Issue With Volkl RTM 84's, Anyone Else?

While preparing to leave for a recent trip West I decided to stop by my place of employment and wrap my skis in foam as an extra layer of protection from the baggage handlers at US Air. While wrapping the skis I noticed the box rail on top of the ski was broken right at the rear of the binding. Examining the other ski, it too was cracked in the same spot.

While at Taos I decided to take the skis to their shop. The tech had me click into my bindings to check if they were properly installed, and adjusted, they were. A customer overheard our conversation and said he had spoken with someone with the same skis, with the same break in the rail. Pretty freaky coincidence. Anyway, I doubt we are the only two people with this issue. I contacted the shop where I bought them, it was an online transaction, the shop is located in Washington State. He forwarded my email to his Volkl rep. I believe I'm getting a new pair of skis. I do prefer the older graphics, but I think I'll get over it. Has anyone else with RTM 84's had this problem? I am rather heavy, 5' 11" 240 lbs. About 50 days on the skis.

Curious how long the ski is? I demoed the 170 (or something close) when they first came out and enjoyed it. Another time I tried the 177 and felt it was a bit burly but liked it well enough.

It's very interesting that the latest version is no longer fully rockered. That's quite a turnaround, design-wise.

I'm gonna have to keep an eye on mine. Not sure if the issue is only with the RTM 84s but I just picked up previous season RTM 80s (appears to be same graphics as urs) cheap and only have about 15 days on them. I'm pretty much the same size as you cornhead 5'11, 250 and I haven't seen any cracks but it is something I'm gonna watch for now. Glad Volkl is replacing them at least...

They're 181's, love the skis, previous ski was Volkl Mantra, Tigersharks before that, they seem like a blend of those two skis, they don't have the Ferrari feel of the Tigersharks, but they are definitely more nimble than the Mantras. I probably wouldn't have noticed if I weren't wrapping them up for transport.

Nothing on mine yet, but will keep my eye on it now. These ski's rip, I love em.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Cornhead said:

While preparing to leave for a recent trip West I decided to stop by my place of employment and wrap my skis in foam as an extra layer of protection from the baggage handlers at US Air. While wrapping the skis I noticed the box rail on top of the ski was broken right at the rear of the binding. Examining the other ski, it too was cracked in the same spot.

While at Taos I decided to take the skis to their shop. The tech had me click into my bindings to check if they were properly installed, and adjusted, they were. A customer overheard our conversation and said he had spoken with someone with the same skis, with the same break in the rail. Pretty freaky coincidence. Anyway, I doubt we are the only two people with this issue. I contacted the shop where I bought them, it was an online transaction, the shop is located in Washington State. He forwarded my email to his Volkl rep. I believe I'm getting a new pair of skis. I do prefer the older graphics, but I think I'll get over it. Has anyone else with RTM 84's had this problem? I am rather heavy, 5' 11" 240 lbs. About 50 days on the skis.
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Cornhead what was the outcome? I have the 84s 3013/2014 model year and I noticed I have multiple vertical cracks through the cap and the wood topsheet directly under the boot, also on the same ski the topsheet to the sidewall has a horizontal fracture only at the binding. These were leftovers and only have 30 days on them.

I haven't made a warranty claim yet, still skiing them. Maybe that isn't the wisest move, I now have a break in the box at the point where the front of the binding makes contact with the rail. I plan on finishing the season on them, should be about another month, hopefully. Hopefully no catastrophic failure will happen before then. They ski fine.

Cornhead said:

I haven't made a warranty claim yet, still skiing them. Maybe that isn't the wisest move, I now have a break in the box at the point where the front of the binding makes contact with the rail. I plan on finishing the season on them, should be about another month, hopefully. Hopefully no catastrophic failure will happen before then. They ski fine.

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Corns skis at Killington Sun. 5/3/15 - No catastrophic failure, so far. I know nothing (don't like being summoned as a potential witness) if something Disastrous happens.

Update, well I survived the end of last season, and one day into this season, without separating the bindings from the skis. They still skied great despite the breaks in the rails. I took the skis to my local shop and had them ship them back to Volkl. Today I got a call that the replacement skis had arrived. I still had my boots in the car from my trip to K a month ago, so I swung by after work to drop off the boots so the bindings can be installed and adjusted.

When I got to the shop, the skis were still in the box. The owner gave me the honor of extracting them. I pulled out a beautiful pair of 2015 / 2016 RTM 84 UVO's. What is UVO? It stands for Ultimate Vibration Object. A gizmo attached to the shovel of each ski that is supposed to dampen vibration. Is it a gimmick? Probably, Volkl is big on gimmicks, my first pair of Volkls was a pair of Tigershark Switch. Two carbon rods ran inside the box on each side of the ski. A switch on the tail applied compression to the rods stiffening the ski. Did it work? Yes, though I usually just left them in the "on" position. I would've been happy with the non-switch model. I did have to take the skis into a shower at Holiday Valley to get the switch to turn once. At least I won't have to do that with the UVO modules.

Very curious to get out on these skis, they've been drastically redisgned from the skis I sent back. Gone is the box construction, gone also is relying on said boxes to act as a rail system to hold the binding in place. The new system incorporates a spring steel bar that stands proud of the top sheet to which the integrated Marker Wideride bindings attach. I expect this to be a much more robust system.

Gone too is the full rocker profile, all Volkls 100mm underfoot and less now have camber underfoot. The tip and tail still retain their rocker profile, as slight as it is. I did experience a little shovel flapping when skiing the old RTM's without the edges engaged. Perhaps the UVO system will lessen this?

So, I'm glad I skied the old skis enough to cause them to fail under warranty. As a result, for $649 I got one season and a day on a brand new pair of skis, and for the cost of shipping and mounting/adjusting the bindings, a brand new pair of $1,000 skis. I'm also happy that Volkl has slanted the RTM more towards a hardpack ski as I'm thinking of picking up some powder skis for fresh snow days, and trips out West.

Hopefully the addition of camber will bring the hard snow performance more in line with the Tigersharks. The old RTM's by no means sucked on hard snow/ice, but the Tigersharks, when new, were phenomenal. Can't wait to find out.

That's awesome that Volkl stepped up. It's pretty sweet to get the latest model as a replacement.

Edd said:

That's awesome that Volkl stepped up. It's pretty sweet to get the latest model as a replacement.

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Yes, it is very cool, especially since I paid only a little over half price for the skis originally, they were leftover 2013/2014 model. The funny thing is, I bought them online from a ski/bike shop in Washington State. They were the length I wanted, 181's, I was willing to purchase them from my local shop in 2013, but the owner tried to sell me the 176's he had in stock. He told me he couldn't get the 181's, yeah right. Anyway, I opted to buy a pair of Mantras from him instead. After wearing out the Mantras, I saw the RTM's online, no shipping, no tax, so I went for it. I did feel a little guilty because my shop has been good to me, and I've been good to them too. There is no replacement for a good relationship with a brick and mortar shop.

Along comes demo days at my local hill, Volkl is there, as is the owner of my shop. I showed both the problem with the skis, and felt as if they double teamed me, "Well, that's what you get for not buying them locally", was the attitude I got from both. I sent an email to the shop I bought the skis from, along with the pictures I posted here. The salesman forwarded the email to his Volkl rep. He wanted me to divulge which hill the demos were being held. I wouldn't tell him, I didn't want to throw the guy running the Volkl demos under the bus, though I did think he could've acted more professionally.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago at the Warren Miller viewing. My local shop has a display in the lobby. I had a nice talk with the owner of my shop. I explained that I did feel a little guilty not giving him a chance to match the price, though I knew he wouldn't, be cause he didn't have the skis in stock. In the past he's met me halfway, I found my boots online for much less than he wanted, and we agreed at a price between his asking price, and the online price. The additional cost to me was well worth the fitting he provided, heat molding the liners, and adjusting my bindings to fit the new boots.

He realizes it's a new World, and he has to compete with online sales. I told him I was interested in powder skis, I told him I'd give him a chance to come close to matching the price. As I was leaving the shop, he asked me what, and how much the skis I was interested in were. When I told him, he said " That's a good deal, buy them online." I asked if my bindings on my Mantras could be used with the addition of a larger brake, he said yes. So it's a win win, he won't make as much off me as selling me skis, but he will make money selling me the brakes, and installing the bindings. I, on the other hand, get a great deal on the skis, will only have to pay for brakes for bindings, get those bindings professionally installed, and won't hesitate to bring my gear into his shop for any future work.

Congrats on the new skis. Volkl is one of the best ski brands that I have ever worked with. I have had multiple times where they go and warranty skis that were out of warranty by a year or 2. One was a older Tigershark, and was replaced by the current Code series, the other was a more entry level ski.