Mathews limbs help

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I have a Mathews Vertix and noticed that the bottom limbs are chipped at the corners, and there is a small splinter on one of the bottom limbs as well. Is it okay to shoot, or do I need to get a new set of limbs? Also is this common for the newer Mathews bows or does anyone know what might have caused it?
 

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OR Archer

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The first two pics are purely cosmetic in the finish. The third is the start of a problem. If you’re the original owner that’s covered under warranty. If you’re not Mathews does offer the purchase of a single limb. But get it replaced as soon as you can.
 

4rcgoat

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Im curious to know myself, that doesn't seem normal to me,i would be concerned. How old is the bow?
 
OP
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I bought the bow brand new in January 2020, and no it had never been dry fired, but I shoot at least 30-100 arrows a day with it.
 
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Someone may have swapped or removed the limbs at some point. Those two gouges are from a small flatblade being wedged into the limb sides, in an attempt to loosen them from the pocket. The other witness marks are from stress, whether on the coating or from deeper. I would have it inspected by your local Mathews dealer, but that may yield expensive results.
 

OR Archer

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I bought the bow brand new in January 2020, and no it had never been dry fired, but I shoot at least 30-100 arrows a day with it.
Take it to the dealer you purchased it from and have them order you a new limb for the cracked one. It’s a warranty issue and the part will be covered. Your dealer though may charge you labor for the install as that’s not covered by warranty.
 
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Zac

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Take it to the dealer you purchased it from and have them order you a new limb for the cracked one. It’s a warranty issue and the part will be covered. Your dealer though may charge you labor for the install as that’s not covered by warranty.
Offering a single limb is a great service. This may slightly change my thoughts on Mathews.
 
OP
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Thanks for all of the help, I’m going to head down to my dealer this week and hopefully it is covered under warranty.
 

bigW

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I have a Mathews Vertix and noticed that the bottom limbs are chipped at the corners, and there is a small splinter on one of the bottom limbs as well. Is it okay to shoot, or do I need to get a new set of limbs? Also is this common for the newer Mathews bows or does anyone know what might have caused it?
I had the same issues with the Traverse (never dryfired!) - and the splinters are not only the dislodging coating, but also fibre. When I removed the splinters the grooves were 1 to 2 mm deep. I got the limbs replaced under warranty, however, the replacements where all marked as pretty much the same strength / spring rate ( 108, 108, 108 and 109) while the genuine ones were 105.5 and 104.5 on the left side, and 108.5 and 107 on the right side. Note that the cable runs on the right side, hence the forces on the right side are stronger than on the left. Having now limbs with approx. the same spring rate on all corners facilitate the cams to lean at full draw (DL = 31") thus moving the string / nock to the right which leads to a flick of the tail / nock to the left when releasing the arrow, hence I get - no matter what I do (top hat tuning ...) a 10 to 15 mm tail left tear when paper tuning. I have a little bit a hard time to get this issue resolved which I believe needs the limbs with the correct spring rate at each corner - the dealer argues that the limbs send by Mathews are the correct ones, but as the spring ratings definitely don't match the genuine ones I don't believe this. Hence the question: can someone here confirm that the left and right spring rates are different? (Note that unfortunately the rating is hand written with a marker on the inside of the limb end, so can only be seen when the limb is dismantled).
 
OP
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I got the limbs replaced by my dealer, and had a hell of a time tuning the bow too. I wonder if I have the same issue. Maybe I’ll take the limbs off tomorrow and see.
 

bigW

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sounds familiar - I was lucky that I documented the genuine setup and even took photos and asked the dealer why the hand written ratings were different for the new limb before they went in, he didn't gave me an answer at the time. IMG_20210416_104835.jpg
 

bigW

Lil-Rokslider
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when you pull your bow back you should see clearly that the cams lean with the top of the cams moving to the right....and you should get always a tail tear left no matter where you move the rest. There might be a slight improvement (still no bullet holes) when using the slimmest top hat on the left side to shift the force more to the left.
 

bigW

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I found a work around - obviously twisting the yoke strings is not possible with Mathews's cross centric system, but all what's needed is a credit card :) ....to shim the limbs on the right to add this little bit of additional pre-tension compared to the left. The limbs are sitting in a small module that can be removed from the limb pockets when the limbs are out. Now I cut 2 pieces from the credit card with the exact shape of these modules. The modules have a small pin to locate them, hence the shims made from the credit card need a hole to facilitate that they sit under these modules (which now holds them in place too). Once everything is back together I can just slightly recognize that the right limbs are sitting a tiny tad higher in the modules / pockets. The results: full success - with adding this little bit of pre-tension no flicking the nock to the left anymore, bullet hole with the first shot! ....:):):)
 

OR Archer

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I had the same issues with the Traverse (never dryfired!) - and the splinters are not only the dislodging coating, but also fibre. When I removed the splinters the grooves were 1 to 2 mm deep. I got the limbs replaced under warranty, however, the replacements where all marked as pretty much the same strength / spring rate ( 108, 108, 108 and 109) while the genuine ones were 105.5 and 104.5 on the left side, and 108.5 and 107 on the right side. Note that the cable runs on the right side, hence the forces on the right side are stronger than on the left. Having now limbs with approx. the same spring rate on all corners facilitate the cams to lean at full draw (DL = 31") thus moving the string / nock to the right which leads to a flick of the tail / nock to the left when releasing the arrow, hence I get - no matter what I do (top hat tuning ...) a 10 to 15 mm tail left tear when paper tuning. I have a little bit a hard time to get this issue resolved which I believe needs the limbs with the correct spring rate at each corner - the dealer argues that the limbs send by Mathews are the correct ones, but as the spring ratings definitely don't match the genuine ones I don't believe this. Hence the question: can someone here confirm that the left and right spring rates are different? (Note that unfortunately the rating is hand written with a marker on the inside of the limb end, so can only be seen when the limb is dismantled).
Mathews doesn’t put heavier deflection limbs on the cable side. They’re all going to be the same deflection rating or very close to it. Hoyts are like this as well. So doesn’t matter what configuration you put them in. This is why they’ll offer you just one limb if that’s all you need. So your dealer is correct.
 

bigW

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...so why do they do it in the first place as I documented previously? ...clearly, mine came ex-work with approx. 5% weaker limbs on the left side - and considering that the bow doesn't show this nock flick that results in tail tear left with this genuine setup I don't believe it is coincidence or that the higher variation of the limb strength is just bad quality. The bad quality wouldn't actually come as a surprise considering the limb splinter issues and cam bearing issues (I'm on my third cams in the meanwhile) - the surprise would be that they got it right and fitted the genuine limbs with the weaker ones on the left side so it compensated for the cable location and made the bow indeed tunable.
 
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OR Archer

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https://www.rokslide.com/forums/threads/mathews-limb-warranty.227400/ see comment from Billy Goat that limb deflection needs to be reversed ...... that's another hint that there are indeed limbs with different strength fitted to Mathews bows.
It has zero to do with cam lean. If it was for cam lean you would see a much larger gap between the deflection number from the cable side to the shelf side than even what your original limbs had. Hoyts are the same as well. PSE is about the only manufacturer I know of that still does higher deflection limbs on the cable side. Any left/right variations can be tuned out using the top hats. I’ve changed a lot of limbs over the years, I mean a lot, so this isn’t my first go around with Mathews limbs.
 

bigW

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as stated before I did the top-hat tuning before, and it didn't work out. And the cam lean is noticeable when the bow is on the draw board and I can see how the cam top leans to the right in full draw and goes back in the rest position. And that gives my arrows the flick and a 10 to 15 mm tail left tear. Now, for most shooters that might not be a big issue, as e.g. for a hunting situation the distance will be long enough to straighten the arrow if the fletching is sound. However, I also do 3D, and sometimes they put the targets in a distance of close to 6 m and having a bullet hole tuned bow can make the difference between an "A" or a "B" here. If you use your bow only for hunting, the vitals are big enough (especially if it would be only 6 m :D) so it really doesn't matter for you, but if you do more with your bow you want to have it shooting clinical, precise bullet holes.
The point is that the genuine setup of my bow differs from what you stated here - and of course the particular deflection of the limbs is linked to cam lean. With the "old" systems with the yokes outside (Hoyt, PSE went back to it) half of a twist of a yoke string could make the difference to shift the loads on the particular limb - most of the time the impact it had on the limb and subsequently on cam lean was not visible with the bare eye, but it could make all the difference wrt shooting bullet holes.

..."has nothing to do with cam lean" ...?????....where do you get this from?????
 
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