rope grab and prussik cord question

[woodgas631]

I've been silently lurking in the shadows of this site gleaming lots of info from here. I have to say that there is alot of smart, practical woodsmen on this board. You guys scared me into accumulating personal safety equipment. So here are a few questions from a safety hardware noob. My friend who's teaching me to climb (the safe way), has been climbing and rigging for 40 years and will eventually put me at altitude with a saw one day. So i'm looking at yales new maxi-flip sport in 1/2" x 15' in the 2009 wesspur catalog. It has a slightly smaller in diameter cable than the regular 1/2" maxi flip, so my question is rope grab compatability. I'm leaning towards the gibbs. Tried and true right? From what I understand, the better fit of the gibbs to the lanyard over say a petzl macrograb is worth the weight penalty right? The smaller micrograb just seams too recreational for real tree work in my opinion, but i've never actually used any of them so what the hell do I know. Also I just got 200' of arbormaster bluestreak, and was considering getting a long length of 5/16 bee-line to tie my own split tails and for other stuff. Do those ropes complement each other well. or is there a better choice. I know the answers are probably relative to alot of different factors. I need advice from experienced people. Sorry for the long winded noob douche ramble. Please go easy on me.

 

[BlackenedTimber]

First of all, welcome to the site.

I climb on Arbormaster, and the 5/16" Bee Line will work well for you. A fine choice in my opinion. I use Bee-line and Ice Tail for eye-to-eyes running a distel with a petzl micro pulley for slack tending. Never tied a split tail with the bee line, but my guess is it should work fine.

As for the rope grab, it sounds like you have already made a fine selection, and your reasoning is sound. I have not used the yale maxi-flip, but it looks like a good product.

I'm sure more people on AS will chime in.

Again, welcome.

T

 

[tree md]

I don't use that rope or cordage so I can't comment on that. Neither do I use the Yale Maxi-flip or Gibbs. I use the Wespur high visibility flipline with the US Standard micro-grab. I got the kit from Wespur about 3 years ago and it's still going strong. One thing to mention though is that the US Standard Micro-grab is only supposed to be used on steel core fliplines. Not sure about the Gibbs Or the Petzl but you might want to keep that in mind if you ever plan to use one on a rope lanyard. I am planning on making my next rope lanyard out out of some of my Safety Blue and using a VT for adjusting.

Welcome to AS.

 

[canopyboy]

First, welcome.

Sorry for the long winded noob douche ramble. Please go easy on me.

Second, don't let the guys on this site scare ya too much. You asked a thought out question and will probably get some thought out answers.

I really like the 5/16 bee line for eye-to-eye prussiks, not sure about as a split tail though. I've only really seen split tail set-ups with larger diameters. I can't tell you why though, but I'm sure someone here can. My preference there (you're using Blake's Hitch?) is Velocity. But it's just that - a preference.

As for the fliplines, I have Wesspur's 1/2" High Visibility Steel Core Flipline Kit. I like it just fine. The Maxi-flip sport looks good to me and I wouldn't have any problem with the Petzl on it. But I would talk to the guys at Wesspur and ask their opinion on both compatibility and durability. They're putting these things together, and they understand them better than a lot of people using them. And they're quite a pleasant, helpful bunch.

 

[tree md]

I'm also starting to hear a little buzz about this Micro-grab as well. The verdict is still out on it but it looks similar to the Petzl rope grab.

http://www.buckinghammfg.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=2417

 

[woodgas631]

thanks for the warm welcome all. i wish i could have replied sooner, but i've been real busy trying to keep my nose above the water line. all the equipment works great together. im all smiles. the gibbs feels really secure on the sport wirecore. no unintended consequences with my switch up that i can tell. doesnt budge when i shock my weight on it or slip at all. it feels just as good as my friends setup which is the same as yours tree md. canopy boy your absolutely right about the wesspur folks knowing far better about compatability and such. i had no intentions of second guessing them and there decision to put that kit together. i just like the way the gibbs was made out of stainless. i did have a lump in my throught thinking it would flatten the lanyard too much and put the carabiner termination too far over or something like when loaded, but the geometry looks good ( right around 90 degrees) with plenty of cam to spare. my only red mark with it is when "they" take it out of the punch press, no one bothered to clean the slight bur on the leading edge right where the rope would naturally wanna rub back and forth across and cut the jacket. so i massaged it with some fine radial and flat machinist files and emery paper, cleaned and reassembled and now i thinks is all nicey nice. maybe its really not a big deal in reality, but steel is my medium and that s*** just bothers me when i see it. as for the bee line... i tied a 30'' eye to eye with double fishermans knot, wraped up a v.t., tend with a micro pulley, and its kind of nice. it holds well and doesnt bind at all. seems to make it possible to run up the rope faster since its kind of low and far away from my hands. i pull slack a little with my feet some until i get rope weight below me then it tends itself good. mostly i just clove hitch the rope to a william or am'd double locker and blake's hitch it. simple. i dont even repel on it. it kind of just backs up my fist as i lower myself arms length at a time. so i guess i just wasted money on the pirana cause i dont even use it, but i guess its nice knowing its at the bottom of my bag if i need it some day. im sure all you surgeons have a layer of aluminum at the bottom of your bags too though. ohhh yeah i almost forgot blackendtimber.................that 2'' amsteel blue sling you made up for pullin trucks up the mountain with your cat is sick............. the wwl is amazing for a 40 lb sling. if only you saw the late night infomercial for mighty putty where billy mays pulls an 80,000 lb truck with it. you could have saved a couple g's and bought 2 or 3 jars of that instead. knuk knuk knuk knuk. anyway i hope its holding up good for you and your cuttin trees again. Thanks again everyone. be safe.