Why the change?

The LSC TRI-SAR and TRITON Harness were first designed with the LSC TRI-BAR (487-13 series) V-RING. The original, a welded ring made from 304 Stainless Steel, has been modified over the years to meet customer requirements and to make the ring as safe and secure as possible.

The original ring was designed to not dynamically roll-out of the USCG Mil-Spec hook. When the USCG changed to the Capewell Slide-Lock hook, the ring needed to be modified and LSC went to a cast Titanium ring.  This is the V-ring most of you are used to, but it had it’s limitations. Over the years, the rising cost of titanium and post casting processes were threatening to raise the price of the harness dramatically.. Though we never sacrifice quality for price in building our equipment, the benefits of the titanium (strength and weight reduction) could be achieved other ways and we moved to a forged high-strength stainless version. (Forging is preferred by aeronautical regulators to castings, so that was another reason for the change.)

To achieve a lower weight, we removed the second webbing slot and changed the lifting riser webbing route for the equipment hook.

Everything was going well and the feedback from the users was good until swimmers in H-60 aircraft noticed a limitation with the way we routed the webbing. The slightly lower TALON attachment caused problems when using the quick strop; the lower survivor position made getting them in the door of the H-60 awkward and unmanageable. 

We stepped back and considered the competing requirements of cross-platform functionality, strength, cost, and regulatory considerations and arrived at the 487-13S fitted to your new TRITON today.

Stamped from solid 8 gauge 304 stainless steel and shaped identically to the legacy cast titanium version, the new V-Ring allowed us to return to the original webbing configuration of the TRITON, raises the TALON Hook to it’s original position, and is rated tough enough for the offshore helicopter search and rescue work.