Summit Treestands Viper Steel Climbing Treestand

I have been using this tree stand going on 3 years now. I would recommend it to everyone. It is a little heavy but not bad. I did have to replace the shoulder straps after a year but overall it is a great stand.

This stand gets some negative reviews by some chumps. It's not the fancy climber with all the camo. But this is a solid climber.Sure, one can say they prefer a lighter climber for lugging in and out of the woods, but once you get a climber on a tree, for sturdiness and safety, I prefer this climber out of all the ones I have (8): Summit, API, and Ol' Man.And once you ever have a climber arm snap and break 25 feet up a tree, even with a safety harness, you'll start thinking differently about the stand. As this happened with me after 20 plus years climbing, two of those Summit light arms snapped in the middle of the arm, not near a weld. And I'm only 185 lbs.Especially if I was a parent, this is what I'd want my son climbing. There's just too many people who comment on these reviews who haven't climbed much leaving comments for some kind of discount handout from the seller or just to put their opinion up when they barely climb. I hunt every single day of the 3 month season down south, even if it's a light rain.

Great product and met all my expectations. One aspect to consider if you purchase is the weight. Depending what you carry into the woods at almost 30lbs this can be a little heavy, just be prepared. Other than that easy to use and comfortable.

My tree stand arrived Friday, and I spent all of Saturday morning trying to assemble it, and find videos about how to assemble/climb with it. Now- I'm not an idiot. I'm a machinist by trade, I have decades of experience as a mechanic, assembler, and engineer. With that said- the directions were AWFUL. 95% of the multi-page manual was "don't ever, Ever, EVER use this stand without a harness"... blah, blah, blah- "can't sue us because we warned you 99 times".The instructions for assembly were vague at best. The pictures were either too close to understand where they were zooming in on, or too far away to see what they were doing. The parts list showed everything included, but never explained where everything went. 3 hours later, I ended up with 3 extra straps that I STILL don't know what they're for. BTW- neither YouTube nor the Summit website have an "Unboxing and assembly" video for this model (or if youtube had one, I couldn't find it. Lots of tree stand vids- but not for THIS model). They DO however have a video on using the safety harness (as if they hadn't beat that horse to death already), and it TOO doesn't show this exact model, just a list of DON'Ts to cover their corporate asses. As for the packaging- my box arrived undamaged and unopened, but the contents were pretty jumbled. The cardboard spacers were all over the place, and the powder coating was scratched off down to the steel in a few places- 3"+ long scratches (see photos).The safety harness. Is. AWFUL. It looks like a jumbled mess of seatbelt straps. Nothing is labeled, and you have to wrestle with it and figure out how it goes. You really need someone to help you from behind to make sure the straps aren't twisted, and that you have everything right. The very first thing I did after using this ONCE, was to go home and start shopping for a new safety harness. It's really that bad.Ok- enough with the complaints. The unit was well-made, and very sturdy. It weighs 29 lbs, but once it was on my back, it felt more like 15. I went into the woods to test it out and do some scouting. After watching two videos on climbing with a Summit stand- I was able to set it up in about 4 minutes, and I'd say it took another 3 to get up the tree. It was even easier than the videos made it look. Getting down looked hard, but it wasn't at all. It's sturdy up in the tree, but I realized that due to the placement of the safety strap (and the relative shortness of the tether) that it was going to get in the way of my draw if I had to shoot to the right. The seat was comfortable, and I look forward to using this all season. If you're buying this stand- do yourself a favor and buy a better safety harness right away.

I’m actually writing this review from the stand itself and I have to say, I’m pretty comfortable. Took it out for the first time today and moved it around a couple times to different spots. The instructions were very easy to follow, it seems to be very well made, and it’s not as heavy as you’d think for being a steel stand. That being said, I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re hiking in more than a few miles (depends on the person I guess) but it’s steel and weight just comes with the territory. The shoulder straps that come with it aren’t the best and kind of uncomfortable but it gets the job done. Climbing with it is a breeze and I can get 25ft up a tree relatively quietly if I take my time. Once in the stand the seat it comes with is very comfortable, especially compared to my other ladder stand. I’ve sat all day today without any problems. It also feels rock solid on the tree once in place, and I feel even more secure with the supplied fall arrest harness. I choose summit over a few other lower priced stands just because of the name and I was not disappointed with the quality of it.Tl;dr, great first climber stand or budget stand. Summit is known for putting out good products and they continue to do that with the Viper Steel.

I hunt all season long. Two years ago I decided to try a climbing stand to be able to be in multiple locations easily. This stand has been an amazing investment. It’s very sturdy, climbs easily, and fits any medium size tree well. It’s quiet, easy to carry, and packs easily. This year I’ve been in six different trees all around the same area. I just shot an eight point on Christmas Eve from the stand. It’s easy to shoot either sitting or standing with a bow, crossbow, or rifle. I’d certainly buy this again and recommend it.

Very comfortable tree stand! Everyone says it a little heavy but if you’re active enough to use a tree stand, hauling this thing around isn’t bad. Ready for my second season with it!