LW came with a 19" belt, meant it couldn't be used on trees as big as a summit could. They offered a longer belt at extra cost. It was said the longer belt wasn't rigid enough and people had problem climbing with it... this was when they first came out, things may have changed. The belts are much quieter than the cables and could be adjusted as the climb progressed, summit was not meant to be adjusted, some did, I did and still do, but I only use a summit top. The base I have is very hard to find even mentioned anymore, it was made by North Star, The Tree Cat Archer. It uses a solid belt (no teeth) longer than the LW and stays fairly rigid, is adjustable with the squeeze of a cam, the belt is spring loaded as long as you load it before the climb. I swap out tops based on the type of hunting and use a LW hand climber if not the summit. To this day I can't figure out how to climb with the LW without muscling myself up the tree, there is no place to put your hands and push up. Kind of have to hug the tree with your chest on the seat and lift the base with your legs, long strides are not possible.
The base and the LW top are about as light a stand as it gets, both fold up although I don't fold up the base, gear is packed there. I have it down to walking up to a tree, swing the stand off my back right to the tree, pull the belt round the tree and it all sits there like a table till I climb. I need a bit to rest.
Best thing to do is practice, get to know how the stand feels so when something doesn't feel right you know it before it's too late. The top of the Archer failed, I felt it before putting weight to it, it was dark. Based is constructed different from the top, never an issue. Got to a point to tie off, hunted the morning and climbed down at lunch time. It was a chore keeping the top together till the ground. It fell apart when I took it off the tree. Be a better story if I had shot something
