pulley/rack

[surveyor]

Hello all, first post here. I am not a climber, my profession is a registered Land Surveyor here in NC, but I love making various climbing gear and have also made a device called a Bulldog OAR (see youtube). I had this pulley rack at the Charlotte competition, and Paul was kind enough to give it a go low and slow. I am excited about Paul's Hitch Hiker device also. The pulley rack I brought to the comp. was a bit longer than the one pictured here. I find that this more compact length works well also, on a single or doubled line.. You can find a video of the longer pulley/rack in action, made by an arborist online friend (Thanks Tony), on youtube entitled "pulley-rack review".

Gordon Svedberg

 

[MasterBlaster]

Welcome to the TreeHouse, Gordon. Interesting set-up!

 

[SkwerI]

Welcome, Gordon. I'm Brian. A really cool idea you have there.

 

[emr]

Welcome Gordon. I saw that Casey S. from here in WI had one of those. Looks pretty sweet. Glad you started posting here.

 

[Old Monkey]

Very interesting. This is a great time in history to be tree climber, stuff is changing so fast. The spirit of invention is alive and well in the tree climber community.

 

[surveyor]

Thanks, Yes Casey has another device called the Dogbone or Dogleg. I have loaned it to him for awhile. It is based on Kevin's RW concept. It sounds like it will be traveling to Cary for awhile also. here is a picture of the first and second models.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Very cool ideas Gordon. Happy to have you in the house.. Welcome.

 

[pete mctree]

I see you are looking twixt the two designs on the market. Good for
You.Wwe often look to the radical or extreme for a solution as opposed road comfortable & functional middle ground

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Welcome, Gordon.

 

[rskybiz]

Welcome Gordon looks very functional.

 

[surveyor]

Using a Tibloc (with the teeth ground off and smooth inside!) and adding a roller chain link for the hitch attachment, I made this tiny hitch hiker. The roller link pin forces the rope to take a small bend through the Tibloc, when weighted.

 

[Burnham]

That Tibloc must get hotter than the hinges of hell on a descent of any distance, no?

 

[surveyor]

Probably so, I have not descended any long distance on it.

 

[PCTREE]

Hey Gordon, sorry I just saw this thread. I have been very preoccupied as of late. I like the shortened version of the chain device I tried out at Charlotte. I loved the reduced load on the hitch of the device but the amount of "set back" wasn't so appealing. Shortening up the chain will reduce the setback but also reduce the friction.... The life of a designer huh, always compromises to be made. Another worry for these devices is the less load on the hitch then at a point the greater the likelihood that it will not grab. Everybody wants a drag free hitch to go up but have it always grab, IMO these traights are mutually exclusive.

Thanks for coming to the house to share ideas, I rarely get to any other sites so this should be a good way for us to keep up. We are in the process of making our first production run of Hitch Hikers BTW. Busy busy....

Paul

 

[surveyor]

Looking forward to your product Paul. Maybe we could trade some gear!?? That is one of the nice features of your using a distel hitch, as there is less sitback.

Gordon

 

[Marc-Antoine]

... We are in the process of making our first production run of Hitch Hikers BTW. Busy busy....

Paul

Yes, good news.
I'll be glad to buy one.

 

[top_notch]

Me too!

Great thread, Its sweet to see all the new ideas coming to being.

Yes, good news.
I'll be glad to buy one.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I'm assuming that the tree wrench and the hitch hiker are basically competing products, and now Gordon's idea, and it is a great thing that the competing manufacturers (so to speak), are being open and positively communicating with each other (cudos to the treehouse!). Perhaps it is dumb to ask, but I will anyway. Would it be asking too much for the makers to express why they think their product is more advantageous over the other's? At this point, I would be in a debate whether to buy the wrench or the HH. The opinions of the folk or two that have tried both, their experience would be greatly valued.

 

[stig]

I hope you'll ship outside of the US, Paul.
I'd love to buy one.

 

[pigwot]

Let us know when the PreOrder form goes online.

 

[surveyor]

The Tibloc is not quite large enough, so this tends with too much friction, but this arrangement has potential. The OAR arm above the Tibloc is midline attachable, and when weighted, swings up and binds and so acts as a hitch above the Tibloc. When the OAR arm is pulled downwards the device begins to release, but shares the friction with the Tibloc. Every joint of the chain link is free to swivel and so conforms to the rope when collapsed.

 

[PCTREE]

Gordon, if you attach the biner from the belly of the tibloc side so it captures the rope I think you will find it will tend slack a lot smother when you pull the tail away from the tiblock and the rope bends around the biner . Keep up the good work.

 

[surveyor]

Paul, I did try it either way and it does tend slack either way as the Tibloc swivels up when tending slack "backwards" or through the biner like regular. I think that this configuration though will not provide quite enough friction. Perhaps if the Tibloc portion was larger and placed on a rigid spine it would work better. I have made today an all steel pulley rack, that uses no hitch cord whatsoever, which I hope to post a picture of shortly.

Gordon

 

[surveyor]

Ok here is the all steel pulley rack. The top rigid link is configured just like an arm from my OAR device. It tends slack very easily as there are rollers all along one side of the rack and OAR arm. The arm bends the rope ever so slightly when on line, so that when weighed it pivots upwards and grips on the rope. Under weight you can then pull down on the OAR arm to make it release smoothly.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

interesting design.
Haw much slack you get between the released and the tended positions ?