My opinions on what is currently known about this rail…
Pros:
Light titanium barrel nut makes it the lightest quad rail I believe.
I don’t have the dimensions but I think they’re on par with the better rails.
QD points
Includes ladder rail covers
Cons:
(This is the biggest con for me and I know it upsets some people so I wanted some objective opinions)
The flange that clamps the rail to the barrel nut is way too far below and snug against the hinge pin. It looks like it would contact the mag well and prevent the rifle from fully shotgunning open and as such may have the same problems that have been mentioned with Troy/VTAC extreme rails.
For very little more money I can get a DD Omega X (If all you’re looking for is weight savings then this is a moot point)
I wouldn’t buy anything from Spikes. I’ve done business with them and wont be doing any more in the future. I’d go with something of known quality. The DD rails are really nice as are Larue. I personally love Larue. If weight was a concern I’d go with a DD Lite Rail.
Both the BAR and SAR rails are incredible. I love the profile on the SAR. It’s much thinner and very lite. Seekins precision did some job with it’s design. I believe you are gonna start to see these rails gain favor in the AR community.
As far as doing business with Spikes. As I have stated in the past. I have only had great results over the course of many products ordered.
The titanium barrel nut alone is enough to turn me off of that product.
Coming from mountain biking, a sport that has a long history of usage with exotic metals. Titanium and Aluminum do not play nice together. Titanium has a habit of galling and siezing up on threaded interfaces, the larger the threads, the worse the issue is. Aluminum also has this issue to a lesser degree. When dealing with bicycle parts made of titanium (all alloys of it) antisieze is mandatory on any threaded interface, as well as press fit interfaces. Otherwise the part may never come apart again without damage. These are all on parts that do not see any heat cycling like you will find on a firearm.
Being that the barrel nut sees some of the most intense heatloads on an AR that makes it an even worse location for exotic and tempermental materials. Not to mention the possibility of the antisieze being cooked off of that junction.
So unless you want to run the risk of having the barrel permanently affixed to the upper reciever, I personally would steer clear of this idea.
Perhaps there are some aircraft engine techs on here who have a better understanding of Titanium, and I could be wrong. If so please let me know.
When I emailed them to ask what wrench fits the barrel nut, the CEO told me to use a “regular old 1 1/8 wrench or adjustable wrench.” Seems like a poor suggestion not to use a torque wrench on such a sophisticated barrel nut. A set of crows foot wrenches to fit a torque wrench are not cheap.
You are supposed to moly your barrel nuts in general. Titanium is actually very dimensionally stable with respect to moderate heat, aluminum is the stuff that will kink itself in direct sunlight. (I’ve put a lot of dissimilar metal parts in the freezer to unseize them.)
This is not an endorsement of this product just some info.
Not an aircraft tech but have used a lot of Ti hardware when I used to work on race bikes (motorcycles).
We had Ti fasteners on pretty much everything. Stuff that saw heat and stuff that did not. Stuff that came apart all the time and stuff that never came apart. We never had any issues with the Ti fasteners in aluminum or steel.
In most cases a barrel nut goes on and stays on. It is not like you take it off every time after you shoot to clean the rifle. Use a good high temp lube and you will not have any issues with the Ti.
If you are looking for a light weight rail that is high quality, you might want to check out the new one from Centurion Arms. CA stuff is known high quality, no problems there.
If you are just looking for info on the ST rail, I’ve got no first hand experience.
I picked up a ST-22 complete .22LR upper with the SAR rail and I’m impressed with it so far. Looks good, feels good and seems light. The machining on them is excellent. There is a small tab just below the upper rail that aligns the rail with the upper. Seems to be perfectly aligned, nice touch. It’s no better than DD or LaRue, it’s no worse either IMO. Only thing I’m not happy with is the QD swivels, they do not have anti-rotation limiters so the QD can spin freely. Other than that, it’s a nice rail.
ETA - I have rails from all three, DD/LaRue/Spikes so I am basing my observations on experience with them all.
Read his thread entitled, “MY TERRIBLE FIRST BUILD THANKS TO SPIKES TACTICAL”. He got jerked around pretty good by their CS. I dont blame him for not giving them any future business. Granted, they claimed that the employee he dealt with quit his job in the midst of the transaction, but still. I woulda been pissed.
Wow. That woulda pissed me off too. Poor guy. I dont think I could have been that calm. I have what doctors call a little bit of an “anger problem”. I feel like a piece of shit now for having a good experiences wit Spikes lol
That wasn’t me but I had a similar shity experience.
Without derailing this thread too bad, heres why…
I decided to buy my first upper reciever during the huge scare right after the annointed one was elected. I had always wanted an AR-15 and decided that if Obama got elected I was going to go ahead and buy one; even though I didn’t really have the disposable income. I figured I would eat some ramen for a month.
My dad had bought a Spikes Tactical complete upper as well as a stripped lower and LPK from them (I’ll ellaborate on this later). I saw his and saw that the “fit and finish” was awesome. I read around on TOS and saw all the rave reviews about Spikes. People were saying they were nicer than Colt, much better than bushmaster etc… I didn’t know what the hell milspec was but I knew thats what you wanted.
I called up sikes and asked them some questions, one of which was “is your rifle milspec?” They claimed it was. I was trusting in that these people that build these things for a living know what they’re talking about. I went ahead and bought my upper from them.
My upper came with:
Barrel: 16in M4 profile 1/7 twist MP w/ M4 cuts
FSB: F marked
Upper Receiver: M4 cut
BCG: AR-15 Carrier, gas key not properly staked, no HP or MPI on the bolt. Blue extractor insert.
Before finding this site I also decided to purchase a Larue 7.0 rail and install it my self. I was not able to hammer out the taper pins; one came out, however, the other was too stuborn.
So I called up my buddies at spikes to see if they could do it. “Sure we can do it, send us the rail and upper and we will have it done within the week.” I was quoted a $60 price. This was on a monday morning. Friday rolls around and I have recieved no tracking number that my upper was shipped, no upper, and no phone call about what the situation is on it.
The following monday I call the shop and am told they were unable to get the taper pin out. The only option is a new barrel, or to cut the FSB off and replace with a flip up FSB. Well WTF? I don’t have money for a new barrel, and the reason I ordered a 7.0 and not an 11.0 was so I could keep my FSB.
I ask what a good flip up FSB is and the guy recommends a… wait for it… Yankee Hill Machine flip up FSB. I ask “Is this a sturdy option? This is a serious use rifle that needs to be 110% reliable.” The rep responded that it was very sturdy and ther was no way the screws would work their way loose. I give them the go ahead.
A week and $180.00 later I have my upper back and take it to the range for a nice day of shooting. 500 ish rounds later my rifle starts short stroking. I check the FSB, it’s canted. After letting the rifle cool down I notice three of the four allen screws are able to be removed by hand. They were never even loctited with red loctite or rockset.
I call Spikes back and am told by a different person “Oh no, the Yankee Hill Machine clamp on FSB is not for serious use, there must have been a misunderstanding.” Spikes offered to SELL me a new barrel with FSB. I’ll pass. I start looking around at Colts and ran across this website when searching for Colt 6920.
It didnt take long to discover that I got raped by Spikes (twice) without even the common courtesy of a reach around. I will never buy ANYTHING from Spikes Tactical again after those experiences.
Here are some other gyms:
I saw them at a gun show selling DD uppers on their lowers claiming them as their own.
They told my dad that his 1/9 CL upper with no HPI, MPI barrel or bolt was milspec and that the CMMG 2 stage trigger they wold him was better than an overpriced Gisselle.
-I saw them in the local gun shop sometime last year trying to pimp their garbage to the owner. They were all wearing 9in boots with their chocolate chip camo bottoms bloused. They looked like a bunch of ass clowns.
-There is a thread some where on here where either the owner or one of their reps has a total meltdown after getting called out about no adhearing to the milspec.
So… Thats why I dont buy from spikes, and thats why I think Spikes is a joke.