airnutt 10 #1 Posted September 26, 2023 I had a conversation with another rigger about replacing his safety stow, I mentioned he needed a new one after i fealt the elastic strands broken..When do you replace them, i was taught any sign of broken elastic get replaced Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JerryBaumchen 1,233 #2 September 26, 2023 43 minutes ago, airnutt said: I had a conversation with another rigger about replacing his safety stow, I mentioned he needed a new one after i fealt the elastic strands broken..When do you replace them, i was taught any sign of broken elastic get replaced Hi nutt, ParaFlite, who first developed them, said to replace every year. They did not put this in any of their manuals, but it was their position on this. Jerry Baumchen Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fcajump 157 #3 September 28, 2023 Any internal breakage or if the stitching is coming undone. JW 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 273 #4 September 28, 2023 I have seen so many stows where the internal elastics are breaking but nothing has seemingly been done about it for ages. So on the one hand I have replaced many that I think should have been replaced earlier, but on the other hand I'm also willing to let things slide to some degree, as it is as if the local consensus is to leave these things a long time. I think riggers don't always try pulling them out a little way just to see what condition they are in. (Or if they are a horribly ugly home job with terrible stitching... every rigging horrors album has a photo of those.) After all, it seems like there's still a ton of strength in the fabric of the stow even if all the internal elastics are broken -- through some combination of stretching over time, and overaggressive sewing when building the stow, that damages a lot of the elastics from the start. I've seen ones look pretty damaged when almost brand new. What I tend to object more to is the state of stretch, whether the stow is getting really stretched out and holding the lines only loosely. Yeah the mass distribution of lines, and accelerated mass of the canopy in the freebag "should" keep the stow functioning, but one does also want the safety of it being able to grip the lines securely when just sitting there. FWIW, I'm also in the old school camp of just sewing them up myself, using 'standard' good quality shock cord material from ParaGear. Rather than snapping to attention and intoning, "That is a TSO'd component! A replacement must come from the manufacturer (unless I have specific authorization from the company to make replacements according to their plans.)" Like a lot of rigging stuff, don't sew them up yourself unless you can do a decent job of it. It can be, I dunno, 10 years before a safety stow is starting to get sketchy, overstretched and losing grip. Some might be less, and start to go after only half that time. It varies a lot. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fcajump 157 #5 September 29, 2023 BTW - to the inspecting rigger... <HINT> You can only actually find broken inner bands and dropped stitching by taking the safety stow out of the freebag and... um... INSPECTING it... </HINT> Just sayin... JW 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airnutt 10 #6 October 3, 2023 Thats the way i do every repack pull out the safety stow and inspect every repack Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
