Slider assembly

[spinerugo]

What is proper slider orientation in terms of "up" and "down"? I know wich side is right or left, but I'm not sure about up and down side. When you look at slider gromet holes, they are not the same size on each side of slider. One side of slider (I'm not speaking of right or left orientation, but up and down, ofcourse) gromet is wider than other. Is this side of slider goes up, (facing canopy)? I assume that It should go up, cos lines are spreading from up to down during opening proses, so that kind of orientation willl put les stress on lines. Is this correct, or I'm missing something?

Thanks in advance.

ip

[truckerbase]

I was taught to have the flat side of the grommets with the groove facing up towards the canopy, this puts the rounded side of the grommets facing down towards the container, or another reference would be to have the mesh side facing down towards the container, and the tape side up towards the canopy (the mesh slider has all mesh on one side and then a band of material ("tape") running around the circumference of the mesh on the other side). Early on I used to say 8 side down, because their were what looked like "8's" on the grommets but I believe not all grommets have this feature. The idea as I understand it is to prevent the lines from being shaved or scraped by the flat side as the grommets descend the lines; the rounded sides tolerate passage better.

However, this applies to CR / Asylum sliders only, as I have never examined another manufacturers slider to know if those are different. I see no reason why they would be.

Also, Ive seen a number of people with their slider on upside down, so people are apparently not having difficulty. Nor did they like being told their slider was on upside down...Soooooooooo.......

[Mac]

I was taught and have used in my SU deployments, that the "tape side" of the slider should be faced downward with the full mesh side pointing upward. This is to minimise the snag factor of the lines in the outside edge of the slider as it moves down less tensioned lines.

Am I wrong in this thinking?

[truckerbase]

I was taught and have used in my SU deployments, that the "tape side" of the slider should be faced downward with the full mesh side pointing upward. This is to minimise the snag factor of the lines in the outside edge of the slider as it moves down less tensioned lines.

Am I wrong in this thinking?

Probably not. CR gave this orientation and I wrote it down long ago, and have followed it since thinking it made the difference between dead and alive. I learned how to pack from the cr video, so it may be on that, but I thought I recall Marty T. showing this in the FJC. I could easily be wrong, but my original base "book of spells" with all my notes in it is very specific about the slider. Ive noticed no damage to my lines. However, again, it may make no earthly difference to lines which may show no appreciable damage till 1000 jumps or so. Im sure few people would agree to Base a canopy with this number of jumps, hence even if it matters, it may not matter. Ill be interested to see how this thread develops. thanks.

ps. you know, in thinking about it, it actually makes more sense to have the curved side of the grommet up, because the lines curve over the top of the grommet as they spread out above it, and are mostly straight below it. All these years I may have been the idiot with the upside down slider

TOM!!! HELP!!!

[whatever]

I was taught and have used in my SU deployments, that the "tape side" of the slider should be faced downward with the full mesh side pointing upward. This is to minimise the snag factor of the lines in the outside edge of the slider as it moves down less tensioned lines.

Am I wrong in this thinking?

I'm curious as to who taught you that.

Every rigger (BASE and skydiving) I've ever asked agreed that it's tape side UP.

The reason for this is so that the 'wind'-load on the slider is taken by the mesh pressing against the tape, force transferred through direct contact, instead of the mesh (or nylon if it's a nylon slider) trying to seperate the stitches that attach it to the tape.

all sliders should be built so that the grommets are aligned best with the tape facing up

think about it

cheers
sam

edited because I typed faster than I thought

[Mac]

I'm curious as to who taught you that.

Every rigger (BASE and skydiving) I've ever asked agreed that it's tape side UP.

I was taught on a FJC by a manufacturer, and also have been told by a couple of other experienced jumpers this too.

Luckily I dont do much SU jumping, 90% of my jumps are sub300 so I have never had the need to look into this in more detail for use in the field.

[K]

For BR canopies (FOX and FLiK) the slider grommets should be with the roundy side down, and the flat side up. This is to allow the roundy side to slide down the lines during deployment, creating less wear on the lines. I was taught to not look at the mesh or tape, it really didn't matter so much, but that the grommet was the important thing. The grommet can be mounted on either side of the slider, so the check was to make sure the roundy side is down.

K

[spinerugo]

>For BR canopies (FOX and FLiK) the slider grommets should be with the roundy side >down, and the flat side up. This is to allow the roundy side to slide down the lines >during deployment, creating less wear on the lines.

But, the round side can't even touch lines, cos they are spreading from "above", and they are bending over "sharper" (narrover) side of gromet. Roundy side is "protected" by narrover side. I think that it is better to have round side up, cos lines will not bend over "sharp" side, and that oval shape is helping to push slider down the lines, w/o much stress on lines. (That kind of shape is allowing less force to start slider to move)

[Faber]

sure the lines touch the gromets,theyre pushing the sides and forcing the slider down,if you use a mesh slider it wont hang up there for long as the air goes through it,if you use a sail slider if will be more slow as the fabric will slow the desent of the slider..

any whith a better english please explain this better if needed.

i were learned both of the above(only in skyworld),that the tape should be on the top and the round side of the grommets clossest to your head,if it aint it aint correct build..(just what i learned at that point,as under 1%of my jumps are slider ups,i cant bennefint to the BASEgear,would doubt that there should be the big diff.

But as Karen says,ALWAYS the round side downwards or you can damegede your lines..