2005 Sherwood Avid Problem

I started diving this year with a new Sherwood Avid BC. The BCD suffered a failure and my LDS went out on a limb and got me a brand new replacement. Sherwood is giving him a hard time and saying he should have repaired the iitem. It's 10 weeks old and had 45 dives on it. I'm wondering if any other owners of the 2005 have had this problem and if this is typical Sherwood treatment.

My problem was with the guides for the waist strap that secures over the cummerbund. The strap passes through two plastic guides that are stitched into the front border of the aircell and pockets to keep it all colse to the divers body. This is a hard plastic tab that is heavilly stitched. On mine the agressive stitching allowed the needle to effectively cut away most of the strength of this tab and both sides were tearing away along the perforations. The stress seems to come when the air cell inflates and this tab tries to pull away from the divers body where the waist strap is cinched.The earlier models used a short fabric loop stitched into the air cell to carry a plastic web guide, this allowed a third dimension of movement. The webbing on the prior models stands up well to agressive stitching.

So here I am with a new BCD of questionable design. Maybe my first was stitched worng but the new one does not look significantly different. I may add a short webbed tab and slider to allow the third dimension of movement without stressing the thing but that's not something I should need to do. If you have one of these please keep an eye on it. If you've had this problem please let us know. Also how about Sherwood warranty service?

And please don't say you should got a ??&?!

Thanks,
Pete

The shop I work with has sold alot of Avids. They are the most popular jacket style BC we sell and I hae never seen or heard about a problem like this. I would chalk it up to bad stitching. I am surprised to hear Sherwood is giving them a hard time they have always handled returns very easily for us.

I agree with Martini.. we sell a TON of them as well and this is the first I've heard of this too...

Pete,

I have been diving with, i guess, an earlier model Avid from 2001. I have never had any problems with it including the straps that you are talking about. To say the least, the BC has been abused through diving and the traveling. I have over 100 dives on it and it is a good as the day I bought it. Sounds to me like they may have taken a short cut with the new design or used a "cheaper" material to make the guides. In my humble opionion, they should have taken it back; glad to hear your LDS did. On one hand I wish I could give you feedback on the warranty service but on the other I am very glad I can't.

Geez - I JUST bought one of these and am about to make my first dive with it this weekend - I'll take a look at it and see if I can figure out what you're talking about

I have about 10 dives on my 05 Avid and have not seen this problem, but 45 dives in 10 weeks? You are using yours a lot more than I am. I am envious. My only problem so far has been with the right side shoulder dump. Seems the knot on the string was not big enough and the string pulled out of the plastic "bell" that hangs on the front of the BC. I managed to rethread it and tied a bigger knot, very simple to fix myself.