All right, welcome to Strider tree gear today.
I am going to finally be reviewing the Edelrid Tree Rex harness and
with the suspenders.
That doesn't, I think you get them extra, doesn't come with it, but
they are designed for this system and I'm excited to talk about it.
Been using it for the last couple of months every day all the time.
And really I'm going to be comparing it to the other saddles that I've
used which are the tree motion Evo.
I've used that sherill's version the ERGOvation and with the monkey
Beaver saddle.
Because those are those are what I'm familiar with. This is another top
of the line saddle in the same category as those.
But as it comes from its mountain climbing roots, it's got a few sort
of key advantages and disadvantages that are related to that.
So I'm excited to talk about that.
And here we go.
Couple of the key features of this thing that I really want to point
out.
I'll start with the clips.
So this saddle is designed with lightness in mind lightness
efficiency.
It's a good bit lighter weight than either of the other two Saddles I
mentioned or the other three.
But it's still got all the features that they do in many ways.
So, these clips are pretty quick, pretty easy to get in and out.
Some people don't like them.
I didn't really like them as much at first.
But once I got the hang of it, they're really not bad and they're very
secure.
I mean, it's just not going to pop out even if this did pop out there.
Like even just got pushed it has to be, it has to be rotated in order
to come free.
So they're Totally Secure while still being very lightweight.
I appreciate how there's no adjustment to strap this.
That's just one less piece of weight, one less strap.
It's got this nice little elastic band that keeps it where it needs to
be around my way around my thigh, and then it's got this
Dyneema covered piece of webbing here as the main support to add a
little extra durability.
For this point, this wear point right here and I like that, that's
just really beautifully thought out.
Though the lower D rings here are designed for a couple different
configurations.
Obviously.
I've got this one set up with a double bridge.
There's other ways to route your bridge.
They've got these two holes so you can set it up with a single
adjustable bridge. Right now
I've got it set up with one as adjustable, so I can lengthen it out
and one as fixed.
I find, I don't use that much at all.
And when I do want to use it, I want it quite a bit farther than even
this will adjust if I wanted something adjustable.
I'm using a doing something more like with the hip thrust than I
actually really want it farther out here and it doesn't come with a
long enough bridge for that, but I could make that it's not much of a
gripe but I just find it don't use it that much.
So generally I've got them together.
On the backside here.
I love the support.
It's quite rigid.
Now.
I find that I was I've been hoping this edge would soften up a little
bit like the tree motion.
It comes with the material around, the back has quite a bit of
structure but the edges are fairly soft.
And my anticipation was that this these edges would soften up with use
and they might still soften up a little bit more, but it's a little
bit more rigid than, than either the
Monkey Beaver or the tree motion saddle.
And so I find it to be not quite as comfortable, especially when I've
got a heavy saw weighting because it digs in just a little bit here and
just a little bit here.
It hasn't been significant enough to cause any like real rubbing like
rawness or but it's a little bit more.
It's something I noticed.
Whereas my tree motion once I got a broken in I wouldn't even notice
that anymore.
Especially once I had the suspenders because the monkey Beaver
suspenders on that harness or on the tree
motion would support right here.
And right here just enough to where I didn't notice that weight quite
as dramatically kind of a small gripe, but it's fairly noticeable when
I'm doing crane work, and I've got the big saw hanging on me or
otherwise, just, you know, using a big saw in the tree, but I haven't
had like I said, I haven't had any real discomfort, any significant
discomfort.
It's just enough that it's irritating, just slightly.
Other than that.
I find this was quite a more breathable
then either saddle, you might be able to see.
But right in here, there's some spots where it's mesh right in between
some of the the webbing here and that lets air into my back.
I don't get real hot and sweaty back here.
Like I do with the other Saddles.
So the breathability is fantastic.
The back support is fantastic.
Again because it's a little bit more rigid
it actually has he tends to keep me a little more erect a little more
upright when I'm leaning hard back into my saddle.
I like
that a lot.
And then the actual shoulder suspenders are really comfortable.
So once I'm wearing them the way this padding works, the way it's
mounted, this little strap you to keep it in place, super comfortable.
But what I found is it's just not quite as supportive of the belt
itself as a the monkey Beaver suspenders or other than those, the only
ones I have to compare.
Those are the ones I've used.
I've got the monkey beaver suspenders on both my other saddles, just love
them.
But this one's good.
It leaves something to be desired.
The biggest
Issue I have with this and this is probably the one significant
downside on this whole harness.
Its how hard it is to get off and on.
So these little attachment points once you put them on their kind of
annoying.
So I don't ever take them off.
They were super simple, lightweight effective.
I mean, I like the design but in terms of getting it off and on it's
kind of a pain because the way this harness comes so high here, what I
end up having to do is loosen up this strap in the back.
And then, I have to pull the whole thing over my head like that.
And I've gotten kind of the hang of it.
But, but it's definitely slower and, and not quite as easy as and
intuitive.
I just throw it on the suspenders of the other Saddles.
That's a small gripe.
But what ends up happening is, I end up just wearing this thing for
longer.
I just won't even take it off when I go to take a break or as my other
harness clip clip clip and I just drop it and I'm done.
And so I would tend to take it off, put it back on a little bit more.
frequently.
It's a minor gripe.
But if there was anything, I would have changed, I would make this, I
would put a couple of clips here so I could just unclip it and take it
off.
Other than that, but a couple other key features.
So unlike the tree motion.
This one comes set up for carry tools.
It gives you a lot of options for accessories.
I really like these little very lightweight, but they're lined with
something fairly rigid.
I think there's some plastic.
In here.
And so it lets them stick out.
So in terms of being able to use these without looking, it's
awesome.
It comes from that good mountain climbing design.
This little accessory webbing is super easy to use and then these
guys are for things like the petzl carry tool like carryall or the rock
Exotica transporter, which is what I really like.
I just haven't been able to get one on here.
They're not quite as nice
As like the monkey Beaver, where the because of the webbing is so
tight to the saddle.
It may when I put one of these on in that webbing on the other side,
so it doesn't move at all.
This one's just a little bit more loose and while it's not a big deal.
It's just something I've noticed.
But there's lots of options for accessories and much like the tree
motion
It's got all these little webbing attachment points so you can
customize it
However you want as well, but you don't have to customize it for it to
be fully functional.
That was probably my biggest gripe with the tree motion is it's a very
bare saddle.
Like, if you want to make it useful for work, you got to spend more
money.
You got to add stuff to it.
Whereas, this is pretty much ready to go.
It doesn't come with the old-school little clip for
your saw.
Because I think this is, you know, what's again, it says mountain
climbing roots.
But so you do have to add something on this side or on the other side
if you want to add a saw, but that's really the only accessory
that you need for production tree work, aside from that.
It's ready to go out of the box.
I haven't used this middle attachment point much.
Yet.
I've heard some people love it.
I haven't been super happy with how small these little D rings
are.
I know it's kind of a common complaint.
What happens is when my bridge is attached to something and I go to
attach my lanyard to my lower d-rings.
Like I usually do, I usually have to decide between whether I want to
grab the rope and that or somehow fight with it to get in between,
And it's kind of hard.
It's just not, it's just a little bit too small for me to grab
naturally and easily every time it's fairly subtle.
It would only take that just ever so slightly bigger and to be
perfect.
But as it is, it's just a little bit too small to be super easy to
use.
And the same is true for this one up here, even though it sticks out a
little bit, which is nice.
If you happen to be working in an environment where you pass your
saddle to multiple guys were not such as one person wearing all the
time.
Not that I recommend that because I don't.
But if that was the case, one nice thing about this particular saddle,
is it that super easy to adjust.
It's got these little pull tabs on either side.
And when you want to adjust the length of this one direction, then you
pull this tab, to get it tighter, or you pull this one.
Loosen up but it never moves while I'm using it.
So it's super easy.
There's not a lot of excess material around anywhere and and I'm
really happy with the way it adjusts and how simple and
straightforward that is.
So to summarize,
It's really light, it's brilliantly
well thought out, its compact.
It's gonna be a great arborist pruning saddle, something
when you're just doing a lot of monkeying around much like the tree
motion.
It's perhaps not
quite as suited for heavy production climbing where you're always got
a big saw on, you know, it's a little bit of a compromise there and
the D rings are a little bit hard to grab because they're small and
light. small and light big and effective.
I mean, it's there's a compromise there somewhere.
All in all beautiful saddle.
Well designed, I would highly recommend it.
Is it going to be better than the tree motion or monkey beaver?
I don't know.
They're all there on a very similar level.
I think you'll find that you'll find that
you'll love, whichever one
you end up getting, is basically what I expect. You'll make it suit
your needs.
You'll customize it to what you want.
All of them are excellent.
I would highlight, I would recommend any of them.
So, whatever you can get your hands on is what you should go.
For me,
I will probably switch back to the tree motion at some point here just
because of how easy it is to get off
and on and the fact that
It's a little bit more comfortable in terms of flexibility and sitting
at weird angles and having that saddle and having the heavy saw, and
I'm using that heavy saw all the time.
So that's a little bit of a long-winded review.
I hope you find it useful.
Thank you for joining me Strider tree gear and let me know if there's
any other equipment or gear that you'd like to see.
I'm happy to give you my opinion on it and hope I'll catch you next
time.
Thanks.