My P3X had a plastic bumper around the tiny driver spring, centered by the battery tube, probably to protect it from impact/recoil in case somebody wanted to weapon mount it, I could see button top use only, and the Surefire battery button top looks to be a bit longer than standard.
My drop-in has something similar. Could it be some kind of physical reverse polarity protection?
I can fix all that, once you get the battery tube off and I guess Surefire never heard of a VTC5A and a KAN9 10amp Fwd. click switch/18awg bypass? I run them in all my lights, you have to when your drawing 15-20amps on Triples and Quads.
Hmm… could be, they do have some contacts on the spring side, but I’m pretty sure they are (the driver) protected from reverse polarity, I’ll post a pic after work of the driver, unique in one aspect……
That IS the question? I’m just not sure Surefire is the answer. The next time my Surefire fails in a cave, my warrantee card won’t be much help no matter how much extra I paid for it. I have had them fail, and they are simple to fix most of the time. Then again, in a pinch, so is my Solarforce.
Okay, I’ll answer that with my own hypothetical.
The one light you’re carrying, a Surefire, has ALREADY failed. You have no working light remaining and it’s a 90 minute slog to the cave entrance. :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp:
Would you want your body to be left in the cave as a warning to others, or your bones carried out several months later by some dude that carries two lights?
Dunno about youse, but I wouldn’t want to be in any cave anyway, not and end up dead almost hanging upside-down like the guy in the Nutty Putty cave in Utah. (John Edward Jones, I think.) His corpse is still in there, a-moulderin’ and a-mummifyin’, so nope, no one dragged him out yet, either.
But, if someone forced me in at gunpoint, I’d have a main light, another light that takes the same ammo, and at least 1-2 “better’n nothing” lights like AAA lights, just in case some 1-in-a-brazillion situation happened where my 2 main lights went teats-up.
Yeah… no.
https://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347362/Man-trapped-in-Utah-Countys-Nutty-Putty-cave-dies.html
Don’t think you could get me in there, even at gunpoint.
Wow, that article reads like it’s some kind of joke. The rescuers got him out, had a pizza and water party, then threw him back into the exact same spot to die. Oh well, at least they sang him songs all night until he died, presumably to torture him some more?
Note: if you ever need rescuing, don’t send for those guys.
You’re joking right? From reading the article they were in the process of extracting him when they had the pizza and water (I must have missed the part where they were partying, where exactly was it?). You’re suggesting that they didn’t need food or water until they had him out? Throwing him back into the same spot? I must have missed the part where they did it intentionally.
Not all rescue attempts in life are successful and making it seem like they half-assed the attempt does them a huge disservice in my opinion.
This. I figure when they were winching him out they thought the worst had passed so that’s when the broke out the snacks.
Note also they had 100 people on the rescue. I’m sure it didn’t take all 100 to operate the winch when they thought they were past the hard part. Unfortunately, for the victim it sounds like an equipment failure led to the rescue failing and his death.
Back to lights and caving:
I don’t cave, but if I did I’d probably bring along 5 lights. And admittedly if I had a Surefire, it wouldn’t be the last light I’d pull out if they started failing. My last light would probably be some kind of AA sized or keychain light.
I was reading a whoooole bunch of articles way back when, and no one was screwing off or anything. They winched him and were on their way to getting him out, but one of the anchors holding a pulley or something came out from the cave wall, and that’s when he slid right back down to where he was stuck originally.
I won’t go into a tight crawlspace or airduct, even if someone could just chop around it and get me out fairly easily. You’d have to be mental to purposely wriggle your way into a narrow passage a fractional-mile underground, especially a passage called “The Birth Canal”(!!), and hope you don’t get stuck.
Your belt snags on an outcropping, you just get wedged the wrong way, and rotsa ruck getting back out. All your rescuers would have to go through the same “birth canal” just to get to you, let alone try to yank you out.
Like a few months ago, those kids in Malaysia or wherenahell ever they were when they got flooded in… like what’re they thinking? Some rescuer died trying to get them out, yet no one seems to even remember his name (nope, not even me without looking it up).
Get stuck on a mountain, and you can get a helo to drop a loooooong rope to pick you up and then lower you down somewhere. Out at sea, even on a solo ocean-crossing voyage, a boat can always pick you up. In the woods, a small smoky signal-fire can signal for help. Underground? You might as well be on Pluto for all the good it’d do ya.
Like I said, not even at gunpoint… Don’t care how many lights I’d have on me.
(Funny, but “The Great Escape” was just on last night, and the scene where Charles Bronson almost gets smooshed when the tunnel he’s digging caves in on him still gives me the creeps. What a yicky way to go…)
Surefire is synonymous with reliability. I have used Surefire since 1987 the original 6P when Lithium Batteries were $9.95 EACH. The single most reliable flashlight in today’s marketplace. I currently carry a G2X MV as my personal and duty light on a daily basis. When your life depends upon your light price is not a factor
For the same price Malkoff or HDS are more appealing to me as durable lights.
Sure fire drives me crazy not stating what emitter is used, knowing the emitter helps me choose a light based on the specific needs.