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Alternative Method for Platform Attachment

Thank you for showing your platform attachment while standing on a stick! It seems that every video I watch of cam over platforms, people are showing how easy they are to install and cam while standing on the ground. I feel like this would be way more difficult while tethered in and standing on a stick. Great video and good idea.
 
@boyne bowhunter thanks for sharing this. I'm in the same boat in that I feel like the cam buckle straps are a necessary evil of sorts for platforms. After watching I decided to give a mini versa a try with this method (I was NOT a fan using them with the loops sewn in) and I was pleasantly surprised how well this knot did with my Ambush. More field trials to come, but this may become my preferred platform attachment method via Tethrd mini versa straps.
 
My climbing method is based on the timber hitch....in my experiments with this knot using 8mm rope as long as I have 3 wraps or more I could max out my come-a-long and the knot barely budged....

Stick attachment?
 
Stick attachment?

Definitely going to do this on my platform but also wondering if this will work for sticks to get tighter than a daisy chain. Will give it a shot this afternoon with my new “factory 2nds from camofire” Hawks.
 
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Definitely going to do this on my platform but also wondering if this will work for sticks to get tighter than a daisy chain. Will give it a shot this afternoon with my new “factory 2nds from camofire” 20” Hawks.

Check out post 27


for a modified rope mod with daisy chain it's a little slower than regular daisy chain but tighter
 
Check out post 27


for a modified rope mod with daisy chain it's a little slower than regular daisy chain but tighter

I think I tried that but just didn’t feel the rope was thick enough to bite behind the button. Felt like 7/64 was just a tad on the small side for that. I like this timber hitch b/c you can tighten it down for the specific tree. But now that I think about it I bet throwing a couple of twists in the daisy chain might would help on those “in between loop” sized trees.
 
I think I tried that but just didn’t feel the rope was thick enough to bite behind the button. Felt like 7/64 was just a tad on the small side for that. I like this timber hitch b/c you can tighten it down for the specific tree. But now that I think about it I bet throwing a couple of twists in the daisy chain might would help on those “in between loop” sized trees.

Yep, gotta match the rope and the button. I'm running 1/8" amsteel with a short custom button.
 
Well I’ve tried the timber hitch and I gotta say initially I was impressed it worked great on my stick, 7/64, so I did 8-10 twists. Then I tried it on my Predator. Tight on the tree, cammed over good, top bracket still touching tree. Swung around to my left and pushed on it from about the 10:30-11:00 position. Swung around to my right side did the same, woooops:

57E0046E-530D-4062-94C4-CD8B6031BC34.jpeg

No injuries or even brown stains. I was prepared in case / almost expecting something to happen and I was low enough to lower myself to the ground on my tether. Maybe I’ll try it again with a bigger size Amsteel. I did see where the OP used a bigger size but this is what I had on hand.
 
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On Platforms.... what size/kind of rope are you guys using for this method?
 
As I've previously stated, I'm not a big fan of the cam buckle straps supplied with most of the current saddle platforms for attachment to the tree. The buckle feels big and bulky to me and, worse yet I always seem to clank it off the metal platform at the most inopportune times. For the last couple of years I've used an Amsteel daisy chain with my Tethrd Predator and it has worked pretty well. The only downside is that it is only incrementally adjustable so you can never really cinch it fully tight before camming.

This year I bought a couple of Out on a Limb platforms to try and because they cam more like a Wild Edge stepp, the attachment strap needs to be tight to really hold them securely to the tree. That pretty much rules out the use of a daisy chain for me on those. To that end I started looking or alternative hookup methods. I tried a whoopie sling but also had difficulty getting the tension correct on that. I ended up stumbling back across @Nutterbuster's video showing his use of a timber hitch for securing climbing steps to trees and thought I'd give that a try.

Well I've been trialing it for a couple of weeks and have been impressed with the results. When done right that hitch creates a rock solid attachment to the tree. It's worked well enough I thought I'd post a video to share it with you guys.

Remember, always safety first. If you try this, do so at low height first until you're comfortable that it works for you. And, ALWAYS be securely tethered to the tree before transitioning to any platform or ROS regardless of how its attached to the tree.

Thanks for watching and I hope this helps some of you that are struggling with the cam buckles like I have.

EDIT: I've been getting this question a lot so I'll post a general reply here. The amteel I'm using is 3/16" although I've also used 1/4" and it works as well. Length after splicing the eye on mine is about 9 feet. You need enough to pretty much encircle the bigest tree you're planning on sitting in twice. A reasonable approximation for length in feet required to get two wraps around a tree is to simply divide the tree's diameter in inches by 2, for example an 18" diameter tree will require about 9 ft of rope to go around twice.



Thanks for sharing this

Gonna try it out with some 1/8, 3/16 & 1/4 and see what works best


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I just saw this but I like it. I tried the timber hitch on cranfords also. It works well. It wouldn’t matter in your application but depending on which way you wrap the rope it will either loosen or tighten if it slides down the tree some.

The first time I saw the timber hitch in use saddle hunting was an old video on you tube. The guy demonstrated a preacher seat and used a timber hitch to attach it to the tree. I wouldn’t use it for a tether attachment
 
Any update from guys using this on how the amsteel is holding up? I love the idea but not sure about the amsteel, leaning towards some other rope. What else have you guys used other than amsteel?
 
I have only used mine this year in pre-season practice and observation sits (my season doesn't start until Oct 1st) but I'm not seeing any undue wear yet. FWIW I've used the same amsteel daisy chain on my predator for 2 years (easily more than 200 attachments) without issue.
 
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