dumb question: is the saddle your safety harness or do you wear another one too and tie in again?

[raisins]

I'm a closet treestand hunter that has been pondering saddles for a while and also come here for info on sticks and DIY.

I must admit, I've always assumed with a saddle that you just tied in once and did not have another safety harness.

Is that the case or do people often commonly wear another harness (rock climbing?) under the saddle and then tie the saddle and the harness off with separate lines? Doubling seems safer but could be a mess of rope that would get tangled as you moved in the tree to get in position for a shot.

I guess I didn't read enough specific posts closely enough to get this basic point.

Thanks - R

 

[GCTerpfan]

The commercially made saddles are your safety harness also. You don't need to wear anything else with them.

Many wear an additional rock climbing harness when they are using a homemade saddle or the sit drag.

 

[Exhumis]

It's a legit question. To my mind you've basically got two kinda of saddles, the actual saddle and a diy/home brew sit drag with a rock climbing harness (rch). In both situations you secure yourself to the tree and whatevrr you're wearing albeit a saddle or sit drag. For backup what some folks do is either run a tether and linemans at the same time, or two tethers or two bridges. I've not heard of someone running a rch under their saddle as the saddle removes the need for a rch plus that would be super uncomfortable.

 

[peteherbst]

This crossed my mind as a hurdle when I first started looking into saddle hunting because I just didn’t understand. Do whatever makes you comfortable. However, as previously mentioned, the commercially made saddles are made with climbing rated equipment and serve a dual purpose of harness/treestand.

 

[EricS]

It was definitely a legit question. If you are wearing a modern saddle no additional harness is required or recommended. Any diy saddle that hasn’t been designed and tested to stop a fall should be used in conjunction with a harness of some kind.

 

[raisins]

Thanks guys. This gives me something to think about. One thing I like about treestands is that two things have to fail for an injury (treestand fails due to defect or misuse or you fall out AND you mess up with the safety harness or the harness fails). If either thing (stand or harness) is okay, then you're set. I guess treestand hunting gave me redundancy and I like that. Heck, I usually wear a safety tether while using my lineman's lanyard also, for same somewhat redundancy. Of course, when leaning back into my harness while putting up sticks, if my itself harness failed then I would fall backward. No redundancy there, and it has freaked me out thinking about it when 20 feet up!

 

[TooBigToFit]

Thanks guys. This gives me something to think about. One thing I like about treestands is that two things have to fail for an injury (treestand fails due to defect or misuse or you fall out AND you mess up with the safety harness or the harness fails). If either thing (stand or harness) is okay, then you're set. I guess treestand hunting gave me redundancy and I like that. Heck, I usually wear a safety tether while using my lineman's lanyard also, for same somewhat redundancy. Of course, when leaning back into my harness while putting up sticks, if my itself harness failed then I would fall backward. No redundancy there, and it has freaked me out thinking about it when 20 feet up!

There's another (or maybe multiple) thread on here where this is discussed. Here's how I see it...

1) Your treestand is not a safety device.
2) The failure of your treestand is analogous in the saddle world to your platform or ROS failing, not your saddle failing.
3) When your treestand does fail, you fall due to the slack in the tree tether. This imparts significant force on both your gear and your body. You do not get this with a saddle since you are always loading your tether and bridge (with some exceptions).
4) In case of such a failure, your treestand harness positions you away from the tree, whereas the saddle positions you towards the tree where you can better get out of your situation.
5) The saddle is designed to better distribute pressure since it is designed to be sat in for long periods of time, reducing the risk of suspension trauma.
6) Some people have introduced some redundancy into their systems.

 

[2old4this]

Only need to tie in once with a saddle. Either through the lineman’s belt or tether at any one time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[raisins]

There's another (or maybe multiple) thread on here where this is discussed. Here's how I see it...

1) Your treestand is not a safety device.
2) The failure of your treestand is analogous in the saddle world to your platform or ROS failing, not your saddle failing.
3) When your treestand does fail, you fall due to the slack in the tree tether. This imparts significant force on both your gear and your body. You do not get this with a saddle since you are always loading your tether and bridge (with some exceptions).
4) In case of such a failure, your treestand harness positions you away from the tree, whereas the saddle positions you towards the tree where you can better get out of your situation.
5) The saddle is designed to better distribute pressure since it is designed to be sat in for long periods of time, reducing the risk of suspension trauma.
6) Some people have introduced some redundancy into their systems.

Good stuff. Points 4 and 5 are why I switched to a rock climbing harness.