davey tree approved saddles

Jeff_Cochran

Jeff_Cochran

New member
Location
Memphis TN
why does every Davey Tree approved saddle seem out dated or over designed. take the weaver cougar deluxe what a steaming pile of crap! i have spent the last three hours trying to cut weight and get the darn thing adjusted. the padding in the thing is so "cadillac" that the belt won't stay tight the padding shrinks and you have to tighten it up. the thing is so padded up that it is hot as hell even today when it's thirteen degrees outside, i can't imagine this thing in the middle of a heat wave in the summer. the bridge is to short. the leg pads: who needs that much padding as pro climber? if they do then they need to go back to cleaning out gutters and leave the climbing to the real pro's. that saddle could be king of the market with a little refining and polishing and a little less easy chair attributes. who climbs on a bridge that short with no attachment point? i'm not questioning the splicer, but isn't the strength of a splice the bury? seems like a knotted or sewn bridge would have been a better application. and whats with the rubber baby bumpers on the bridge? seems like a quick fix for a deeper problem. i have rode: a pinnacle, a glide 2, a weaver butt strap, a bham sliding d, a weaver sliding d, a sequoia, a traverse, a versatile, and i have owned a butterfly 2, a Sierra sliding d with leather positioning belt, a bham master deluxe, a tree austria three with the bosun seat and suspenders, and the king of them all for me the Tree Motion. you can't beat the adjustability, support, and light weight of the tm, plus the climber can replace all the consumable parts.

why is the TM not "Davey" approved?
 
ha, that's just the beginning of what you will find out. There is plenty of great gear that you will find out isn't approved. So, I've been told anyway. Shoot, they just recently (last year or two?) approved lanyards that adjust with a microascender instead of a prussic wrap to adjust the length. (So I was told from an X Davey employee.)

I told you this on your facebook page.

Maybe another 15 years and the TM will be approved. By that time, it will be viewed as very old and outdated and it will then be approved.
 
Have a cougar, never wear it anymore.

Have a coupla' Sequoias that are 1/2 the weight and twice the saddle ;)

agreed Jeff, if you need something that is that thickly padded, you need to just rec-climb, not work :)
 
don't get me wrong; i really like where i work and my boss. it's just somethings are archaic; but they have to move slow a lot of peoples safety depend on it.
 
Probably because the ergo is awesome
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probably because the ergo is US made and the TM is European, different standards

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I would believe this to be true as well. One reason why the TM 2 should be ansi approved.

But I think it is more because the level of technology is at different levels within the entire Davey system. With a large company keeping everyone familar with certain type of products like saddles is just easier.

Just my take on it.

However I do agree with everything you said in our original post.
 
Its not that they dont not want to approve it either, but that they would rather not test the thousands of saddles there are. They test maybe 5 or 10 and approve 3. Its the same with carabiners, eye to eyes, rigging equipment. Its just easier on their end to only test a handful.
 
in my opinion they need a fresh opinion on which saddles to approve. seems like some desk jockey is trying out all the saddles and picking the ones he/she would like not the ones that the guys in the field would want. there is a reason that the tm is so expensive: it's called innovative design. the tm is awesome.
dan your post cracked me up.
i agree with all thats been said, but as far as testing goes they have been in every tcc for the last five? years.
 
yes but they offered the ergo but i declined i don't like saddles with a whole crap load of padding and velcro hence the reason i hate the cougar. i'm going to get him to give it to one of the other foremen as a christmas present. i guess i'm going to go with as stripped out of a glide as i can find or maybe an old school siding d
 
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take the weaver cougar deluxe what a steaming pile of crap! i have spent the last three hours trying to cut weight and get the darn thing adjusted. the padding in the thing is so "cadillac" that the belt won't stay tight the padding shrinks and you have to tighten it up. the thing is so padded up that it is hot as hell even today when it's thirteen degrees outside, i can't imagine this thing in the middle of a heat wave in the summer. the bridge is to short. the leg pads: who needs that much padding as pro climber? if they do then they need to go back to cleaning out gutters and leave the climbing to the real pro's.

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I just bought a cougar and i like it for most the reasons you seem to hate it. I like all the padding. I have a buckingham master deluxe. I tried a couple other saddles but they don't have enough padding in the leg straps. The cougar has the padding that i like and the adjustability that i need. I will however be customizing it slightly to put a tied bridge on. When testing bridge lengths i ended up liking the shortest one possible! I don't know how others can make it through a cabling job or even an all day removal without the padding in the cougar or the buck' deluxe saddles. But then again maybe i'm not pro and should be cleaning gutters! If i should stick to gutters you should stick to a walk behind mower considering my over padded leg straps have kicked your TM/Austria custom saddle's rear-end in both comps we competed together!
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Talking to the Penn/Del champ who works for davey, i thought it was interesting what saddles they allowed and which they don't. Also what techniques they allow and don't. Glad i have a lot of freedom to choose with the company i work for! Hope it works out for you.
 
The saddle don't make the climber (otherwise Familytree would be the best climber EVER!) The climber makes the saddle. Heck i haven't even used a sliding bridge in about a year and its worked out just fine for me so far.
 
with all that padding the saddle wants to slide around all over the place. the custom saddle is on the wall and i'm just using a plain tm now derrick. why don't you come down to atlanta and kick my butt again? i mean it is getting to be a pretty much common thing. i sure would like to see the cadillac take a first in the gatcc.
 
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