Tread Owners Club

[Wspeed]

Carrying my Tread today

[Poncho65]

Great pic, Ws

[Wspeed]

Thanks Poncho 

[SteveC]

Great pic, Ws

 

[Wspeed]

Thanks Steve 

[FujimiKaido]

What do you all do to maintain your Treads? Do you treat them with anything like Balistol? Are they prone to elemental exposure?

[Trebor Redins]

When I was drilling/dremeling out a couple of my tread links to be able to hold two more of the leatherman bits and making attachments for my new watch, I found a two small mods that I haven't seen shared and some might find useful I figured I'd share.

1. The tread clasp is pinned with a hollow rollpin. The inner dimensions of the pin will allow for a 1/16 eyeglass screw driver. At the dollar tree, I bought a small screw driver set, and cut the end of the 1/16 phillips off. From, there, it's pretty easy to file/dremel the other end to a small flathead and then you can store it in the clasp. I cut small pieces from an o-ring and punches a hole through both, putting them around the end of the driver to hold it in place. While you can't get to much purchase on it, the little screws usually don't have to be torqued down to hard, and I've been able to tight my eye glasses with just the pin tool. You can also use a little super glue to fix it in the watch, and then use the whole thing as a driver, just make sure the glue doesn't get down to the inner part of the clasp. Another note, the pin itself is 3/32, so you can replace the whole pin with the largest phillips from the same dollar tree kit (again grinding a flat head into the other end) but this driver was too large for my eyeglasses, and too small to be useful for me for other purposes.

2. The tread is hard to get a precise fit. There is not a good way to tighten or loosen the band in small increments. With my new watch, I needed to shrink the band size ~5 mm to make it a better fit for me. I was going to buy some steel and see about cutting new clutches (little things that screw into the links and hold two together) like I've seen on this thread, but an easier solution presented itself. I had noticed that an old bicycle chain I had has links that are just under 1 mm smaller than the standard links on a tread. The holes they already have in them work well with the screws, so you can just pull them apart with a chain breaker and install them. (Bike shops will give you old chain as they just send it to the recycler). They are a bit wider than the leatherman clutche, and if you store bits in the links, the chain will make it so you cannot pull them out as they overlap the edge(This can be a good thing as it can prevent you from losing them). You can address this by filing/dremeling them down as I did. I left the overlap on the end so that they prevent the bits from falling out when the watch is worn, but when you take off the watch you can fold it so the bits can be taken out. *If you replace the the clutches that hold the clasp, you will need to file down the edges as the overlap will prevent the clasp from closing otherwise.

Feel free to pm me for more details on how to do it or pictures, just figured I'd put it out there!

[McStitchy]

Very cool mod Trebor, thanks for sharing it 

[Raoul Octav]

Bath time
Ps: for the moving parts lubrication i use mineral oil.

[Poncho65]

Great pic,  Raoul How is the Tread for you so far

[Raoul Octav]

I used it more as jewelry on my hand, bling bling, look at me, status, etc than as utility tool. I had Not so many chances to use the tool, and when i had, their lenght, format was not a pleasure.
Used the most the simcard tool, the package opener, the bottle opener, once or twice the hex and almost never the inside key.
I always have my Squirt PS4 with me and that one is the go multitool. Plus that, i may have other multitools with me that are more easy to be used, so that is also an argument why i use it more as bling bling

[Poncho65]

Handy to have but more of a last resort option I can respect that

[Aloha]

Dave on Forged in Fire seems to wear a Tread quite often.  Its a statement for sure.   

[Raoul Octav]

Allright, got it acid etched with my initial.

[Poncho65]

Nice 

[Raoul Octav]

I got a clone. At first glance, wow, how good they've built it. Yet, beeing a Tread user something felt immediately odd. It seemed like it had too much slack and was too "loose".
After some inspection, the cause for the slack is because of the connecting link, it is lengthier than original, and also slightly slimmer, and the screws also had something off, and all tolerances add to each other.
There are various clones, some better than the other, and incredible close to the original.
This one has the tools polished, screws can't be used with the quarter cent, connecting link rounder and lenghtier, 2 balls on the closing part instead of one as the original, carbide tip is not present on the scribe, it is part of the link(same material)
The only swapable part between the two, are the connecting links, the rest do not fit mainly because the original screws are a larger and different step count.
At an arms lenght you can not distinghuish inbetween and also it would be hard for someone not familiar with the original Tread.
I believe someone used with Leatherman products might say that the QC skipped the one or LMN is not making products like the used to

[Poncho65]

It amazes me how close the clones are I believe Grant had bought one of these to see the differencebetween the real and fake as well when they first cane out and he was amazed at the similarities as well

[Raoul Octav]

Heard a rumor here in Europe that Tread and Tempo are EOL ( plus MUT , OHT and PS4), somehow shown in the big 45% sale for BF.
For the current price, the watch is a good deal even as a timepiece

[HB Guy]

Hello, Tread Owners Club members. I received my first Tread (Imperial Version) yesterday and intend to use it as a watch-band for my 44mm Apple Watch. Can anyone suggest which links she/he removed and any additional sizing considerations that may be useful? Thank you.

[Rich_SD]

The 45% off Final Sale was too hard to resist.

[Poncho65]

Hello, Tread Owners Club members. I received my first Tread (Imperial Version) yesterday and intend to use it as a watch-band for my 44mm Apple Watch. Can anyone suggest which links she/he removed and any additional sizing considerations that may be useful? Thank you.

Welcome to I have only recently acquired a Tread Tempo LT (like the one Rich just posted) so I really can't give any feedback on the watch thing

Also, congrats on getting one, Rich

[Rich_SD]

Welcome HB!

Thanks, Poncho    I didn't even take it all the way out of the box... it's just a "shelf queen".

[Poncho65]

I believe it will be the same with me I had intentions of wearing it and I may still but for now it is still in the box

[chrono]

I cannot take advantage of the 45% off Tread sale. I think Leatherman blacklist me indefinitely, potentially until I change my address and credit card  . I tried to order the Tread watch face and the website kept denying my CC. Their CS once said they did not ban me, but the last time I bought from their website was a few years ago (the Charge AL Red Cross). I have not been able to buy anything from them since.

Apparently, if you buy multiple units of the same items, you may end up being "forwarder / reseller" in LMT book for God-knows-how-long. They lost my business. I stick with eBay for my tool need.

[Poncho65]

That is a really stupid policy and one that should have been remedied once you had explained to them that you are just a collector I never understand LM on some of there stances and policies

[Rich_SD]

After my 3rd or 4th order from Leatherman, they sent me an email stating my order was on hold until I called them.  I did, and they just asked me a few questions.  At first, I thought they were checking if I had stolen someone's identity and CC, but I later realized they were checking that I wasn't reselling them.  I think I said that I have been bitten by the Leatherman bug, and I was slowly working on buying all of them.  They haven't bothered me since.

[chrono]

That is a really stupid policy and one that should have been remedied once you had explained to them that you are just a collector I never understand LM on some of there stances and policies

I am not sure whether it is a policy, I just vaguely recall someone from their CS said they could not get me off the naughty list. It was something "sophisticated" that mere humans could not tweek. Before the latest incident, they would let me order, then just canceled it. That was how I missed out on the Woodland Camo Charge sale as well as the Damascus Charges (luckily BladeHQ hooked me up). Now they just flat out said something wrong with my CC. 

I do sell some Leatherman occasionally, like 1 out of every 10 I buy LOL. However, it should not be their goddamn business what I do with my purchases. Strangely, I have not sold any tools I bought directly from their website yet.  IMO, in all tool / knife manufacturers in OR, Benchmade have the most accommodating CS with most awesome warranty policy.

After my 3rd or 4th order from Leatherman, they sent me an email stating my order was on hold until I called them.  I did, and they just asked me a few questions.  At first, I thought they were checking if I had stolen someone's identity and CC, but I later realized they were checking that I wasn't reselling them.  I think I said that I have been bitten by the Leatherman bug, and I was slowly working on buying all of them.  They haven't bothered me since.

I was asked to call in before. That was how I learned my address was a forwarder on their book 

[Chako]

I ran into this big time a while back. I talked about my issues with Leatherman in my Leatherman collection thread. I had to show them links to my collection in here for them to understand I was not reselling them.

[Estefan]

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[Poncho65]

Great pic,  Estefan