More common than you might think. Shipping costs add up and many big box retailers receive containers of product all the time. I ageree that it's risk for the manufacturer, but they use QC at the factory and ship it out.
Here is just my 2 sense. After reading all of these posts, One thing you can say about lone wolf is they put the safety of the consumer before their profit margins. They went over seas to raise their profit and the over seas company blew it big time. SO they pulled the plug and brought it back here. Doing that they had to keep the prices up higher in order to stay a float. But how many companies do you know would really put the consumer ahead of profit. One stand for life or risk your life in a stand that might not last?
While I'd agree they are safe quality stands not using one doesn't risk your life. Plenty of safe, affordable stands on the market.
What I mean by that is look at stands that guys by for $50 or $100 and after the first year they are rusted out and dangerous Mathews Chill X NAP Carbon apache HHA optimizer Pine ridge stab CX Maxima Hunters
Yes it was for the safety of the consumer...but driven by fear of losing their reputation and ultimately $$$. If people are falling out of LW stands, word gets around, reputation is damaged, sales go down...so it really is about profit. Wouldn't you rather make a smaller profit by making safe, quality stands than commit suicide for your company by selling unsafe equipment?
Off topic but... is that why they have tried to create a "lower priced" stand to compete with the price?
I can't speak for them but you have to assume with the high price of the Lone Wolf stands that their goal is to produce a stand of similar quality and function for a lesser dollar amount. People have been asking for that very thing for years which is why Lone Wolf tried moving production overseas in the first place. Many have tried including some of the industry giants like River's Edge (Leverage) and Ameristep (Hyde) and nobody has yet been able to produce anything as good as the Lone Wolf for less money. Regardless of who makes it or where it's made the cast aluminum platform is expensive any way you cut it. If XOP can pull it off my hat's off to them. Only time will tell. EDIT - I think you're talking about the new Alpha Tech F1 from Lone Wolf? If so then again, you have to assume so. People want Lone Wolf quality at a sub-$200 price point. Most have found the only way to do that is going with a welded platform.
Agree, and as of now the LW is second to none. It's a get what you pay for instance...you guys obviously know way more about the companies than I do. Spear posted this link a few months back, the former owner almost sounds bitter. http://xopoutdoors.com/News.html Edit. Yes that's what I was referring to the all metal one. But that's not the lone wolf I would buy. To me it's not what you think if when you think of lw.
It will be interesting to see if Andrea produces a much improved product. I love my Lone Wolf stands and own mainly older models from when D'Acquisto owned the company. The current LW owners have only made small insignificant modifications with nicer seats and different bow holder. That being said, regarding XOP A funky looking ibeam probably doesn't shave much weight and doesn't matter much. I just hope that now that Andrea is building stands again he pushes the envelop and makes the next generation of the best stands and comes up with some real improvements from his old design. That being said I don't know what that would be.
That would be sweet, but I don't know what those could be. There isn't much weight left to shave off of those stands, and not much else you can add for features. Maybe by reconfiguring the platform a hair (like the assault at the back) you could shave a little weight off. Other than that, the LW already can be leveled. The only thing I can think of is some sort of other leveling system for the seat or something along those lines.
When is the Air Raid hang on from XOP supposed to be out? Anyone seen it or have a guess on the price?
Since shaving weight came up. What is the difference between the older LW assault 1 that weighed ~7.5lbs compared to the newer ones that is 11lbs? Was the platform that much smaller? I'd like to find one of those older ones for a spot I want to hunt that is WAY up the mountain haha. Anyway seems like you could shave weight but I bet most wouldn't like the size much.
IIRC the original assault was 8.5 pounds. The new assault 2 has a bigger seat, has an extra versa button, the offset bracket, and the leveling system. I believe they also made the back notch of the new assault wider to accommodate larger trees, as the original Assault had some stability issues getting close enough to larger trees, so the platform is a little larger.
