caorann

Tom Dunlap's posts on Treebuzz prompted me to get a Unicender back in 2008, tbh working SRT forays were sporadic. It wasn't until around 2010 that I climbed/worked just SRT. It's great to see some of the kit available now. Morgan Thompson and Tom Dunlap certainly deserve a lot of credit.

Yeah, I prefer the DMM steel oval. Try sticking a DMM spacer for the pinto rig in the HH and see what you think for tending etc- works fine on 11 mm kernmaster, been using that setup for a few months no problem

No it doesn't. Additional friction is created at the hitch's attachment point- the 'dogbone' and and at the steel krab. No bending of the rope - that's the rope wrench. For just drt try the latest SJ imo.

Couple of other thoughts came to mind- uni easier to attach/ remove midline and shorter ascents using pantin and advancing system by hand with rw easier as HH sits a little lower but its maybe just me getting used to it...

Yeah would recommend starting out with 5/1 vt as recommended ( though mine would normally slipped into 4/2 ). Once I got orientated a bit better with HH thought I'd try the sooper cooper hitch, been using (and tweaking) this for about a week and a half. Only been using HH for about 3 and a bit weeks. Great tool, well built, heavy in hand but not noticable on harness, smooth in ascent/ descent srt/drt ( dependant on hitch of course). Control easier than uni, uni/rw, sj/rw, taking in slack maybe not quite as smooth as mechanical devices but getting hitch right goes a long way obviously. Difficult to compare with rw/hitch setup as I only used this briefly when zk1 first came out...zk2 great and sure stiff tether makes a big difference ( use a 'stiff tether' krab with my zk2/ uni) but no pin to lose, no removal for drt, no concerns about rw engaging and sticking out infront of you. HH generallly much neater package imo tho there is more of a clutter at bridge for drt but not a big deal for me.The little 6mm e2e with the butterfly knot ( clip to my chest harness) works v well for ascent and with the rubber krab band helps keep the steel krab oriented correctly. I think those trying out srt work pos for the first time should seriously consider the HH. Ken

excuse background clutter! Tail of rope should be the other side of steel krab sorry

Just preference really plus short ascents, would grab RW to advance, found it easier to grip.

This is what I've been using with the uni ( used a black diamond belay krab with zk1)-Kong rated srewgate. It works great, been trying out hitchhiker for a couple of weeks...still undecided which best...bit more tweaking of hitch and think HH might have edge for me personally...

For longer ascents-Croll with footloop as upper ascender.Pantin. RW clipped onto petzl voltage chest harness via DMM thimble. Old photo, now have SJ mods, considering stiffer tether.

Having reviewed this there were other factors involved in Carey's incident, he's got it all on utube . My mistake. Apologies. As per recent RW safety vid there are a number of factors to be taken into account then using the RW, tether length, rope diameter etc AND in the case of the SJ your using a tool not strictly designed for this purpose ie SRT. As per the SJ manual it is a ddrt tool. I would recommend those unfamiliar with the RW use it also in the method for which it was designed initially ie with a hitch (this is especially the case if they are also unfamiliar with the SJ) before, if they wish, trying the two in conjunction. Saying all that I find the ability of the SJ to consistently grab the rope (provided you don't hold back your weight!) especially in varying conditions a distinct advantage imo. Although I've found for me an 11mm static to be a preferred choice of working rope, in many instances, as I'm sure most of you are aware this in itself adds another potentially dangerous variable. Take care. Ken

from memory too short a tether length can make advancing more difficult and can possibly lead to descending issues, RW not getting chance to engage properly as you descend so can just plummet! Think something like this may have happened to Carey Gibson...maybe he posted on treebuzz, could be wrong..just make sure wrench engages before descending(as I'm sure you know).

Set-up 1- Exactly the same set-up as Joe Harris but instead of attaching the spliced rope end to the Krab (he has attached to a cutaway which runs through the velcro and is girthed onto the SJ krab (connecting to bridge))for ddrt you just attach the RW with it's cutaway. Set-up 2 - RW tether with thimble (optional) girthed to SJ krab and running through the velcro, so Ian if I understand you right- Yes to the above! Tether length should be such that the RW can be vertical just above SJ, so when RW horizontal the distance between the SJ and RW is roughly the length of the wrench-if that makes any:001_smile: sense! Ken

Sorry I'm a bit of luddite when it comes to computers! Hence my long painful descriptions but I will try in the next few days to put on photos of both setups. I was just reading the Treetools blog which seemed to indicate the SJRW setup didn't really work!! Don't understand the problems they're having?? Ken

I don't own a LJ so can't comment too much on that. But I was under the impression that a greater deal of control was provided by the SJ with it's breaking block than the earlier Lj which was a bit more tug the toggle and go! I've been using the RW daily since it was released (also owned a unicender for about 4 yrs) and have so far found ,for me, the best set up working SRT set-up is the SJ with the RW. There are definitely improvements still to be made for working SRT (the new ART mods that joe harris has spoken off will go some way to help this SJ set up and there are definitely some issues with the unicender that if resolved would also make it a better package). I've tried both tachyon and 11mm static (Yale Kernmaster) with the SJ/RW and find the static (though can be difficult to grip without 'sticky' gloves) the best - it runs much sweeter through the SJ and I prefer as little bounce as possible. I chose Kernmaster because of it's (apparent) energy absorbing capabilities. Initially I just attached the RW with a cutaway strop to the SJ set up ala Joe Harris ( a cutaway through the velcro and the krab attached to that). This has worked great and it was easy just to detach the RW to revert back to ddrt. As I find myself rarely reverting back to ddrt these days and to encourage the SJ to self tend I've just changed that setup to a simple tether (around the krab attaching to my swivel on my bridge and through the velcro then tethered to the RW) with a DMM thimble. The tether is shorter than the previous setup so the RW engages that bit more quickly than previously and the overall package is a little neater. You can still fairly easily remove the RW from the tether and attach your rope end to the thimble for ddrt if you wish. I've the Petzl voltige chest harness ( on it's way)- the idea being it's a little easer than the whole lanyard over the shoulder rigmaroll and attached to the RW thimble (and on 11mm line) this provides an optimal situation for the SJ to self tend.