Buckle Ladder Question

[pjcodner]

I purchased some boots a few weeks ago and I was adjusting the ladders on the top buckles. These are Dalbello DRS 120 boots in a 26.5 size. The boots fit great and I am going to take them in for some final adjustments before the season starts again.

I have a question on the boot ladders. I need to adjust them out to the last hole but when I do that they don’t sit flush on the buckle. Is this how they intended them to be or do you need to grind a slot to allow the tab to slide in? Top photo is the ladder moved out to the last spot. Thanks for the help in advance.

Oh and by the way I was the one that asked if I was in the right boot a while ago when I had a pair of RC4 140’s in a 27.5. They were too big and too stiff for me so I sold them and bought these.

 

[pchewn]

Can you produce a picture of the boot with the top buckle ladder not installed? Your 3rd photo is confusing me. I can't tell what the relationship is with the round mounting holes, the rectangular slots, and the screw that is holding the ladder in place.

How many total round holes are there?
How many total rectangular slots?

I will say that if you leave the ladder as installed in the 1st photo, the tab on the ladder will eventually create its own slot -- and that may not be a good thing.

 

[otto]

Three options... Using a sharp cutter bit on a Dremel or a Foredoom, you can Dremel a slot into the cuff strap so it drops into the slot. Another option is to take the buckle teeth off and grind off the metal tab on the buckle teeth so it sits flush against the cuff strap. Or chose 3, leave it like that and it will work just fine...

 

[pjcodner]

There are three mounting holes but two slots for the end of the ladder to fit into. It seems weird that they didn’t make a relief in the end of the cuff to use the last mounting hole.

 

[cem]

As @otto says above there are a couple of options, other than leave it the easiest one is grind the tag off the back of the ladder.

 

[hbear]

Grind is easy to do as well, we had to do the same for my daughter's race boot. The plug ladder has one less tooth, so we moved over the ladder from the consumer race boot to give her the extra length. Plug ladder doesn't have any tabs, while the consumer race ladder did so the easiest fix was grind.