from any pro bow techs has my limb integrity been compromised? Im relly upset and I am waiting until i cool down to contact my dealer and discuss this with him calmly rationatly. Any info would be greatly apreciated.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Skip the dealer and call someone with customer service at the company. I don't know how much they sanded off the limb, but that's not the way I would solve that problem. After you talk to the company you might be able to talk with the shop more intelligently.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

In addition I read the warrenty on the bow and it says any phisical alterations to any componet of the bow or drilling any parts will void my warrenty on my bow.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Lady Forge,

Problems like you experienced are the reason I no longer let any pro-shop owner or employees touch my bow. If someone worked on my bow and put 6 dings in the riser and grinded the limbs down without telling me, they would either replace my bow free of charge or give me a whipping and send me on my way or have to take one himself.
That shop is PATHETIC and doesn't need to be in business.
That dealer has no respect for you or your equipment.
You need to contact Forge and tell them what happened.
If need be, take him to small claims court over the damage to your bow.
Although, I'm sure, the LOSER will say the damage to your bow was already there.
Sounds like he needs a few dings to his head!


Sag.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Lady Forge,

Problems like you experienced are the reason I no longer let any pro-shop owner or employees touch my bow. If someone worked on my bow and put 6 dings in the riser and grinded the limbs down without telling me, they would either replace my bow free of charge or give me a whipping and send me on my way or have to take one himself.
That shop is PATHETIC and doesn't need to be in business.
That dealer has no respect for you or your equipment.
You need to contact Forge and tell them what happened.
If need be, take him to small claims court over the damage to your bow.
Although, I'm sure, the LOSER will say the damage to your bow was already there.
Sounds like he needs a few dings to his head!


Sag.
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

Im with Sag..you limb may or may not be compromised..but do you want to find out the hard way?

I'm not trying to be critical in your choice of bow, because I've been impressed w/ the forge bows I have seen, but any bow COMPANY that would instruct the dealer to take those kinds of actions (assuming your dealer is not flat-out lying), to correct a problem is promoting a potentially dangerous scenario, and should not be in business. Could you imagine a tree-stand company telling to make a few welds and grinds yourself to fix a problem?

I would refuse to do deal with the dealership, and would let Forge have an earful as well (and after the problem was fixed..buy something else).

There is no excuse for something like that.

JeffB :)

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

If they altered your bow and didn't ask you or get some kind of blank check for service, and you aren't happy, I think they need to make it right. On the other hand, grinding the limb needn't be a problem. I don't understand from your post how the string is in contact with the limb. Purely at a structural level, a lot of mono limbs have massive amounts of glass in the limb tip area, and a responsible amount of grinding could remove quite a lot.

If this really is factory authorized service, I don't think it should affect your warrantee. Also whatever they say, if your limb breaks, but you have drilled holes in the riser for an accessory, they can't void the warrantee for that I shouldn't think. In other words the alteration would have to be in the area of the break, which of course in this case is the future concern. You could have a pro who really knows what he is dong here, and has the competence to make this kind of alteration, but the dings to the riser don't inspire confidence in me.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Ossage; Correction;; where the cable comes in contact with the limb is where the limb opens to a V to house the cam. I have always really liked this bow but just feel that I have had some poor customer service and feel that I have been fed some BS and misinformation by the dealer and the company also advertised on their web site about a new limb exchange program for my bow, what they say is that for $50.00 plus shipping and handeling I can purchase new limbs for my bow to increase the poundage on my bow.I have peaked out on my bow at 50lbs and want to increase the poundage on my bow and was told this is a bow that will grow with you. I was also told this by the dealer when my husband bought me the bow. But what they didnt tell us is that this would not apply to my bow because i am shooting the solo cam, what they didnt tell us is that i would also have to buy new cams for the bow and switch over to a two cam bow.Well heck if im gonna do all that then why not just buy a whole new bow!!!!!Well I did speak with the company about the bow and they said yes they did instruct my dealer to grind down my limb. And they did try to reasure me that the limb integrity has not been compromised and to take the bow back to the dealer and have him reserve my string. ( NO THANKS ILL PASS ON THAT )I felt that they were talking down to me. They also told me that my warrenty has not been voided since they have autherized the dealer to do the work. Told me this isnt the only forge bow that they have had to do this to. HUMM:is this maybe a design flaw? They told me no, it was all due to the fact that I was using the wrong rest on my bow!? Thats when I decided okay I just give up no more dealings with the company or the dealer.Just gonna have to think long and hard about what to do next.<img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>

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RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

I think that if the dealer or company wants to keep your business they should send you a new bow. Id tell them that. If not Id look at other companies with a better reputation and track record. Im sorry to here about your misfortune lady forge.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

The wrong rest on your bow?!? What the heck does that mean? Are you using some different drop away or MZE that could be pulling/pushing on the cables?

I've got similar stupid answers from other manufactures as well when asking technical questions. Some of the people that answer the phone don't have a lot of expertise or knowledge in this area. You need to get past the &quot;first line&quot; of the phone front.

Edited by - Black Frog on 03/04/2002 10:48:41

Edited by - Black Frog on 03/04/2002 10:57:09

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Well that is good news as far as it goes. I figured it was the cable, so basically all they did was deepen the cutout for the cams. That area of the limb is usualy massive, and in all likelyhood wasn't cut out to the degree it should have been anyway. Safety wise it still needs to be done in such a way as not to create stress risers. The limb end area is often as much as twice as thick as the bending area of the limb, it is under less flex stress, though more stress otherwise (cutouts and loading point for string stops etc...) If the limb is twice as thick, then it will be 8 times stiffer, and 4 times stronger, this is where the redundancy comes form, on the other hand it is also why a rough area or poor machining can stress raise so massively.

The rest stuff is BS as far as I know. If that was the case why wouldn't they just suggest changing the rest rather than mangling the bow?

You may well have rights under state law that the company may have to deal with. You might want to look into the upgrade path claims with a state consumer person. You could try an email to the company asking them who the state could contact for further information, just to concentrate their minds.

Bowtech has a simmilar deal on a bow that appears to include an upgrade path for limbs, strings, and cams for $75. I don't know anything about it but here is a link to the video clip:

http://www.bowsite.com/BOWSITE/featu...icles/AMO2002/

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

LadyForge,

To put it bluntly: If I recieved that sort of response from Forge I would tell them where exactly they could put that bow of theirs.

As far as the upgrade: unless you are willing to make a stink about it legally (which would be much more costly in the end than buying a new bow, unless you have laywer friend who would do some work for free), I would just chalk it up to caveat emptor, and move on.

Ossage is correct in that Bowtech does offer a model w/ a 75 smackeroo upgrade , but I believe it the RASCAL , which although very nice, is not a &quot;full-sized&quot; adult bow. They might also offer the same option on the Stalker Lite which is their new &quot;full sized&quot; adult bow geared towards women, and shorter draw archers. You might wish to contact BowTech and see, or perhaps if Pat (BowTech Shooter) reads this he might know for outright.

Whatever the case, I personally would be out shopping for a new bow, whether they wanted to fix it or not.

That's my 2 cents for what it's worth

JeffB :)

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Jeff is right the Rascal is designed for small archers, it has a Patriot type limb, and they say that with 25&quot;/40# you get 260 fps. But that is the maximum weight so it wouldn't be upgradeable from that point.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Black Frog; I am using a golden key prong shoot through rest( pretty simple prong rest )nothing weird or fancy. Ossage;; where the dealer did the grinding down was just after the V begins in the limb, the limbs on the forge lighting strike at the V and in the area where he did the grinding is not thicker, it is the almost the same thickness as the thickness of the limb at the beginning of the limb.The grinding was not done in the length of the V but done in the width of the V. Tell me what do you think???

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

The width of the V will reduce the area's strength, but just proportionaly to the degree of the material removed. If material is taken off the back (target side)it can be really serious the face (side you see when shooting) is the best area for thinning the limbs, but obviously wouldn't increse the cam clearance. The key issue is whether the widening was done in a very smooth maner, otherwise there could be a stress riser. Presumably the factory believes that what is being done here consists of moving the bow towards factory specs for this model and cam. That would be just fine, but I don't have that much confidence since you seem to imply that the string is already wearing again. In which case the job didn't restore factory specs (so how good a job was it), those specs don't work (unlikely?), or something else is also wrong like a burr on the cam or whatever. If you want to persue remediation, then one option would be for you to ask the factory to provide you with factory specs. How wide, how thick, what are the dimension of the cutout. I don't know how much fitting of the limbs they do at the factory, but depending on their process, not all limbs will be indentical due to tiller and weight issues, but the cut-outs maust have some minimal specs. If you have calipers amoung the family treasure you could do your own measurements to see what gives.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Some good food for thought Ossage. Thankyou for taking the time to help me out with this I appreciate it very much.I think I am going to go to the dealer and ask him to have the limb replaced with a new limb ( do to the fact that I did not authorize the work to be done on the bow )I only asked him to find out how the problem could be remidied and for a explanation from the company as to why the problem was occuring.If that dosent work then I will go back to the company with the same request and get an answer from the horses mouth.So wish me luck I think im gonna need it.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Who is this dealer? I hope he is not in my area! But,I could think of one that would do some crap like that. &quot; NOT HAROLD!&quot;

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Good luck!

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

I spoke with Forge Bow Company this morning and I explained that I was not comfortable with shooting the bow with the limb grinded down, To me archery is so mental and I could not concentrate on the shot when I was busy worrying that the bow might blow any time, So I explained to them that I would like the limb replaced under my warranty. There response was that that would be no problem and they said that they like to keep their customers happy.So they said the limb will be here tommorrow but one hich, I have to take it back to the dealer to have it installed. So I figure here we go again. But if I look at it from another perspective maybe if the dealer beats it up bad enough I can get a whole new bow out of the deal.I guess there is always another way to look at things. Im dying here I havent been able to shoot for 2 weeks here<img src=icon_smile_angry.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_sad.gif border=0 align=middle>Tip for you all. If you find out the shop that has been working on your bow keeps a fridge full of beer in the shop, take your bow else were.BOOZE AND BOWS, NOT A GOOD MIX!!!!!!

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Lady Forge I hate to say this but it's time to find a new dealer & a new bow to shoot. I could never imagine Hoyt, mathews, pse or anyone else ever telling a dealer to grind down the limbs to fix a design flaw. also to blame the rest is crazy, I have never heard that one before! I would also be mad about the dents & dings, that was really bad that they did that. I would get the bow fixed, touch up the dings with paint & then sell it. move on to another bow & dealer that will give you good service.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Also, Limbs should be replaced in PAIRS..not one at a time..Limbs are matched from the factory..similar to stiffness in arrow shafts..that is if they are matching them well in the first place..

Unless they have the &quot;limb code&quot; from the good limb(usually on the bottom in the pocket) they can only get &quot;close&quot;...

I would call back and tell them you want both limbs replaced, and better yet a new riser..tell them you want to send it back yourslef for repairs...if they see how the dealer beat it up, they might be more inlcined to give you a new one..

JeffB

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

You guys/gal were talking earlier about bow companies with trade-in deals for the limbs to &quot;grow&quot; with the shooter. Paker also has that deal, $50 for the new limbs on the Challenger model. The Challenger is a very good youth/womens bow. You would either have to ship it to Parker for the upgrade or take it to your local dealer, if you trust them. You do not have to swap out the cam either. Limb weight options are 20-30, 30-40, and 40-50 pounds. An option for you if you decide that Forge is no longer the bow for you. Sorry to hear about your experiences. Good luck.

RE: Forge Bow Bad Experience! /Question?
 

Thanks for the tip on the matched limbs I didnt know about that.I have no intentions of selling this bow despite the limb contact I have really enjoyed this bow I have harvested deer with it and shot 3D tournaments with it and the bow has shot really well for me and i have become kinda attached to it. I was already in the market for a new bow with higher poundage before this all happened I am looking at bows that i can get up to 60 pounds out of and we were able to tweek 52 out of my forge but thats the limit.I am planning on keeping the forge as my backup bow.Guess what, the dealer totally denies putting the dings in the bow. Imagine that.<img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle>