vt and a hitch climber

[Adkpk]

Just a pic. It was my first attempt with this setup. I was mostly impressed with the touch control of the vt. real smooth. The setup was definitely a step up from the blakes. I hip thrusted up 50' the the first limb. And I must say it was a breeze. Thrust pull, thrust pull and there I was. I already have an upgrade in mind.

 

[masiman]

I don't get what the two biners hooked together are for (hooked into your tending pulley). They seem to be hooked to a backup prusic on the load leg of your rope?

Just curious. I need to get mine set up also.

 

[Tree Pig]

I don't get what the two biners hooked together are for (hooked into your tending pulley). They seem to be hooked to a backup prusic on the load leg of your rope?

Just curious. I need to get mine set up also.

The load end hitch is what advances the tending pulley, as the load end goes up the hitch raises bringing the pulley and your climbing hitch with it. Not sure why two biners though.

 

[tree md]

Yeah, that setup looks a little strange to me. But I am not climbing on a hitch climber so what do I know. Hard to keep up with all of these new fangled ways.

I have been working the past week on a VT with a regular micro pulley. Sweet knot! This set up is so slick! Tends slack like a dream! Only thing is I am having to get used to the fluency of the knot, I've got a rope burn on my neck and shoulder from leaning into my rope while going out on a limb and leaning into it while trying to stabilize for cuts. It runs a lot smoother and is more fluent than any knot I have used before and it doesn't grip as well as other knots I've used, hence the rope burn. Just takes a sec to snug it up before you put some weight on it is all. No biggie, I'm still getting used to it. I am loving it for getting around the tree and working though. So much smoother than anything I have worked off of before.

 

[tree md]

Here's how I'm running mine. Other biner is on my saddle:

 

[Tree Pig]

Here's how I'm running mine. Other biner is on my saddle:

what technique you climbing with that looks like a huge pull to take up slack and advance the not any.

 

[pdqdl]

My limited use of the VT suggests that it is great on a flipline/buckstrap/lanyard (what do we call that thing now-a-days?), but that it needs to be tied fairly short to avoid all the extra pulling to take up slack on a DRT, as mentioned by Stihl-O-Matic. (I agree!)

If you use a short tresse rope, then the darn thing is too low to your belt to climb with. The answer, in my humble opinion, is to rig another rope from your tending pulley down to your belt attachment. [As shown in the first pic starting this thread!] This keeps the VT up where you can use it, and short enough to eliminate all the extra slack in the hitch.

A popular alternative to the VT is the Distel, which behaves somewhat like the VT, but doesn't contain nearly so much slack within the hitch itself.

 

[tree md]

Yeah, I need to shorten the prussic up a bit I believe. I have only used it on three removals so far. I did hip thrust with it a little just to try it out. It was a lot smoother than the regular prussic I normally use with a regular split tail. I am going to try foot locking with it on a large removal I plan to do next week (on the bad tree) if it ever quits raining here. I'll see how it works on that. I need to do a little tweaking I believe but the knot runs like a dream when walking out on limbs.

 

[tree md]

My limited use of the VT suggests that it is great on a flipline/buckstrap/lanyard (what do we call that thing now-a-days?), but that it needs to be tied fairly short to avoid all the extra pulling to take up slack on a DRT, mentioned by Stihl-O-Matic.

If you use a short tresse, then the darn thing is too low to your belt to climb with. The answer, in my humble opinion, is to rig another rope from your tending pulley down to your belt attachement. This keeps the VT up where you can use it, and short enough to eliminate all the extra slack in the hitch.

A popular alternative to the VT is the Distel, which behaves somewhat like the VT, but doesn't contain nearly so much slack within the hitch itself.

What length prussic would you suggest for the Distel? I want to try that knot as well.

 

[tree md]

Also, thanks for the suggestion on the rope attachment for the micro pulley. that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Ghillie]

I don't get what the two biners hooked together are for (hooked into your tending pulley). They seem to be hooked to a backup prusic on the load leg of your rope?

Just curious. I need to get mine set up also.

I think he has it set up as an extended bridge. the terminal end of the line runs down through his attachment on the saddle and up to the lower biner. the third biner is for attachment of the prusik keeping the hitch climber rig from getting out of reach while hip thrusting.

 

[Ghillie]

What length prussic would you suggest for the Distel? I want to try that knot as well.

So far I have tried 30" eye to eye but I think I can go down to 26" without any problem. That' with Icetail and spliced eyes on 1/2" rope.

 

[tree md]

I think he has it set up as an extended bridge. the terminal end of the line runs down through his attachment on the saddle and up to the lower biner. the third biner is for attachment of the prusik keeping the hitch climber rig from getting out of reach while hip thrusting.

I think I saw that in the PDF link JPS put up on the hitch climber. Looks like Adkpk has been studying!

 

[Ghillie]

Here's how I'm running mine. Other biner is on my saddle:

Have you tried clipping the pulley directly to the 'biner you are tieing your hitch to, between the scaffold hitches?

 

[pdqdl]

Uhhh... That's a bit tricky.

Tie up as short a VT as you feel comfortable with. I think mine is about 30" before I tie any knots in it. I use double fisherman, looks like you do too. Rig your tending pulley, carbiners, all the other stuff, and put it where you think you would like it to be when you climb.

Measure the distance from your bridge/D rings/saddle to the botttom hardware of friction knot assembly. Make a little rope bridge that spans that distance, and you're in business.

I noticed that your VT has too many crossovers. You should have 7 loops total. (four loops on top, crossover1, then crossover on the other side of the rope, then clipped to carabiner & slack tender pulley) Given the length that you were working with, you probably needed the extra wraps to make it hold well. I'll bet you like it much better after you make it a good bit shorter with fewer, tighter wraps. I'd take that existing tress-rope you have, and see how much I could shorten it by moving one knot up the line until it acted right with only 7 loops.

The VT I use on my buckstrap is probably only 6"-8" long when loaded down with my weight, so there is not much slack to take up when I yank on the free end.

 

[tree md]

Have you tried clipping the pulley directly to the 'biner you are tieing your hitch to, between the scaffold hitches?

That's where it is clipped Ghillie...Or am I missing what your saying??? I have the pulley clipped between the two eyes on the biner.

 

[Ghillie]

That's where it is clipped Ghillie...Or am I missing what your saying??? I have the pulley clipped between the two eyes on the biner.

Try it without the boat snap.

 

[Ghillie]

Heres a pic of my lanyard with a distel. I ended up taking about 1 1/2" out of each leg of the cordage (squares on the mat are 1" for reference).

 

[pdqdl]

Another thing you might try, when you get the length all figured out: get your VT all set up, hold the pulley in between the two fisherman's knots, then pin the whole assembly with just one carabiner.

Less metal in the way, and it presses the tail of the rope into the pulley very nicely. Then roll the carabiner around so that throat opens on the downward side, and then you have only one carabiner holding the whole mess together...and it is still available for attaching to whatever you want to hang from it.

Look real close, and that is pretty close to how it is rigged in the starting photo to this thread, before you add the "hitch climber" parts.

I don't know what thread it was in, but I learned that little trick here on AS.

 

[tree md]

Uhhh... That's a bit tricky.

Tie up as short a VT as you feel comfortable with. I think mine is about 30" before I tie any knots in it. I use double fisherman, looks like you do too. Rig your tending pulley, carbiners, all the other stuff, and put it where you think you would like it to be when you climb.

Measure the distance from your bridge/D rings/saddle to the botttom hardware of friction knot assembly. Make a little rope bridge that spans that distance, and you're in business.

I noticed that your VT has too many crossovers. You should have 7 loops total. (four loops on top, crossover1, then crossover on the other side of the rope, then clipped to carabiner & slack tender pulley) Given the length that you were working with, you probably needed the extra wraps to make it hold well. I'll bet you like it much better after you make it a good bit shorter with fewer, tighter wraps. I'd take that existing tress-rope you have, and see how much I could shorten it by moving one knot up the line until it acted right with only 7 loops.

The VT I use on my buckstrap is probably only 6"-8" long when loaded down with my weight, so there is not much slack to take up when I yank on the free end.

Yeah, I did throw another braid in it while I was climbing to try to give it a little more resistance and shorten it up a little. I like my hitch to move pretty freely so I like that aspect of it but I would prefer it to grab a little quicker without having to tend it so much. I will leave it the length it is and slif the knot up as you suggested and play with it until I get it dialed in. Great advice thanks a lot! So I need to take out 1 braid and I'm good to go (as far as properly tied)?

Here is a pic of it standing on the line so you get a better idea of what I'm working with.