Attention Pat Love Harness Users: Potential QR Danger

[Toby]

My Pat Love harness has one of the newer spreader bars with a chickenloop lock:

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After landing my kite today I wanted to release my QR to be safe (North Bar 2012)
I found the end of my chicken loop stuck in the hook of the spreader bar!
Luckily I didn't have a bad situation...

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I am not sure if this will also happen in a situation when the kite is under full load...but for sure I don't want to test that!

Be aware of this eventual problem. Safest is to not use a spreader bar with the chickenloop lock that comes with Pat Love harnesses.

[longwhitecloud]

Interesting, i remember when the north QR fitted exactly into a dakine spreader bar a few years ago rendering it useless!

[CaptainArgh]

I have to be honest here, I think this post is unfairly titled against the Pat Love Harness which seems to be working as designed. You should title the post;

• "Attention North Bar 2012 Users: Potential QR Danger
  The large hardened end of your chicken loop is likely to get jammed in some spreader bars."

I'm not trying to be a wise-ass here either... The free end of a chicken loop, when released, should be as smooth as possible. Many CLs are slightly larger at the end, but that North one seems a bit excessive. What does the 2014 loop end look like?

Safety warnings on this forum carry a lot of weight in future product searches that people will do. Is this spreader bar really at fault?

I do think it is a good warning to bring up, though. I'll certainly double check my slingshot CL and see if there are situations where it could jam in my spreader bar.

[William Munney]

I have to be honest here, I think this post is unfairly titled against the Pat Love Harness which seems to be working as designed. You should title the post;

• "Attention North Bar 2012 Users: Potential QR Danger
  The large hardened end of your chicken loop is likely to get jammed in some spreader bars."

I'm not trying to be a wise-ass here either... The free end of a chicken loop, when released, should be as smooth as possible. Many CLs are slightly larger at the end, but that North one seems a bit excessive. What does the 2014 loop end look like?

Safety warnings on this forum carry a lot of weight in future product searches that people will do. Is this spreader bar really at fault?

I do think it is a good warning to bring up, though. I'll certainly double check my slingshot CL and see if there are situations where it could jam in my spreader bar.

If you're manufacturing spreader bars, testing them with one of the most popular CL's might be advisable.

[Toby]

are there other spreader bars with a similar chickenloop lock?

[CaptainArgh]

are there other spreader bars with a similar chickenloop lock?

The new Mystic KRS Safety spreader bar and the old Slingshot Surefire spreader bar. Probably others we're forgetting.

I do see what you mean from looking at the pictures again, though. The space between the lock and hook may be too small.

I still think if the chicken loop can move around in there, which it does, the CL end shouldn't be that big. Unless large CL ends are the norm, than it is an incompatibility issue between this harness and North's CL. It happens. With all the designers at all the different companies, everything is not going to always work well together.

[L0KI]

If North made the wire bale at the end of the loop out of a thinner gauge material, they may snap like some of the Slingshots tend to do.
But I agree with Toby, I would cut that lock piece off the Pat Love hook right away.
The ends of many chicken loops have something that may get caught up in that lock piece.