Avi-Vest Avalanche Airbag questions for you

[WARY]

Here are some pics of the pockets. We put in cover flaps with velcro secure strips. Hopefully this will keep out some of the snow. Here also is a picture of the rip cord and the lock out. The purpose of the lock out is when you are done for the day and heading inside for the night. We went with a red/green go/no go type of indicator so you can visually check to see if your system is live or not.

200 of the vests are complete and we are waiting on the machine shop for the cylinder heads, everything should be ready for the first 200 in a few weeks, with a second batch of 1000 also in the works for completion by this fall.........

Here's the zippers on the breast pockets......

Here's the rip cord pull ball and the lock out mechanism........

 

[WARY]

........................
The first batch of Avi-Vests are going out now. We are getting them to a bunch of our friends in the mountains, but without the air bag flotation system. Ok, this sounds crazy, why do it? Because we want to find out how the vest works for snowmobilers, skiers and boarders while we create the air bag systems here in the shop (machine parts, assemble parts, test parts, etc).

This will allow us to check on pockets, zipper placements, shoulder comfort, breathability, do some more drop testing and check on other key elements before we build the next major production order.

As some of you may know there was a major product recall in the avalanche air bag industry this past winter, so we want to be very careful and not rush our vests into the mountains before they are ready.

There’s an Avi-Vest in Alaska right now, and several more going out within days so we should start to get feedback immediately.

Thanks again everyone for your comments.

 

[U turn]

Turn the zippers around. I hate the fact that you have to pull zippers up to close, then slowly they creep down and empties the pockets. I finally have a jacket that the zippers pull down to close.

I think I would also add a zipper to all the pockets, I wouldn't trust velco to hold expensive electronics or survival gear.

I like the vest idea, and the target price.

 

[happylilcuss]

This would be an awesome idea if you could team up with tekvest or bwear any of the protective guys and put an avy bag on those.. It would be hard for me to wear my tekvest and then this over.. But I do ride in just my tekvest all teh time so it would be awesome to have an avy bag on as well.

 

[Mtn. missle]

KUDOS to you for your great work on the AVI-VEST! nice to see a company asking for and incorporating ideas from riders, that's how to sell product. With that being said I also would stress adding a line (ASAP) w/ chest and shoulder protection (like a tek vest) I really like the thought of keeping the cost to the consumer down, $1000+ price has kept me out of the market, but it sounds like enough people are gonna spend the extra $ on tek vest's that even if you had to add $100 or so it would still beat buying the additional protective vest. I would also agee w/zipper idea on pocket's. Please keep us posted on how the testing goes, again nice work!

 

[tube]

the ultimate package would be a jacket with all these things built in, tek vest, avi pack,ect.

Love this idea, way better deal, just would look for storage capacity for shovel, proble, sat phone, rope, small saw, etc, looks like you should be able to fit all that in, the tek-vest/avi vest thing would be great.

 

[happylilcuss]

How are these fitting with a tek vest? If these are working well in conjunction with a tek than I am in. I really like the idea the more I look at it!!

 

[0007]

Did I miss the shovel and probe storage?

 

[fassteddie]

i looked at them at wa snow show. great for people who ski. and spring riding.

 

[Sako7STW]

I saw these at the SLC snow show and was impressed with it. Wish I could have spent a bit more time at the booth and had my head on streighter to ask the right questions. I think I could have purchased one that day but the family was dragging me to the door. It has been on my mind ever since tho.