Skylotec Power Ascender

[treegongfu]

I have a skylotec Milan 2 (Same as the rollgliss 500) powered by a milwaukee cordless drill. It works great and set me back about $800 CAD including the drill and a 12 amp battery.

 

[southsoundtree]

Roll-glis 500 sitting in a hard case in my shop.


My wraptor was terrible this week.
Wanted a top-off on fuel, and a shot of grease. 4 trips on 130'- ish doug- firs, twice to strip, twice to chunk spars with a chunking saw.



I had a pull rope hanging from a spar. I tied an overhand on a bight at 6' of the ground. Clipped this and the end of my climbing rope to my saddle.


When I got to the top of the spar, I attached the Wraptor to the end of my climbing line and the overhand on a bight on the (future pull line) to lower it down, hanging it up off the ground, 10' on the opposite site of my spar from the drop zone.

As I was chunking down, I didn't need my climbing line tail to be free.

If you have a rope that's more than twice your TIP height, you can terminate it at the ground, anchor to the top of the spar, midline, and controlled speedline your power ascender out of the dropzone, lowering with the other half.

After landing the device, throw the rope clear.

Use two ropes as need be, you might have two add two extra drops of fuel for the extra rope's weight.


If you ever have a strained _______, a power ascender is great.

 

[MapleLeafRopes]

ka ching! $32,995 Can. at Maple Leaf Ropes!! You should look up the military ascender that scoots a frogman up the side of a ship on a grapple hook for serious ka ching action. I don't think it even had published pricing. Take off the 1 and the 7 and you've got a rollgliss.

Turns out it was skylotec who did the frogman action:

ActSafe TCX Seal

The ActSafe TCX SEAL rope ascender has been specifically designed with maritime interventions in mind, resulting in an innovative unit which is compact, lightweight and rated IP68 standard (dust-tight and waterproof). It comes with removable,…

www.skylotec.com

Been on the market for about 10 years I think. I first saw it when doing my first ascender. I tried to find the frogman video but no luck.

Late to the party here but Bart I'm happy to offer you a deal if you get more than one! lol

All joking aside, there is a case to be made for battery ascenders in tree work. Especially for those that focus on inspections as you can zip up and down quickly without getting fatigued. Some might say that is a pretty niche case and I don't entirely disagree. The Ronin unit is definitely an easier pill to swallow. Most customers (on the Rope access side at least) buy the Ronin, fall in love with battery ascent and then come back to consider the Skylotec unit as it generally is more cooperative if you're using it every day. The Skylotec is certainly much easier on the rope. I've actually considered trying a rental program on these, I've seen some guys in Europe try that. Maybe one day.

If you do have an interest in these devices (the Harken, Ronin, Skylotec) they are one of the main items we have available at our annual demo days (check our Instagram from October of last year to see some content on that). I have also glanced at those import Ascenders from China but to be honest there is a lot that can go wrong on these and when it comes to life safety products we avoid imports.

Like I said I know I'm late to the party but I figured I'd offer my input either way. If anyone wants to demo one of these you'll definitely want to come to our demo day in October or I always have one hanging in our shop!


- Jason

 

[Burrapeg]

I love my modded Rollgliss. I have used it dozens of times now and get great battery life with a 5ah hour battery on the big 1/2 in. DeWalt drill. Very quickly midline attachable, works with every single rope I have tried with it, even some 9mm rock climbing stuff. And with a quick turn on the keyless chuck, I again have a drill! Replacement batteries are found at any big hardware store and are usually less than $100. Very small footprint too, much smaller than most people expect, when they see it the first time. The drill itself is larger than the RollGliss. Several very complete threads on here, regarding the various useful mods a number of us did. Here is a shot of me demo'ing it at a gathering during the first year of the Great Pandemic.

 

[Burrapeg]

Here is a youTube I uploaded some years ago showing a quick demo ascent with mine, taking it on and off the rope at height, etc. I advance my BDB on top of it and use two rope bridges on my Onyx, the main one adjustable for length with the Bone and the lower fixed bridge for the RollGliss if I am using it. Adjustable rope bridge mod was a la Mumford.

 

[Vicente]

Those rollgliss set ups look pretty sweet guys, wish they were a little less proud of them.

 

[TFord]

Has anyone used a grcs for ascent, obviously in conjunction with a a separate lifeline set that your life support approved devicewould go on (in my case a rrp)? Seems like it could work well to get you up there if you had to get through a lot of tall trees in one day assuming you had the attachment for a drill.

We used to do that, but in the end it was more for the novelty. Faster just to manually ascend, most of the time. By the time you assemble all the gear ….

 

[Burrapeg]

Those rollgliss set ups look pretty sweet guys, wish they were a little less proud of them.

I see one of the RollGliss R500 units on eBay for $500. right now. Add the $199 DeWalt heavy 1/2 inch and one comes out a lot less than any of the commercial rigs.