Suspenders (Life Jackets)??

[Corona Mike]

Has anybody ever used the new Suspender type life jackets? All the bassin' guys have gone to them as well as law enforcment. Just curious they look like they wouldn't be that unconfortable, and inflate when they get wet automaticly..the better grade..Even looks like you could add leg straps. Just A thought while were not to buisy here at work!

[85allison]

I know Florida Fish and Wildlife have the ones with leg straps. They cant weigh 2lbs and are very comfortable. They opperate off of a regular C02 cartrige that goes in a BB Gun.

[RNM018]

Mike , I'm not so sure there a good idea for our type of boating . LifLine provides some impact protection along with floatation . It seem to me there would be a risk of damaging this new system ,if there where an impact to deal with . All to often in our sport ,we get thrown though the boat ,and not just out .

Just my thoughts on this matter .

Rich Martin 018

[85allison]

I feel that a good amount of our boaters do not put on the Lifeline due to the heat, weight, and comfort of it. For riding around at speeds not exceeding 80mph I feel that this vest is a comfortable way to at least have something rather than nothing. They are around the same price as a lifeline. They are impact resistant and have a 5 year warranty. Here is the link. This is the best brand that also has leg straps available as well. This is the brand used by Law Enforcement and Air/Water rescue teams.

http://www.mustangsurvival.com/produ...uct.php?id=508

[Corona Mike]

Mike , I'm not so sure there a good idea for our type of boating . LifLine provides some impact protection along with floatation . It seem to me there would be a risk of damaging this new system ,if there where an impact to deal with . All to often in our sport ,we get thrown though the boat ,and not just out .

Just my thoughts on this matter .

Rich Martin 018

Probably rite Rich but, they must have some impact protection if the bassin' guys wear them hell Grant told me his jonny-rude powered Stratos is 'berry 'berry fast! Just looking for something that mite be a little more confortable to wear while pleasure riding

[gfinch]

Theres a post on the Allison board that I responded to this evening. I will cut and paste what I said.

+1

When Chris and I bought our first boat 25+ years ago, we bought each other life jackets for our wedding aniversery. We fished bass tournaments, both clubs and team circiuts and all required a working kill switch and zipped and clipped life jackets when the big engine was running. It's become a habit and I feel just wrong if I'm not wearing one.
Years ago after tieing up at the launch ramp dock an a local lake I like to pick on other boats at. I stood up and removed my life jacket. A woman there asked why I wore my life jacket. I told her that life insurance didn't pay off for seven years if there wasn't a body and I wanted to make sure there was.
About the only time we will take off the life jackets is in a 5 mph zone during the summer heat.
If I tow another boat I insist that everyone has a life jacket on.

Wonder what the woman would have said to a helmet and a Hans device?


Chris saw the post I made and heres an addition.
We were almost the last boat out on a evening club tournament. I had already past a couple of boats and came upon a wake made by a tournament type ski boat. You know the type, a large U shaped wall of water. I slowed and trimmed down but caught it at one end and it hooked the boat (Champion bass boat). I hung on and bent the steering wheel but Chris flew out over her side of the boat. Still has the calcified bruse in the muscle of her leg.
The type life jackets we wear have leg straps, these don't come up around your head as your running in rough water as the rest do. In this case I drove back to pick her up and because of the leg straps was able to grab the jacket and pull her into the boat over the transom hand over hand. Without the leg straps I would have had to grab arms and legs because the jacket would have pulled off over her head.

My opinion of the inflateable type is they offer zero impact protection and I would get the defective one and it would pass gas like a woopie coushion.

[mr_velocity]

Has anybody ever used the new Suspender type life jackets? All the bassin' guys have gone to them as well as law enforcment. Just curious they look like they wouldn't be that unconfortable, and inflate when they get wet automaticly..the better grade..Even looks like you could add leg straps. Just A thought while were not to buisy here at work!

very unscientific test, you have a 50/50 chance. http://www.lucidideefastboats.com/im...FD_testing.wmv

[RB in NM]

I had a bass fishing fanatical friend out in New Mexico, he had the SOS Suspender model vest with the manual inflation. we were at the lake , him yapping about how the auto-inflate model wasn't any good cuz' if it got wet by rain or spray it would go off,,blah,blah....he was too cheap to buy the more expensive auto-inflater one,, as they really need to be fully submerged before they activate anyway....
But he was proudly wearing his manual one showing us, almost modeling it at the ramp in front ov' us.... I reached up and pulled the little rip cord on the thing,,, you shoulda seen his reaction when that thing went off...

I know that B.A.S.S. events use those,, but I would not trust them for how we play.

RB

[AwesomeBullet]

Mike, also remember that in most cases....they do not count towards your PFD count unless they are being worn at that time...Meaning, if it is the only PFD in your boat, and jonny law stops you...you better have it on, if it's laying on the floor next to you it will count as you not having any PFD's in the boat. That came straight from Jonny Law at one of our tournaments. Also, I used to wear one in tournaments until it went off on me while I was running down the lake in a rain storm...Switched back to that Bullet vest you see me wearing all the time....

[mrcrsr]

there are 2 different types of actuators- the pill type(when it gets wet it goes off), and the hydrostatic type(the best, when you hit the water it senses water pressure and goes off) i don't know if i'd trust either in our boats, but it is better then nothing!

[Li'l Toy]

I was looking hard for a more comfortable alternative to the Lifeline I am probably going to buy. The only inflatable with leg straps I found was one by Security, but it is manual. I guess that's good if you are climbing out of an enclosed ocean racer, but no good for us.

I don't see leg straps in the picture or in the specs for the Mustang. Is it an option, or is there another model?

[Li'l Toy]

they wrote back that they don't make an inflatable with leg straps (though looking on their website, it looks like the bulletproof one made for helicopter door gunners has leg straps). They wrote that as long as it is put on right, it should stay on, but for high prformance applications like personal watercraft(what they said) they recommend a foam jacket.

[Nurimex]

Cant have all those clubbies looking silly with life jackets on paddling out there, They got it bad enough with the surfboat g-string look.Didnt one of the guys drown after hittinng his head on his own ski. Just a thought.