Large Petzl Swivel

If you haven't guessed by now, I got half my Christmas gifts early, and it included some great stuff

The large Petzl swivel is a very smooth gliding heavy duty handful of a swivel. It holds three carabiners easily, but if you have two in it, you can only slide the gate of a loose one through the opening if you take your weight off of the working carabiner.

It can spin fast! But I didn't realize until too late that the rope tail hanging down would still get wrapped up around me when I spin if I don't find a way to secure it out of the way. This almost caused the rope to wrap around my ART Positioner and might have sent me two feet to the ground at that moment

Later I secured myself under a branch with a couple webbing slings so that there was nothing in the way and did some crazy spinning. The webbing loops I guess (slings are like eye to eye's and loop runners are full loops???) made it so that nothing was in the way to get tangled up. Even spinning upside down was entertaining for quite some time.

After I got that out of my system and started actually climbing again some other things popped up.

1 - I had to tie my blake's hitch in a different spot on the split tail because the swivel added a couple inches of height to my system.

2 - The swivel is really smooth and low friction. I thought that a carabiner in the pear link was a pretty loose connection, but it holds its position with a fair amount of force. Having the swivel there made every little motion feel quite a bit more free. This was nerve racking at first, but then I realized that being comfortable with that freedom in my climbing system makes me generally more comfortable moving around in general. I've always known that I'm over nervous most of the time in the tree, I'm gonna have to loosen up a bit to take this skill to the level I want to. And I think free feeling gear like this swivel help with that.

3 - Since I'm now mostly clipping everything into the swivel, I wouldn't mind it if I didn't have the pear link on my Tengu. The smaller delta would actually hold the swivel lower, and more securely (so it doesn't flop around as much) I do however still clip a lot of stuff into the pear link just because it's larger and easier to get to. And as long as it's just a quick temporary tie in.

4 - The swivel doesn't allow the crazy free spinning shenanigans that I had pictured in my mind. This is simply because I had failed to realize that the tail hanging below me, and the rest of the ropes and what not around me doesn't allow for me to spin around like a giddy fool because it's just going to tangle up. So the giddy foolishness has to be more planned out . If the swivel was at the TIP holding the whole climbing system then more would be possible, I'll probably set this up sometime when I'm going to be in the tree for a long time, it would probably be nice in canopy camping applications. For now though, it's really nice just having the freedom of movement that it affords. (again, I never knew that the carabiner on pear link connection even had the small amount of restriction to movement that they do. Especially if there are more than one at a time.)

5 - I'd like to wrap it in fabric tape or something to quiet it down. I climb in a Tengu partially because it was designed to be a very quiet saddle.
(Tengu and I have quite a bit in common in our outdoor backgrounds, and I am ridiculously happy that he was there to design a saddle that was perfect for me. Thank you Tim Kovar!)
So having an aluminum swivel connected to a steel pear link and an aluminum carabiner makes a lot of clanking, especially when hiking in the saddle since I am permanently leaving the swivel on the pear link.

6 - It can be used as a rigging plate of sorts. Things can be clipped into the bottom opening of the swivel along with the pear link. The stuff here won't swivel, but if there's a complicated scenario of ropes and carabiners coming from all angles, it's nice to just separate things sometimes. And with just a swivel on the pear there are four divisions you can use. Top swivel & bottom swivel opening, pear to the left & pear to the right of the swivel.

I think that's everything for now on this one

Carl

I don't want to spin. Do they sell the opposite product? How about a large belt-mounted gyroscope?

The swivel excels in a DRT traverse or other situations when you're tied in twice. You can pivot under the swivel to change your orientation . Another common use for the swivel is to attach a Grigri for SRT descent, it makes for a fair connection. Without a swivel the Grigri can get a little weird in it's position. I'd keep the pear with your swivel, it's always nice to have extra room, it's especially useful for SRT technique say a Texas rig where you're going to have a tether from your upper and lower ascender on your screwlink, it gets crowded with a standard delta. I've found that the noisiest parts of my Tengu harness are the metal leg strap buckles. They are very noisy, I taped up one side as a test and it quieted it down some but it's not as smooth opening or closing the buckle with the tape on it. I wonder if those buckles could be made from carbon fiber, expensive but would be much quieter
-moss

Actually, in a lot of free hanging situations where naturaly induced spinning is annoying, I've found that I spin less with the swivel because the rope tension above me doesn't transfer into my harness. Overall I'd say it allows greater control. But like lots of things, greater control means more stuff to pay attention to, even if it is just a little bit in the back of my head

Carl

I think my leg straps must fit a little tighter then, because I've never heard a clank out of them. I did however extend my waist strap size with two screwlynx So that alone is two metal on metal contact points, and the pear hangs limp when I am walking around in the saddle. Having the swivel banging around down there just added to the clatter. I'd like to find some small diameter tubular webbing to cut a section off of to wrap the extender links with.

Carl

Culinarytracker wrote:

I think my leg straps must fit a little tighter then, because I've never heard a clank out of them. I did however extend my waist strap size with two screwlynx So that alone is two metal on metal contact points, and the pear hangs limp when I am walking around in the saddle. Having the swivel banging around down there just added to the clatter. I'd like to find some small diameter tubular webbing to cut a section off of to wrap the extender links with.

Carl

I wonder if your harness fit is on the small side, leg strap fit should be generous and your addition of screwlinks to extend the waist loops points in that direction.

Here's how I prevent my pear from flopping around and rotating. I've put a webbing strap and buckle through the legstrap D and up through the waist belt loops. Configured this way the pear stands up and is easier to clip into with multiple biners etc.





Photos on flickr

-moss

yes, my saddle is a little on the small side. I now know that I should have ordered a medium, but I thought that snug was better (only used rock harnesses before) and I got in an excited hurry and ordered it online very quickly after the money was finally allotted instead of calling and asking New Tribe like I knew I should, and planned on doing. I am pretty happy with the extensions though.(your recommendation moss).

The leg straps are just loose enough that when I stand up on a branch and take the weight off the saddle, I can wiggle a little and they will slide down my legs. Sometimes I have to pull them down a little. As far as I know, they don't bother me, but I didn't think the smaller waist strap did either until I tried extending it.

Also, I ordered my saddle by my usual measurements, not the \"over the clothes\" measurement.

Lesson learned. Hopefully someone else can learn from it too.

I don't think mine fits loose enough to bind the legstrap D and the waist loops. But I'll give it a look see.

Carl

Culinarytracker wrote:

I don't think mine fits loose enough to bind the legstrap D and the waist loops. But I'll give it a look see.

When I'm fitting saddles on climbers during facilitated climbs that's the first thing I check: I put the belt around their waist just above their hips, if the base of the waist belt loops can't be brought together so the loops project out side-by-side, the harness is too small. Going a little too big is no problem, too small is.

Many times when I put NT harnesses on people they think the leg straps are too loose, I explain to them that it's not a rock harness or a traditional arborist harness design, different paradigm, and very comfortable because of the leg strap design. Rock climbers are quick to appreciate the comfort after the pain they've suffered in their harnesses when they had to do long hang time.

I remember that you extended your waist belt loops. The good news is that if you get around to buying a size medium harness you'll have an excellent guest harness. Never can have too many harnesses on hand. I don't think you'd have any problem selling your current harness either if you went that route.
-moss

My own harness is fairly close fitting, if money were no object I'd have a size larger winter harness so I could fit over bulky layers if needed. So far it's not needed but it's a tight squeeze getting into it because I always leave my pear screwlink in place (as in the photo). Once it's over my hips plus winter layers it fits fine.
-moss

My pear HAS to be able to turn sideways in order for me to slide it on over any amount of clothes. Moving it back to an upright position is like locking the waist strap on.

Before the extensions though, I had to open the pear up every time on and off.

Carl

Culinarytracker wrote:

My pear HAS to be able to turn sideways in order for me to slide it on over any amount of clothes. Moving it back to an upright position is like locking the waist strap on.

Before the extensions though, I had to open the pear up every time on and off.

Carl

That is snug! I predict you will be very happy when you find your way into a size medium.
-moss

I can't help but think that having it be that much more loose fitting would make it less of a joy to hike and drive a car and such while wearing it.

You know, not that I would ever go into the gas station to buy milk with my Tengu on or anything.........

Carl

Culinarytracker wrote:

I can't help but think that having it be that much more loose fitting would make it less of a joy to hike and drive a car and such while wearing it.

Not at all. Works fine for driving, hiking etc. with correct fit. I squeeze through the tightest spaces in dense conifer tops with it, never a problem. Most importantly it will be more functional for your climbing with a good fit. I understand it's difficult for people to get over the idea that harness leg straps should be a snug fit. A correctly sized harness belt is a snug fit. The waist belt loops projecting out slightly in the front don't get in the way of anything and they give you more mobility for side-to-side movement. Not to mention that's how the harness is designed to fit and function best.
-moss

I'm sold, a size medium is high up on my next wish list.

FYI, Carl,

I wear size 34 pants (I'm really like a 32.5 or 33 but I like a looser fit) My size medium Tengu fits me just right. If I turn the pear sideways, it slips up over my hips with no problem.