Lately, my Ol' Man climber has been doing a little more creaking than usual. It's not cold yet, so I can't blame that. Any tips from you Ol' Man users? It almost seems to be the welds themselves, although they don't look cracked. I don't weigh any more than I did last year. Also, anybody got a cure for the skinny-tree blues for this stand? I am thinking about some sort of spacers to push the swing arms away from the tree. I thought someone used to market some rubber doughnut-like spacers, but I can't find them. What about welding the arms in place so they stay wide? Any thoughts?

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I had to put a few drops of scent free oil in some of the spots where the parts move...It quieted it right back down.

Ol' Man offers new wider spreader arms on their web site. They are wider than the standard ones.

They also used to make some sort of rollers that went on the cable where it goes around the tree so it took up more space to keep the arms spread wide. I don't know if they still offer them though.

Here's a link to the spreader arm page,

http://www.olmantreestands.com/olman...sories/sak.htm

Thanks. Where did you get scent-free oil? Those rollers are what I was thinking of. I don't know if I want to spring for $50 for the spreader arms. Anybody out there tried them?

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One of the reasons I bought an Ol' Man climber was that my old stands were making creaking noises at inopportune times! So far, mine has been noise-free in use, but it took me a while to get it quiet during transport. I still have problems during set-up in the dark. I also have the problems with the cables being too narrow and getting hung-up on me. I was in a huge tree this morning--used the <u>last</u> hole in the arm--and it was still too narrow!

Yeah, I've got friends who could make me up an extension for those really big trees. I don't know why Ol'man hasn't marketed them already. I would really like to dip the pins in that liquid handle stuff to make them a little quieter. The cables don't have anywhere to stay tight with unless you add some more straps.

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