ORIGINAL: kevin1
ORIGINAL: srwshooter
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR LADDER STANDS UP YEAR ROUND!!!!! the bolts rust very fast ,tubing fills with water and freezes. i've seen 2 stands break after being left up all season,they were both rated for 300lbs and broke with less then 200lbs on them. .
Sound advice, you also have to remove them occasionally to allow for growth of the trunk. I recently purchased a ladder jack very cheaply from Sportsman's Guide for separating the ladder sections, and applying a bit of petroleum jelly to the connecting surfaces and hardware will do wonders for increasing their useful life. You could also replace the hardware with stainless to prevent rusting.
Given the ever decreasing weight and ease of set upof contemporaryladder stands(some even fold for packing in), not to mention their outstanding stability and safety, I'd be hard pressed to reccomend a hang on style these days. If you're worried about deer seeing them just set them up a few weeks before the season starts, sitting a dummy in it conditions the deer to ignore them pretty quickly.
I'd also like to add that I had the problem of water getting inside some of the tubing on my ladder standsand freezing. After cutting out the bad parts and welding in new pieces. I started to use the foam in a can called "Great Stuff" and haven't had anymore problems. Anyplace where there was a opening I filled it full. Certainly didn't add any weight to it either.