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Bag Pickers


Guest Angry Egg Driver
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Guest Angry Egg Driver

So there are several styles of pickers out there......The old Venture one,Rupperts Land,The Mr T,Abe's and the one Mustang designed(the Jim F special).....They all have their strong points and weak points....Which one do most of you like/hate and how come....When you knock the pin out of the cone,do you try and reset it yourself with the bags or picker or do you just roll on to the next drop?Any Thoughts on landyard lengths.

Thought it might be an interesting topic......A real love/hate relationship with these things......

 

Cheers

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AED,

 

I have only used the Mr T and the Ruperts land. Like you mentioned both have strong and week points.

 

As for resetting a pin, there are only a few determining factors.

Terrain. Flat or steep. Tree's and shrubs! Too steep, you are wasting your time, go get the smartie hook. Too many shrubs, trying to reset the pin will only frustrate you! Tree's too tall, well you require somewhat a bit of manuvering area to reset the cone.

Time, and how far ahead or behind the crews you are!

How many bags that I already have picked, that are on the bagrunner. I have found that a sucessfull reset of the pin was done mostly with 2/3 bags. Any less than two, no good, and more than 3 was too many bags to 'manage' trying to 'split' the pin and cone from the bag.

 

Rupert's Land- I found it OK to use. Enough weight that the downwash disturbs it on a lower scale than the Mr. T, Liked it for the reason you only require < 5 amp system to actuate the solenoid. Overall, about a 3/5 rating.

 

Mr.T- Lighter than the Ruperts land, and smaller so easier to manage for transport loading and unloading. The 30 amp requirement to operate the solenoid can be a pain. The shroud to line up the pins to the gate is small, and when the temperature gets hotter it becomes sticky for the pins to slide. I believe it was designed for around 9 bags.....Good Luck with that! Overall, a 2/5 rating.

 

Later.

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i've used the rupert's land, mr T, and on one occasion the magnetic jobbie that abe designed about 5 yrs ago.

i used to work for the jacka$$ that designed the rupert's land BR and i have to say when those are looked after, there is nothing better. when they aren't they don't work worth a crap.

the mr T's isn't too bad but i find it too light.

the magnetic thing, i can't really comment on because not enough experience with it.

lanyards have to be the same length (about 6' from the top of the bag to the pin in flight). if not tangles become an issue and different length lanyards can make picking difficult also.

will reset pins by dragging bags dependingon the situation. i find it tends to be easiest in the winter when the ground is frozen but if it is on smooth ground it's generally not a problem. it's when the cone is surrounded by fallen trees or on steep ground that it becomes really hard and those are often the ones that you feel worse about leaving behind.

Edited by shaggy
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I used the Rupert's Land one about 4 years back and remember it fondly. If the pin came out I was either screwed or landed at a nearby pad if available and ran down line myself to reset. More recently I used Abe's Magnetic picker. Very heavy so downwash was no problem. Magnets seemed to ice up or get dirty quicky which reduced the magnetic pull on the steel balls. This allowed the ball to come out of the picker sometimes when you thought you had it. One has to come up slow at first and play around with it to get it to slide into the receiver.

 

Very frustrating in snow! Especially new snow on the tiny targets. Sometimes you get to a bag and can't see the target at all and have to basically slam it down around the bag to find the lanyard and or the target. We actually used "fluffers"to run down line and brush all the snow off them so we could see. Also in spring with all the freeze thaw weather, I came upon bags where the target was completely submerged under a frozen puddle and was impossible to get. Cone might work better in that situation.

Overall I prefer the Rupert's Land

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Hand in pocket works for me......... :shock: :shock:

 

Fly safe all and have a great day...Mini

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