Be mindful of the corners on these buckles. Indy Dawg reported actually puncturing a hole in his car leather getting in and out of his car, and just this evening my wife pointed out a hole in the same location of the drivers seat of OUR car....right where the buckle USED to be.
Yep....the buckle swap was JUST the trick! Glad to see other folks are having success with it!
Oh, and HP..GLAD to see you'll be keeping that SL!!!
Yeah, I'm glad I'm keeping it too. Its been a crazy ride with this jacket.
When my 03 Wested goat gets here, I should have a nice little "Indy Sampler Platter" going on.
If you're going to go with the three loop configuration, Croft, just pass the loops through the same way as the slider buckle....in one side, over the middle loop, and on through the third loop.
Does anybody have a good technique for attaching the buckles? I tried with the black and the brass ones and scratched them up horribly. They don't bend easily; the pliers really tore them up. Thanks!
You only have to open them wide enough for the strap to pass through sideways. How wide are you trying to open them?
Granted, they're not easy to open, but I used a pair of lockable vice grips on the one side, and slightly pried the gap open with a second pair and had no problems at all, as the vice grips are locked onto the metal and won't slip.
Even if you DO scar the metal some, just rotate the gap side into the leather loop. No one will ever see it.
I wrapped the two "teeth" (what DO you call the two parts of a pair of pliers?) with small cut-off sections of old T-shirt...just wrapped them right around the business end of the pliers....
Or wrap the pliers in duct tape and be gentle. Twist sideways, instead of trying to lever them open against the bend of the ring. You only need a fraction of an inch gap.
Just picked up some flat black ones for my Wested Goat. I'm tellin you guys, I LOVE this strap configuration. It's cooler than the triglides and the d-rings by miles!
I believe I will be doing the same to my cow Legend jacket once I get it back from Wings. I have always preferred the straps pulling forward towards the pockets and feel the rectangular sliders/buckles are less cumbersome than the tri-glides. I may do the same on my son's Legend as well. I am going to order a set of flat black and transluscent brass 1" buckles and see which I prefer on my and then have a spare set for my son's jacket.
OK, I've been looking at the strapworks site and can not find any sliders that are not completely closed/welded. Obviously I'm missing what everyone else is ordering. Can someone provide a parts number for the slow guy? Thanks.
EDIT: OK, based on some of the references made to trading out with G&B hardware, I looked through pictures of Expeditions and it looks like the strap configuration is with two loops so the straps end up facing forward toward the pockets, same as a Wested with D rings would. Am I seeing the correct thing?
If yes, then I would prefer for my Bison Legend Straps to continue to face away from the pockets, but I'm nervous about leaving the current buckles on given the issues some are having with the corners being too sharp. It would seem that if I want the same set-up as I currently have, but want to replace with more rounded corner buckles, there's going to be sewing involved.
Not if you install THREE of the rectangular loops on each strap....if you do that, then you'll have a "center bar" (the middle loop) over which you can pass the strap on its way towards the back of the jacket.
If you do that, you can pull the straps towards the back without sewing.
Indiana Croft wrote:Just order 6 brass and 6 flat black 1" loops, will post pics as to which way I'll go, the rest will go to the bizaar.
Croft
Looking at the site it didn't list the brass loops as unwelded like it does for the nickle. Have you received yours yet and are they welded or open. I think I'd prefer the brass, but will go nickle if I have to.
And kudos to strapworks for not raking us over the coals on shipping! I figured I'd have to spend $10 in shipping for a $2 item.
Nope they are very reasonable. And solid product? When I cut my D-rings off my 2003 Wested goat, i could bend them right off with my hand. You are a MAN if you can bend these rings with your hand!
BTW noone has spoken up for my free D-ring offer in the bazaar...
Actually...I REALLY can do that! There is a total trick to it though.
I normally keep one or two phone books in my class room and when one of the football players gets a little mouthy, I'll tear one of them in half. It drives them CRAZY that they can't figure out how I did it!!!
I used the live chat function on the strapswork site and a very nice woman named Amelia informed me the brass loops are cast so are solid. Great customer service.
I went with six of the nickle. I considered the powercoated brass, but there was recent feedback about the power coating flaking off. Strapworks responded that they've improved their process, but I didn't want to take the chance.
I had that concern with my flat black rings, and the paint barely came off when I used pliers! If you haven't figured it out by now I am VERY impressed with their products!
Just got around to this paticular project, now I've tried different configurations using the three buckels and I just don't see how you can pass one through the other and keep tension on the strap.
So if someone knows how, could you please post pic's on how you did it. The one way the it kinda worked left the layers of strapps way to thick.
So before I cut the other side buckel, I beseech you, show me the light.
And yes I like these paticular straps to go in the direction of the back panel. They are kinda long. Doncha think.
Ya know I think you might be right.
I looped back it back through, but I don't know, before I cut the other buckel I might see how this feels/looks to me.
Heres a pic, sorry for the fuzzy, but I think you can see it.
Croft
First, take a zip-tie or something like that and tie those three loops together. What you want to do is secure those rings to each other, so that the center loop acts like that center bar on the brass slider...
Then...you've got the strap going through wrong...feed the strap through the first one, just let it pass over te second/center "bar" and then pass the strap through the third loop...pull it on through to the length you want it...and with those loops tied together, that should secure that strap like you want it.
Ok, this does alow me to "sinch" the strap, but it's really not a snug sinch ya know, still feels loose. I might just have to put the old buckel back on, hopefully I didn't bend it to much.'
For now, I'll leave it as is, and we'll see if it loosens up.
When I had it "un-zipped", the buckel just floated and wouldn't let me sinch it, belive me I tried.
Thanks for your support Mr. Dawg.
Croft
abd if I do put it back on I'll be sure to buff it smooth so hopefully it won't tear the strap.
I had another thought on this, Croft....wearing my Legend today, and there is a LOT of "play" in that strap loop attached to the back panel on the jacket.
You COULD try taking it to a leather shop...shoe repair place...someplace that works in leather and have them put a stitch row at the very end of that backstrap loop, so that all three of the metal rings are bunched up together tightly. THAT would make the straps cinch up tight...because it isn't the straps that is the problem..it's that those three metal rings are not all joined together in some way.
If you look at the same spot on a G&B Expedition, you'll see that they DO put a stitch row at the end of that backstrap loop to secure the two metal rings close together...makes that strap cinch MUCH more secure...the Expos straps NEVER slip!
I figured I'd have to spend $10 in shipping for a $2 item.
