Towing Accessories - Harness Carabiners

Your harness carabiners are an essential piece of safety gear. This is an area where you clearly don't want to skimp, or settle for second best. If your biner lets go in flight, it's certainly going to lead to a departure from controlled flight at the very least. Unfortunately there are no US manufacturers that produce these items, so we are forced to source ours from overseas manufacturers. Unfortunately, this requires us to pay for these items in Euro dollars, the value of which fluctuates wildly. We strive to have the very best prices available anywhere in the country, if you happen to find a cheaper priced item advertised elsewhere, feel free to bring it to our attention and we'll do our best to meet or beat their pricing. If you're a dealer, please feel free to inquire about quantity pricing. We can often simply add your requirements to our normal stocking orders and allow you to purchase these items at reduced prices for resale to your customers.

Harness carabiners. An essential piece of safety equipment, your harness carabiners are the connection to your glider. This is one of the most critical pieces of equipment, because it is typically not backed up, and failure of a harness carabiner in flight leaves a pilot with few options. There are many styles of carabiners on the market, and the staff at TowMeUp.com has extensive experience from the climbing industry as both a dealer, importer, and avid climber to help you select the best products for your needs. We carry 3 specific harness carabiners for your needs. Shown below are the 3 types:

Fader Airsave harness carabiner. Our personal favorite and used on most of our solo harnesses. This biner weighs in at 80 grams / each and is rated to 20 kN. It has a twistlock gate, and there is ample room to attach a tow assist. Easy to hook up and rig, even with gloves on. The only aluminum biner we would ever use. Our in house testing consistently proves this to be the strongest paragliding style available. If your biners are aluminum and have a bunch of funky non-essential looking bends in them, we consider it a stress crack looking for a place to happen. High tensile aluminum products don't like to bend any tighter than neccesary. Ever wonder why you don't see such "gimmicks" in climbing applications?

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AustriAlpine Powerfly harness caribiner. When strength is important, but size and weight is a concern. This biner weighs in at 140 grams / each and is rated to 26 kN. It incorporates a safety latch in the gate to prevent inadvertant opening. This biner meets the minimum strength requirements by the DHV for a tandem clip in biner. We carry them as a service to our tow launched tandem pilots and recommend them as the biner of choice for clipping in the glider risers to the tandem spreader bars. Paramotor pilots often prefer this biner for the strength and safety benefits, and if you hang it all out with only 2 carabiners and don't carry a reserve, this biner makes a lot of sense. This biner can be used with a tow assist for solo pilots, but it is very difficult to stuff everything under the gate, and special care must be taken to ensure that the gate is closed prior to launch.

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AustriAlpine Delta harness caribiner. When strength is paramount above all else. It has a screw gate locking mechanism, so once it's locked up it is very difficult to have the gate open inadvertently. This biner weighs in at 225 grams / each and is rated to a staggering 32 kN. This biner was originally designed to be used as the main clip in biner for Hang Glider pilots when attaching their harness to the hang loops. Insanely strong and in demand for serious paraglider acro pilots, this is the strongest practical connection between your harness and glider available today. There is ample room to attach a tow assist device under this biner. We recommend this biner highly if your choice of recreational activities is tow launched acrobatics over the water. For most other flying it is insane overkill.

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All 3 styles shown for size comparison. From left to right, Delta, Airsave, and Powerfly biners.

Costs

Airsave Fader Carabiners sell for $24.50 each .

AustriAlpine Powerfly Biners sell for $27.50 each.

AustriAlpine Delta Biners sell for $32.00 each.

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Quick links and Hardware. We stock a wide range of Maillion Rapide stainless steel certified quick links for use in various locations in the tow system and tow pilots harness rigging. We no longer carry the plated steel versions of any links because experience has shown that they do not stand up for towed operations over water, and they have typically half the strength of the stainless steel links. The trapezoidal links are most commonly used to attach reserve bridles to the shoulder attachment points on pilots harnesses, or to attach tandem tow bridles to the sewn spreader bar hook in loops. The rectangular quick links are used in the older style tow assist devices, while the larger ones are suitable for harness caribiner. Usage, most typically on light weight (i.e. Thin Red Line style) paragliding harnesses. The triangular links are used on both the tow assist devices, and to replace riser quick links. Oval links are used for accessories, speed system attachment, tree rescue kits, and in the larger styles, to connect the central loop of a reserve bridle to the parachute bridle.

1/4" S/S Trapezoidal links - typically used for shoulder mounted reserve bridal to harness attachment $14.85 / ea.

9/32" S/S Oval link - typically used for attaching reserve bridal to reserve parachute $15.70 ea.

3/16" S/S Oval link - used in tree kits and to attach leader line to drogue apex $7.75 ea.

1/8" S/S Oval link - typically used for attaching weak links to leader line $3.85 ea.

5/32" S/S Triangular link - typically used for attaching speed system to tow assist type bridal $ 6.25 ea.

3/16" S/S Triangular link - typically used for attaching glider lines to webbing risers $ 13.35 ea.

5/32" S/S Rectangular link - typically used for old style tow assist or attaching 1" webbing to harness $7.95 ea.

3/16" S/S Rectangular link - typically used for attaching risers to harness on Thin Red Line harness $9.75 ea.

1/4" S/S Rectangular link - typically used for attaching risers and parachute on TRL harness (tandem) $12.85 ea.

We have several other Stainless Steel link in stock for most applications, including shackles, long opening shackles, and captive pin shackles for paramotor, PPG and PPC use. Feel free to call and ask if we have something that will work for your application. With well over 3000 different carabiners and quick links in stock, it's likely we can help you out.