spider jack

[will]

Iv been using a spiderjack for 6 months or so, and loving it, but the velcro attachment on the side is always pulling out. I was thinking of replacing it with a leather strap and press stud. your thoughts?

 

[gf beranek]

Yeah, Will

Keep the velcro strap and throw the Spider Jack away.

Opinion from an old school friction hitch user.

 

[MasterBlaster]

LOL!

 

[SkwerI]

What's a spider jack? From Jerry's comment I assume it's a variation on the LockJack?

I had one of those once, used it for a few months and went back to a VT hitch. The LockJack was scary in that it would release every time the rope went a little slack (pulling yourself up or stepping up on a limb). Every time you took some of your weight off your rope, you had to grab hold of the LockJack before leaning back into your rope. It slowed my climbing down a lot and reduced my trust in my lifeline. With the VT hitch, I can fall into my rope at any time under any circumstance and know that it will ALWAYS catch me. It allows me a lot more freedom to do whatever I want in a tree while knowing that my lifeline will never slip.

 

[Frans]

What Skwerl said.

But I got pretty good with feathering the device. It took alot of training tho and not really worth it.
By the time I got good, I had to buy more clutches for the thing.

The ART device that I really like is the Positioner. I use them on my flip lines. Some people use a Gibbs, but the positioner is smaller and works for me better than a VT because it works even with a pitchy flip line.

 

[NickfromWI]

Don't you have to thread the spiderjack from the end? This is what I heard and if it is true, I can't believe it.

love
nick

 

[Koa Man]

Plus those devices are expensive as hell and bulky looking (in the pictures at least).

 

[rumination]

I've never played with a lockjack/spiderjack, but I have seen the positioner and it's fairly compact and seems to work really smoothly.

 

[Bounce]

Don't you have to thread the spiderjack from the end? This is what I heard and if it is true, I can't believe it.

As far as I can tell, this really is true Nick. I've played around with both the Spiderjack and the Lockjack on a line we've got suspended from an i-beam in Wesspur's warehouse, and for the life of me can't figure out how to attach the Spiderjack midline. I was hoping it was just me, but after talking with several other people, I think it's true. It is definitely a major limitation. However, I will say that the Spiderjack allows better control over your rate of descent than the Lockjack. A lot of people complain that the Lockjack has only 2 speeds: stop and pdq (pretty damn quick). While you can develop better control with practice, the Spiderjack doesn't have that problem at all.

 

[top hopper]

The spiderjack cannot be installed midline.

 

[will]

Don't you have to thread the spiderjack from the end? This is what I heard and if it is true, I can't believe it.

love
nick

You do have to thread the spiderjack from the end and it wont take a splice.so one end only.

Plus those devices are expensive as hell and bulky looking (in the pictures at least).

your right on the price but the spider is smaller than a v tress.

Yeah, Will

Keep the velcro strap and throw the Spider Jack away.

Opinion from an old school friction hitch user.

no school like the old school, i can respect that.