VANTAGE CT Lumbar adjustment knob failure

I have a nearly one year old TI with the VANTAGE CT seats.
Today, on both seats nearly simultaneously(!), the "face" of the lumbar adjustment knob broke away when trying to push the knob back in so that I could rotate the knob and adjust the lumbar.



All of the guts, springs and ratchet pieces, summarily fell out!
It appears that a rather thin sheet of plastic on the backside of the "face" of the knob has deteriorated and broke up.
This thin sheet of plastic apparently held the spring and one end of the ratchet mechanism pieces in place.



This is surprising in that I have been very religious, after each use, with washing the salt water off of the seats and allowing them to fully air dry before storage in my garage out of the weather and the sun. We have used the TI quite a bit this last year but I would not expect the seats to start failing so soon!

A hard search on the Hobie site turns up no parts manuals or lists on these seats yet.
I only find the following statement in the 87367030_International_Kayak_March_2016_Web_1.pdf:
"For Vantage CT support issues, parts diagrams, videos
on function, see hobiecat.com/support"
but there is no listing on the hobiecat.com/support page for Vantage CT!

I am very good with doing my own repairs if I can find the parts, especially with a little direction (not sure yet how the knob is disassembled) but I am guessing I need to go through the dealer now... hoping I do not need to wait a long time for repair or replacements as we have a trip planned for next weekend.

Anyone have any leads on parts or experience with this issues as of yet?

Don

_________________
Don Haynes
Aka TriBlue

2005 Outback Red
2011 Adventure Blue converted to an Island
2015 Tandem Island Red

E-mail: [email protected]

Contact your dealer and file a warranty claim.

_________________
Matt Miller
Former - Director of Parts and Accessory Sales
Warranty and Technical Support
Hobie Cat USA
(Retired 11/7/2022)

Don, they may not come in time for our trip, but sounds like you might be due a couple new seats!

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon

Thanks for the response, Matt, I will drop in on Tackle Shack hopefully early Saturday and see where it goes from there...

Hey Keith, I am just hoping that they do not take my old seats and leave me with nothing until the issue is resolved!

I really like these seats, so comfortable that I almost do not want to get out of them after a long full days trip!
I never use the lumbar adjustment myself (just leave it fully relaxed) but Dianne really likes to add some lumbar support so I really need this to work.

Don

_________________
Don Haynes
Aka TriBlue

2005 Outback Red
2011 Adventure Blue converted to an Island
2015 Tandem Island Red

E-mail: [email protected]

Of course, don't let your chairs get out of your hands until our trip is over. BTW, we're going to have fish tacos Saturday night, and Bob Smith has buried some treasure (liquid treasure) on PAV--so we have a treasure hunt coming up.

Keith

_________________
2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

"Less is more" Anon