BD STS tail strap failure

I'm not sure if this is a common problem or not, but I've had several of my Black Diamond STS tail straps fail at the slot(s) where the little s.s. hook fits through. The slot starts to tear at either side. In the past, I've replaced the straps with ones I made from Voile ski straps. Instead of making a slot which could tear at the edges, I just used a circular punch. These have been very durable, but maybe the whole thing is unnecessary.

I usually try to wait to see if one of my ideas actually works before posting, but in that I won't find out about this one for a year or two, and I'll probably forget about it by then, I guess I'll mention it now.

I was just installing an STS tail kit for a friend, and looked very closely at the s.s. tail hooks, thinking about previous strap failures. Although the tail hook is polished, it still has fairly sharp edges right where it will bear against the ends of the slot it's inserted in. I thought, 'well, no wonder'.  I've rounded the edges of the hook where it would bear against the strap with my Dremel tool and a very small carbide bit. I'll see if it works, I won't really know until the skins get a lot of use. I figure it can't hurt anyway. 

Other solutions?

Larry

That's a great idea -- my wife's tails have torn through in the same fashion and I never looked at the hooks themselves to see if they were adequately rounded. I'll have to check that out.

I haven't tried it, but Lou Dawson's site has a pretty slick little fix for a skin tail. Might be worth checking out (and it's gear-geeky, just like you like it):

www.wildsnow.com/tips/skin_tail_fix.html

I've spent enough money replacing those little metal hooks to keep myself in Starbuck's for a month. I more or less gave up and let the tails hang free. Haven't ever had problems in any kind of snow ... but I make sure the skin glue is well-maintained.

The G3 tail kits seem to have fewer problems with that, but it's a small sample size.

With regard to Lou Dawson's methods that Marcus mentioned, for a while I used to sew lightweight 1 inch nylon webbing to the back of the skin, and then attach a section of a 'industrial' velcro like material to the other end of the webbing. I stuck a matching piece to the ski. This is the stuff I think they use to attach speaker grills. Both pieces of the 'velcro' are identical and are all plastic. When pushed together they make a very firm attachment at least in sheer. The nice thing about this method was that it's easy to adjust for length changes with temperature and how wet the skis are.

Eventually I stopped attaching the tail this way because sooner or later I would cross my tails just the wrong way and knock the attachment loose. Also, when the conditions were right, snow would pack in around the miniature hooks that mate to make the stuff stick together. At that point it was a pain in the rear to get it cleaned out.

But now I don't have to worry about any of that stuff. I *love* the attachment system that Trab uses. Very clean.

Larry

How do the Trab tails attach, Larry? I know the tips have a little "nose slot"