Basejumper.com - archive

Just to get some numbers following the recent thread

Prevention or cure?

Jules

guess my vote just wanted to be abel to see people vote as i look in here.. perhaps ill try one of thouse sliders... well one day

Hook knife on all my rigs. Having learned that lesson the scary way once, I'd feel really silly if I needed it and didn't have it.

Also, masking tape. I've played with using the tailgate from time to time, but masking tape is my "standard" method.

Has anyone tried stitching a tailgate to the trailing edge of the slider and using that? I know that CR stopped using the stow on the trailing edge several years ago, as Adam felt it degraded heading performance. I've often wondered if you could fix that by just using a tailgate in it's place (since then the lines wouldn't be kinked or turned at all). I've messed around with this technique a bit, but haven't done any real organized test jumps.

Why masking tape instead of a tailgate? The only advantages I can see are the ability to put the tape higher (or lower) on the lines than the tailgate would allow due to the position of the tailgate loop. And maybe the fact that you can more precisely (tensions wise) stow the lines with tape? Is this true or am I missing something? How about slider down, tailgate or tape and why?

Did I post this in the wrong place? I have a feeling I read this all somewhere else but didn't find it, sorry.

That's exactly it.

If your tailgate is too low, the lines may not have enough force, and it can hang up. A tailgate on the trailing edge of the slider would have this problem, to some extent.

I was talking to Jason earlier this week, and he was commenting that he's seeing a lot of improperly set up gear these days. This kind of tailgate mispositioning (too low) is disturbingly common. Ideally, the tailgate ought to be repositioned after customizing your DBS, so that it sits right under the line attachment points for the control lines (obviously, on some 5 control line canopies, this is not strictly possible, as these attachment points don't line up).