I already knew all that. I still choose to support products made in the USA. That's my choice and I am not saying everybody should. I am saying it is what I prefer to do.
I am 6-4 245. I bought the Assault II and though it is small as far as foot room goes, it is so solid I am still fine with it. I feel sure the Alpha would be more than enough if you are comfortable with heights and are accustomed to operating on lock on's. On a side note. I have owned and still own numerous makes and models of stands. While I cant complain about any of them, the LW is by far the best that I own. It is solid and locks into the tree like no other. The only other lock on I would recommend to anyone would be the Big Game Bravado. It has a roomy platform, nice thick cushion, and a foot rest. On top of that it weighs in at only 12 pounds. It is a lot of stand for the money...but still, its not a LW. It has just a little more flex and doesn't cam into tree quite as well. LW just has it dialed in when it comes to those two things.
And extremely fast shipping... I ordered something last week from then and it was at my door within 24hrs for $5.99 shipping.
I have both now, and while the Air Raid is similar, the quality of it isn't close. My biggest disappointment with it is the platform doesn't have the cast foot pads for the climbing sticks to rest in. The squared notch on the feet that slides over the climbing stick when stacked is too narrow to fit over the cast back bone of the stand. You literally have to wrap the strap similar to the lone wolf to secure the sticks, then stand on the platform and pull as tight as possible to get all the rattle out. I got a heck of a deal on it so I'm not going to complain, plus I haven't set it in a tree yet to compare the difference. One thing for certain, I would not use it over the lone wolf for setting and pulling each sit. My opinion, at the current price point the difference in quality isn't worth the savings.
