Fixe Hardware Alien Evolution LITE Cam Failure

It was the 4th time my 1/2 Alien Evolution LITE was placed and the 1st time it took a fall (fall was about 3 or 4 ft). The plastic around the trigger snapped. The crack was a very thin, non-flaring, vertically oriented crack and the cam was positioned at a downward angle. It was extended with a single length sling. It was checked multiple times for movement/rotation before the fall and also weighted. The cam held the fall perfectly and did not move, but the plastic connecting lobes to the trigger shattered after coming in contact with the surrounding rock (is my guess).

Has anyone else had this problem?

I emailed Fixe Hardware, but they didn't respond.

Seems like quite a few people myself included have had problems with the new aliens (maybe not to your extent though). Check this out
mountainproject.com/v/new-a…

They shouldnt have gone plastic to save a few grams, the way aliens (and x4s) are designed means theres a good chance the upper bar would end up in the crack

Not to mention they made it much harder to replace the trigger wires than the old version for no real gain

And then theres the QC issues ...

;)

Looks like time for duct tape!

Just out of curiosity, how big was the fall?

I've had 4 of these cams for a few months. In about 20 pitches (including some aid, but no whips) I had broken a trigger wire on my green piece. Fixe was very slow about email (abhorrently slow, like ~3 weeks) but had me mail my cam back and claims they're sending me a new one. Its been about 2 months since the cam broke and a month and a half since I mailed the cam. Since then, I whipped on a blue alien. I wound up ripping the cam and a master cam beneath it. The maser cam is totally fine. You can see the alien below.

So yeah I'm pretty unsatisfied with the aliens. Probably will replace them with more mastercams or totems.

how many fixe alien explosions does this make? I'll stick with my zeros

bearbreeder wrote:They shouldnt have gone plastic to save a few grams, the way aliens (and x4s) are designed means theres a good chance the upper bar would end up in the crack Not to mention they made it much harder to replace the trigger wires than the old version for no real gain And then theres the QC issues ... ;)

Yeah, the use of plastic in an area that will be contacting rock frequently makes zero sense. It's almost like they didn't even use engineers to design these things. I'm a little ashamed that I purchased them.. but I guess I know more of what to look for in gear from now on.

^^^HOW does that even happen??

Are lobes inverted? It is impossible to see at the photo provided at mountainproject.com/v/11125…

James Willis wrote:I've had 4 of these cams for a few months. In about 20 pitches (including some aid, but no whips) I had broken a trigger wire on my green piece. Fixe was very slow about email (abhorrently slow, like ~3 weeks) but had me mail my cam back and claims they're sending me a new one. Its been about 2 months since the cam broke and a month and a half since I mailed the cam. Since then, I whipped on a blue alien. I wound up ripping the cam and a master cam beneath it. The maser cam is totally fine. You can see the alien below. So yeah I'm pretty unsatisfied with the aliens. Probably will replace them with more mastercams or totems.

Looks like the cam umbrellaed and ripped the cables.

rocknice2, seems so. I would like to see a photo of this cam where it's clearly visible were those lobes inverted or not.

Pavel the original can photo just shows a snapped trigger stem. The cams invert because there is nothing holding them back.
I was commenting on the mangled cam James Willis posted. That one invested from a fall.

rocknice2, that was my initial impression and I'm pretty sure lobes were inverted. Just don't want to guess and to speculate on the topic.

Pavel Burov wrote:Are lobes inverted? It is impossible to see at the photo provided at mountainproject.com/v/11125…

As rocknice2 pointed out, the lobes are inverted in the photo because the trigger is broken. The lobes didnt invert during the fall. The cam held fine, but, unfortunately, the craptastic plastic broke.

skye bacus wrote: As rocknice2 pointed out, the lobes are inverted in the photo because the trigger is broken. The lobes didnt invert during the fall. The cam held fine, but, unfortunately, the craptastic plastic broke.

Got it, thanks.

rocknice2 wrote: Looks like the cam umbrellaed and ripped the cables.

Yeah, Thats what I believe happened. One cable survived. There was no rock breakage, but one of the cam lobes was flat spotted

Yeah I think the moral of the story is: don't buy Alien Evo Cams. I'm glad I've been following this thread as I'm currently in the process of building my rack and was looking at adding some aliens to the mix.

Too many people have reported these Aliens just falling apart when you actually need them to take weight.

Right now I almost have a complete set of metolius ultralight power cams and will probably stick with them and get a set of their master cams or diversify with BD cams.

I considered those aliens at one point. Very glad I didn't.

But I roll with a set of C3's and .2 & .3 of the X4's and I'm very happy with their performance.

The sad part is that the alien design is a great proven design

Folks have whipped on em over and over again and theyve fit places where at one time no other cam would fit .... And the soft lobes were just gravy

Not to mention they were easily user maintainable, you could easily replace the triggers with a pin

Totem makes their own aliens and there havent been many reported issues with those ... Though if u did have a problem have fun shipping it to spain !!!

Fixe needs to get their QC act together and simply bring back the metal bars and the pin triggers ... Keep the narrow heads of the lite

It might increase the weight bu a few grams but the product will last longer and be more servicible

;)

bearbreeder wrote: have fun shipping it to spain !!!

My fixe alien that I shipped out to their office in bishop had to go to spain, and my replacement is being shipped from spain, so it sucks no matter what.

Gonna bump this a bit. Between my friends' aliens, about half of them have completely broken trigger systems from three completely different problems (cable pulled out of lobes, plastic trigger fell off, spring slipped out). The quality control on them is just miserable.

Honestly, the fact that there isn't a recall on at least the first few batches has virtually guaranteed that I will never be purchasing them for myself.