News — Vortex

A feature of the Vortex that I am sure goes over-looked by the untrained eye is our Oscillating Ladder Fairlead (aka OLaF).  It is an in-house engineered solution that simply isn't available anywhere else. The boom-style fairlead isn't a new concept - the idea is to have a stable, stationary point out in front of the drum that is rock-solid centered on the drum so the line naturally "level-winds" on the drum.  It is much like how a bobbin on a sewing machine gets wound on nice and even for those sewing enthusiasts out there. The problem lies when the drum...

We swear by the "Koch-style" 2-stage releases for foot-launching while stationary winch towing.  They are the most reliable release out there.  Too bad they aren't readily available....something we hope to tackle one of these days. They are tough to attach to most harnesses though - and that is the key to getting a comfortable tow out of them...most harnesses just aren't rigged with 'proper' tow loops.  And foot-launch towing with other releases off of the other tow loops on standard harnesses aren't ideal either.  When we started scooter tow training (circa 2010) we weren't happy with using the stock aerotow...