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Hey I was just wondering if anyone else has had there harness loosen up on opening?

About 2 weeks ago I jumped an E with a running exit (Maybe 4 to 5 steps). I took 2 seconds with a toxic 42 blackjack 280 and a gargoyle (after exit my legs where still moving). right on opening the harness came loose on the leg straps, right until the fold over at the end of the strap on both legs. I had a 90 left and corrected quickly (maybe a bit slower then I could have with no chest strap in my face).

I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone else? I don't think I would have fell out of the harness without both stoppers blowing at the same time. I also have both of the black bungee leg strap holders that came with the harness. Also I was wondering if anyone does anything to prevent this from happening like maybe any extra elastic band?

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

The elastic band is not the problem. The buckle is designed to lock when loaded. Have your rigger look at it

I honestly think you have your legstraps hooked up wrong. What are you doing jumping a slider down E with 19 jumps?

Ok the profile has been updated. And no my leg straps are not hooked up wrong..... I would like to think that even at 19 jumps I would be able to put on leg straps

I'm going to have to do some pull tests when I get back home. I think that the run may have loosened them up and the running man after the jump may have helped

I've seen this before on a P-Pro with the non-stainless steel hardware. What is your container setup?

Its stainless steel. Its a gargoyle with full options. I have put many jumps on it from 0 delay to 3.5 delay and I have had some hard-ish openings and this has never happened before. The harness has 70 to 80 jumps on it with all of them with me in it and I keep it really clean. the leg straps are in good condition......and yes the leg straps have been attached correctly

Frankly, loose legstraps are not that big of a deal.
I forgot to tighten mine on a wingjump once, weather hurry and all that. Besides flying like a shitbrick, and the mentioned chestsrtap-in-face, no big deal

Not that I approve of loose straps, just 2 cents on gear fear.

Are you 100% sure that you had the legstraps tightened in the first place? Or maybe you just forgot and jumped with loose legstraps? Sounds silly but has happened to many much more experienced jumpers than you. Maybe you got distracted while gearing up, maybe it was a new jump and you were especially nervous or something else happened? I would definitely try to think this through if it really is what happened that both of your legstraps opened all the way to the stoppers on opening or if you never tightened them. Like I said, jumping with loose leg straps has happened to far more experienced guys than you. And if it really happened so that they came loose on opening (so you are 100% sure you had them well tightened) I would definitely go and see a rigger and see if he can figure out why they are getting loose on openings.

Adrenalinbase is using a specific "no-slip" buckle on their leg straps which prevents any slipping or loosening of the legstraps. I´ve never had any issues with those (although I´ve never had any issues with my gargoyle either). http://adrenalinbase.com/...n-20110923022647.jpg

Correct me if I am wrong but the Gargoyle still uses the 2 piece hardware right? This type of hardware has been known to slide if not locked properly. After tightening this style hardware place your thumb on top of the top piece of hardware and gently push it down to ensure that it is locked (simply pulling on the leg strap may not always lock the hardware).
There is also some issues that can come from incorrect assembly. I doubt this would be your problem but have a rigger check it any way.

I was with Gary C when he identified and fixed a very similar issue on a Gargoyle with stainless hardware. Darcy, I can try to explain it to you, but if you are in Twin Falls at any point this fall it would be easier to just show you. Or if you can be without your container for 10 days, JP is headed here next weekend, and could bring it for me to see if it's the same issue.

The legstrap friction adapter (hardwear) is a thing to check. it can be put in reversed and have a lot less friction.
Tcs

Not to mention you might not be able to reach your toggles...

Oh yeah friction plate slipping on leg straps thats no problem!

You may want to restrict your advice to only posters of Russian descent

I am 1000% that they were done up all the way. I have OCD when it comes to my leg straps and chest strap. I check them at lest 5 or 6 times before I jump, sometimes even more. Tom can attest to how OCD I am when I'm counting my packing tools. sh!t gets more intense when I'm checking my leg straps. Ill do some pulling on them tomorrow when I get back home. and see if I can make it happen again.

Thanks for the offer Tom. I'm going to try and make it down before the end of the year. As for right now I have to many B that are going to be closing up soon so ill try and work it out myself. I work with harnesses every day so ill figure something out. Maybe ill attach the harness to my skin just in case :-P

If you say it like that, it just sounds bad
My most was about the overly inflated fear of loose legstraps.
For some reason a lot of people believe that if they loosen, that you immediately die
BTW, I think it's a lot worse if just 1 of them slips, then you're literally screwed.

But you still have risers. Who needs toggles when you have risers? Toggles are for wussies anyway

They have had 6 fatalities in the last couple of month. Bad karma, what are you gonna do...

^ my thought was his 90 left was due to asymmetric slip. But it could have been due to body position, or packjob, or, or, or....

well, the little fold on the end of your legstraps is actually not only there to make it prettier, but is actually a quite important harness feature.
thats why shortening legstraps on a skydive rig is reserved to masterriggers, (normally done with 5 cord thread and 3 rows of stitching on most rigs ive seen) since its supposed to keep you from dying in a slipping leg strap scenario.

ive seen bartacked legstrap ends out in the field (with e-thread), and we nearly had a skydiving fatality because of this quite some years back in austria because the jumper shortened the legstraps himself without understanding the above. (the e-thread stitching he did blew on one legstrap when the buckle slipped, so he was hanging in his harness on only one legstrap)

Static line that 500'er for me.... For safety. Cunt :)

This something to check. Shall I post it again? How many reading this thread know the correct installation?
Tcs

Can you post it again.

The legstrap friction adapter (hardwear) is a thing to check. it can be put in reversed and have a lot less friction.
Tcs

yea it could have been any of those.

I have pulled and pulled on my harness and I find that if I pull really hard really fast it will lock. If I pull only kinda hard it will lock some times and slip very slowly other times. if I pull soft it will slide out slowly.

I plan to test it 4 times in the next 24 hours I will update after that.

as for the SL on the 500 foot B........ f%ck you! that is all

I hope your testing grounds are not an unforgiving B.

Unforgiving is such a nasty word. I prefer to use the term uncompassionate

well after the first jump last night the wind/guards/tides kind of screwed the rest of the night. leg straps held up well further testing will be done on a compassionate E

Please tell me you didn't get arrested (again). You'd think you could hear the clip-clip hoofsteps of the Mounties closing in.

A: I didn't get arrested last time

B: I was not arrested this time

C: I'm almost 100 percent that my body position was the cause of my off heading opening

D: try as I might I can't get the harness to loosen up anymore, even if I just pull it slowly. In fact it seems to hold it's position better then before even with a lot of crawling around and running exits. Maybe it self healed ?

edit for type-O

It was probably all the forgiveness and compassion...

It seems to me that loose leg straps are a big deal. If you quickly sink low enough in your harness, your chest strap could catch your chin and modify the relationship between your cervical vertebrae.

~ Chris