Nirvana Lower Spreader

[Mike Eibey]

I have a Nirvana 3e that tends to just eat up lower spreaders. Kite has never been in over 12 mph winds.

The kite is framed in Skyshark nitro. 5 seconds into first flight it snapped the lower spreader right after the ferrule. I replaced that rod a day or 2 later and went back out. Literally the exact same snap about a minute into flying.

Next outing I had made a new set of nitros spreaders with the ferrule tapered way down to not have any sharply loaded area, I also made a set of 5pt spreaders as a back up. Both rods I used some heat shrink over the ferrule area to add some extra support.

The nitros this time lasted a few outings and reacted great. Kite felt perfect. Few outings later and one snapped again. Put on the 5pt and then one snapped a few minutes it. This time it also snapped the center along with it.

Kite has had no big crashes at all and is not abused by any means. 

I guess my next step is to replace the center t with a new 7mmx7mm t which isn't the easiest find and replace the lower spreaders with 7pt.

Has anyone else had this problem with Nirvanas placing a huge stress on the center T area? 

I'm also going to throw in this is the only Kite I have with a reverse turbo bridle. I'm under the impression that moving the outhauls larks head knot away from the other 2 bridal lines and toward the flight lines would slow the kite down, load the sail heavier, and move the tow points out. And moving the outhauls knot towards the other bridle lines would be a bit more geared towards lighter winds and be closer to a 3 point bridle. I'm wondering if this bridle setup could be atleast part of the culprit.

I might be completely wrong in this area though so any advice is appreciated.

[Mike Eibey]

Just in case anyone out there runs into this or a similar problem here is what I did to resolve this issue with alot of success.

The best solution I found if your set on using the nitro rods is to instead of just gluing a 7mm ferrule inside is lower spreader, you need to order a stick of p100 skyshark along with the typical 6mm/.24" ferrule.

Cut a chunk of p100 and glue that in each lower spreader just long enough for the ferrule to slide into. About 2 inches on each spreader.

The p100 essentially necks the nitro rods down to a more standard ID dimension which then when used with the standard sized ferrule allows you to use a standard 6x7mm center T.

On top of that if you have any issues with spreaders snapping near the end of the ferrule you can allow the p100 to extended a few inches past the ferrule inside each spreader. Just adds a little support to this area. The weight is negligible in my opinion.

Before doing this if my turbo leg on the bridle was longer than about an inch it would snap the spreader even in light wind (5mph). Very frustrating. 

Now I can run the turbo leg at full extension, about 3 inches, in 15 mph winds with zero problems.

This may be a unique issues because I couldn't find much help online but hopefully this finds someone frustrated with a similar kite or bridle and helps get someone back in the air for a long time.🙂