What is your gear grudge?

Originally posted by SRT-Tech
I demand bombproof robust gear. . .

I myself, (and probably most of us here), use a combination of REC and industrial gear. REC gear is as durable as it has to be to make its safety spec, but no over-kill.

Building REC gear bomb proof would make it heavy and expensive. For our gentle craft, that would be unnecessary.

I can see that SRT-Tech has a passion for heavy duty MIL_Spec and beyond. I can appreciate that! If I ever get trapped or injured on a transmission tower, I want to get rescued by a technician that likes “bomb-proof” climbing gear.

An opinion from the bowels of the aging industrial infrastructure of the Northeast.
-Ej-

^ i like dual purpose gear. Go from a solitary climb to blcoking down a storm damaged tree, to picking off a scared buddy who cant climb further.

its a longevity issue too....i have had harnesses (not just tree) with webbing loops for Tips, and they wear rather quickly i find. I much prefer robust D's for TIP on the saddle. Its the little things like that that i'mm refering too.

SRT-Tech. you say, “In my view there is NO PLACE for plastic components in the rope community.” You do know, of course, that there are some extremely durable plastics? Can't you name even one industrial-quality device that has a plastic part?

You say, “I find recreational gear to be low quality . . . .” Rather than that generalization, could you be more specific, telling us exactly what it is that is “low quality” about, say, New Tribe saddles?

Thanks.

Rebuttal:

- I have YET to see one plastic part (ie carabiner gate components, plastic sheave pulleys with metal sideplates, ascender components) last under normal usage, let alone work usage. (and for the record i am not abusinve with my gear, i baby my gear and I still have had things break.)

- New Tribe saddles. Cannot comment, i dont own one. nor have i had the opportunity to field test one. sorry. I will comment that i HAVE had other harnesses/saddles for on rope use (variety of fields) and i have have had many fail at the webbing TIP's. Metal TIP's are simply better in every aspect. No fraying, no fuzzed webbing from carabiner movement, no wear thru. All my harness TIP's are medium metal side D's, load rated at 5000lbs MBS, (tested to 9,000lbs break).

QOUTE "Can't you name even one industrial-quality device that has a plastic part? "

No i cannot, all my industrial rated gear is steel.

this is a pic of exactly Why plastic should'nt be used in our gear: (with thanks to treeBuzz for the link the ot the image:)



^ is that something you would trust your life with? not me. Granted the gate is still closed, but why take that chance. That biner had a week of climbing use on it.

another reason plastic hasno place in our gear:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07010.html

do you want your carabiner to accidently open while your hanging form it? i dont. My steel biners, heck even my almninum gate biners dont fail like that. PLASTIC wears out, you cannot deny that! grit, sand, bark dust is ABRASIVE. it wears plastic out. A tiny tiny bit of wear can be enough to loosen up a component, leading to a failure. Plastic has no business on any form of life support. (yea yea excluding our ropes....lol)