My name is Erik I am new to the forum, I have lurked for a while, but this is my first post, and I have a question about the gripit for lokbox, and after searching, and searching, and searching, I saw no mention of my question. I currently have an FCS setup on a board using the MR-tfx fins and I don’t know how, but after surfing the board twice on primarily rights the right fin plugs broke free from the foam and cracked the glass (I swear i didn’t hit the sand, I am 99.9999% positive that I didn’t touch sand, I was surfing shallow, but I never felt it touch sand…), so now I wanna try to change over to lokbox (I realize the work involved, but i have never gotten to use their fin system), but I really don’t wanna get rid of the MR fins because I really liked the way they felt, SO that is where my question to comes in, FCS fins have no cant in them, but lokbox do, correct? SOOOO does the gripit account for that and, sorta tilt the fins a bit? Or are my FCS fins going to be sticking straight up and down with no cant?
I called the local rainbow distributer here and he told me all this stuff about when lokbox gets put in the shapers put them in with cant? Which I haven’t been shaping long enough to know for sure, but I was 99% positive from reading on here, that while you could put the boxes in and adjust the cant, you didn’t have to because the fins came with their own slight cant to start with, like Futures do, AND then he proceeded to tell me that FCS fins do have cant, and I can tell you first hand from holding these fins, in my hand, they certainly do not have cant, at least no more than maybe .5 degrees or less because I see no signs of cant…
Anyway, the main point is; will I have to can’t my boxes, or will the gripit give me the slight cant I want?
Oh, and has anyone else had fin plug problems with these MR-TFx’s? Like could the area of the fin be too much for the area the plug is supposed to be adhered to? Or did I really just hit the sand hard enough to break the plugs loose and not notice?
I know that the FCS is canted in the plug, i was the one that put them in with the help of roommate (another user of this board), and adjusted the cant a little more to what i specifically had wanted for the MR’s when shaping the board which is a MR “super twin” inspired board, and that is the issue, the fins themselves have no cant, so will the gripit acount for that? Or are lokboxes made with a bit of cant through them? The only reason why this is an issue is (and you can laugh because it is a crazy idea) is because I am gonna put in extra lokboxes in so i can make my board a quad (the canard quad set up…). So I can’t be canting the boxes if i wanna use the qaud setup, because then it will be off for them, even if it is the right cant for the MR’s
The gripits have the cant set into them, I think the standard cant for lokbox is 7 degrees, you can alter this by ± 2 degrees when you put the boxes in.
Keith Melville told me about these babies and I think this would suit your situation better than lokboxes. I haven’t used them yet though. Their system has cant adaptors to change the cant on the fins. check out the site for videos. Pretty cheap too.
Thanks guys for the help i will look into probox, but in the mean time for this board, since i really am curious about the quad set up i ordered the lokboxes
Erik, probox could be a good option for you. If you are set on Lokbox, I’ve sent you a P.M.
P.S. The gripits work very well, but i’d way rather make you a set of glass fins in the template you are currently using. Contact me at www.lokboxfins.com Thanks
…" The only reason why this is an issue is (and you can laugh because it is a crazy idea) is because I am gonna put in extra lokboxes in so i can make my board a quad (the canard quad set up…). "
hahaha …
a board with more than three fins ???
What an outrageous idea … it couldn’t possibly work, surely ?!! hahahahohoho
[thanks for telling me I was allowed to laugh , I thought that wasn’t allowed here ?]
cheers and welcome to swaylocks , by the way , Erik [the viking ?]
ben
Yeah i know, crazy kid i am, lol, but i meant it was crazy just because of the shape of the board, it isn’t gonna be like a mandala or pavel quad, it is an MR “super twin” style outline, but yeah i decided to just sucked it up and go ahead and do it, aside from money, i have nothing to lose. And thanks for the help everyone, “lokbox” in particular for the PM.
(oh and actually being a viking is why my name is spelt EriK my paternal grandmother is like straight outa Norway)
Hi, the Gripit adapter works great, it sounds weird but in my oppinion they work better with FCS fins than the FCS plugs…
Here i show you my Mandala quad with a set of Halcyon’s Mentals (with FCS tabs) mounted on Lokboxes using the gripit adaptors that provide the standard cant used when installing FCS plugs. Sincerelly those fins provide so much hold that i really doubt if the FCS plugs would hold the bigger Mentals. With any system that’s caped (is that a word in english?) under the fiberglass you know it will hold way better than just a leash plug style system.
Well I can really feel the love here on this thread. Thanks to Coque for the pic! If your having trouble with the adapter holding the fins in, your screws most likely need to be tighter. When cinched tightly they are very snug and very hard to pull out. We designed the system to be metal into metal (not metal into plastic or fiberglass) to get around the main complaints with systems using grub screws… stripped screws and wrenches, and bored out holes with fins that wiggle. We are working on putting fin fitting instructions into every bag of fins and all over our marketing to help teach people how to tighten our fins. They are designed to be tightened all the way,until the screw doesn’t turn anymore. Then they become as close to a glass-on fin as you can get…without having glass-ons, or a fit that wears out over time. Fins Unlimited channels, and Red-X systems also use a “wedge” type attachment. All others use straight, non-tapered tabs, fitting into straight non-tapered cavities. This system was originally conceived, designed and developed at Fins Unlimited By Bill Bahne and Long time employee John O’dowd. Sold to me, then re-designed By Bill and myself to be glassed over and built into the board via foam installation, while still offering the ability to be installed after the glass. Bill pushed to stay with the wedge styled attachment due mostly to dealing with inconsistencies in the injection molding processes. It’s hard to get a perfect fit from part to part, especially when doing large production runs. Shrinkage is very difficult to control. He was 25 years into it by then, and the best designs he had had tapered fits. To deal with the varying amount of material that gets put over built-in boxes, the “finlok” was developed to bend slightly upwards during fin installation so it keeps constant downforce on the fins at all times. If the fins are removed, flipping the plate over when re-installing the fins insures you get that downforce every time. With a slot cut into the side of the fin base you can incorporate in forward and backwards adjustment. It can also bend enough to eject the fins upon serious impacts,to minimize damage to the box itself.
For the adapters the tapered fit of the box “clamps” the adapter to the fin tab of the FCS fin. Inside the adapters you’ll notice small protrusions on the inner walls of the side adapters, and staggered on the center adapter. These fall into the recessed holes on the sides of the fin tabs. They are on opposing sides on the center fins, so your rear box must have the screw to the left. In order for them to lock in, the screws must be tightened completely.
Howzit Jim, Showed the system to a fellow worker who likes Futures and told him that your system is head over heels better and he was impressed. He usually buys name brand boards but I think he might get one from us and let me install LokBox in it, he really liked the fins you left and I told him that there is a wide range of them to pick from. By the way have you looked into those Diff stickers for me. Aloha,Kokua
