Hip and Chest Rings? Good?

[mewing120 0]

Just a quick question for people that know. Besides the advantages of a harness with rings (flexibility, comfort, etc..), are there any negative aspects to having them? Do they decrease the strength of the harness? Have there been any reports of the rings breaking ect...? Do the rings have a failure rating....

Ora Vivo

[skybytch 273]

With hip rings, on some containers anyway, the leg straps can slip down your legs toward your knees in some body positions (esp sit). This is easily fixable by attaching a bungie between the legstraps.

Some people will say that chest rings screw up the "harness geometry" - I don't know enough about harness design and construction to know if that's true or not.

Having rings on the harness does add a few more areas to look at when inspecting the harness/container system. I've never anyone say rings decrease the strength of the harness, nor have I ever heard of rings breaking.

[AggieDave 6]

I'm sure they'll eventually break, but if you're in the harness at the time, I'm pretty sure that you'll break long before the rings do.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[weid14 0]

well, there is a thought from one of the major rig manufacturers that the chest rings can put a shear load on the chest strap (across the web). The webbing is not as strong in that direction (by a long shot, but I don't know the numbers), but the webbing is very good in tension (with the web). I've never heard of the chest strap falling due to a pure shear load, but there's always a first time, right? BTW, I've got two -- one with and one without, I much preferr the one with, the chest rings are very comfortable.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Both my current sport rigs are ringed at the hip and chest and I like them. One thing I do notice, though, is when I went to them I seem to have lost some of the "feel" during harness steering under canopy. I can't really explain it, it's subtle, but there.

I have no concerns whatsoever that my rigs are going to fall apart due to the rings, though.

Chuck

[weid14 0]

probably because the chest rings are a hinge point, trying to keep teh three rings level, especially if they are drawn in closer together. You don't see it as much cause I'm sure your chest strap is all the way out (I noticed the same thing when going to chest rings)

[falxori 0]

i have hip rings, and it makes everything a lot more comfortable.

the only downside i can think off is the extra $$.
but thats always part of the equation

O

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."

[garywainwright 0]

I was talking to a major european manufacturer about 18 months ago and he told me that he felt that chest rings promote off heading openings (his rigs now come with chest rings - the customer is always right i guess).
On a positive note - they must make repair work on the harness easier.

http://www.garywainwright.co.uk

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[skreamer 1]

Quote

On a positive note - they must make repair work on the harness easier.

If they have to cut my harness off me that is going to be the least of my concerns...

[wonko 0]

Well, I've experienced one "drawback": if the harness is a bit too big for you then hip rings can make things worse than you expect - container might travel & hover above your back, no matter how did you tighten your legstarps. Funny feeling when it's time to pull .
But with perfect fit, the rings just put a cherry on the cake


it's bad practice to miss a lunchtime

villem
life is what you make it to be
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[CanEHdian 0]

I wonder if any freefliers out there with the chest rings could tell us if they add to harness 'slippage' at the shoulders when head down...

CanEHdian

Time's flying, and so am I...
(69-way, 108-way and 138/142-way Freefly World Records)

[riggerrob 643]

Chest rings can screw up harness alignment if you are measuring by the old paradigm. Of course that paradigm becomes structurally irrelevant once you install chest rings.
Now that most head-downers want things tight around their shoulders, so they crank their chest straps really tight, drawing the 3-rings close together.
In terms of loading webbing, it makes far more sense to wear chest rings if you plan to wear your chest strap tight.

Hip rings are also an advantage when you are stuffing big guys into small airplanes.

I have never seen a broken ring, though I did see a few bent hip rings while working at Rigging Innovations. Since R.I. was the first company to build skydiving harnesses with hip rings, we got to learn about failure modes the first. Since hip rings, ZP fabric, Spectra lines and high wing loadings were all introduced around the same time, we soon learned that if you combine all those variables with sloppy packing, it was possible to:shred canopies, bend hip rings and hurt your neck all on the same jump.
R.I.'s short term solution was a change to stronger cadmium-plated rings.
The industry's short term answer was to encourage people to keep their rubber bands tight. A lesson that every DZ seems to re-learn every year. Ho hum!

The industry's long term solution was to develop canopies that open softer and are more tolerant of sloppy packing.

Rings increase the cost of manufacture, because there is more labor involved in sewing 4 joints per hip junction instead of one, but ringed harnesses are easier to repair or re-size because you only have to replace one or two pieces of webbign instead of an entire (old style) main lift web all the way from the reserve connector links to the bottom of the leg straps.