Question on Main Lift Web

[jaffo 0]

I got a very good deal on a relatively new Jav container that is too big for me.

I got a quote from Sunpath for resizing the main lift web, but I have a question.

Is this something a rigger can do instead of sending back to Sunpath? What is the value of either doing the work?
Thanks
Ryder

Take chances, just do it with all the information to make good decisions!!

Muff Brother# 2706 Dudeist Skydiver# 121.5

[BillyVance 35]

Quote

I got a very good deal on a relatively new Jav container that is too big for me.

I got a quote from Sunpath for resizing the main lift web, but I have a question.

Is this something a rigger can do instead of sending back to Sunpath? What is the value of either doing the work?
Thanks
Ryder

A master rigger can do it, AFAIK. Years back when I started getting into diamond and big way CRW with a Lightning, I bought a 3rd hand rig with a MLW that was too long for my body. Took it to my rigger who's well known for producing pilot chutes used by hundreds if not thousands of skydivers for decades. He did the work.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[councilman24 37]

A MASTER rigger can do it. If they have the right equipment and materials. Sometimes it's better for the factory to do it depending on the experience of the rigger. You may get a better result. They will have fresh thread, know what size to make it based on your measurements and do it routinely. Some riggers will meet these criteria but others won't. While I can and occasionaly do do harness work it's easier for the customer to send it back to the factory.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[riggerrob 643]

MLWs - with simple hip joints are easy to re-size, while MLWs with hip and chest rings are more complex.

With straight hip joints, a Master Rigger gently un-picks all the 5-cord (in the hip joint) shifts the hip joint up the MLW and re-sews it. Simple!

If the MLW has hip and chest rings, he replaces the MLW between them, including the secret "shrinkage factor."

It the MLW only includes hip rings, it gets really complicated, because then he has to replace the entire MLW and reserve risers from above the hip rings.

[erdnarob 1]

Changing the length of the main lift web is a major change. Even if a master rigger can do it, the manufacturer or riggers having worked on that type of mod a lot, have the experience and the tricks to do it easily. That involves three or more (for each side) different places to undo and put new stitching. If the rig has hip rings, it should be a bit easier since you don't touch the leg straps. We have to remember that the main lift web is actually part of the same webbing than the reserve risers. Personally I would send the rig to the manufacturer for such a change.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[RiggerLee 63]

Actually as said above hip rings make the job an order of magnitude more complicated unless there is also a chest ring. If it's a strait or chest ring harness then it's really a straight forwards affair. The biggest problem is that if you're not in the habbit of doing harness repares on a regular bases then it can take a while to get set up. Clean off the seven class, find the materials, get it adjusted right, test sew, etc. That shit can take longer then the actual repare. I'd charge more for that then for the actual operation. all of that is a nonissue for the manufactorer. On the other hand you've got shipping, reassimbaling the rig, repacking, how backed up are they could be a couple of weeks, etc. And they don't nessasaraly work that cheep.

I can see the arguments of why this should be done by the manufactorer but I think any one with a Masters should have all the skills and knowlage to do this with no difficulty or resevation. Hell I think any resonably compatent senior rigger should be able to do it if he has a master there to sign off on it. It's not that hard. There are some people that just really are not sewers but if you're going to become a master I think you sould be past all that and compleatly comfertable with such a repair which is percicely what a master rigger is for. But that's a totaly seperat topic of training and edgucation.

Lee

Lee
lee@velocitysportswear.com
www.velocitysportswear.com

[erdnarob 1]

Hi Lee. If as a rigger one feels confident to do it properly because of enough experience, there is no problem. Theoretically any master rigger should be able to do it but as you know, there is a difference between knowing how to do it and do it with a good quality. The main lift web has not only to be structurally OK but has also to look OK. This is the same for putting a patch on a canopy. People are just better than other depending of their speciality or experience doing it.
Now by mentioning that the hip rings will make it easier, I mentioned that because you will not have to deal with the leg straps. If a rigger is not used to do that kind of job, he will take way more time to do it and will never be able to charge the hour rate for so many hours spent. I certainly doesn't want to object a qualified rigger to do such a change since everybody has to accumulate experience but I was taking the customer point of view in this issue. This job is not very common for a master rigger working alone in his loft while at the manufacturer's loft, they will do it faster.

Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

[riggerrob 643]

You can save your local Master Rigger a half-days' guess-work if you ask him to measure you (as if you were ordering a new Javelin).
Submit htose numbers to Sun Path, along with the serial number of your old Javelin.
In a day or two, they will tell you the finished dimensions of a harness, that will fit you properly.
Then your local Master Rigger will have some "hard" dimensions to work towards.

While you are talking with Sun Path, ask them to quote on re-sizing your harness. Half the time, Sun Path will quote cheaper than your local Master Rigger., then you just have to calculate for shipping costs and down-time.