Alright guys first flight with my new 12m Slingshot Snow Ranger. It is a depowerable foil/ram-air kite meant for snowkiting, landboarding etc. Not really for kitesurfing. I'll start with the flight conditions. winds ranged all day from 8-10mph in the morning to about 17-20 by the end of the day. Smooth at first then shifting into medium gusts while the speed picked up. I was riding with some friends on a smooth grass field about 3 football fields in size. No obstacles upwind for about a mile....literally lol.

The kite came complete with an absoultely fantastic bag. The bag is very well built with strong points where all clips and straps attach. It has numerous adjustable clip straps to tweak your fit i guess you could say. Includes a padded waist belt, and a shock cord type strap across the chest. Has two straps on the non-wearer side that are covered in extra rugged material meant to fit a snowboard. Haven't thrown my board in there but it looks legit. Only one zip pocket on the lid that i've found for small items (keys phone etc). Plenty of bag room for the kite and bar + other items depending on how tight u pack your kite

My bag was all black, not sure if it comes in more colors

Now to the kite

Great color scheme - white red and black. Kite has somewhat of a lower aspect ratio I think for foils. Definitely lower than a peter lynn, but for those vets out there they know thats pretty much the case. Obviously the bigger the kite, the more bridle work that needs to be done. Can be a little tangling, so use they came up with a tip to put the bridle knot ends into the velcro dirt-outs on the wingtips to hold things in place one on top of the next. Well done.

Lines are pretty standard, good quality. However, I couldnt figure out how they wanted to me to attach to the lines to the bridles because i had knots on the line ends and the bridle ends! Highly confused I searched the bag and found that there are a few little bits of knotted rope that allow you attach the two. No worries they are in the lid zip pocket. Everything else went fine for setup. The bar looks fantastic and works great as far as safety and such. If you got more questions about any of this give me a post back as i think im getting to long winded.

FLYINGGGGG

Ok after you set up the kite lifts off smoothly with a tug of the power lines. The kite inflated well but the tips were a little saggy at first (something i will describe later). The kite turning speed is fantastic, as good as something between 7.5 and 10m. Bar pressure is a little stiff once you power the bar toward the bottom, but pretty average otherwise. decently stable kite too. It has neutral stability, neither positive or negative. Meaning it won't auto-zenith like a Peter Lynn, but won't fall away from zenith like some other foils i've flown. Depower is hugeeeeee. This kite can reduce itself to almost no lift state, and when you power the bar, you can feel immediate reponse, even when the kite isn't moving. Backstall didn't really happen at all, even with the bar fully pulled. Lift capabilities were pretty much what I was hoping for. I tried a few static jumps, which weren't too bad, about 10 ft each time at first. Pendulums were usually longer lasting but about the same height. Increasing in braveness I was able to pull off a few that were pretty up there for standing still. Landings nice and soft.

During the power ups taking the kite from 45 from zenith to zenith during the boost the kite obviously picks up speed. I noticed that the kite's wing tips will tuck under pretty unexpectedly with the bar 90-100% depowered. So keeping a little tension on the bar was the good solution.

Overall the kite performed well. It does have a tendancy to tip tuck like that and takes a second to reset. Pulling the bar to full power will open the tips up again in a few seconds.

Rode it around on the board once the wind picked up a little. The foil itself was jerky in the gusts, but the fact that it had such a large amount of depower countered the jerks. Releasing bar pressure straightens you right out again.

I am very pleased with this kite, i think it will do everything I could ask from it. Can't wait to hit the North Dakotan tundra next season



Thanks guys let me know if u have questions

most of the reviews i read mentioned the wing tip tuck issue.
they look like a great kite and the de-power/trim system looks very sweet. i'd like to fly one.

They're down to $279 shipped now!!! Quite tempting....

My concern is they don't have the "top hat" safety release like my Montana does.

So the only safety is to release the chicken loop and then pull it back with some kind of leash? (Maybe the big depower range comepensates for this?)

How does the depower/trim knob thingy right on the chicken loop actually work?

I added 13 cm extensions to the leader lines and my 9m ranger flys much better than stock setup. The below the bar trim works by pulling the knob in to shorten the power lines and then you hook the hanging rope into the clam cleat to hold the trim at the desired setting.

"I added 13 cm extensions to the leader lines and my 9m ranger flys much better than stock setup. "

Interesting...better in terms of speed, turning or less tip folding?

Hey Lad, The safety system works much like the depower hat of your montana. I used to fly an apex myself with the same setup. What happens is there is a leash attached to your brake/reverse launch handle on the brake lines. You simply kick off the chickenloop using the regular chicken loop release and the handle moves away from you while the leash pulls the brake lines. It literally works just as well as your depower hat on the montana, except for two things, the chicken loop is obviously closer to you and i find that easier to reach in bad situations, and second the bar moves away from you, which isnt as convinient as the montana, but works flawlessly. The montana just lengthens the leading edge lines using the hat and that pulley system until the kite flops backwards. The ranger ejects the handle which "lengthens" the leading edge lines while holding the brake lines in place.

However, I have never had to use this while riding. Ive deployed it about 10 times for practice and to make sure it works. When the kite starts to pull hard, simply let go of the bar. If the kite is moving slowly it will just reduce pull to about 20 lbs or less (literally its nuts), and if the kite is moving fast, it will depower as well as tip tuck reducing the amount of wingspan creating power (its actually really awesome to have the tip tuck feature, i was discrouraged at first but found it very helpful). then when you regain urself, just hold the bar down, and the tips will reinflate again.

Love this kite, i cant say how much of a steal it is for the money.

I will look into those 23cm extensions too, thats a very interesting idea!

Hit me with a U2U if you post more questions. That will alert me to head on back here

Thanks guys!

O yea, forgot the trim, as Jason said its down by your waist next to the chicken loop. Its a cleat pulley system. As you pull rope through the cleat down there it reduces power. Then u just cleat it down when ur happy.

So far i havent messed with the trim much, i find the depower capability so wide that i can create any amount of power i want through bar pull

flyboy,

Do you think lengthening the leader (middle bar ?) lines would also improve the 12m performance? (or would the bar range compensate?)

You mentioned this kite in the "low wind engine" thread, but I read a review that said it's wind range was limited. What is your take?

Sorry for more Qs - I think the bargain price has me over-stimulated :roll: I'm guess I'm just sorry I missed out on the 12m Montana offered here a few weeks ago.

Search for feyd and you will find this post and the reason I added 13cm. I added them at the bar end to the center power lines. It gives even more bar throw - the kite did seem to keep shape better with less or no luff/wing tip curl in winds that normally would cause that.

Jason

Ranger


I own both the 9 and 12m Rangers. I've flown/owned several other depower foils and I can say they are really in a class of thier own. I picked them up to fill the foil gaps we have.

Let me start by saying that they flew like junk right out of the bag. The trim made the kite fortune cookie and it turned like a dog. Especially if you tried to trim it. The overall sense I got flying it in the beginning is that Slingshot wanted to get into the snowkite market and rushed the Ranger to production before really working all the issues out of it.

The bar with the stopper ball works great but to get it to fly well you had to pull the bar way in with just a few inches to sheet with. Really impractical. If there was a lot of (steady)wind this wasn't as bad. We live in the mountains so steady winds are pretty rare.

However, after some expirementing we found that just by maxing out the pigtails on the kite and adding 13cm extensions to the center line leaders the things really sorted out. The trim works WAY better, no tip curl, good depower. Turn rate is way better and the sheeting action is on par with my Frenzies, Sabre 2, And Peter Lynns. It actually flies like I would hope that it should.

If asked what it flies similar to I would say it's very similar in handling to the Flexi Sabre 1 with more lift and less tip curl.

One thing about these kites that always blows me away is the amount of raw power they produce. They aren't fast kites. The more wind you get the more grunt but not much excelleration. A Frenzy or Sabre or Montana or FLysurfer all seem to go faster across the window and pull you faster as a result. The Ranger maxes out and just starts yarding you off your edge.

At least that's been my expirience.

The other thing about the Ranger is the lift. They have amazing lift. And its smooth lift with really good glide. They are probably pound for pound the liftiest kites I own.

The down side of all the lift is if you get in trouble you can't safely put the kite overhead to get to the edge of the window because she will just pick you up. This also translates to pulling you sideways at the edge of the window. In high winds they become almost too much to handle. Even with my fat 210# backside.

But if you like to jump or need some extra pull in the deep stuff the Ranger kicks. In 20mph the 12m will throw you 20 feet up with hardly any effort at all.

The kite is super stable and sucks up gusts really well.

I throw my Rangers up when I'm in too much of a hurry to air up my Peter Lynns. The build quality is rock solid.

My only gripe at this point is the safety system. The chicken loop release is great but the leash system is years behind everyone else. If you spin the bar much it wraps the leash around everything and can even hamper the depower if you use the chicken loop release. The bar is 5th line compatible and I'm working on a 5th line system for it. My Sabre 2's 5th works awesome and I would like to have that same piece of mind for the Ranger.

I guess the bottom line is they are nice kites with a little work. Especially for the money. The bar is nice. Build quality is top rate. Tons of power and lift. Handles well and turns as well as anything out there in the same sizes. The Safety sucks.

Hope that helps.

ah jeesh...my unemployed, kite-buying trigger finger is spazzing out now...:karate: do you have a pic of you line extension on the bar?

the lowest wind ive used it in so far is about 10 kts. It certainly wasnt the lowest i could fly it at either. I think it can drop down maybe 3 more kts. The kite seemed to turn fast enough to figure 8 "pump" it on low wind days but i havent had to yet. Im riding on an ATB board right now, and there is more drag there than on my snowboard for sure. This kite can get me moving in almost all conditions. It also has a large wind window range too, i remember flying it in as high as 20-22kts for some static jumping. Let me know if you have more questions about this.

I agree with jason on the disadvantage of the leash system. If you spin yourself, or loop the kite, and need to spin the bar, the leash will definitely get wrapped around the whole line setup. Kind of a bummer i spose. I usually zenith the kite, and unhook the leash for a second or just do some ground-style 180's till the system is back to where it should be. if ur not a big spinner or kitelooper, it didnt seem like much of a problem at all.

I think the lead line extensions has serious validity. The kite does seem to handle just a bit funny but i couldn't put my finger on it. I would change the trim settings around and never really found an answer and just got used to it. What i notice is that when you pull the bar to full power, the kite won't come even close to a back stall (even with fully powered up trim settings on the bar and knots). this leads me to believe that the leading edge lines are too short, or vice versa the brake lines are too long. Lenghtening the lead lines would theoretically improve turn handling while increasing overall power capabilities i suppose. Definitely a quick, cheap, reversible fix

let me know if u have more questions, glad to help

Flyboy 15

Although I agree with the leash having the ability to get caught up on things, the above post about the 9 and 12m rangers under my name was a post by someone else (feyd) that I copied and pasted.

In terms of line extensions -


Check out the B4 leader line set for $8 here:
http://www.slingshotsports.com/kiteboarding/lines_and_riggin...

A while back this site had generic leader line sets for $4 so I bought a few sets. I also have the B4 set as a spare for my B4 kite. The generic and the B4 sets are almost identical so you could use the B4 set. Each leader line in the set has a hoop on each end. I cut one line in half to make to separate lines with a hoop on one end. I larks head those to the existing center lines and tied a knot 13cm down the line on both of them and then attached the flying lines by larks head to those knots. I am still a beginner but the other day I was out in 15-20 mph static and ran a little to the right and pulled the bar all the way in. It was my biggest pop ever and I floated at the peak for what seemed like a long time. I was looking down most of the time and the kite felt right over head. I kept the bar fully in (maybe shouldn’t have done that) and slowly came down like a balloon with a hole in it. I landed softly but dropped the kite behind me. I am assuming the extensions are strong enough based on that but I may be wrong.

Jason

jason, im down with your idea about the leading extensions, and that seems to be a pretty safe way to go about making them. I was thinking about actual line extensions (smaller versions of the usual spectra 100ft line pieces i mean), not the thicker line sections that attach to the bar. I agree with your technique completely, nice work. You could even add more knots to play with line length if u really wanted to. What you have created is a good reversible engineering solution. Im most likely going to try this, thanks for all the posts.

And congrats on the nice pop, I've had some pretty good ones as well with only the stock setup, im excited to see what these extensions can provide for me.

The post i put in was about how the kite handles now, pre-extensions. So i was trying to say that i think the kite will handle a bit better with the extension set.

Last thing tho, does the kite lose any depower cababilities with the extension mod?

I'm still having a little trouble visualizing just where these extensions go. Here is a linked pic of the Ranger bar (where they're still asking $389.99 for it separately, BTW!!!):



I'm also wondering if you could add or splice an HQ style Primary Front Safety Release near the ring where the lead front lines split off (maybe just add a slide/pull-release Equine Panic Snap).

See if this attachment works - Your photo does not include the connection point where the kite lines attach. Those are all still leader lines.

Jason

Jason-G . -

thanx, now it is clear. From my linked bar pic, I thought those were the kite lines that were coming right off the "surefire ring" just above the reverse-launch webbing.

Well...now...temptation is creeping over me...:evil: heck, I haven't even gotten my Montana II 9.5 really going - yet.

But, the Ranger price is unbeatable and they probably won't stay in stock too long...heck, I could buy 2 and find who out there is paying $389.99 for the Ranger bar alone...:duh:

I have just bought one for 199 dollars with free shipping from Backcountry.com. I mean, 200 bucks shipped for a 12metre kite RTF in NEW condish is UNHEARD OF! Guys, i'll be wanting to pick your brains about the trimming if you don't mind....

Crazy deal. Looks like they are sold out.....guess I'm glad since I really don't need it with my 11m Frenzy, but I was tempted at that price.

sorry
it was backcountryoutlet.com

not backcountry.com

they still have 14 kites at that price.

Are you sure that the B4 leaders are strong enough? There's no strength rating info for them and I know that the line used for the Ranger differs from the B4 line.

I intend to use Q-Power line, just to be safe!

yea I was thinking the same, the idea is good but i think i might shop around for some stronger line. It is a 12m after all lol

Does anyone have an extra Ranger that they want to sell? It would go to a poor college student...

Should'a jumped on that train when you saw it leavin' the station!

Is this andrew that posted on our Club site on facebook?

Quote:

Originally posted by andrewbanandrew Does anyone have an extra Ranger that they want to sell? It would go to a poor college student...

Hey everyone-

First let me say I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to everyone who PM'd me with questions about the set up I've done to my Rangers. I've been very busy lately and slowed down by a cast on my left hand. The cast makes typing a little more of a pain in the backside than normal and there may be some typos so bare with me.

So here's my current set up. I flew this one for a season and a half and it's been awesome. I'm still going to work on tweaking but I'm definately in a sweet spot handling wise.

First we'll cover the 12m Ranger.

1) On the center line leaders at the bar I settled on 17cm extensions.

2) At the kite I installed the 10cm long pigtails with the 3 knots on the front line. I usually run the knot at the end but ocassionally move up if I want the kite to be more responsive.

3) I removed the pigtails on the back lines and connected the steering lines directly via larksheads.

This set up has several effects on the way the kite performs. First it changes the bar throw so that you don't have to fly all "T-Rex" style. Since the kite is designed to use bar throw as it's primary method of depower the stock set up requires you to pull the bar in really close to get good power. Does this set up change the amount of depower available? I assume so but there is so much depower to spare I never found it to be an issue. I can let the bar out to depower and it is still within reach.

We use seat harnesses so the reach thing was a major issue. I have not tried it with a waist harness so I don't know how this set up would work with that.

The second thing this set up does is all but completely gets rid of the tip curl issue under normal powered flight and reduces it considerably when trimmed. You will still expirience some tip curl under heavy trim but we're talking really heavy trim in conditions that a little tip curl would probably be the least of you worries. You definately won't see the wing "fortune cookie" like it does with the stock set up and won't see any unusual curl under normal flying conditions.

The last improvement I saw with this set up is it also improves the steering rate quite a bit. I'm not sure why the Ranger comes with 20m lines but I suspect it was to help the turn rate. Unfortunately it also limits the amount of power available and the ability to make the most of the airspace. With this set up the Ranger turns faster even on longer lines.
I found the optimum line lenght was 25-30m. I prefer the 25m for a little faster turn rate but the 30m is nice on the lighter wind days. Beyond 30m I find is too sluggish to make use of the wind window especially if the wind is really shifty.

Note: I fly with the long Ranger bar. The closeout Rangers apparently come with the short bar that the 9m comes with so you may notice a little extra bar pressure.

Now you may have asked "why 17cm at the bar and 10cm at the front lines?". I don't really know why for sure but the it works. I originally ran longer extensions at the bar and direct connect at the wing and the results weren't great. All I can guess is it has something to do with the leverage on the pulley system. Whatever it is I don't care because my current set up works damn sweet!

On my 9m I have the same basic set up as the 12m but with 13cm leader extensions. Same improvement in performance.

Bare in mind that these mods are very subjective. Handling and depower characteristics that work for me may not be what you're looking for. Fly the kite with the stock set up and see what you think.

The only other chnage I did to my Rangers was add a 4.5line. Basically and over powered brake actuating line that connects to you like a 5th line. It pretty much doubled the wind range I felt comfortable flying the Rangers in. It's easy to set up and just takes some leader line and 2 stopper balls that you have to install on the kite. I'll explain more on that later but right now it's time for bed.

For everyone that scored one of the $199 retared best deals on a kite ever the Ranger will blow your mind when you get it dialed in. I fly Peter Lynns mostly but for open foils the 12m Ranger has totally been my "go to" kite.

L8R.

Feyd Fantastic post,

I started this thread for a review on the stock setup. I will surely look into these mods and Im sure they can do some help. I do notice all that stuff that you mentioned and lengthening the leading edge lines would certainly help. I think that the ranger bar was designed for LEI kites instead of the foils since slingshot is a mostly water company i think. I think thats why this kites line lengths are so off. Anyway, Im also working on a way to modify the bag because i think its designed to fit a wakeboard, not a snowboard or landboard. Let me know what you think as far as ideas...

Thanks!

I agree with you on the bar thing. I'd never flown an LEI before I got my Ranger and was used to flying Frenzies and HQs so the bar positioning seemed really messed. All I could figure was that as a water kite company and probably to make things simple they just threw on a pre-existing bar system.

This last winter I got to fly a SS Diesel (?) and it was exactly the same kind feel as the stock Ranger set up so that pretty much confirmed it.

I wonder how a 12m Frenzy (I'm thinking '05) would fly on a Slingshot Diesel bar. (with the steering dampeners off)

Lad asked me what the difference in bar lengths are between the 9m and 12m. I don't know off the top of my head how long the 9m (17 or 20 inch) bar is but the 12m bar I got is 23inches.

yea no kidding, i wonder what would happen if we put a frenzy or hq bar on one of these bad boys lol.
I only got to fly a lei kite once, and come to think of it it did respond a ton like the stock ranger does.

And dido on the bar length, i got mine on steepandcheap (backcountryoutlet) and its 23 inches

hey guys, i had an idea when feyd said he removed the pigtails from the trailing edge of his setup.

For those interested in trying these modifications but want to test it out before you go spending money on powerline, etc, try this...

Take the pigtails off the all the lines and bridles, and add them all or some of them to the leading edge bridle knots. It takes a little plannig to make sure you get the order and knots right, but using larkshead knots you should be able to get most of them on. I personally stopped at 3 and thought it was good enough to try.

Just a thought.


And PS. my pigtails are starting to fray their inner cores... The outer braided covering is intact, but i can see the inner core poking through, does anyone else have this?