New board, old bindings fit weird

Evo had some crazy good prices on boards a couple weekends ago. I've always wanted a Watson Hybrid and is was to good to pass up. So I bought the 2012 model Watson hybrid. My other two boards are a Watson classic and last years Murray model. I have a pair of Vantage open toe liquid force binding and a older pair of LQ transits. The vantage are only a couple seasons old. Anyway I mounted the vantages on the new hybrid but they don't fit right. Is not really rocket science putting bindings on a board so I'm confused. When I snug everything down the bottom of the bindings don't sit flush on the board. There is a gap that is enough to see through. Only the edges of the base plate are contacting the board around the screws. The bindings dont suck down on the board. This leaves room for them to rock toe to heel slightly. This doesn't seem normal to me. Have never had this issue mounting the Vantages on both other boards. Any idea what's up. Maybe it's the hybrid board and just how they fit. Sure doesn't seem correct though. There isn't an issue with the holes and their spread vs binding base plate. Everything lines up. The angle locks are engaged and sitting correctly. Anyone know what's up or of this is normal?

Probably need the new metric bolts

Put them back on your old board and see if there is still a gap. The base plates of bindings tend to bend a little overtime so maybe you just didn't notice it before until you put them on a new board and started inspecting it.

I ride the vantage CT's with the Watson hybrid and when I strap on a new pair of bindings they fit tight up against the board but after the season there is usually a gap under the heel

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You're screws may be too long and bottoming out before they pull the binding down.


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I bet the base plate is bent. The same thing happened to my LF Watson bindings. That was the last straw for me, and after 15 plus years of riding LF I stopped buying their product. Beware - if you ride with bent plates there's a much higher likelihood of breaking binding bolts and having your foot detach from the board. I learned this the hard way.

Thanks for the replies. I tried two different sets of bolts. Yes the correct metric bolts. One longer and one a little shorter. Still have the same problem. I rode them on my Murray all year last year and never noticed a problem. I did notice that the screws would loosen up more then on any previous bindings. Figured it was just something with the newer metric bolts. I always checked them before riding and if needed tightened them down. I'll switch them around between boards and check the fit. Can't ride them how they are. All of the force would be just on the outer edge of the base plate around the bolts. I would imagine the bolts would snap or the base plates would start to tear. Probably damage the board as well. I hope the bindings aren't smoked and bent. That would be only about a season and a half worth if riding. If the newer style LQ bindings only last that long then I will be moving on to another brand.

It's winter time and I'm bored or I wouldn't keep posting this stuff. The site is slow so its something anyway.

Switched the bindings to Watson classic. Older classic with the standard screws not the metric screws. Bindings fit the same way. Gap under the whole footbed. Base plate only touching outer edge around screws. Switched them back to Murray and they fit way better. Only a slight gap on the rear binding and almost none on the front. Still don't fit solid like they should but they are rideable on the Murray. So weird. I guess the footbeds ended up bent from riding them on the Murray. It's not the screws. They fit all the way and bottom out correctly. I bought these vantage bindings at the end of the season in 2012 and rode them probably 3 times on my classic. Put them on the '13 Murray for all of last season. The Murray was the boat board and almost everyone I took out rode that board instead of my classic. I guess something happened letting everyone use the board. Maybe the screws loosened up in the middle of the day and allowed the bindings to get tweaked. I wasn't always on it so if something happened in the middle of the day I probably wouldn't have noticed. Always rode the classic for the most part. It's BS really that one season out of a higher end LQ binding and they are not useable for the most part. I wonder if LQ would do anything to remedy the situation. My guess is not. The Vantages aren't my favorite bindings anyway but still pissed they are jacked up from basically one season. Word of caution. Check your bindings if you are running LQ on a Hyperlite board. Can't explain what happened but something with that board and binding didn't work very well.