In this update
- Front plate upgraded
- Harness included with Complete Package starting now!
- NSAA West and East
- Loop System Kickstarter Launch
Front Plate Upgraded
New PL1s will start to include a new front plate. We’re eliminating the nylon deflection plate and integrating that with the front plate for a single machined part. This increases the rigidity of the drive train significantly and simplifies assembly. By going to a machining process we’re also able to pocket out excess material, so despite replacing a plastic part with aluminum, the overall weight has been reduced slightly.
This was an internally driven change, and not driven by any specific issues in the field. There’s no need to upgrade your front plate if you’re happy with your PL1 now.
We will continue to carry a handful of older front plates and deflection plates in case we need to service any older units with spare parts.
Harness included in Complete Packages starting now
We’ve chosen to include a very simple adjustable webbing harness with the PL1 Complete Package. While a harness is not required to use the PL1, it makes the experience significantly more comfortable. A climbing harness works well for the people who already have one, but the simple webbing belt we’re including now is lightweight and very easy to use and pack.
NSAA West and East
We had the pleasure of attending NSAA conferences in Snowbird and Killington recently. We met with all sorts of resort operators, snow makers, ski patrol and search and rescue teams while we were at these conferences. There was a lot of interest in the PL1 and its various commercial and technical applications. If you missed us at NSAA and you think the PL1 could be a valuable tool for your operation, please reach out!
Loop System Kickstarter Launch
We are well behind where we wanted to be with the Loop system launch but still believe that we can launch the kickstarter campaign in a matter of weeks. We have a lot of confidence in the mechanical aspects of the system, but it is taking longer than we hoped to get a radio control solution that we’re really happy with. The core requirements for the radio control can be met by a range of products, and the challenge is sourcing the right bits and packaging them into something great for the PL1. We’ve had some false starts, but I’m very confident that we’ll get it done.
Another unresolved component of the loop system is the rope. We have successfully used the loop system with paracord, but it performs better and is a little easier to set up with a more static rope. I know that plenty of our customers will be interested in static options for a standard PL1 configuration as well, so we hope to be able to offer this as an option in the future. We are revisiting a number of ropes we tested in the early days of development, and have sourced a number of new options to investigate as well. I will provide a summary of the results in the next update.
Also, we have parts in stock and we should have more inventory ready to go in a week or two! In the meantime you can still order the PL1 and be sure that it will ship in no more than 4 weeks.
Thank you for following along with our progress! If you’re a customer please let us know what your experience has been with the PL1 so far. We’re always trying to improve on our product and we appreciate any feedback! If you’re just following, we’d love to hear from you too!
Let it snow,
Zoa Engineering Team