best carabiner action!

[Mesquite]

i just got a rock exotica pirate and it has the down twist and open and i got to say that it is a 100% more natural of a motion. sooo much better than the up move first. so if your in the market for some beaner or the normal beaners have just felt awkward than the rock exotica beaners are the answer! not all of the beaners they make have the first move as down anymore so when you buy them make sure they go down first if thats what your in to. also it is very nice quality, i would compair quality to dmm

 

[lxskllr]

I'm a fan. All my lockers are RE. Not sure the direction would make a difference to me, but I like keeping everything the same.

 

[Mesquite]

Its always felt a bit awkward opening up the caribbeaners that you have to push up first especially one handed. I've been getting better, more fluid especially since i got some dmm beaners. But since i got the RE ones it feels so natural. It really makes things nice, helpful and convenient when you have one arm busy and the other one you have to secure the carabiner with, like tying and attaching a hitchcord. Makes the world of difference to me.

 

[Jonny]

I love the Rock Exotica action. I wish they would make some compact carabiners like the DMM PerfectO and the ISC MightyMouse.
I think I’ve been very happy with every piece of gear I’ve ever bought from Rock Exotica, they really put a lot of thought into their products.

 

[biggun]

Not for me.

After 20 years using an action like dmm or petzl, I’m all thumbs when I try and use RE.

 

[lxskllr]

That's why I stick with RE. It was my first autolock, and I'm used to the way it works. They're also flawless in every other respect, so switching would only bring downsides.

 

[ruel]

Lol, this ol chestnut of a debate. I can't stand the rock exotica mechanism myself, but there's nothing wrong with em

 

[Burnham]

I'm a big fan of the RE mechanism. Omega Pacific uses the same, and they are a decent biner, but not quite as well made as the RE.

 

[Jonny]

I think Omega Pacific is done making stuff now, closed up shop around 2 years ago. You can still find new stuff in stock at a lot of shops, but once it’s all gone, that’s it.

Still some great biners available from Italy, UK, France, and other parts of Europe, but was sad to hear it, not many US carabiner manufacturers anymore. I think any CMI carabiners we saw were being made by OP.

 

[Burnham]

Thanks, Jonny.

 

[Burnham]

Old thread, some of the same points made, and some good discussion about snaphooks, too.

Best Biner For One Handed Opening | The Tree House (masterblasterhome.com)

 

[lxskllr]

Thinking about, it seems like RE would be easier to open one handed since you can wedge it into your palm, and then rotate and pull down. That's how I do it anyway. I do have one autolock that works the typical way. I forgot about it. It's a steel biner that clips the shoulder straps to the base on my fall arrest harness. I screwup almost every time I go to use it cause it works backward, but it's something that gets operated twice when you put the harness on, so not a lot of data to go by.

 

[Jonny]

Rock Exotica makes their 3 common climbing biners (oval, D, and HMS) in “ uplock” function too, if anyone prefers the more common push-up type but wants to use RE biners.

The pull down type messed me up the first time I tried it as a lanyard termination. Toss your lanyard around the tree and the biner termination is kinda upside down, so I prefer the push-up and twist biners for that. Actually I prefer an aluminum snap, ISC makes a beautiful one, but they don’t fit the holes in my Rook if I’m getting weird up there.

 

[Jonny]

Gates are different on the uplocks, makes it easy to tell them apart.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I am used to the push down to open crabs since they are what I started with. I use the RE Pirate on my D ring connection since it makes me think to open. My Oracas I use on my FC/FS once Dave turned me onto them. And you can lock open to slip your climb line into as a redirect. I do not recommend the Orca for beginners.

 

[TINYHULK]

I love the RE’s but I find a traditional is easier on my hitch climber and ends of lanyards. I use the RE’s for pretty much everything else. So easy to use one handed like lxskllr mentioned. I have hands that benefited me in automotive so large carabiners are a pain having to push/pull away from an attachment point. I will say I absolutely love my petzl OK black carabiners. Have them for my hitch climber and they are amazing

 

[Treeaddict]

Maybe it’s just me but I couldn’t always tell at a glance which side was the hinge and which side opened. Put tape around the open gate side on all my biners. I think having one style would help but that ship has sailed. I do find the Petzl Amd is the easiest to open (one on the right) but wonder if the push button may prove to be an issue over time.

 

[Burnham]

That button does not play well with pitch.

 

[Mesquite]

So what's the deal with the beanrs that have an ansi rated gate? In theory are we supposed to use them on all life support attachments?

 

[Mesquite]

hey jonny, do you have a isc mighty mouse? i have been eyeing one everytime i look at beanrs.

i wish RE made orcas with the first move down, instead of up first.

anyone have a dmm rhino with a green gate? can you confirm the gate action? its a four action, twist, up, twist, push? they make it so you can do it the way i just explained or if you can get fancy with it, its a twists with a slight upward angle you can make it in two move, a twistUPtwist with a pull and your there. it must be a Wales thing because the few beanrs i have all have to go a hard up or down before they go any where else

 

[Mesquite]

I just got my new FUNKY Monkey Beaver saddle and while I was setting it up all my beanrs where in my truck and I didn't feel like going and getting them, and that's when it struck me to attach my friction hitch with a shackle. The one I currently have on there is alot shorter than a beanr. Lanyards when used with a climb line are not life support right? It says 1500 wll and if that was by a 5 to 1 it would be 7500 and then would be 750lbs for a 10to1. So technically it could be life support. Am I right by that train of thought and math? Besides all that justification and before I did it. I trusted it I mean 5/16 steel is pretty strong especially if it's only holding 50 to 250 lbs depending on how it's set up.

Have you used or done anything like this?

 

[biggun]

No can’t say I have.

Let us know how you get on. To me it looks like it will turn into a mess.

Bina and micro pulley and your good to go.

They aren’t that heavy or bulky.

 

[Mesquite]

i actually redid how the rope was ran though the shackle now the shackle acts like a pulley too. it was a little trick i picked up from NickfromWI. you can do this trick with a beanr or the shackle and in the photo i used a quickie cus my pin for my shackle is drying, i put a coat of liquid tape on it because the only thing i could think of that would happen was that maybe there would be accelerated wear between a steel shackle and the aluminum Dz.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

The rope going through the biner as a simple tending device works, but it's far from optimal. I tried it for the less bulkiness on the bridge. It was a pain because of the friction rope-biner and rope-prussik's eyes. If you tend the slack with a Pantin, you can go with it, just a stronger push. But when you have to tend the slack by hand, like for the return from a limb walk or changing the setting during the climb, you really feel like fighting it. A small pulley is far better.
With a shackle and its rough surface, it would be even worse.

Don't expect the liquid tape lasts long, between the friction from the rope and the high pressure point with the ring. And be prepared to see your ring's coating dammaged by the contact of the shackle, by the pin, but by the sides too.

With the shackle, be careful to not put it in a unscrewing potential situation.
To get a mounting shorter than with a biner, I used a screw link, the triangular version, as a central point on a previous saddle. To replace the biner on the HitchHiker, I took a bit bigger one. The surface is smooth, rope/web sling friendly, not much to catch by everything on the side (unlike the shackle), no risk to unscrew it by the rope's friction, rated WLL 2500lbs for a tad less than 1/2" (steel diameter), ...

 

[ruel]

Lanyards should be considered life support 100%