i work in the sheet metal biz. and can honestly say it takes a little while to weld and machine aluminum. plus it is very expensive, the price of metal is pretty high right now

And I work in the Aluminum business and have run parts for many big name stand/equipment companies.

It'snot the cost of manufacturing, but the implied liabilty. If ol'Cougars has a step break and falls and gets hurt...well you know how sue happy everyone is these days..

This goes for treesstands also!

I just use the screw in steps and leave them all in all the time. I use about 12 of them total. I am not sure how high I get but it is probably around 20 to 25'.

I think how far apart your steps should be depends on how long your legs are, how limber you are, etc. I’ve got short legs, so I put mine in about 18 inches apart when I used them.

But I find my Lone Wolf climbing sticks are much better at getting up in a tree. They’re light as a feather and quiet as death. Each 30 inch stick has 3 steps and weighs about 2.5 lbs and they’re a breeze to put up. They’re not interlocking when mounting and have a pivoting v-shaped “grabber” for flexible placement and a pull strap that can be worked either right- or left-handed. Each step can be pulled down to be either a right or left step and the sticks interlock for easy, compact travel. And they are a LOT less work (and much quicker) to put on a tree than screw-in or strap-on steps. This means less potential sweat and odor getting into my tree. They are also very quiet during transport (steps can clink against each other).

My 2 cents…