Right now i have pin pipe safeties but have been looking into spotter straps. What advantages do straps have besides not fking up your balance it you accidentally hit one mid rep?

Inb4 nobody on the misc actually lifts

Straps are hard to bench with.

I think I would prefer the straps. If you do end up having to bail, you don't end up wrecking your barbell or your power rack by the metal on metal collision. Easier to adjust as well imo. Not sure how well it works for bench press but I think they should be sturdy enough if you get good quality ones.

just remember with the straps, if you ever have to drop the bar, it's going to immediately move towards the lowest point of the strap under load aka the middle

there's no lightly setting it down on the pins and scooting out from under unless you're squatting directly in the middle of the rack. personally i think tree straps on monolifts make sense but i'm not sure about cage-mounted straps

i like the idea of saving the knurling because i'm a primadonna about keeping knurling sharp though

I have both. Straps are god-tier. Set them at an angle for Squats and just lean forward to escape.. Same with bench but not as much as an angle. Can easily just push it towards your head if you fail and the Strap catches and you bail. Also take 0 effort to remove and change unlike pin pipes.

Ive seen people set the straps up higher at the one end and lower at the other for bench but it looked kind of dicey.

How much do decent straps extend? Id imagine not at all.

Me too. I put a cheap piece of pvc over my pin pipes to try and minimize that.I do really like the idea of how easy they are to move around. Ive been looking it up and others mention setting it up like that.

nylon always stretches SOME over time but anything woven is going to. like tying down cargo to a trailer, over time the nylon degrades from the stretching forces of tightening so truck drivers have to replace them periodically. given there's UV damage involved there too, but the point stands

personally i have some hangups about the mounting system because you're relying on a single bolt in shear, given it's double shear at the connection, but it's still in shear. i don't have my engineering handbook handy but you're relying on a bolt of indeterminate origin instead of a larger diameter pipe or solid bar with normal safeties. i believe the higher diameter pipe would be stronger in shear than the smaller bolt unless it's really thin wall pipe

if i was to use straps i'd make sure to put a grade 8 or better bolt at the connection between the strap and the mount just for safety factor's sake