• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Wild Edge Stepp's

donnieballgame

donnieballgame

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
1,872
Alright Fellas, I got a set and I'm curious if folks are doing mods, I just watched 2 youtube video's of folks that did some mods. One swapped out the rope for amstel, the other cut a hole in the bag. Was curious what you guys thought.

Cutting the bottom out, seems like your stepps would fall out right?

Is that the same knot? I see he leaves a loop in it, but I couldn't tell if it was the same WE knot or something different. Also is this @swampsnyper?
 
I plan to cut the bottom of the bag out. No concern of the stepps falling. There is a webbing strap in the bag preventing that from happening.

I'm do plan to wrap them in camo vet tape. I'm also planning to make a pad for the shoulder strap. The webbing by itself digs in during a long walk.
 
Seems counter intuitive, but the bag mod does do wonders in the tree. I haven’t fully committed to the amsteel mod or the Camo Form. But there is still time to tinker.
 
I cut the bottom out. I have not had any issues from it. I am not sure what benefit changing out the rope for amsteel would be, but I think I read that knot is harder to undo with amsteel.
 
I might cut the bottom of the bag out now, thanks guys, but I'm not changing the ropes anytime soon, also too much work, lol, I'm sure it's smaller and maybe even stronger but I'm pretty happy with them the way they are.
 
I plan on adding some camo tape and that’s about it. Slight noise risk taking them out/putting in the bag I’ve noticed.

To me the expense of replacing all the stock rope with amsteel isn’t worth it. Since I plan on using their bag I don’t really see the benefit unless I was hauling them in a different way and need to cut back on bulk.

Cutting out bottom of bag is interesting. I’ll probably buy a 2nd bag before I sacrifice the one I have.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I don't carry that many steps so when I hang the ropes out the zipper doesn't slid down. I do have 2 bags one for 8 steps and the other for 10 steps . So I could try to cut one and see if It works for me.
 
donnieballgame said:
Alright Fellas, I got a set and I'm curious if folks are doing mods, I just watched 2 youtube video's of folks that did some mods. One swapped out the rope for amstel, the other cut a hole in the bag. Was curious what you guys thought.

Cutting the bottom out, seems like your stepps would fall out right?

Is that the same knot? I see he leaves a loop in it, but I couldn't tell if it was the same WE knot or something different. Also is this @swampsnyper?
Click to expand...

Smart guy.... first thing I did was ditch the step rope for amsteel
 
I can’t remember the reasoning for why people were cutting out the bottom. I remember I didn’t have that problem because I only have an 8 pack. They said it existed on 10 or more. DaveT said swapping to Amsteel solved the problem they were having and was no need for cutting out the bottom.

I didn’t need to swap to Amsteel. I just liked the more relaxed, quiet rope and it packed up smaller in the bag. The knot I tied in the video is the same wild edge knot except I don’t pull the rope all the way through on the last pass. It forms that loop and you can pull the tag end and the knot pops free.

If you are gonna use that knot, make your rope at least 6in longer because you lose length with the loop.

After using them on my bear hunt I realized that tying the knot over the camo form tape didn’t allow it to pull free after you popped the slip knot free. It gripped the Amsteel as I went to pull the step away from the tree. So I had to unwrap it from the step a little so it would drag as I pulled the step away from the tree. I need to cut the camo form off that little spot where the knot sits. Other than that, they worked great. Trees were small so all I needed was 2 for a platform. Pretty comfortable.
 
One of the first mods I did was cut out the bottom of the bag. It made a big difference because my stepps had the older “larger” ropes on them. I was always nervous about the zipper opening up and the stepps falling out while climbing.

2nd - I then took each stepp and filled them with DAP spray foam. It seems to be less messy than the great stuff foam.

3rd- I coated each stepp with spray bed liner material.

The combination of 2nd and 3rd mods made a big difference. No more metal sound and I measured the difference in sound level with a decibel meter while tapping a modified stepp next to an unmodified stepp and came up with approx 14dB reduction.

Last thing I did was an @g2outdoors custome paint job. These have been baking out in the hot sun on concrete to remove any residual scent from the paint. Last thing I need to do is put the ropes back into the stepps.
4409D7B0-33B2-4072-B53D-30A4F27A6475.jpeg
 
BassBoysLLP said:
Those look great cajunyankee.

An ear plug works great for the ends as well. Especially those big cheap ones.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Thank you. Ear plugs would definitely have been a faster mod over the spray foam.
 
Looks awesome! I need to get amsteel ropes made for my set of 3. I might do the rest of your mods to go with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
IkemanTX said:
Looks awesome! I need to get amsteel ropes made for my set of 3. I might do the rest of your mods to go with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I've gone back and forth a couple times now. I keep thinking there is a happy medium.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
kelly.jayp said:
Donnie I have the original ropes and don’t see the need to switch yet but I am looking into getting a smaller bag as I bought as set of 12 and use 7 max with aider now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I need to talk to andrew eventually. I think a 6 stepp bag is ideal for a lot of guys here. I picked up a 5 stepp bag. It will work 90% of the time but 6 stepp would be take me to 100%

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top