Normal?

Treeaddict

Treehouser
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I’ve recently switched over from mrt with hitch climber to srt with Unicender. Use 150’ of Blue Moon. Noticed a little “rope dust” on the Unicender (speed of descent correlates to the amount of dust it seems). This is normal? Attached pics of the rope dust.

Another thing noticed is rope feels a little flat every inch or 2. Can only be felt but not seen. Normal?

Does srt wear ropes and hitches faster due to the full loading? I’m under 180lbs fully equipped.
 

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I suspect it’s just your rope breaking in and getting fuzzy. You should see performance get a little smoother.
And yes SRT will wear ropes and indeed the actual device faster, but more so if you’re bombing down fast and generating some heat. That’s kind of a financial advantage of the Wrench and HitchHiker, hitch cord is pretty cheap to replace, if you’re not paying someone to put sewn or spliced eyes on it.

Unicenders and other mechanicals definitely wear out, but can get more life by moving to fatter ropes when they start slipping.
 
Yeah rope fuzz Is normal on the mechanicals ive used.


Richard has some good Videos on unicender use on YouTube
 
At each descent, a little part of the fuzz is teared out by the friction and the fiber's bits lay near where they are generated (probably attracted by electrostatic charges) and some intact fibers break at their turn and become part of the fuzz. Heavier load (srt) and /or higher speed = heavier friction =, more fibrous dust.
That's the outside wear. But the inside wears out too by stretching/relaxing/malaxing the fibers. Some fine dust comes out of the fibers and thoses becomes more densily packed, but not necessarely with the same % or the same chape all along the line. That's an important down side of the mechanicals, basically pressing the rope between two jaws/surfaces.
Some rythmic nodes/bumps/twists may appear following some irregularity in the rope construction and the rope reaction. You pack the same amount of material, or almost the same, in less volume, so you have to expect some rearrangements inside. Just annoying, until it's more than that, like jerky slide or a diameter too small on one direction (oval shaped) for the ascender's rating. This doesn't help when the ascender begins to wear seriously too.
 
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Thanks guys! The Mumford add on is something I’m interested in and will pull the trigger shortly. I’ve seen someone put a wheel on the bottom of their Unicender to tend it like a hitch climber. Seems to be a great modification.

I’ll deal with the additional wear and tear rather than give up the mechanicals. I just really love the compact nature and zero sit back of the Unicender and Akimbo. Also, I don’t sew or splice at the moment. Watched a few tutorials last night on splicing just to get an idea of how it’s done and what I’m climbing on. That seems like a good skill to learn but I’m still very deficient in many skills directly associated with tree care so it’s down there on the list.
 
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