Question for anyone that owns Treelounge tree stands

[Shakibods]

Over the weekend, a friend of mine had a catastrophic failure of a Tree lounge just before he got to his tie off cable. For those of you that own one of have used one in the past, the aluminum fractured completely through at one of the bolt holes on the largest piece of aluminum. My friend still had his feet in the foot climber portion of the stand, proceeded to fall/slide to about 10 feet off the ground before the welds failed on the foot climber and he fell the rest of the way. He luckily did not suffer any permanent damage, at least physically, but he was pretty shock up. The best he can figure, he must have grabbed the tree as he was sliding down. He basically got very lucky that he didn’t fall unrestrained the 25 feet he was up, or that he would have gone over backwards with his feet still in the foot climber and hanging upside down.

So the question is, has anyone else out there ever heard of a failure of the Tree lounge, found any cracks in the aluminum, etc. I have been using this type of stand since 1997 and currently own two of them. With that, I’m also close to the weight limit that they send in the brochure. As a preventative measure, I am working on getting my two stands magnafluxed or dye penetrant tested to make sure I have no fatigue cracks developing.

Any help/information/advise would be appreciated.

[georgiaboy]

Glad to here your friend is o.k!!!
A good friend of mine had one fail on him about 3yrs ago.Luckily he was only about 8ft up,but it still busted him pretty good!
His broke at one of the bolt holes,but I don't remember which one.Don't know if it makes a difference...but he's a good size fella,about 270lbs.
Hope this help's...
Good Luck!!!

[afd34744]

Your friend is a lucky guy. Glad he's OK. I've never owned a Treelounge but had the same problem with a Warren & Sweet climber years ago. First time I used the stand I climbed to 20' + had a good hunt one evening. Climbing down I felt the seat portion of the stand slip once and it just didn't feel right the rest of the climb down. Checked the stand over the next morning and found the aluminum split at various bolt connections. Needless to say that stand was returned and I bought a Big Shot climber. Never had a problem since.

[j.krug]

No experience with climbers but I'm glad your friend was not hurt.
Could have turned out very badly for him.

[trky chsr]

Glad your friend wasn't hurt, one reason I always wear a harness when using my climber. I had a Tree Lounge for about 5 years and never had a problem with it. If it wasn't for the weight factor I'd still have it. TC

[macbe]

could you tell us, if his was the regular tree lounge or the light weight one.i have the lite weight. went to extend the lower section,where your archery platform bolts to,push it out with my feet and it went sailing,both welds broke.

[foofoo]

i own several of these in different versions as well as friends have them. never a problem. there are basically 3 types. the original,-the super light weight chinese version when the company got sold, and the new version the original owners bought back that is a little bit lighter version of the original. do you know which version? the chinese version was a "D' shaped tube.i gotta guess the fall rattled him good. i cant imagine the foot climber sliding though unless the angle was way too much. gotta be more details but i can imagine things happening too fast to remember everything. let us know if you know the year model and what tree lounge says. the way the tree lounge grabs i cant see how the bars or frame would crack. was he using the optional levelar bar.i know theres a problem with users putting them on the wrong side of the tree and tree lounge recalled them to add extra bracing.

[Shakibods]

The stand that he was using was the chinese version and he was using the recalled leveler. A bunch of us have been talking this one through, and we are wondering if he improperly leveled the stand, causing it to slipped and the dynamic jarring caused the stand arm to break. Sometimes if you screw out the leveler, one side sticks and it goes crooked. We will never know what exactly happened (as he doesn't remember much of it), however, the people at TreeLounge asked for the stand and are sending him a new one with all of the attachments. It is nice to see the company step up and send him a new one, especially give the age of the old one. I have owned all three versions of the stand, and I am the least comfortable with the chinese version (usually use it as my bow stand because it is the lightest). This incident makes it more likely that I might be retiring that stand.

Finally, I hope everyone has a great New Year.

[foofoo]

did he put the leveler on the wrong side? i too love the chinese version because of its light weight but replaced the back bars with the square type because they grab better. the rounded design edge on the china version to me breaks away too fast and doesnt bite as deep to me. so glad your friend is o.k. but im so glad there is more to the story because i love my tree lounges.i use the old style car belt safety harness that attaches only to the stand but i will start using my hunters safety system. i just hate the weight of that harness but wanna be around for many more seasons. thanks for getting back and any other info would be great.

[Shakibods]

Foofoo, there are ten of us in our hunting group and we all own either one or two of the TreeLounges, so we are definitely interested in what happened. I know that he did put the leveler on correctly, I just think that he used it incorrectly, allowing the stand to spin and catch, then fail. Some of us are getting the stand tested and after I do, I will be sure to send you an update.