Looking for a new climbing harness - 75% spur removals on doug firs, but also SRT, etc

27RMT0N said:
So I'm in the market for a new climbing harness, and the only shop with any selection around me that has a showroom (Wesspur) is closed due to COVID so I can't go and look in person. Buying something sight-unseen over the internet, that you trust your life to and will wear daily is a little unfortunate, but that's the situation.

I'm in the PNW, in a forest of doug firs and like the title says probably 75% of my work is just fir removals on spurs. The rest is other species: cedar, alder, maple, madrone and 25% pruning, limbing up, building clearance, etc. A lot of the time I'm working on hillsides, in the brush, on multiple trees and that means scrambling around with my climbing gear on to get around. It's more like forestry climbing rather than residential work. I've found gear with elastic tends to get snagged or stretch out, and gear with velcro doesn't last super long with all the on/off and chips/dust from all the removals I do, even with blowing it out at the end of the day. For example I have velcro uppers and lowers on my spurs for comfort, but it wears out and loses it's hold, requiring replacement more often than I'd like. The other feature I really want is a harness with a good strong webbing at the waist for attaching a transPorter on my right side, which often has a 20"/28" saw hanging on it.

(my dislike of velcro and elastic may be overblown, if you think I'm wrong there certainly let me know!)

Does such a harness exist? I'm not really worried about cost or weight. The Buckingham Ergovation is the closest thing I've found so far but it seems to have velcro on the leg straps that make me wonder. It seems you can buy replacement parts for it however so maybe that's not a big deal. The 'toughest' looking saddles seem to be from Weaver or other models of Buckingham, but some of those look like they belong back in the 1950s... then on the other end of the spectrum you have the lightweight saddles like the TreeMotion which would be cool if I were doing detail prunes of oaks in wide open lawns, but that's just not the work where I am.

Any suggestions or thoughts are appreciated.
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The ergolite is very similar to the ergovations but lacks the bulky leg velcros.

Very practical, comfortable and hard wearing saddle for PNW conifer work. Just make sure you get the right size and you'll be golden
 
CanadianStan said:
The ergolite is very similar to the ergovations but lacks the bulky leg velcros.

Very practical, comfortable and hard wearing saddle for PNW conifer work. Just make sure you get the right size and you'll be golden
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I have flown an ergolite, and it is a very comfy saddle on spurs. It's a little bulky for running through a canopy, but I still prefer it to the sequoia.
The velcro waist hugging thing is strange, but it makes it easy to get your shirt to stay under it.

I'll probably end up with a MB one of these days.
 
SomethingWitty said:
I have flown an ergolite, and it is a very comfy saddle on spurs. It's a little bulky for running through a canopy, but I still prefer it to the sequoia.
The velcro waist hugging thing is strange, but it makes it easy to get your shirt to stay under it.

I'll probably end up with a MB one of these days.
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The velcro thing on the waist is actually quite comfy ... like a well-made girdle haha!

The Ergolite also has optional dorsal attachment suspenders, for running a bucket truck, or hanging big saws off your saddle for 6 hours whilst you block down that f$%^in 150ft, 48" fir into Ms Johnson's rose garden.
 
The weaver cougar is a great saddle for the price,I mod mine out wit CT riggin paws for a double rope bridge and is also setup wit double buckstrap,And I love the belt buckle set it and forget it.I got friends that buy a saddle every year tryin to find what i found 8 yrs ago.I have tried just about every high end saddle and they all good but at the end of the day they not like my cougar.I climbed wit a monkey beaver it felt heavy and bulky very good work saddle,and the tree motion just feels cheap and dont last long,the cougar is in the middle it got best of both worlds!!!
 
Real actual buckstraps or do you just mean more common lanyard/ flipline that’s adjusted at the hip?

I think of these things linemen use when I think buckstraps.
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Da Pollinator said:
The weaver cougar is a great saddle for the price,I mod mine out wit CT riggin paws for a double rope bridge and is also setup wit double buckstrap,And I love the belt buckle set it and forget it.I got friends that buy a saddle every year tryin to find what i found 8 yrs ago.I have tried just about every high end saddle and they all good but at the end of the day they not like my cougar.I climbed wit a monkey beaver it felt heavy and bulky very good work saddle,and the tree motion just feels cheap and dont last long,the cougar is in the middle it got best of both worlds!!!
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The cougar was my first harness. They renamed it like 5 years ago as damage control when the early technora bridges started dropping people. It's made by a company owned by assholes that don't want our industry to innovate, even if they don't have a legal leg to stand on.
Also it is very cumbersome in the tree compared to the higher end saddles and has the same recommended service life as the treemotion. (I'm not sure if they only run 5 years from production or if it is 5 years from going into use up to 7 from production like it is with the TM)
 
SomethingWitty said:
The cougar was my first harness. They renamed it like 5 years ago as damage control when the early technora bridges started dropping people. It's made by a company owned by assholes that don't want our industry to innovate, even if they don't have a legal leg to stand on.
Also it is very cumbersome in the tree compared to the higher end saddles and has the same recommended service life as the treemotion. (I'm not sure if they only run 5 years from production or if it is 5 years from going into use up to 7 from production like it is with the TM)
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I couldnt agree more about the rope bridge crazy you put your trust in something and cant,those were the early years of rope bridges and learned they cant use certain blends of rope def at the time not enough testing.I do trust the saddle I am on 2nd one I just mod it to my spects ,for the price you get a decent canvas to work wit.Def better choices but not a bad choice if ya looking to mod something.Old fly fisherman told me once."There are some people that buy flys and some people that tie flys....Yeah I still call a flip line a buckstrap and still like the term chicken strap,but i use a futuristic flipline
 
Da Pollinator said:
I couldnt agree more about the rope bridge crazy you put your trust in something and cant,those were the early years of rope bridges and learned they cant use certain blends of rope def at the time not enough testing.I do trust the saddle I am on 2nd one I just mod it to my spects ,for the price you get a decent canvas to work wit.Def better choices but not a bad choice if ya looking to mod something.Old fly fisherman told me once."There are some people that buy flys and some people that tie flys....Yeah I still call a flip line a buckstrap and still like the term chicken strap,but i use a futuristic flipline
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One of my mentors fell on one of those bridges. I think he had it for about a year before it gave out.
He also fell on a Zk1 that he wasn't paying enough attention to.
Tough old bastard still climbs trees. (And loves technora everywhere but on his bridge)
 
CanadianStan said:
How did the zk1 fail?
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He failed it. TIP was in a tree behind him while he blocked down a log. His flipline was too close to the top, one got locked off and jarred it off the top of the spar.
Since his tie in was behind him, the wrench was collapsed against his side. He dropped and the collapsed wrench slid the hitch 12 feet down until he landed on a brick wall.
Tending to his system and ensuring it was oriented properly would have stopped it. I think stiff tethers were just starting to catch on at that point... circa 2012. Maybe 2013. I don't know what tether he was using.
 
SomethingWitty said:
He failed it. TIP was in a tree behind him while he blocked down a log. His flipline was too close to the top, one got locked off and jarred it off the top of the spar.
Since his tie in was behind him, the wrench was collapsed against his side. He dropped and the collapsed wrench slid the hitch 12 feet down until he landed on a brick wall.
Tending to his system and ensuring it was oriented properly would have stopped it. I think stiff tethers were just starting to catch on at that point... circa 2012. Maybe 2013. I don't know what tether he was using.
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Cool to know. Ive never heard of anything remotely close to a wrench failure since my time in trees
 
I think I see. The hitch was kinda tended in the wrong direction, with the wrench acting like a micro pulley placed above the hitch and pulled down. The hitch itself did just what it was supposed to do. I’m glad stiff tethers were the norm before I got on board wrench SRT. Probably not the only time that happened to someone.
 
Jonny said:
I think I see. The hitch was kinda tended in the wrong direction, with the wrench acting like a micro pulley placed above the hitch and pulled down. The hitch itself did just what it was supposed to do. I’m glad stiff tethers were the norm before I got on board wrench SRT. Probably not the only time that happened to someone.
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Probably not. It's the only one I know about, though.

southsoundtree said:
Sounds like a hitch failure.
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I guess anything that rams your hitch to the ground could count as that. It sure didn't grab.
 
Quick update: So I ordered the MonkeyBeaver saddle about a week ago knowing it was back-ordered.

Today I sent a question through their website to check if the medium was the right size for me (I wear 32/32 waist, which is right in the middle of the small/large sizes) and to ask when it might ship. Less than an hour later I got an email from August himself saying medium was the right size for me and it should ship out in 1-2 weeks.

Just thought I should mention the good customer service.
 
Monkey Beaver never replied to my question the last yr about customizing a harness.
Ordered the Skylotec Arb Ignite and Arb Ignite Top and Ignite Record SZT plus a few other accessories.
Really dislike rope bridges, especially the open end/knot end. Really poor decision and will most likely end in someone's death or serious injury.
Yet another example of how disgusting and dishonest the tree care industry is.
 
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