Originally Posted by Mojotex

I happen to have one of these. In my opinion it is impossible to beat for the $$. However it does have a few drawbacks... in my opinion. It is minimal in over all size. But if you are an average sized person it'll do fine. The cables are a steel wire rope ... does not look like aircraft grade cable to me ... that has been coated with a hard plastic. The ends are exposed and are a simple loops, secured by a crimped tube type connector. Despite the rather slick looking cable covering, I have not had any issues with slippage. The cable is a bit stiff, but workable. I find it cumbersome to "inch-worm" up a tree compared to either my Ol' Man or Summit climbers. I think it is because of the rather short depth of the frame. It takes me 3x the times as either my Summit or 'Ol Man stands .... but you are talking an extra 5 minutes for a 25' climb. Just sort of frustrating at times. The seat is comfortable. The seat fabric seems to me to be rather minimal in strength.

The first 2 things I would do when I go the stand from Sportsman's Guide wouild be to remove the seat and paint the whole frame with a quality "woodsy" color paint .... clean the seat and spray it down good with something like "Camp Dry" to help repel water from the seat fabric. I would not leave it out in the weather over an extended length of time. This extra stuff adds maybe $10-$12 to the sost of the stand ... so it is still well under $100. I'd also suggest you buy an extra cable pin. Just in case you drop one in the woods and cannot find it in the leaves .... trust me, it can happen !! And as I always add ... never climb without using a quality safety harness.