Re: [blitzkrieg] Slinks vs. Steel
> but i'm looking for some feedback from the people who've been using Slinks for a while now and what they feel their benefitting
I used (reserve) S-Links on my Fox for, let's say, 10 skydives while I was skydiving my Fox (deployed from my Javelin) learning how to fly it. The idea of using S-Links was that they are stronger than steel rapide links and they can disassembled/assembled quickly by hand, not using any mechanical tool (=wrench): this aspect of "quick assembly/disassembly" was (I thought) a big positive issue when you have to switch form slider off to slider up and back to slider off, once started to BASE jump.
That, in theory, holds true. In real life, I was wrong.
Yes, they are sligthly superior to steel rapid link as far breaking load is concerned (due to the much higher elasticity S-Links have got with respect to steel rapid link), but this is a non-issue because myself too have never heard of a failure of a type 5 steel rapid link properly assembled/tightned and maintained/checked.
What made me convince that S-Links are not such a good tool in real life (for BASE) is the fact that, actually, it takes WAY LONGER to disassemble a closed S-Link; furthermore, everytime you have to disassemble the S-Links, you must "attack" them quite aggressively with your fingers/nails, taking same S-Links to a rapid wear and tear, granted that you do a frequent change between no slider and slider up.
Steel rapid link, on the opposite, are very fast to disassemble (even if you are using a wrench) and are "eternal", provided that you tighten them "the right amount" every time you close them down ("right amount" of tightening being a bare 1/4 turn beyond the point you reached tightning them by hand).
The above are my practical reasons why I use only steel rapid links.
Another good reason for using steel rapid link is (as 736 noted) that they keep slider ABOVE links and make same slider NOT to come down to say hello to toggles.