Removed the factory buckle today. Bought a pack of plastic cinches and a Cobra buckle. Install is pretty straight forward and doesn't require any sewing. Cut the stock buckle off, melt the end and you're done. I put a cinch on the longer end to keep the tag end in check too.
I got around to trying a different pouch for my ropes today too. It has Velcro tabs on the ends to keep it from unzipping all the way and is way stiffer than the TL one. I think it's going to work way better.
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