Sore Hips While Hanging In Saddle - Expected?

Ergovation with its 17 yards of Velcro aggravated me too many times. Just putting it on sucked. Gone and good riddance.
Monkey Beaver with Tree Austria suspenders is current, and probably be my last saddle. Is ok.
Still have fond memories and miss my old Sierra Moreno stuck over in Costa Rica. Didnt need suspenders even hanging an 044 off it
 
I did not find my New Tribe to be light duty. When you say:
I think what I don't like is it looks 'light duty'. I'm drawn to the heavier strapping of the rigs like Buckingham makes.

That's like being drawn to a dump or garbage truck because it looks like it can handle getting you to the 7/11. If your other choice is an Oldsmobile which is more comfortable for the ride?

New Tribe does have rec saddles. But like Burnham said, be sure to consider their PRO saddles. It took me 10 years of using my NT Pro "Ness" saddle to consider getting it rebuilt. When they would not rebuild it I was miffed a bit; but they had good reason. It was Burnham way back that steered me to the Ness...harken and heed him, hear? He has helped hundreds.
 
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  • #56
Well, one of the things I like about my current saddle is the chunkiness. It feels good when I put it on. I'm used to carrying weight around my waist(aside from the whisky, cakes, and nuts of winter :^P ). I've deleted the TreeMotion from consideration, and Petzl wasn't a contender. It looks like it's kinda between the Onyx and one of the Ergos.

edit:
The annoying velcro straps mentioned above are helping steer towards the Onyx. Not a big fan of velcro.
 
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I personally love the velcro belly strap on ergo style saddles. Let's you pull on saddle, and quickly snug it up sp you have 2 hands to buckle waist and leg. It also really helps keep your shirt tucked below, keeping sawdust out of your pants
 
I hated the way it looked at first, but really, like Sean said, it made it easy to put on and keep my T-shirt tucked in.

I can double check, but I think the belly band is removable.
 
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  • #59
A couple questions... Anyone familiar with the Agility? Looks interesting, but I'm still not sure about the velcro straps...

Related... One of the selling points of the agility is a segmented double rope bridge. You can set it up for full mobility, or have your tie in captured at the center. Is there any reason you couldn't run two ropes on any rope bridge, and have a ring captured with a clove hitch on the fixed rope, and full motion on the other?

I'm about to just let my computer pick the damned saddle. Assign a number to each candidate, and use an RNG to pick it :^S
 
I went from the weaver 4-dee mid-evil torture device to the empire ( which was treestuffs Spartan) to an onyx and now on the monkey beaver. I will say that the new tribe saddles are unbelievably comfortable. The empire was comfortable as well but not like the new tribes.
almost forgot the pretzl sequoia. It was comfortable but I would trash it in no time with how I work. It showed bad wear in the few times I did use it.
 
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  • #62
This is what my computer said...

Code:
tuxj@debian:~$ shuf -i 1-5 -n1
4

1 ergo pro
2 ergovation
3 agility
4 onyx
5 tree austria
 
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  • #63
I didn't 100% eliminate yours Scott, but I never hear anyone say how amazing they are, and it doesn't have a rope bridge. I've been pretty hot on using rope, cause a piece of rope can be anything. It's a blank slate that can be configured multiple ways, without any mandated design. It's also trivial to replace. If I suddenly turned into super pro, I'd still have a lifetime of bridges from my rope ends collection.
 
I didn't 100% eliminate yours Scott, but I never hear anyone say how amazing they are, and it doesn't have a rope bridge. I've been pretty hot on using rope, cause a piece of rope can be anything. It's a blank slate that can be configured multiple ways, without any mandated design. It's also trivial to replace. If I suddenly turned into super pro, I'd still have a lifetime of bridges from my rope ends collection.

All rope isn’t equal.

The have been safety warnings in the past after failed rope bridges. When the original was replaced with different ropes.

Make sure they are fit for purpose.
 
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One nice thing about Buckingham (besides the name and quality) is they have been quite helpful to me on special order saddle manufacturing ... not custom , but for a couple extra bucks I have gotten what I wanted. My first leg saddle I wanted full circle dees instead of half , also the ones (I think the Master Saddle had) that always kept them forward. My Puma was ordered with Steel dees as I didn't want Aluminums wearing with my Steel rope snaps.
 
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  • #66
I ordered the onyx tonight. That's what my computer said to do, and it's best not to disobey the computer. It could make my life difficult :^D

Seriously though, when I hit the random number picker, Deep down, I was hoping it would land on the onyx. It also has flawless reviews. I watched a review video of the agility, and the velcro leg strap retainers look like a minor hassle. I also don't get it. You have a quick clip buckle, but you have to press down some velcro, and also get it under a piece of webbing, then later remove it. That takes all the convenience away from have a quick clip. Maybe it makes more sense in use, but I wasn't feelin' it, and all the ergo styles look like they use something similar.
 
The Velcro on the Agility gets adjusted to fit you correctly, and then you never readjust them again, or am I misunderstanding?
Doesn’t the Weaver Cougar have that too?

Congrats on the Onyx! I hear it’s great :)
 
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  • #68
The video showed him clipping the buckle, then folding the velcro over the top of the buckle. Maybe I misunderstood what was going on.

edit:
This is the video I watched...

 
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You can run it with the velcro in the first position and never touch it. That velcro over top is to protect the buckle I think but overkill.
 
Velcro legs , I adjusted mine at the buckle , left it a little long ... cut off and heat sealed the end , losing the rest of the entire velcro thing . Don't need it , don't miss it.
 
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This is the saddle I used when climbing. I started doing line clearance with a saddle that had one stationary D ring and the strap that your butt sit's in ( Bunsion, I think). I liked the floating double d rings for maneuverability side to side and it was also really nice for a double tie in for limb walking. I got to admit when I first started to use the floating d ring, it literally felt like you were going to roll out of the tree.

Just a side note, always double check your snaps with a quick tug or two and never go by just the sound of the snap clipping in. Also watch in the colder months when you have on more layers that your snaps aren't caught on your clothes and you are truly snapped in. I had a couple close calls and finally had a 35-40 foot fall in 2012 because of these issues. When I fell, I was only buck-strapped in, at my tie in point with a climbing line hooked to my saddle. Things were fine until I leaned back and put pressure on my buck-strap and the snap came off sending me free falling to the ground. Definitely a "oh Shit moment"! Luckily, I only broke a small piece off my spine and a rib. moral of the story...Tits ( Tie in, twice stupid). I hung it up and retired after that.. Maybe that's just common sense stuff, but like much of my life I learned the hard lesson
Oh! those leg loops are some real nut busters, lol
 
This is the saddle I used when climbing. I started doing line clearance with a saddle that had one stationary D ring and the strap that your butt sit's in ( Bunsion, I think).

Another thing tree folks appropriated from sailing. Bosun seat. Usually in tree saddles a bosun seat is a rigid board made from fiberglass or some hard material.
I think I heard the word derives from “ boatswain”.

I used to swear by the bosun seat, I loved my Buckingham Traverse. Some of the newer leg strap type saddles use some semi rigid materials in the leg pads. You don’t really feel the strap under the pad that’s really supporting you, so it’s almost like a small bosun on each leg pad.

There’s a bosun seat available for the Ergovation too, I was planning on getting it, but I’m pretty happy with the semi rigid leg pads. All kinds of add ins for the Ergo, one of the few modern saddles that’s modular.
 
I still run a weaver cougar (heavily modified of course) and it works just fine. With the bosun seat that Jonny hooked me up with i absolutely love it now.

The Coug appears to be a leg strap saddle, how did you put a bosun seat on it?

I've run this saddle for quite awhile. It works well for me. There are probably 'better' saddles out there for me but I'm so used to everything about it that the gains might be only incremental.

Edit: Mine has a friction waist buckle which I like a lot, it adapts well from summer to winter with infinite adjustability. Lol, it used to be the ninja's saddle and it was too big for him while mine was getting a bit small for me so we traded. I felt a bit unsure early on knowing that the ninja would think nothing of throwing his (now my) saddle in the trunk with god knows what else in there- battery acid, sharp stuff, sandy stuff, etc etc:O

 
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The Cougar bosun seat was an available add on for it. I got it on Wesspur’s clearance section, and their clearance gear isn’t really described clearly. I thought I was getting a whole saddle, but it was just the seat and lower straps and buckles for it.

Glad Kyle was able to make use of it, it would’ve just collected dust for a long time I think.
 
I had previously done the "liger" mod where you do rigging plates for a set of lower ds. The leg loops are separate from the upper back strap part, so it was simple to simply just switch it over. I have no idea why the name was used or what it means, but I have got it dialed in for my needs so i doubt I'll ever change lol
 
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