summit stand owners

[rickyp]

summit stand owners use caution with your seat.
Last season I got a replacement foam seat to replace the air seat that went bad. Last night I took the foam seat out of the box and put it on my viper, this afternoon I took it into the woods put it on a tree and got all ready, I sat down slid forward and ended up falling out of the seat! I had on a safety harness and was holding on to the stand so I never did fall far.
When I gut up I looked at he seat and found the glue that used to hold the straps to the bottom of the foam and broken loose and only a little bit of glue was left holding the seat to the straps. This foam seat was not sown to the straps just glued and nothing else. the other seats I have and had all where sown and one has little plastic tabs to keep everything in place.
 I just sent summit stands an email with pictures about this. I wonder what they are going to do about it. I was about ready to spend over $325 on a new Goliath X5 and bags, but I am not sure now and how they handle this matter will  make the final decision for me.

 Everyone should check to make sure your seat is sown to the straps and not just glued to it, If it is just glued stop using for your safety. Let me know if you seat is just glued or how it is fastened to the straps. I would like to know before I spend more money on them.

[rickyp]

I got an email back from summit stand today.

Ricky,

I am sorry to hear about the problems with the stand.  The seat should have been sewn just like the others.  The glue is just to hold it in place until it can be stitched. I would be happy to send you a replacement seat at no charge.  You can just keep the other or dispose of it.  

 I have also sent the pictures over to our sewing department so they can take a look at the problem.

 Thank you,
Tim Brewer
Product Support Manager
tbrewer@summitstands.com
Summit Treestands, LLC

My responce to this email

Tim,
The "replacement seat at no charge:. is a good start, I almost fell to my death because a defective part that should have been caught by quality control! This is the second problem I have encountered with Summit products. The first was with a set of side bags. On one of the straps, the snap was installed incorrectly and for me to be able to use the bag I had to replace the snap my self this was no real big deal just a pain in the butt. now the second problem (the seat) was serous. It could have killed me and it is about to put a damper on my deer hunting that starts the 26 th.
I am in the market for another stand and am trying to sell a few thing off so I could buy a Summit goliath, but with the 2 quality control issues I am seriously thinking about looking at other stands on the market.
 
Please feel free to contact me
XXX-XXX-XXXX
Ricky Poole
XXXXX XXXXXXXXX rd
XXXXXX, MD XXXXX

[Daveinthebush]

I think that with the hazzards of treestands that even though we think we bought a quality product, we must still remember each time to thourghly inspect everything.  I would not rely on someone else to protect my life.

Each season at the start I look over everything.  If in doubt, I replace it.  Cables on treestands can not be inspected inside the crimps.  If they are more than five years old I'd replace them.

On the lighter side, the biggest problem up here is the darn bears eat the seat cushions.  Last year I set my shotgun on a stump and where the gun oil touched the stump they totally ate the stump.  Bears eat anything.

[rickyp]

I know all to well about tree stands, this seat was a brand new replacemnet right out of the box, it was to replace a seat that went bad about the end of the last season, It was one of the air seats that sprong a slow leak. I have an older API stand that I replaced every bolt every 2 seasons. it has not been in the woods for about 4 years.

A company that makes tree stand also have the responsable to send out safe parts. you would not think something right out of the box would not last even 1/2 hour in the woods

[oldwing]

i have a summit bushmaster x4 and the seat on it is NOT sewn either ,just glue .  is the new seat you recieved sewn on all the straps or just the outsides?and do you think i should contact summit also? thank's in advance.

[rickyp]

I sent summit several emails about this and they only replaced the seat, I sent T.M.A. and a few days latter I got another seat. both are stiched in place, the ones I replaces are stiched, the one on my bushmaster stand is stiched and my friends all are stiched. so if yours is just glued I would send them an email and or call them and tell them you are not worried about this. you are free to tell them I warned you about this.

[victorcharlie]

I used to always hunt out of trees, and did so for many years......that was part of the ritual back then.....go pack in materials and build your stand.......I had one of the old baker stands and used it for years......I had a few events....nothing serious, but they could have been............

Then I got to looking at the statistics.....one in 4, or 25% of tree stand hunters will be involved in some type of accident.  The number one source of hunting related accidents comes from the use of climbing tree stands.........Hunting is safe.......hunting from a tree looks like it might not be......That isn't to say that millions of guys have hunted for years without incident........but when I look at the big picture, I hunt on the ground now!

[slide-flipper]

Got mine out of the way early... the very first time I used my stand I fell when I was trying to climb down out of it.  Flat on my back about 6 feet down.  No harm, no foul... just an education.  Even had my Marlin strapped across my back and it didn't do any damage to it either.  Learned PDQ to use a pull strap/rope and to not push sideways on the platform.  Learned the hardway from a friend to tie my top to the bottom.  He called me from about 25 feet up a tree in Loundes Co Alabama to say that his platform had fallen down the tree and he was stuck up there.  By the time I got there, he had a nice doe on the ground...  I had to drive 45 minutes to get there and then hike in and find him and then climb the tree with my stand and his platform to get him down.  Was really late by the time we got him down.  The game warden wasn't happy about having to wait around that long for us to get out of the management area...

slide-flipper