30" Hawk Helium Step Broke

[ofor]

I have a set of pre-suction cup hawks (I think made in 2018). Haven’t had any issues with mine. Wondering if the issues people are encountering are all with the newer models.

 

[mineral4x]

See I don’t get why companies do this. It helps them get in the big box stores yea but I see it the same way I see what happened to bear bows. They made great bows and then wanted to get them in bass pro and Walmart so started putting out crap quality for years and years. Everyone knew that and they had such a bad reputation for quality that no one was buying their stuff. Just in the last 5 years they’re trying to build back their brand with some good stuff.

The point of selling a company is not really to get into places. Companies do this because the owners get paid for the equity they created after growing the company up to that point. Commonly known as the exit strategy in investment world. You only get your cash out when you sell, just like anything that appreciates in value. And if it's a public company instead of privately owned, then the shareholders get dividends and executives get bonuses for the deal instead.

 

[mineral4x]

Absolutely they changed materials and manufacturing process on the new ones. I have a set of the old and new. Old were made in China and say what you will about China, but both the component materials used and manufacturing processes on the Chinese ones were definitely better. BTW, China also happens to be the worlds leading producers of aluminum by a large margin. (I work for an aluminum casting company and all we do is aluminum casting all day every day)

After purchasing Hawk, GSM probably saw an "opportunity to optimize" manufacturing. Or in other words, finding cheaper materials and manufacturing plants so they can make larger margins on each unit sold. There are many factors or things that could have changed... metal composition, porosity, quenching, heat treating, etc.. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I would be suspect of the heat treating on these first. I would use a rockwell hardness testing gauge to measure against the spec. Regardless of which detailed step of the process caused this problem, quality control in general is probably the number one thing that suffers when moving production to a new facility, especially a cheaper one. Not totally surprising to me this could happen.

This is a major safety issue and should be GSM/Hawk's highest priority to investigate. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. IMHO, they should be asking for the stick to be mailed back to them for testing like the rockwell hardness test I mentioned before along with other tests.

If they do not ask for the stick to be mailed back to them for testing... that will be a screaming red flag for me that they do not give a crap about the quality of their product or safety of their customers.

 

[Bowhunter98]

My issue with Helium sticks is nowhere as scary as yours. But I've been trying to get someone at Hawk to respond for over a week. I know Covid is creating problems for everyone, but a week? I've tried email and phone, no response. 3 of the suction cup posts broke the first time I used my sticks, I'm hoping Hawk sells replacement posts.

Honestly it’s just easier to remove the suction cups and just tie your sticks together with a bungee cord.

 

[pesqimon]

Honestly it’s just easier to remove the suction cups and just tie your sticks together with a bungee cord.

Yes, I think so.

I also added adhesive furniture pads to the inside of the standoffs and it holds the sticks snuggly and separation is pretty smooth and quiet.