My Driver Is Cracked?

[Esox]

At least Cobra owned it. My buddy had a SIM crack like that and said TM refused to warranty it. This is a guy who was fastidious about his gear maintenance. (Was because he passed two months ago).

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, Esox said:

At least Cobra owned it. My buddy had a SIM crack like that and said TM refused to warranty it. This is a guy who was fastidious about his gear maintenance. (Was because he passed two months ago).

Man, that is too bad. About the SIM and about your buddy. 

I'm perfectly satisfied with what Cobra did. They were easy to contact. They responded quickly and often with emails. They turned it around in the time they said they would. They did not over-promise. Obviously, the color difference doesn't affect performance. But I did select the blue one over the black one for a reason. So, there's that. 

I'm also well aware of Fed-Ex's struggles right now. So, I'm not surprised with how long it took. Disappointed, but not surprised. 

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. 

[ChetlovesMer]

Amazingly, this happened to me again.

I was playing on Black Friday with my brother-in-law. About 6 holes in and I hear a rattle inside the driver head. 
After examining the head, I notice a crack in the carbon. 

Played the rest of the round... actually played pretty well, 9 GIR's, 5 NGIR's. No disasters. No penalties.

Anyhow, I called Callaway and they are already sending me a new one. When I get it, they instructed me to put the damaged one in the box the new comes in and ship it back with the Fed-Ex label they've already emailed me. They said I can switch out the shafts if I want to, or keep the new shaft if I'm so inclined. BTW - Very impressed with Callaway customer service. They exceeded my expectations.  

I was upfront with the Callaway guy and told him it was probably only like 45 degrees outside while I was playing and he said "That doesn't affect your warranty."

I'll update this post when the new Callaway gets here. 

 

[Typhoon92]

Really not surprised, and neither are the OEM’s.  The clubheads are just so many pieces now put together, not just a face welded to a body.  I’ve done demos and had head’s practically explode.  And it’s not always people with high swing speeds either.

Last year I cracked my Stealth 2 Plus… the carbon crown cracked.  I held onto it for a while until I knew I’d get a Qi10 on the warranty swap, which I did.  I got the Qii10 in July and in October the fave started to come off plus I cracked it across the middle from the toe to the center… right where I like to hit it.  So next year I’ll send that one back for whatever is new next year.

I’m not angry, I have back up drivers and it’s nice getting a new one every year.  

[billchao]

On 12/7/2024 at 10:56 PM, Typhoon92 said:

And it’s not always people with high swing speeds either.

Ouch, @ChetlovesMer is catching strays over here 😜

[saevel25]

Yep, I think the biggest issue is the carbon fiber. 

Carbon fiber is not good for high impact due to it being brittle, and there can be catastrophic failures. If you consider something like bicycles, where the frame can be carbon fiber, but they usually have a beefy suspension system to take the shock. Carbon fiber is good in tension, not compression. It is bad in compression. It makes no sense to have a carbon fiber golf club that is subjected to both tension and compression on a golf strike, especially off-center hits. 

Ping is using carbon fiber on top of the club at the back half of the crown to lower spin. It is probably in a place that wouldn't see much of the compression/tension from a mishit. Also, the bottom half of the club is metal. So, it is pretty rigid. 

The Paradym Drivers have like 80% of their club as carbon fiber. The back weight distribution design is not connected, by metal, to the front part of the club. I can see if you mishit it, and that 20% metal starts to twist, it will create a section of the carbon fiber under compression, and it will crack.  

Also, here is the tech description from Callaway on their newest driver...

"The 360° Carbon Chassis has been refined to promote increased weight distribution. By adding an internal titanium support structure, the Carbon Chassis is now 15% lighter*. This mass is redistributed into the head to improve launch conditions and add forgiveness. Each Forged Carbon sole features a unique color and carbon pattern, making every piece one-of-a-kind."

This sounds to me like they saw a large number of failures and added better material for more support, but they framed in a way to sell the club. 🤣

[ChetlovesMer]

17 hours ago, billchao said:

Ouch, @ChetlovesMer is catching strays over here 😜

Bill, everyone is envious of my awesome power. When I'm peaking well over 80 mph, even Bryson is going to be envious of that kind of power. 

16 hours ago, saevel25 said:

This sounds to me like they saw a large number of failures and added better material for more support, but they framed in a way to sell the club. 🤣

It kind of feels that way. Especially considering their customer service department sent me out a new one without even asking for a the old one back first, or even for a photo. 

[saevel25]

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

It kind of feels that way. Especially considering their customer service department sent me out a new one without even asking for a the old one back first, or even for a photo. 

Yep, it was probably, "Another one of those, send it!"

[Typhoon92]

13 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Bill, everyone is envious of my awesome power. When I'm peaking well over 80 mph, even Bryson is going to be envious of that kind of power. 

“The stuff legends are made of…”

😁

As long as OEM’s keep replacing them…. But if it cracks 2 years in, you’re screwed on the warranty.

the Cobra Dark Speed driver gets rave reviews.  Haven’t heard of breakage issues.  Taylormade now came out with the Qi35 heads.  Absolutely stunning but it’s a carbon fiber sole as well as the face and crown.  I guess we’ll see.

[ChetlovesMer]

10 hours ago, Typhoon92 said:

“The stuff legends are made of…”

😁

As long as OEM’s keep replacing them…. But if it cracks 2 years in, you’re screwed on the warranty.

the Cobra Dark Speed driver gets rave reviews.  Haven’t heard of breakage issues.  Taylormade now came out with the Qi35 heads.  Absolutely stunning but it’s a carbon fiber sole as well as the face and crown.  I guess we’ll see.

I have a PING G LS Tec driver (all titanium) head from 2016 in the closet. It performs as well as anything, but the sound is ... what's the word... off-putting? 

Anyway, that titanium head will probably last until the next ice age. 

[Carl3]

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I have a PING G LS Tec driver (all titanium) head from 2016 in the closet. It performs as well as anything, but the sound is ... what's the word... off-putting? 

Anyway, that titanium head will probably last until the next ice age. 

So when you are on the range with the Ping LS, all heads turn when you hit it?

[ChetlovesMer]

3 hours ago, Carl3 said:

So when you are on the range with the Ping LS, all heads turn when you hit it?

[ChetlovesMer]

I forgot to update this post. I got the new Paradym Driver about 4 days after Callaway said they'd send it. It came with a similar, but not the same shaft I had on mine, so I swapped it out and sent the old head with the new shaft back to Callaway. I'm more than happy with Callaway's response time and willingness to replace the driver. 

Other than the crack, I really had no complaints about the Paradym. Although if it cracks again, I'll be outside the 2 year warranty period and then I'll be bummed. 

[Typhoon92]

So they sent you the current model or an older one?  If it’s the current model you still have the warranty.  And they made you send back the club with the shaft and sent another club/shaft set up?  I would think, like with my stealth 2, they would just swap head for head.

[ChetlovesMer]

3 hours ago, Typhoon92 said:

So they sent you the current model or an older one?  If it’s the current model you still have the warranty.  And they made you send back the club with the shaft and sent another club/shaft set up?  I would think, like with my stealth 2, they would just swap head for head.

They sent me the same head as I cracked. The Paradym 9 degree. But instead of just the head, they sent me a complete driver. 

The guy said because it's not the current model they don't have any heads sitting in inventory, but they do have complete drivers. So, they sent me a complete driver and a UPS label. Then when I got it, I had the choice to keep the compete driver, and send my driver back to them, or swap out the shafts to keep my old shaft and send the new shaft and old head back to them in the same box. Just affix the UPS label and drop it off. Which is what I did. 

All in all, the whole process took about 4 days. Which I thought was pretty good. 

So, now I have a brand new head (still in the plastic) on my old shaft and with my old white Pure DTC Midsize grip and still have the Shotscope tag in it. 

BTW - The new driver also came with a head cover. Which I sent back to them. But if I was hard up I probably could have kept the head cover and I doubt they would have said anything. 

[Typhoon92]

3 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

The guy said because it's not the current model they don't have any heads sitting in inventory, but they do have complete drivers. So, they sent me a complete driver

That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard… they only have complete clubs…. They couldn’t have unscrewed it like you did???  Wow…right?

[ChetlovesMer]

7 hours ago, Typhoon92 said:

That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard… they only have complete clubs…. They couldn’t have unscrewed it like you did???  Wow…right?

I agree.

I would have thought it would save them shipping costs. I will say, I don't really mind.

I'm guessing the labor cost to remove the head and repack it is greater than the difference in shipping costs. I'm guessing Callaway has a deal with UPS because the shipping label they sent me only showed a cost of like 8 bucks and change. Feels like it would have costed me more to ship it. 

When the guy I spoke to told me they were sending me a complete driver and I could choose to keep my old shaft or keep the new one, I was actually kind of excited. It was like a little driver shaft lottery. ... I didn't win though. The shaft I got was almost the same as the one I had just the R version instead of the S version. Mine's a 60 gram Hzrdus Black. 

The other thing I kind of liked about it is that they shipped it the same day I talked to the guy. So it was fast. 

Lastly, I'm pretty sure the guy I talked to was in California, and the driver definitely shipped to me out of Texas. That's also where I sent it back to. 

So, overall, really I have no complaints. 

 

[ChetlovesMer]

On 12/9/2024 at 1:24 PM, saevel25 said:

Yep, I think the biggest issue is the carbon fiber. 

Carbon fiber is not good for high impact due to it being brittle, and there can be catastrophic failures. If you consider something like bicycles, where the frame can be carbon fiber, but they usually have a beefy suspension system to take the shock. Carbon fiber is good in tension, not compression. It is bad in compression. It makes no sense to have a carbon fiber golf club that is subjected to both tension and compression on a golf strike, especially off-center hits. 

Ping is using carbon fiber on top of the club at the back half of the crown to lower spin. It is probably in a place that wouldn't see much of the compression/tension from a mishit. Also, the bottom half of the club is metal. So, it is pretty rigid. 

The Paradym Drivers have like 80% of their club as carbon fiber. The back weight distribution design is not connected, by metal, to the front part of the club. I can see if you mishit it, and that 20% metal starts to twist, it will create a section of the carbon fiber under compression, and it will crack.  

Also, here is the tech description from Callaway on their newest driver...

"The 360° Carbon Chassis has been refined to promote increased weight distribution. By adding an internal titanium support structure, the Carbon Chassis is now 15% lighter*. This mass is redistributed into the head to improve launch conditions and add forgiveness. Each Forged Carbon sole features a unique color and carbon pattern, making every piece one-of-a-kind."

This sounds to me like they saw a large number of failures and added better material for more support, but they framed in a way to sell the club. 🤣

I saw the new Callaway Elyte Drivers and immediately thought of this post from @saevel25.

To my eye it looks like Callaway is adding even more structure to the bottom of the club to support the carbon. Maybe I'm wrong, but it looks like Callaway added a stiffening support piece in the exact spot mine cracked.