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Beast Sticks
- Thread starter TheWetSquirrel
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Man Glad your okay I wonder if this and bent steps are a result of longer steps on these shorter sticks causing guys to put more pressure on the steps inward towards the tree instead of stepping down onto the step.As a big guy at 6’2 and 285 I find myself worrying about it more
It scared me enough to not put myself in the same situation with the same sticks. They need to make some heavy duty sticks with 500 pound capacities. I'm willing to carry 5 extra pounds for peace of mind
Zoomed in it looks like the fracture initiated right in the corner fillet of the first milled notch on the step. That’s an area of stress concentration under load, although the two corner fillets I marked w/red arrows would have even higher concentrated bending stress under load than the one in which the fracture initiated. (If all fillets were equally-sized, had equal surface finish, and contained no raw material defects.)
This happened the other night. Tore my knee up pretty good. Lineman rope saved me. Sending sticks back this week. Be careful out there everyone
The shape of the fracture is notably irregular but the crack initiation looks uniform across the top surface of the affected fillet. That suggests to me that there was a linear notch at that location (perhaps from machining), which concentrated more stress in that fillet … causing the break at that location.
@TheWetSquirrel - I’m glad your injury wasn’t life-altering, and thanks for sharing your experience with the community. I’m also glad to read that you are sending the sticks back to huntingbeastgear. Be sure to protect the fracture surface with padding (bubble wrap) when you ship it back - and don’t touch the fracture because under a microscope they can learn a lot about the cause of fracture if the surface isn’t messed up from subsequent handling.
Using the remaining portion of the broken step, they will be able to do a materials laboratory failure analysis on it if they so choose. That will help them figure out the true cause of fracture and if they have a quality issue to address.
I myself own a set of Beast Mini sticks and hope they figure out if there’s a quality issue to address. I think they are stand up guys and will do the right thing if they learn they have a quality issue to address. (I heard they handled an early quality issue with some of their Beast stands this year and made things right with affected customers without any drama.)
Your post is also a good reminder of how important it is to climb with your lineman belt and to manage its height and length appropriately. This is my first full season saddle hunting and my concern about injury from a slip/fall onto a climbing step while using my LB has led me to rope climb whenever I can. I started with SRT, but have switched to the JRB climbing method for the redundancy and increased safety.
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GVDocHoliday
Well-Known Member
- Nov 26, 2014
- 222
- 320
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- LOCATION
- Wellston, MI
- bryan.millerb
Did you spread your weight fully across the width of your foot on the whole step? Or did you land out on the edge/tip of the step?
He stepped on the step and it broke. End of story. It obviously should not of done that.
People will vehemently defend this beast gear stuff.
I thank the OP for posting. There is a lot of product failures that don’t get posted because people don’t want to be bombarded by the fanboys. That’s unfortunate…
People will vehemently defend this beast gear stuff.
I thank the OP for posting. There is a lot of product failures that don’t get posted because people don’t want to be bombarded by the fanboys. That’s unfortunate…
I don’t own beast sticks.
I just want facts about failures to draw reasonable conclusions from the data available.
“Hey, give us Uber light climbing gear that allows me to walk half a mile from a gravel parking lot on flat ground to post about it on the internet.”
uber light climbing gear fails when 250+ pound man climbs on it.
“what are the details of the failure?”
“It just failed. It shouldn’t have. Reasons why don’t matter. This stuff should be rated for 20x safety factor and QC’d at Fortune 500 company QC budget level. End of story.”
If the fella wanted to add value to the situation, he contacts manufacturer first, and then posts results of that communication here.
Without knowing beast folks, I’m 100% confident they’d take it seriously and reply within short order. Not because they’re good people. But because it’s in their financial interest to do so.
posting in this forum first, you’re asking for trolling.
in the meantime, some of us normal folk also want details to learn.
He stepped on step and it let loose is what he said. You want precise measurements of where he stepped and pressure readings from the sensors he is supposed to have in his boots. It broke… they are rated for 300lbs. They should withstand double that.
It's a good reminder against complacency. Especially with some folks making these sticks (or others) out to be invincible.
I put Beast steps on custom sticks built for a family member. Think I'll reach out just to say, keep an eye out and be precautious.
It's the first step failure I've heard of on Beasts...analysis of the failure will be fascinating for sure...but I don't need a delayed lab review to emphasize safe practices to regular folks using them now.
Glad it was reported.
I put Beast steps on custom sticks built for a family member. Think I'll reach out just to say, keep an eye out and be precautious.
It's the first step failure I've heard of on Beasts...analysis of the failure will be fascinating for sure...but I don't need a delayed lab review to emphasize safe practices to regular folks using them now.
Glad it was reported.
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Who’s bombarding anything? I’m obviously a Beast Gear supporter but also have zero issues with somebody bringing up a safety concern. That’s in the best interest of everybody. I’m confident this will be dealt with quickly. Even if it is haters will still be haters. Nothing will change that.
A guy on the Beast just broke a LW stand platform. Never seen this happen before. Another guy took a fall when his stock buckle strap slipped. Unfortunately although extremely rare crazy things do happen. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured in any of these.
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This brand aside was an eye opener for me. I climbed at an old job so I take climbing for granted. I did some somewhat risky but kinda risky thing trusting in anyone’s manufacturing too much. Unbelting to go around limbs because I didn’t wanna take two seconds to attach a second lineman’s belt. Will definitely take more time in the future. Thanks for posting!
I dealt with them first before I posted about it. Their customer service was fine. No issues. They offered to send a new step the same night it broke. I respectfully declined and just asked for my money back to invest that $320 into a better climbing method for me personally. I have nothing bad to say about Dan or beastgear other than their sticks are not for this 250+ pound guy
Nice deflection. This thread is about a defective beast stick.
It wasn’t meant to be a deflection but hey whatever trips your trigger.
I was only pointing out it’s good to bring this stuff to everyone’s attention no matter what company we’re speaking of. Nothing wrong with looking out for each other. Just another reminder to use your safety gear every single time your feet leave the ground.
Are the steps cast or machined? Either way seems a small defect could be enough to give under load. This is something that cannot only be limited to beast sticks. Sell enough of something and one is bound to break. I would bet all the other steps could easily take 500lb with out breaking. The way to weed it out would be X-ray the whole thing for and micro fractures. But that would really drive the cost up.
I been very happy with my stik(s)
but this is a buzz kill.
I have not even considered another stik.
I don't weigh quite as much but the safety margin should be higher than that. I go 225 plus cold weather gear.
I think I will contact them and request steps without the wedge shape cut outs. That should do it for heavy duty.
I would rather switch mine out than blow a knee.
That or I ditch the beast for a Dano stik.
Glad to hear your ok.
but this is a buzz kill.
I have not even considered another stik.
I don't weigh quite as much but the safety margin should be higher than that. I go 225 plus cold weather gear.
I think I will contact them and request steps without the wedge shape cut outs. That should do it for heavy duty.
I would rather switch mine out than blow a knee.
That or I ditch the beast for a Dano stik.
Glad to hear your ok.
Haven't been here long, but it's pretty obvious the dude has a bone to pick with beast gear.
I wouldn't take it personally
Dewey is Mod over on the beast. Banned me over there…
I don’t have a bone to pick with anyone. I have had many beast sticks since the first batch. I have bent a bunch of them from tubes, steps to many standoffs. I have also had 2 beast stands. One the platform bent and the other the seat leveling bracket bent. I have my experiences with Dan and Mario some good some very bad. I feel there are safety issues with the stand but I have kept that to myself.
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