Schwabisch vs. Valdetain vs. Distel

slingshot wrote:

OK, I've lurked about, but now I just want to thank the members of this forum for the wealth of information they so readily supply....

.....Gone is my Blakes. I'm now using an XT hitch and foot ascender. What a pleasureable difference! I also ditched my old flipline in favor of a 20' auxilliary climbing line that also uses an XT hitch.

Good to hear the XT is working well for you!

I may have mentioned this before, if not... I tie the XT 4 coils down, cross one leg over the other then braid twicebelow the coil. It seems to work best when the eyes just make it back around the rope after the second braid. On Tachyon my split tail is 28" eye-2-eye.
-Andrew

gerhard wrote:

Hi,

I climbed for years with distel. I like the distel because you could make this knot very short. But sometimes when i climbed with heavy chainsaws and much of gear and an older knot, the distel could be a little bit thight. At the moment I use a NE Tachyon, HiVee, XTC for DRT and the Samson Tenex and NE Ocean Polyester as splittail. But be careful with the Tenex, it is melting very fast. But I like Tenex because it is very easy to make spliced eyes. Ocean Polyester has a very long lifetime, but it is difficulter to splice it.

If the distel wouldn't have the problem with heavy loads I would climb the distel. My mind it is safer like the VT. The problem with the VT is, he doesn't close everytime if the knot is not perfect made!

Rec treeclimbing is no competition, so wy should we use the VT?

Regards
Gerhard


(sorry for my english I'm Austrian)

Welcome Gerhard! Check out the XT,it has the best qualities of the VT (easy to tie, tends well) but grabs more reliably.
-Andrew

moss wrote:

Welcome Gerhard! Check out the XT,it has the best qualities of the VT (easy to tie, tends well) but grabs more reliably.
-Andrew

Hi Moss,

Thank you for the tip with the XT, I will try this knot with diffrent ropes, and diffrent Cordage.
I'll try to wrote down my expiriences with the XT and then we can talk about it.

-Gerhard

Hi Moss,

Here is my VT configuration. I like the Tenex because it is very soft, so the VT close if it should. But the lifetime is very short because if you climb faster it is melting.

Here are some pictures:


This is an one week old Tenex I climbed, so today I made a new cord. (The splices are Brummelsplices)

This is the same cord with distel.

When I began treeclimbing i climbed with blakes hitch.
After blakes I tried to use VT, I didn't like the VT at this moment because I had not enough experience with short hitch systems. So a friend told me I should use the distel. So I got expirience with short hitch climbing systems. The next step was the VT. Now I like the VT, but one cm in diffrent length makes a total diffrent VT, also how long are the splices, because the splice make a stiffer part in the rope, thats wy I like the hitch climber, the splice ends after the plate of the hitch climber and is not in the knot on the rope. So it is possible to build a very short VT or distel.

gerhard wrote:

moss wrote:

Welcome Gerhard! Check out the XT,it has the best qualities of the VT (easy to tie, tends well) but grabs more reliably.
-Andrew

Hi Moss,

Thank you for the tip with the XT, I will try this knot with diffrent ropes, and diffrent Cordage.
I'll try to wrote down my expiriences with the XT and then we can talk about it.

-Gerhard

Hi Moss,

I tried the XT, and I like this hitch. Good to climb with OP.

gerhard wrote:

I tried the XT, and I like this hitch. Good to climb with OP.

If you tie it with a 4 wrap then braid I think you'll have a more compact hitch vertically, glad you like it.

I'll have to try the OP cord.
-AJ

moss wrote:

gerhard wrote:

I tried the XT, and I like this hitch. Good to climb with OP.

If you tie it with a 4 wrap then braid I think you'll have a more compact hitch vertically, glad you like it.

I'll have to try the OP cord.
-AJ

I know what you mean, but I don't like too short double braid splices.
So the splices ends where the twist of the XT is. It is very stiff through this construction and it keeps the wraps in position. I tried diffrent cordlenghts from 70mm to 90mm with 82mm it works great for me. If i make more wraps the rope isn't running as smooth through the hitch. I also tried it with the tenex tec, but it didn't work as good as the OP. Also Sirius worked great.

Perhaps I'll make a clip next days.

Regards Gerhard

gerhard wrote:I know what you mean, but I don't like too short double braid splices.
So the splices ends where the twist of the XT is. It is very stiff through this construction and it keeps the wraps in position. I tried diffrent cordlenghts from 70mm to 90mm with 82mm it works great for me. If i make more wraps the rope isn't running as smooth through the hitch. I also tried it with the tenex tec, but it didn't work as good as the OP. Also Sirius worked great.[/quote]

Ok, know what you mean, I tie double overhand noose knots for the eyes so the cord is supple all the way to the eye, forgot about the problem with the bury stiffening the cord.
-AJ

moss wrote:

Ok, know what you mean, I tie double overhand noose knots for the eyes so the cord is supple all the way to the eye, forgot about the problem with the bury stiffening the cord.
-AJ

The problem with the overhand noose knots is that they are infront of the middle hole of the puley. but the stiffing is no problem, it's good in this combination. The XT is sliding up without a change in his length. So I don't loose force.