my new bridling for a Risdon Protracker

• Picture #1
• Picture #2
• Picture #3
• Picture #4

Bridal 1.) the regular, poly line bridal (that connects just in front of the rear stantion).... it runs up through the middle cross piece.... this holds it off the ground... then it goes up and makes the loop that the gangline connects to. (It is also the same connection point of where the bungi bridal connects to the mainline.)

 

Bridal 2.) three bungi's comprise the bungi bridal..

bungi #1 is at the rear at the bottom of the rear stantions... this is the first bungi that gets stretched and is really the only part of the bridling that is always being used.... this is the primary pull point... if you could see the sled from the side you would see that the bungi connects to a center poly line (which is taped with black electrical tape, and which extends all the way to the front loop) underneath the middle crosspiece... so it runs in a perfectly straight line from the connection in the rear, to the gangline in the front.

bungi #2 is also in the rear, but 6 inches higher and is connected at the lower crosspiece. This bungi is a double bungi which makes it harder to flex. It also does not come into play until bungi #1 is already under partial load. This is done by having a few inches of slack in the center poly line (between the rear and middle crosspiece) which connects the rear bungi to the rest of the bungi bridal.

bungi #3 is at the front of the sled.... it serves 3 different functions: 1.) it takes out the slack in the poly line when the bungi bridling is at rest.... as you pull the center loop the slack is pulled out until the yellow poly line makes a 'V'... but this is very hard to do. 2.) it helps the sled to steer... the gangline goes through the steel ring and if the dogs turn there is an immediate effect on the nose of the sled. This is important in that when you have a bungi bridal, you cannot fix the loop to stay center using poly lines without limiting the flex of the bridal, or pulling the sled from the front of the sled, which I didn't want to do. (I had to remove the bolts that connect the bushbow to the bottom of the front stantions and then pivot the bushbow's nose down until it was almost horizontal and then tied the ends to the center crosspiece higher up, so that the 'pull' was still in a straight line all the way to the rear of the sled.) And 3.) as you pull the center loop all the way forward, you exert more pressure on the front bungi which doesn't want to see that poly bridal fully stretched out.