I have only climbed the trees my stand will fit. I have climbed that are at the limit of the cables. What I have had to do is tie a rope to the cables to be able to kind of hitch them up the tree, especially with the platform. As far as going bigger, not sure how safe it would be. I find my stand is sturdier on trees that fall in the middle of the size range, mostly because the V in the stand does not accomodate a bigger tree. The ends of the V will be poking the tree, which I don't trust quite as much as having the teeth inside the V digging in. My Summit takes a pretty good sized tree. I would have to say that a hang-on is going to be a better bet.