How to Get Comfortable in a Trophyline Tree Saddle

By: Team Trophyline

At Trophyline, we try to bring you the safest and most comfortable tree saddles ® we can so that your time in the field can last all day. Adjusting the tether height and waist belt and using a prusik knot are all ways you can tailor your tree saddle ® to be the most comfortable for you.

Tether Height

One of the biggest factors in tree saddle comfort is how high you place your tether. A good starting point for tether height is between forehead and nose height, right around eye level. As you move the tether up and down, it changes the pitch of the tether. Moving the tether up and down will dial in where you feel most comfortable at your hips. Most of the time lowering the tether will take any pinch away. If your tree saddle is not adjusted properly to your measurements, you’ll feel pinching in your hips as your first sign.

Belt Adjustment

Finding the sweet spot in your tether height can help to avoid hip pinching. Another way to make yourself more comfortable is to adjust your waist belt. Start your waist belt at the same tightness and level you would normally wear a belt. Wear the waist belt either exactly on top of or slightly below where you normally would.

Adjust your waist belt on the ground first. For maximum safety, we do not recommend adjusting the belt while you’re elevated in the tree. If you find that you need to adjust it again once you’re in the tree, lower yourself to the ground before adjusting the belt.

Prusik Knot

Using a prusik knot with your tether rope will also help make it more adjustable. The prusik knot we provide with our tree saddles are longer than average. To make the prusik knot shorter, you can wrap the rope inside itself. Shortening the prusik shortens the gap between you and the tree, along with sliding the prusik up and down the tree tether to dial it in.

The tether rope has a 5-inch sewn eye loop on one end and the other end has a knot. To secure the tether, take the loop and pull it around the tree slightly above your head. Then, take the knotted end of the tether and put it through the eye. Then, pull the prusik knot and your carabiner through the knot and pull it against the tree.

You can read full step-by-step instructions under the “Support” menu on the “How To” page.

Adjust it to You

Not everyone is built the same, so the ideal angle and height of the tether and tree saddle is going to be different for everyone. Practice with your tree saddle at ground level first to become familiar with it. Use one climbing stick, then go up a few feet. You can adjust the tree saddle as much as possible before you hunt, but the true test will come when you sit in the tree saddle all day during the hunt.

Do not be discouraged if the tree saddle isn’t as comfortable as you thought it’d be the first time you use it. Just like any other product, it needs to be broken in a bit before it reaches its maximum comfort level. It may be stiffer than you expected at first, but it will break in. The more you use it, the more comfortable it will become.

Summary

The more often you use your tree saddle, the better it will feel. You will eventually break it in and figure out the tether height and waist belt adjustment that works best for you. Finding the proper fit, position, and tether height is all you need to maximize the potential of your Trophyline ® Tree Saddle ®.

We hope you enjoy many comfortable hunts in our Trophyline ® Tree Saddles ®.