Opinions on stow bands.

[chriscchristoph 0]

Ok im completely green when it comes to packing, actually just made my first full pack job yesterday on my rig so take it easy on me. (I was able to do everything besides bagging it until then).

I really just wanted to know what yall thought of these:

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silibands-stow-bands

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silirings-stow-bands-3389

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/tube-stoes

compared to the conventional rubber bands. Ive never seen anyone use these so I guess its safe to assume they are no better but I had to ask anyway. And my other two short questions are what is the advantage/disadvantage to double stows v.s. single stows, and whats the deal with the "stowless bag" do they make them fit custom to your rig or are they 'universal'? Thanks in advance yall.

[councilman24 36]

The silli stuff is from Europe, been around in some form for 17 years and never became very popular. Tube stows used by more folks but many.people.think rubber bands hold better. They also break easier when you might want one to break. Of ciurse the don't last as long but they are much cheaper.

One issue is the black locking tube stows.are temp sensitive. I had a customer that brought me a rig that had been in his car in winter all day. We opened it up and the black tube stows has now elasticity. Pulled the.lines out and the stayed stretched out until they warmed up. That was enough.to.turn me off.

Single stow versus double stow.is.like Ford and Chevy trucks. You'll find as many people that like each.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[sundevil777 93]

Quote

They also break easier when you might want one to break.

They also break easier when you definitely don't want them to break.

I think many will use rubber band locking stows even after they have already started to split. They can start to split when just installing a new one on the bag and using it for the first time. I don't think it is wise to use locking stows that have already started to split/fail.

It is pretty common to have broken locking stows after a jump. That makes me think they may have broken too early, and then the remaining locking stows are under even more stress. The Racer speedbag design does not rely on just a couple rubber bands to hold the canopy in, and I think that is wise.

I know very well that stronger locking stows increase the chance of a bag lock, but I also know very well that it decreases the chance of the canopy dumping out of the dbag early. I'll take that tradeoff and pack with care.

[inline stretch.jpg]

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[7eleven 0]

I switched back from tube stoes to normal rubber bands because they give me much better openings.

[BobxMarley 1]

I use large rubber bands and double stow all my stows. That is what PD recommends in there line stow video (below). Rubber bands have been around for a really long time and are cheap and effective. If you are packing and you see one that's worn, just rip it off and put a new one on. Easy breezy. I think this method is probably the most popular. This assumption is based upon observation on the packing mat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nsca5add8g

Klaasic

[sundevil777 93]

7eleven

I switched back from tube stoes to normal rubber bands because they give me much better openings.

Regular rubber bands make sense except for the critical, middle locking stows.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[Quagmirian 40]

sundevil777

...I know very well that stronger locking stows increase the chance of a bag lock...

Huh? I thought bag locks were caused by things like bad pilot chutes, sloppy packing, long and messy line bights etc. Nice picture by the way.

[craddock 0]

Quagmirian

***...I know very well that stronger locking stows increase the chance of a bag lock...

Huh? I thought bag locks were caused by things like bad pilot chutes, sloppy packing, long and messy line bights etc. Nice picture by the way.

I had a bag lock with very tight tube stows, nice packing with no excess bite.....but I also had a 24" f111 pilot chute that a manufacturer recommended to tame opens on a canopy. Later I had that pilot chute on a super silly small Wings that at times I would get a delay before line stretch, sometimes rotating the bag on the way. Looking back it was silly to not have discarded that thing sooner even though it didn't have that many jumps when the problem started. Usually when I got that delay I had line twists and I got a bad case of gear fear on opening and raised my deck. No way to say for sure what was happening.

The bag lock was recovered with everything nice and orderly with almost all the stows in place. I can not remember if any unstowed but my memory is they did not. One if any. I think it was a combination of the two myself.

That spot isn't bad at all, the winds were strong and that was the issue! It was just on the downwind side.

[mattjw916 2]

rubber bands work fine for sport rigs

plus you can basically just find them laying around along with forgotten pull-up cords...

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[grue 1]

chriscchristoph

Ok im completely green when it comes to packing, actually just made my first full pack job yesterday on my rig so take it easy on me. (I was able to do everything besides bagging it until then).

I really just wanted to know what yall thought of these:

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silibands-stow-bands

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silirings-stow-bands-3389

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/tube-stoes

compared to the conventional rubber bands. Ive never seen anyone use these so I guess its safe to assume they are no better but I had to ask anyway. And my other two short questions are what is the advantage/disadvantage to double stows v.s. single stows, and whats the deal with the "stowless bag" do they make them fit custom to your rig or are they 'universal'? Thanks in advance yall.

I used to have to replace a couple of bands every jump, which I attributed to having HMA lines. I moved to small black tubes on my centre two locking stows, and the small beige tubes for the outer two and all the non-locking stows. I now replace one every ten jumps or so for the non-locking stows and every 50 jumps or so for a locking stow.

It's been nearly a decade since I made the switch, so I can't honestly tell you if it's had any effect on my openings.

For the tandem rigs I pack at work, we use bands all around, double-stowed on the non-locking stows. The TMs claim these give the best openings, and since I'm not up there I don't really have any grounds to dispute their claim.

cavete terrae.

[craddock 0]

Oops. I just went into gear bin to give my kid those stows for whatever project he could use them for. I was wrong. They were some super duper colored bands I bought at THE Convention. Forgot what they were but they were a bad idea. Only had them on d bag for a month so I forgot. Sorry for the slander to tube stows. My bad. Now that I looked at them it brings back nightmares of trying to get a grip through the locking stows grommets. I had to use a damn pull of cord to close the d bag!

Sorry for confusion

That spot isn't bad at all, the winds were strong and that was the issue! It was just on the downwind side.

[Skydivesg 6]

I have over 2,000 jumps on semi stowless bags by UPT.

Double wrap the locking stows with large tandem bands.

Best openings ever.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.

[skydiverek 54]

Rubber Bands Break for a Reason:

http://www.jumpshack.com/default.asp?CategoryID=TECH&PageID=Rubberbands&SortBy=DATE_D

[piisfish 135]

for me sili should be replaced by silly

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[sundevil777 93]

skydiverek

Rubber Bands Break for a Reason:

http://www.jumpshack.com/default.asp?CategoryID=TECH&PageID=Rubberbands&SortBy=DATE_D

They also break when there is not a reason.

The other message that I get from Mr. Sherman's design is that he doesn't trust a d-bag to be held shut by a small number of rubber bands. I think that is wise.

To the original poster, consider doing a search, as there are many threads on this subject.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[chriscchristoph 0]

sundevil777

***
To the original poster, consider doing a search, as there are many threads on this subject.

Most definitely will, I talked to a knowledgeable guy at my home DZ as well and he had some good stuff to say. I kind of assumed that there wasnt any great benefit to these stows because I have never seen anyone use them, but I was more curious as to why they werent as good. The posts helped alot, thanks for the replys guys!

[7eleven 0]

sundevil777

***I switched back from tube stoes to normal rubber bands because they give me much better openings.

Regular rubber bands make sense except for the critical, middle locking stows.

And what do you use for the middle locking stows instead?

I have a mirage, there are only 3 locking stows...

[ctrph8 0]

chriscchristoph

Ok im completely green when it comes to packing, actually just made my first full pack job yesterday on my rig so take it easy on me. (I was able to do everything besides bagging it until then).

I really just wanted to know what yall thought of these:

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silibands-stow-bands

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silirings-stow-bands-3389

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/tube-stoes

compared to the conventional rubber bands. Ive never seen anyone use these so I guess its safe to assume they are no better but I had to ask anyway. And my other two short questions are what is the advantage/disadvantage to double stows v.s. single stows, and whats the deal with the "stowless bag" do they make them fit custom to your rig or are they 'universal'? Thanks in advance yall.

After having used all kinds of things, I've settled on large rubber bands for the locking stows (single wrapped) and a semi-stowless deployment bag. This combination has given me the most consistent openings I've ever had. I can't think of one reason to go back.

Part of what I like about the large rubber bands is that they have a little more surface area and grip the bights of line against the bag/grommets. I think the tube stows rolled a little. I didn't dislike the tube stows and made them for years but this seems to be the best combination I've tried.

[sundevil777 93]

7eleven

******I switched back from tube stoes to normal rubber bands because they give me much better openings.

Regular rubber bands make sense except for the critical, middle locking stows.

And what do you use for the middle locking stows instead?

I have a mirage, there are only 3 locking stows...

I make my own tubestows and use them for the critical locking stows. My bag has 4, the middle 2 I consider critical and take the most stress.

It would be perfect if bands would only break when we might want them to, in order to prevent a bag lock for instance. Bands are far from perfect, and I think they are far too likely to break when I don't want them to, and result in an out of sequence deployment.

I think that there are a significant number of hard openings that are the result of the canopy dumping out of the bag early.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am