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Ambush Platform

ttaillon said:
I just received an Ambush. Haven’t hunted it yet but I have been practicing setting it up at low height. I requested the second strap so I’d have the option to attach to the tabs as you mentioned.

My question is did you attach the second strap after locking the platform down with a single strap on the button? Or did you attach both straps before locking down the platform?

Sorry if my question isn’t clear. Trying to understand if you used the second strap as a backup after the stand was already locked down or as part of the initial lock down process. Thank you.
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I attached it the way I usually hook up my LW's. I put on platform w/ 1st strap, camm'd it over and then seat the platform w/ a little bounce. Then I added the 2nd strap. W/ a LW there's a happy medium of what's too tight and what's not. From experience you learn where that is. It's snug and will not move. W/ the Ambush, On the large tree at my house, It would still kick out from side pressure because the radius of the tree was so large and that the angle of the teeth opening is so small. Only the very last 1 or 2 teeth were actually touching the tree. The inside teeth were touching nothing. Anyway, I kept getting it tighter and tighter to see if that would solve the kick out problem. I knew it was too tight. I could see stress in the strap. But since I was just testing, I decided the give an extra bounce and then the strap cut. The top one held but the bottom one cut right at the buckle. After that, I knew needed a different way to attach to these big trees. With some experimenting, I have come up with some thing that works.
 
1simplemann said:
I attached it the way I usually hook up my LW's. I put on platform w/ 1st strap, camm'd it over and then seat the platform w/ a little bounce. Then I added the 2nd strap. W/ a LW there's a happy medium of what's too tight and what's not. From experience you learn where that is. It's snug and will not move. W/ the Ambush, On the large tree at my house, It would still kick out from side pressure because the radius of the tree was so large and that the angle of the teeth opening is so small. Only the very last 1 or 2 teeth were actually touching the tree. The inside teeth were touching nothing. Anyway, I kept getting it tighter and tighter to see if that would solve the kick out problem. I knew it was too tight. I could see stress in the strap. But since I was just testing, I decided the give an extra bounce and then the strap cut. The top one held but the bottom one cut right at the buckle. After that, I knew needed a different way to attach to these big trees. With some experimenting, I have come up with some thing that works.
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Thanks, glad to see you are not drinking coffee on the platform, LOL.
Did a sharp edge on the Ambush cut the strap?
 
GeoFish said:
Thanks, glad to see you are not drinking coffee on the platform, LOL.
Did a sharp edge on the Ambush cut the strap?
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No. A pet peeve of mine is sharp edges. I despise them. When both of mine arrived, every edge could slice your hand. I can't believe LWCG would send out a product like that but I bought them from the classifieds on here so I couldn't complain to them. Anyway I hand filed ALL of the edges on both platforms with either a flat file or a round file. The strap was clearly cut at the buckle and was clearly showing signs of distress in other areas. I definitely over stressed the strap by cam'ing it too hard. Extra bounces from a 230lb guy didn't help it out either.
 
Chandler96 said:
why would you want to put this much work into a platform when other platforms cam over like they are supposed to?
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There's nothing wrong with how the ambush cams over and this has nothing to do with it. Fold it up, tighten strap, lift, fold the platform down. Took it out of package and went to yard to test and it sticks 10/10 times perfectly without fiddling. Kinda pointless to complain if you refuse to follow instructions. How solid it is after being cammed over properly is exactly why I went with the ambush.

Anyways, what I'm trying to do here is about preventing possible kick out in case I'm leaning around tree with my weight on the corner of the platform on the wrong side of the axle. I'll have to see if it works and also try just camming the thing over with two straps on. I'm not carrying ratchet straps anywhere. Probably even the pull strap buckle will need to go.
 
samu said:
There's nothing wrong with how the ambush cams over and this has nothing to do with it. Fold it up, tighten strap, lift, fold the platform down. Took it out of package and went to yard to test and it sticks 10/10 times perfectly without fiddling. Kinda pointless to complain if you refuse to follow instructions. How solid it is after being cammed over properly is exactly why I went with the ambush.

Anyways, what I'm trying to do here is about preventing possible kick out in case I'm leaning around tree with my weight on the corner of the platform on the wrong side of the axle. I'll have to see if it works and also try just camming the thing over with two straps on. I'm not carrying ratchet straps anywhere. Probably even the pull strap buckle will need to go.
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I’ve never tried it and was going off the complaining of others. They made it sound like it doesn’t can right.
 
1simplemann said:
No. A pet peeve of mine is sharp edges. I despise them. When both of mine arrived, every edge could slice your hand. I can't believe LWCG would send out a product like that but I bought them from the classifieds on here so I couldn't complain to them. Anyway I hand filed ALL of the edges on both platforms with either a flat file or a round file. The strap was clearly cut at the buckle and was clearly showing signs of distress in other areas. I definitely over stressed the strap by cam'ing it too hard. Extra bounces from a 230lb guy didn't help it out either.
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Yep, they chamfered the post where the strap goes over the edge but rest of it, including bottom strap attachments are sharp as hell. Why bother with fancy coating if the customer then needs to sand half of it away?

I tried it on biggest pine I could find and large diameter trees are definitely a problem, especially if the bark is soft. Standoff shape in eg. Shikar stick mitigates the issue as it puts two teeth even on flat surface. Then again, I don't think I'd ever want to hunt from tree that thick.
 
Yes they definitely are sharp. However I chose the Ambush for it's size and the the fact that it folds flat. Otherwise I would have went with a Mission. I Still might try one just to see if I like it better. The Ambush does not like BIG trees. It will kick out w/ enough side pressure . However to be fair, I think most platforms will probably kick out on the size of trees that I hunt. They are 20-26" in diameter at hunting at hunting height. The Ambush does like smaller diameter trees. So in in my situation, to keep them from kicking out, I lag a 2' long 6"diameter log cut in half at hunting height. I can do this because I own some of the ground and have permission on the rest of it to pre set my trees. The platform is rock solid but you have to get as much slack out of your rope as possible. I use a trucker's hitch, get it tight, cam it over and set it. It works and allows me to hunt right where the deer are instead of watching them out of range in a smaller tree.
 
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