Do you ride with a Tether ?

[CUSO]

Rene St. Onge described the nastiness today. Tendon's hanging out of his hand 12" past where his fingers used to be.

I have been a faithful tether user for as long as I can remember. I had a track spin with the throttle stuck open next to my head when I took my buddy's sled for a ride. Stupid lefty's..Luckily the polaris had an aftermarket tether.

There are a couple of guys that I occasionally ride with that use them NOW.. They had a sled ghost into some trees, just missing them...

There are a couple in my group that refuse to wear them, they will learn eventually.

THE HARD WAY UNFORTUNATELY!

 

[Steve D]

Boggles my mind that it they aren't standard equipment across the board. Polaris, cat and yamaha should be ashamed of how lazy/cheap/dumb they are.

But yeah, the "side" mount ala-skidoo is sh!t, and no, tying to my arm ain't happening, that'd be even worse for snagging on branches and stuff. I got over that years ago. Center mount the damn thing in front of the fuel tank at the base of the handle bars, why is this such a hard thing to do in the first place? Why is it a fawking afterthought left to the intern that has his finger farthest up his nose?

 

[bingo1010]

I clip mine to my right wrist, most gloves have something you can snap on to. I use the right one cause that is where the throttle is, for the most part your hand stays on the bars on that side..... The left side hand does move around a lot especially side hulling. If your hand/thumb isn't on the right bar handle then chances are you aren't on your sled either

 

[AxysAssault]

I have heard about the Inreach and that text option sounds like the way I would go A one way message just sets the other end into panic mode. I am sure this has been beaten to death but please post back the answers to your questions. Definitely my next purchase. Be interested to know costs of plans etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After some research and deciding between the spot and inreach, I went with the Inreach. It's $20 a month for a basic, and you can change it to $5 a month during the summer when not in use. Unless your a back country hiker or something.
Texts are .25 each on this plan. Definitely worth it. Plus you can pair it to your phone and have a topo map.

 

[Dutchman]

The tether took a while to get used to, but now it's just an automatic thing when jumping on the sled. It feels like something is wrong when I don't clip it on. I don't understand why Polaris don't come with a tether. It's pre-wired from the factory.
I have a friend that has an artificial leg caused by a runaway spinning track. A grim reminder, so I try to educate people where ever possible.

 

[0neoldfart]

I and everyone that I ride with wear a functioning tether. Even with the throttle safety switches that are standard equipment on new Cat and Polaris snowmobiles, they (like any electrical component) can fail. Personally, I would like to see ALL manufacturers install a tether as standard equipment, and people actually use them...

 

[Big nasty]

Yup!! why wouldn't you want to wear it? unless you want to be like burandt and dodge sleds running at full speed and barely missing him!

 

[Pantherscry]

I have heard about the Inreach and that text option sounds like the way I would go A one way message just sets the other end into panic mode. I am sure this has been beaten to death but please post back the answers to your questions. Definitely my next purchase. Be interested to know costs of plans etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Inreach is the way to go. They take care of contacting the appropriate s and r wherever you are. It also has a feature that allows you to sync it to a map on your phone. Used this when traveling around Europe as my navigation device. Beats playing the huge amounts for data roaming and the map is highly detailed it works awesome as a gps.

 

[Cat401]

I and everyone that I ride with wear a functioning tether. Even with the throttle safety switches that are standard equipment on new Cat and Polaris snowmobiles, they (like any electrical component) can fail. Personally, I would like to see ALL manufacturers install a tether as standard equipment, and people actually use them...

May not be factory installed yet in all models.....my last two new sleds, the dealer installed for free.....I just had to ask and they did it.

 

[Couch]

Clip the tether to itself making a loop and wear it on your left hand. If you end up underneath the sled you just have to yank your left arm to kill it.

Great way to do it! I wear mine on the right hand.

 

[Jay577]

I installed a phantom teth air on my 15 pro rmk, installation was a breeze and it works awesome! shuts sled down immediately if over rpm set for and hand is not on handle bar also has roll over detection on it so kills sled if flipped more then 90 degrees

 

[moyiesledhead]

Clip the tether to itself making a loop and wear it on your left hand. If you end up underneath the sled you just have to yank your left arm to kill it.

I will NEVER wear a tether wrapped around my wrist again. Always used to, but no more after seeing my son get trapped under his sled after the tether got wrapped around his bars and he couldn't get clear of it going over backwards in a chute. Always goes to the d-ring on my pack now.

 

[tex78]

I actually came across this guy in my travels today , just north of Eco bowl we went for help and came back and got his sled out and drive it back to the owls cabin , chopper took over 4 hours to get there looks like he will lose 3 if not 4 fingers , we found one and kept on ice but it was in rough shape . Doesn't look like he had his tether on as when we went to get the sled it was wrapped around his bars

Sounds like from what Al and Kim said ( I know both of them) that he was close enough and when it happens so fast trying to get your had out, the would have been too long, being so close with body to sled, that mabe at the ending he could have grabbed it and pulled it off




Now if Kim would have had a Teth-Air, definitely would never of happened, should be on more sleds forsure after a 1 in 100000 chance of this happening

 

[tex78]

I'm definitely thinking of getting a Teth-Air, more than I was before

As I hate the corded tether

 

[Joholio]

I try to remember and almost always wear it. After reading this I will be trying harder. Bummer.

 

[LBZ]

I like the inReach for just that purpose. 3 pre-programmable messages and always the two-way communication so you can send the SOS and then send special messages to individual contacts.

Spot has two programmable messages and you can choose who to send the messages too. More than one person if you like also.
It's not as fancy as the in reach though. But inReach is also more money. The spot works fine for what I need it for.

I like the teth air also. But at the end of the day anything is better than nothing at all.

 

[SUMMIT TREE]

Always wear mine and many times I was glad I do. I wear it on the D ring at my waist that most sledding gear has built right in. I use a good size carabiner which makes it easy to use with gloves, but I don't take it off me , I pull it off the sled that way there is zero chance of forgetting it. I don't understand the guys who can't stand wearing it, or say it's a pain. I have never had it pull off or cause me grief while riding, infact I usually forget it's even there,until I walk away and it tugs at me. I can think of at least six incidents I've heard about where a teather would have saved somebody a lot of pain and suffering.

 

[sledneck__11]

A family friend of mine jusy lost his hand almost up to he elbow here in saskatchewan, skidoo rolled stuck wide open and his hand was caught between track and the slider And he lost a good chunk of his arm, got air lifted to the nearest city and he will be ok luckily things can turn bad so quick

 

[Dragonalain]

A family friend of mine jusy lost his hand almost up to he elbow here in saskatchewan, skidoo rolled stuck wide open and his hand was caught between track and the slider And he lost a good chunk of his arm, got air lifted to the nearest city and he will be ok luckily things can turn bad so quick

My riding buddy inlaws are friends with that kids family. Sad story 22 years old or something. I got my leg caught between the tunnel and track a few years ago sled upside down still running on a step side hill. Was scary as sh*t one blip of the throttle I would have Been severely injured or could have lost my leg

 

[bobsledder]

Sounds like from what Al and Kim said ( I know both of them) that he was close enough and when it happens so fast trying to get your had out, the would have been too long, being so close with body to sled, that mabe at the ending he could have grabbed it and pulled it off




Now if Kim would have had a Teth-Air, definitely would never of happened, should be on more sleds forsure after a 1 in 100000 chance of this happening

I am not sure what you are saying...tether wouldn't have helped? He was to close for it to help?