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skydivah1

Looking for Opinions on TST Industries' RDS Setup sold thru Chuting Star

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Looking to purchase my first RDS setup and I'm leaning towards the design of TST's RDS. The ring attachment seems to be the most simplified and effective system in relation to UPT's or PD's.

It can be found here:

http://www.chutingstar.comslider/skydive/rds

I'm looking for opinions and reviews from anybody who has a substantial amount of jumps on this system.

Setup time?
Ease of use?
Abnormal line wear?
Hard openings?

Thanks!

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I really like it! Its really fast to hook up, just slide the nylon through the steel slot and slip in the cable. Openings have been normal to me, easy to remove, I recommend it man... but who am I? about 50 jumps on a velo 96 2.0... just switched from the UPT style rds... which I cant stand when packing in a hurry... which we usually are... so my vote buy it man you wont be disappointed, peace

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OP here. I ended up buying one. I've put roughly 50 jumps on it. (standard velocity with removable slider only)
Here's my take on it:

It's constructed very well and is quick when re-attaching back on rings. Sub terminal is super soft. At first I was consistently getting snappy full-terminal openings. I kept tweaking the packing process and here's what I've learned:
Once attached back on rings, make sure the cable stops are butted all the way up against the material. In other words, make sure the cable can't be fed any further through the webbing. Doing this at all four corners will ensure that the slider is presenting all of its material during the opening sequence.

Additionally, I've begun rolling the the 3 outside nose cells on each side of the middle cell towards the middle cell. Just a quarter roll. This may make some guys twinge on a x-braced canopy. I'm only loaded at 2.0 so in relative terms it's not a super aggressive wing loading in x-braced land. Take it with a grain of salt.

And as always, make sure the slider is quartered with an equal portion of it pulled through and resting on top of the nose of the middle cell before laying it down on the floor.

The full-terminal openings have improved dramatically after taking these steps and are quite comfortable. Snatch force is still slightly more aggressive than a stock slider but nothing to be worried about.

Last weekend, I finally hooked it up for full rds. I must have been sloppy with the swivel because it put a few holes in the top skin right at the tail on opening. Not very happy about that. Now I have to ship my velo back to pd to get a patch. Perhaps somebody has some tips or tricks on where to place the swivel so it doesn't shred your canopy on opening?? Anyway, the opening itself was just fine (full terminal) but it was only one jump.

One last tip that I learned the hard way when jumping RDS in general (I'm the only one jumping rds at my dz so it's a trial and error type deal): After opening, pull the slider down over the toggles and dive loops first, THEN remove it. This will allow the rings to fall to the base of the risers on their own. At first I was removing it at the top of the risers and then dicking around with each ring trying to get them to drop down. The other way is much quicker (and safer) IMHO.

Overall, I'm happy with TST Industries' RDS. My only complaint is that you can't get this system to match your factory slider size. If you could, then you wouldn't have to dedicate the extra time in the packing process. The only company that I could find that would match the factory slider size was Lookma from Germany and, currently, they're not selling to the States due to the liabilities associated with it.

I hope this helps.

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