[i] Many of their add-on's already are marketed to the public requiring that they be customized when the belt is being created so as to boost the sales price and maintain structural integrity, which is understandable, but this strategy also excludes many loyal and existing customers from enjoying some of the newly invented features, and this one, in my humble opinion is not worth it. Please ask them to offer it as an add on so we loyal customers could enjoy it also.

Charlie, you make it seem as if they are doing it to rip you off. I think NT is doing it the right way. Offer up the basic-est saddle to us for the lowest price possible, then let us decide whish bells and whistles we want to pay a little more for.

I agree, making it an add on option would be nice, but if there is a technical reason why it must be done during the initial construction, then we should respect that. I doubt that NT is not yet adding it on simply because they don't feel like it.

love
nick

Tengu, As a suggestion to the "add-on-saver-carrier. Why not just use velcro and attach in the same location. This idea allows the choice of having the saver carrier on or off the saddle. Since this is not a critical (structural ) part of the saddle the velcro idea is easy to retrofit any saddle at home. Another Idea is to use about 3 small loop straps to tie the saver to the saddle in the same fashion/location. There is not need to incorporate this option into the structural part of the saddle to make it work.
My 2 cents!

Nick,
I did not mean in any way that they are doing any ripping-off.

I believe that NT has always been very fair and considerate of our desires. This is why I said, "which is understandable", that if their customizations (that they have come up with) will effect the structural integrity of the belt in any way, then it must be done when initially created and of course, it is quite "understandable" that we pay a fair price for the customization.(and they have always been fair at pricing the customized feature). This is also a "good" marketing tool to boost sales by offering customized features at a fair price.

That said, if they wanted to make a feature(like the cambium saver carrier) as an add-on, it might take more inventive prowess and more effort perhaps to come up with a way to not have the feature effect the main belt's structural integrity. But if they were encouraged by Tengu and many of us to stop and think of a way to do this or consider our suggestions to make it as an add-on, then it would have a better chance to become reality.

So the bottom line is, give them simple suggested solutions to add the sleeve on, like by using 3 tabs at the top of the sleeve, like Peter suggested and/or maybe even attach it with velcro, like Oldtimer said. That way it would be simple and quick and not effect the structural integrity, and thus they may be more prone to do it for us as an add-on.

Greetings,

I want to chime in as I've been working with Tengu on this issue of a method of storing the House Sleeve conveniently on your New Tribe harness.

I understand that nobody wants to buy a whole new saddle to get a new feature and our intention was not _base_d on selling new saddles, but to respond to customer requests for an option for storing the House Sleeve.

This is a new product that we are developing and in this process your input is important to us. We are looking for solutions and we are not there yet.

The Tengu belt was our first prototype. I decided to build the sleeve into the construction of the belt so that it would have the sturdy scabbard-like function of one hand retrieval and easy solid storage in a way that did not diminish the function of the rest of the belt and kept the entire construction as "bomb proof" as possible... This solution however, would only work for those who want to buy a new saddle, AND are Tengu's size... the medium and small saddles have a smaller diameter and the House Sleeve at 30” turns Tengu’s handy elbow rest to a funny bone tickler.

RE: Side Straps
One note about the side straps conversion is that on Charlie’s belt, in addition to the webbing reinforcement/chafe protection on the legstraps, we also incorporated upgraded side d’s with an additional bar for the straps to thread through… It was my belief that this was necessary for the side straps to mate properly with the belt. Our standard side d’s do not have this extra bar… I’d like to hear more from Charlie about his direct experience with the upgraded 2 bar d’s vs. the standard d’s.

We do appreciate your feedback and comments. What is important in adapting ideas and modifications is keeping to our standards of quality, excellence and durability so that you can enjoy many years of tree time without repeated expense.

I’m always eager to hear your feedback and seek solutions.

Thanks so much,

Vi Chi

is Viola Brumbaugh
at New Tribe
www.newtribe.com

Wonderfully said Viola. Thanks so much for your caring input and invitation for our suggestions.
In response to the double bar side D's for the Petzl sidestraps that you incorporated into my belt, I'd like to say that they are a great improvement over the single bar D. The side straps main belt normally looped underneath the main bar of a single side D (between the belt and the _base_ of the D) and then had to return over "something" in order to tuck it back into the straps' safety buckle. It only had the main open circular area of the side D to go back through, which caused a lot of unwieldly clutter, a loose loop of strap which could be dangerous since there would not have been a constant taught strap and would have got in the way of any lanyard etc. that you needed to clip in to the side D.
So the extra bar ya'll provided really did the trick because it gave the strap something to wrap around as the strap wrapped forward without going into the circular open area of the D where other things are meant to clip in to, and kept the strap taught which is safer and of course eliminates clutter.
Thanks soooo much.
For anyone unfamiliar, the Petzl sidestraps is an add on to your saddle which gives you the versatile front floating main D.
You can see the Sidestraps at:
patrollersupply.com. Then type in Sidestraps in the search box.
They are very reasonable in price and Viola can customize them into a saddle.