Would running a 46cm extension have placed unwanted pressure on my Hot Rod RDM which decided to let go on the weekend?? It was the first time using it, purely out of nesscesity as I had left my regular extension at home. I only required 18cm worth of down haul, so there was in effect 45cm (overall) inside the mast its self, where there would normally only be 20cm. There was no collision involved, it just let go about 50cm from the ferrule. Bugger. I will admit that this particular mast had a good number of session over the past 4-5 years - I estimate around 150. So could that be considered excessive usage for one mast over that amount of time???

I've used 370+400 Hot Rod RDMs for about the same period, seem pretty tuff having not let me down to date. Occasionally tend to run a 45cm extension deep as described but have had no issues. 50cm below the join might indicate over tensioned boom &/or loading up a section of mast that had previously been bruised/bumped/belted...
And yep, I reckon 5yrs is a good run if you are banging around

no it shouldn't, HSM are one of the makes I have managed to break for no good reason, 150 sessions is nothing, especially non waves,
get an ezzy or no limitz RDM, bomb proof.

Give me a call Billy. Might be able to get you going again.

Which version of the hotrod is it? The New Zealand produced Kilwel ones were bombproof, I've still got my 400 from 10 years ago. I want to replace it with a new Ultra but the bugger won't break.

Then they switched to China for a while and I snapped 2 of the bigger sizes like twigs. Now I think they moved production to the EU. I haven't had any problems yet with my 430 Ultra mast.