Fringe Sports Sled Harness

[slipperybob]

Fringe Sports Sled Harness medium/large: preliminary review

I have used my blaze orange deer drag harness before.  I works just fine as in most cases, I merely only need to pull the sled by hand rope.  There are times where I may need to walk over deep snow or up and down hills.  Not just any hills but steep ones where downhill sledding would be fun.  As long as you aren't hitting that shoreline to the water entry on a low water year giving you a foot or two drop or hitting a big rock on the shoreline.  Helmet and safety padding gear be required.

Anyway I was never a fan of having the smaller thinner harness straps biting onto my clothes and I do remember pulling several deers for all them old folks while I was a younger lad.  That's why I get invited to deer hunting parties in the first place.  I had considered trying to get LBE back from my military days but I have finally decided to pull the trigger on an actual fitness sled harness.  Wider shoulder straps and sled two straps.  I'm figuring fitness equipment should be able to handle 300-400 lbs of weight.  Not that my sled will weigh that much with equipment loaded.  There are adjustable chest and bottom belt straps so it will fit a variety of body sizes.

The medium Fringe Sports Sled Harness was too short on the body.  The bottom belt was just on my bottom rib cage.  One can't breath if that's the case and I know the hill that I'm going to go up against.  The back D rings on the medium would be perfect for fitness training with a resistance parachute.  Not that I will plan on that on the ice.

The large Fringe Sports Sled Harness just fits me.  I'm not a big guy. 5'7" about 160 lbs.  The bottom belt is right on the torso, not waist level.  That puts the back D rings on center mass of my body right there in the small of my back.  Sled dragging with just the sled ropes, sometimes I have that rope wrapped on my waist.  So this is going to be different pull point for me.  The 7' pull straps are a good length.  I should never have to trip my heels on my sled. 

I have to keep in mind that the harness design probably originates from a weighted fitness vest.  That's the biggest difference in comparing with a deer drag harness.  The snap carabiners are sort of cheap.  There is a considerable weight with these sled harness as opposed to my deer drag harness.  In part it's the metal D rings and metal snap carabiners while my deer harness is just the straps and a short rope.  The wider and padded material will be more efficient overall.  If anything I learn over the years, efficiency will most times surpass the extra weight gain from the equipment.

I will update after I tackle that hill, just need more snow on ground before I go try.

[slipperybob]

I guess it's been years later...In part I didn't venture into tough conditions and thus never needed to bring the harness out until recently.

I choose to go out on a day it was raining and with wet snow fall to really test out the new Eskimo Outbreak 250XD.  That's slush making conditions with the given packed snow on the lake already.  It was conditions that would make pulling a sled by hand somewhat with a lot of effort.  The conditions were also that if one wasn't wearing any type of crampons or ice cleats, one would probably just be losing feet grip.  Not exactly sure how much weight I have in my sled but, there's more than enough weight.

I used a gym shoe utility bag or whatever one calls them with the string enclosure to carry the Fringe Sport sled harness.  I find that cold hands makes using the steel carabineers a bit cumbersome.  I wish the carabineers were larger so it would be easier to get a bigger gap to snap onto things.  The tow strap loops are doubled hence that gave me difficulty with the cold wet hands.

On my initial tow out onto the lake, it was quite efficient.  The slush conditions was bare minimal and it was mostly just wet packed snow.  With the Hillsound Trail Crampon Pro it was a good working solution.  Soon I forget the weight of the harness and was feeling the weight of my sled.  On my way back was when the slush conditions started to set in.  If it weren't for the Hillsound Trail Crampon Pro, I would be very much more sorry my arse.  I stopped a few times due to exhaustion and my sled basically glued itself to that spot.  If it weren't for the grip from the spikes, I would've been slipping.  So I made sure with each step that I firmly plant the spikes with the most stability and grip.  Plus I had to be carely not to trip the quick release straps on the crampons. 

Overall the sled pulling harness worked really well for me.  I did not once feel any binding or pinching from the harness.  That's all due to the construction of the harness with the wide straps.  Shouldering the harness was easy also due to the wide shouldering of it.  The oversized buckle was very easy to put on with gloves and very easy to release with gloves on too.  Given that the overall weight of the harness is for sure obvious, it's function in efficiency was much better than a light weight deer harness.  I probably wouldn't use the three way two straps for pulling a deer cuz I'm sure that V will catch a branch or tree stump and get myself hung up.  Otherwise the harness is very comfortable in action.