I also posted this over in the splitboard.com forum, but have been roaming around this website recently and wanted to get some input from people much more in the know about hardboot equipment (even if I am using it in a different way).
I have been using a Phantom setup with modified TLT6’s on a Jones Solution splitboard for two seasons now. I run it at +18/-15, with a 23.5" stance width; which is the same as my soft boot resort riding angles.
In bounds at Squaw though, where I teach snowboarding and end up riding 50-100 days a year, I was using K2 Thraxis boots with Union Travis Rice bindings on a Jones Flagship and a Prior AMF. On those boards I ride everything from park to groomers to bumps to powder, regular and switch (both in and out of lessons).
My problem was that I blew out the Thraxis (usually smoke a pair a season) and after rediscovering the videos of Chad Otterstrom on the Phantom Facebook page riding modified TLT6 with Phantoms on jumps and rails and in the halfpipe, I decided to give it a go. I put the Phantoms on my Prior AMF and went at it, but found myself paranoid about leaving the board on a rack because it would be easy for someone to take the binding if they knew what they were looking at.
So I searched around the abandoned gear pile in the locker room and came across a pair of old Bomber TD2's and have been riding and teaching in them since. I really like how, for me, the modified TLT's upper flexes like my Thraxis cranked down, but I have the benefit of power transmission when I want it thanks to the stiff lower portion. (Shades of Damien Sanders?)
However, I do not like the ride height of the TD2, the heavy canting, nor the stiffness of the binding. What plate bindings should I be looking at if I am going to keep this setup? F2 Titanium Race? F2 Carve RS? Carve Company Speed (Burton/Ibex)? PHK Highlander? PHK 69.5?
Thanks!