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Free LineCrawler for Testing......do you want one?

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AEsco48
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Postby AEsco48 » Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:47 am

Sorry for the delay it was delivered to me while I was out of the country....

So far I have only been able to use it at my house (have not tried undoing a line salad yet)

1st thing I tested was if it floated...and it does!

Its design and construction is simple and efficient...my only concern is the rubber cods holding the two half's together...with time they will fail...Robin any estimate in the life of those cords?.... not sure if maybe a rectangular cross section, or maybe even a rectangular cross section with a cylinder stub on it would have a longer life (the cylindrical stub for ease of insertion and pulling into place thought he body of the lobster)…cost vs life of each…

Also the Velcro strap...a strap with both make and female on both sides of the strap would make it so that you could wrap it in either direction (for lefty and righty's), only downside would be having the exposed male Velcro part that could potentially cling onto other things in its surroundings (like when in a gear bag)….

(Ideally if you always use the lobster you really only should have to connect the lobster at the bar and walk out the lines once, so in theory its not repeated a lot so it does not really matter, not to mention the "problem" described below is very insignificant and solved by a simple twist, but anyways...)

When 1st rigging the lobster at the bar to walk out the lines... I would hold it in my left hand, rotating the top half counter clockwise to open, this leaves the groves where you insert the lines on the bottom, insert the lines close it and then would have the rubber button on top..... The friction caused on the lines from the weight of the rubber stopper block is very little but its there when you pull the lines though the lobster.... I figure that if you have the groves where the lines fit into on the half of the lobster that has the stopper block when you are done inserting the lines and walk out the lines the lobster is already set up in your hand with rubber block on the bottom and you get no drag....very insignificant and all you have to do is flip it around so the block is on the bottom while you walk them out with the current design, and then you have to flip it back around to have the left lines on the left, two of my lines are red and two are gray (2006 Waroo bar) so I can twist al I want and I know what side has to go to what side of the kite…. but I cant think of any downside to switching the half of the lobster that the groves are in..... am I missing something from the design perspective on why not to switch it? Regardless 1 out of 100 people would give it though that they are twisting the lobster to reduce drag…

(line sets where the lines are all white…the loops at the ends are color coded right?)

Like I mentioned I have not used it on the beach just at my house so I have not done a drift/boat launch but I was thinking.... if you have the lines wound up on the bar with the lobster on...you connect the lines to the kite, place the like in the water and let the kite float away with the wind as you unwind the lines you hold the bar in one hand and the lobster in the other using the rubber block to control kite.... if the kite gets “filled with airâ€Â

AEsco48
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Postby AEsco48 » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:18 am

so i just went outside to double check my theory on having the rubber block on the bottom when you walk out the lines...and its just not comfortable/its weird holding the lobster with the block on the bottom......oh well...

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KiteLobster
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Postby KiteLobster » Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:16 pm

AEsco48 wrote: Robin, I am really interested in your thoughts on my feedback….
Thanks for your thoughts, Andres, and I think you really have applied your engineering mind to the test, which is great. You clearly have made suggestions that I could consider in future models such as the double-sided velcor, left and right hand units, alternative hinging and the rubber block on the opposite side. At the moment, however, I'm only in a position to consider small modifications on this version of the unit and that's mainly because of the current financial restrictions. Nevertheless I hope to here more from you as you test further.

For those who are no longer interested in reading this then you can stop here what follows are some answers to Andres's questions.....:bye:

“the rubber codsâ€Â

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mx5alan
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Postby mx5alan » Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:45 pm

AEsco48 wrote:my only concern is the rubber cods holding the two half's together...with time they will fail...
my thoughts as posted earlier - if over time the rubber cods holding both parts together should fail it is very easy to replace with some thin line and tie in a small loop to act as the hindge.
Also the Velcro strap...a strap with both make and female on both sides of the strap would make it so that you could wrap it in either direction (for lefty and righty's), only downside would be having the exposed male Velcro part that could potentially cling onto other things in its surroundings (like when in a gear bag)….
Velcro doesn't always need to be used, I have a stopper ball on one of my front lines so find it sometimes easier to just grip the crawler to hold it together and then use the velco to secure it when the bar is in the bag. If you need to release the crawler to untangle the lines then velcro should be used.
The friction caused on the lines from the weight of the rubber stopper block is very little but its there when you pull the lines though the lobster....
Not noticed any friction from the gripper when just feeding through the lines.

But did noticed if you do hold the crawler with the gripper facing downwards into palm of your hand, the lines. If using thin lines they can sometimes get caught where the 2 guides meet. IMO Crawler works best with the gripper block facing upwards and away from your hand, the lines then will hang down and away from the guides so no chance of getting caught.
Like I mentioned I have not used it on the beach just at my house so I have not done a drift/boat launch but I was thinking.... if you have the lines wound up on the bar with the lobster on...you connect the lines to the kite, place the like in the water and let the kite float away with the wind as you unwind the lines you hold the bar in one hand and the lobster in the other using the rubber block to control kite.... if the kite gets “filled with airâ€Â

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mx5alan
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Postby mx5alan » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:07 pm

Just tried the following test with my line crawler... :o

and yes it worked... :thumb:
I was able to untangle and rewind the lines.
Attachments
DSCF0006sm.JPG
unwound and twisted lines ready for the test...
DSCF0006sm.JPG (139.89 KiB) Viewed 1707 times

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mx5alan
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Postby mx5alan » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:10 pm

When rewinding your lines you can't force the crawler down the lines to untangle them as it just locks up, you have to manually untwist and move the crawler down the lines slowly.
Attachments
DSCF0007sm.JPG
half-rewound lines...
DSCF0007sm.JPG (130.99 KiB) Viewed 1706 times
DSCF0008sm.JPG
What happens when you try to force the crawler down the lines...
DSCF0008sm.JPG (99.09 KiB) Viewed 1706 times

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mx5alan
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Postby mx5alan » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:13 pm

lines now all rewound and untwisted... 8)

:thumb:
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DSCF0009sm.JPG
job done... :-)
DSCF0009sm.JPG (110.51 KiB) Viewed 1703 times

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bleighty
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Postby bleighty » Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:00 pm

Finally got to test it out this last weekend.

First impression:

Simple and effective. Very easy to use and tote around. Spent a huge amount of my day learning double and triple backrolls so my front lines had multiple twists.. My friend was going to go out on the kite and I figured a quick test of the LineCrawler would be to sort the lines out ..
It was not as simple as just running the Crawler down the lines.. still had to do some manual work in front of the Crawler.. but it kept everything behind it completely sorted out so I didnt have to re-check any work or re-walk the lines .. I ran it down the lines and reattached the kite.. saved a lot of time .. absolutely.

After the session on the kite I clipped the crawler to the lines right behind the kite and wrapped the lines up at the bar up to the crawler.. easy enough.. confident that my next launch will go quickly..
-attach lines to kite..
-walk bar back..
-done..

Wish List: Some sort of way to attach Crawler to bar after wrapping lines. I am probably going to add a lenght of velcro to it to make the final wrap and attaching the Crawler to the bar easier .

Other than that.. it is a VERY easy to use and helpful product. I know it will save time in sorting out line tangles. It will not cure all woes as some line tangles require serious work to get resolved.. but it will keep the untangled portion in order so you dont need to revisit any areas already worked on.

Great Stuff!!

Thanks so much!!

Bryan Leighty
St. Petersburg, FL

si-fly2
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Postby si-fly2 » Mon Jan 08, 2007 9:49 pm

Hi, Mine arrived last week and all looks good. Hope to test soon.

Si.

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sburlo
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Postby sburlo » Wed Jan 10, 2007 1:56 pm

Hello mine arrived yesterday, i would agree it looks to be of solid constuction, and a nice compact size.

Will post again when i have had a chance to give it a good test.

Thanks kitelobster


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