Anybody Want To Chime In on The Trango Cinch

I use one and like it. Simple and reliable but it works best with thin cord like 10mm. I have not found the need for a swivel.
 
Same here, used one on and off for a few years, really enjoy it. Super smooth, handles single lining of the lanyard really well. Ive used with 8mm ultra tech, 10mm oceans poly, 9mm Samson prusik, and now on 10mm beeline. Love it!

Never felt the need for a swivel, but to each his own.
 
I have one on some 10mm ArmorPrus (it likes the 10mm size) and it is quite smooth, even under load. Takes a bit to get used to how it works, as the position of the device controls it, as opposed to pulling on a cam lever. This is a lot easier to figure out from playing with it than it is to describe it. Getting used to the small diameter lanyard wasn't hard, by the end of the first day you'll only notice that's it's very light... you'll have forgotten that it handles differently than say, a 1/2" line, because it is very easy to toss it through a crotch or whip it around another stem nearby, where a heavier line would fight you.
 
I read the reviews. My only real worry is if the orientation of the device lends to any slippage under load. For instance flipping up a tall pine with no overhead tip. Is it possible to sit back and keep going. Not much on youtube. Like you said its probably easier to figure out with it in my hand. Gonna use it on tritech 10mm.
 
Steve, I use the Trango on my lanyard and once learning its idiosyncrasies have not had any problems. However, for flipping up a tall pine with no top tie in, a heavy weight flip line is a much better choice.
 
I know. That's why I have been using my steel core. The issue is my last steel core lasted 4 months before those pines ate the outer sheath. I also had one long and one short steel core, I didn't want to buy 2 more so I got one 10' steel core and the tritech to use as a primary. Just hate dragging a long heavy steel core around when I don't need it.
 
Steve Connally said:
... For instance flipping up a tall pine with no overhead tip....
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Do you have a choked climbing system around the trunk, as a second point of attachment? It can be cumbersome but it is safer and would have prevented the fatalities and injures of flip line failures.
 
I use one on the way blocking down but generally don't on the way up. It is really cumbersome. Used to set a tip on everything but not running my own show and in an effort to keep the boss off my back I take that shortcut. It's a dynamic workplace. Lol. Lame ass excuse I know and the little voice yells at me but its a get up in the tree kind of place. I may gently go back to that but it will take time.
 
Steve, are you productive when using the choked system? Listen to that voice, short cuts become SOP pretty quick and that's what leads disaster. What else will you compromise to satisfy the boss? What other risks will he take with your and the crew's lives? How about you have a chat with the people that would be most affected by your injury or death. See how they feel about the potential burden it could impose on them. The boss may be signing the check but he won't be the one to have to live with you for the rest of your enfeebled life or without you.
 
I have only used mine as a lanyard adjuster a few times, but wasn't crazy about it. I found that with a 15' 10mm OP lanyard, the tail weight would suck the snap right into the body of the cinch.
 
treehumper said:
The boss may be signing the check but he won't be the one to have to live with you for the rest of your enfeebled life or without you.
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That's a great word TH. ENFEEBLED. Charlie Rose once asked William F. Buckley how he felt at 82 years of age. He said, "Cursedly enfeebled". What a curse to have a razor sharp mind in an increasingly dull body.

Anyhoo, I've recently been interested in the Cinch as a lanyard adjuster. (Tried to trade for one on Treebay but it seems to have fallen through). I've been pretty happy with my Buckgrab adjuster, which is like the Rock Exotica adjuster since the cam/carabiner hole is turned 90*. But, like most mechanical length adjusting devices, it can't be lengthened under load.

Occurred to me recently this could be a safety issue as well as a convenience issue. Example: blocking down big wood, if a hinge failed due to a bad cut, a peel could suck me into the trunk with no escape but to cut the lanyard. Which would be, uh, non-ideal.

Side question, posed recently on Treebay by Tom I think: could Cinch be used as lowerable basal anchor in SRT? Also, what prevents the Cinch from being used as a mechanical friction hitch in SRT, similar to the RR or BDB? Is it just that it's classified as a belay device that prevents it being used as a climbing device?
 
Bucknut said:
That's a great word TH. ENFEEBLED. Charlie Rose once asked William F. Buckley how he felt at 82 years of age. He said, "Cursedly enfeebled". What a curse to have a razor sharp mind in an increasingly dull body.

Anyhoo, I've recently been interested in the Cinch as a lanyard adjuster. (Tried to trade for one on Treebay but it seems to have fallen through). I've been pretty happy with my Buckgrab adjuster, which is like the Rock Exotica adjuster since the cam/carabiner hole is turned 90*. But, like most mechanical length adjusting devices, it can't be lengthened under load.

Occurred to me recently this could be a safety issue as well as a convenience issue. Example: blocking down big wood, if a hinge failed due to a bad cut, a peel could suck me into the trunk with no escape but to cut the lanyard. Which would be, uh, non-ideal.

Side question, posed recently on Treebay by Tom I think: could Cinch be used as lowerable basal anchor in SRT? Also, what prevents the Cinch from being used as a mechanical friction hitch in SRT, similar to the RR or BDB? Is it just that it's classified as a belay device that prevents it being used as a climbing device?
Click to expand...

I dont see why you couldnt use the Cinch as a lowering device with the right diameter rope. It is basically used that way in rock climbing. I would just test it with the rope you are deciding to use fully weighted (low and slow of course) to see how it functions in lowering. When I tried putting some 11mm in it, it seems to really be pushing the limits of the rope capacity/smooth function. This was just messing around in the backyard though, I never used it in production, so hopefully someone else can chime in.

As far as a climbing device, you would be really limited in the canopy. The rope feeds through at an angle that really isn't convenient in climbing. Foot ascender is out of the question. You would basically have to use a yoyo system for ascent (unless you're into pulling yourself up on a single line with your handso_O).
 
Bucknut said:
That's a great word TH. ENFEEBLED. Charlie Rose once asked William F. Buckley how he felt at 82 years of age. He said, "Cursedly enfeebled". What a curse to have a razor sharp mind in an increasingly dull body.

Anyhoo, I've recently been interested in the Cinch as a lanyard adjuster. (Tried to trade for one on Treebay but it seems to have fallen through). I've been pretty happy with my Buckgrab adjuster, which is like the Rock Exotica adjuster since the cam/carabiner hole is turned 90*. But, like most mechanical length adjusting devices, it can't be lengthened under load.

Occurred to me recently this could be a safety issue as well as a convenience issue. Example: blocking down big wood, if a hinge failed due to a bad cut, a peel could suck me into the trunk with no escape but to cut the lanyard. Which would be, uh, non-ideal.

Side question, posed recently on Treebay by Tom I think: could Cinch be used as lowerable basal anchor in SRT? Also, what prevents the Cinch from being used as a mechanical friction hitch in SRT, similar to the RR or BDB? Is it just that it's classified as a belay device that prevents it being used as a climbing device?
Click to expand...

First, I'm not a pro arb, just a guy who has been climbing sporadically for the last couple of years when the weather suits me, to prune deadwood. My biggest project so far has been to drastically cut back two huge leaders on a monster oak tree that were threatening a friend's house. I rigged all of the bigger pieces down, with pulley and Port-a-wrap, with help on ground from the owner.

Having said all that by way of background, I think I can answer both of your questions. I did use the Trango Cinch as way to make my system lowerable, in conjunction with the Art Snake Anchor. My friend/ground man/property owner was not a climber, so I needed something straightfoward and easy to explain and demonstrate, and the Trango Cinch filled the bill. If I had owned a Petzl Rig, that might have been an even better solution, but I don't own one yet. My groundman/friend is a sharp older guy. I habitually would tie an alpine butterfly as a stopper knot below the Cinch just a bit, just in case the rope were to try and slip through the Cinch on me. My friend commented once "That stopper knot of yours never moved an inch".



As far as trying to use it for SRT, that is a fairly frustrating experience. I tried using it as such during a part of my earlier attempts at learning to climb. I trusted it to hold me with certainty as a backup to my climbing hitch. The problem for me was that it does not tend well for a long ascent, if I recall correctly. Way too much work. Now that I'm thinking about it, all of the "rope walker" systems have some kind of connection that causes the main ascender to self-tend, whether it be a Rope Wrench or a Hitch Hiker or a Bulldog Bone or whatever. I honestly cannot recall ever trying to find a way to make the Trango Cinch self-tend. Maybe if someone tried it and found a way to make it work, it would be suitable. At the time I was using it, that just never occurred to me, so I don't know if it's possible. Nowadays I always use my cinch at the base for lowering.


I use a "rope-walker" setup with a Rope Wrench on one rope and a Hitch Hiker on the second rope. I always load up my hitches while I'm still on the ground to verify that they'll hold me, before I ascend. With a "rope-walker" setup, and an over the shoulder webbing strap for self-tending, the climbing is as easy as anything I've managed to find yet.

I do also use a cammed ascender above with a four foot dyneema sling going to my side "D" biners, just for a backup. This ascender resembles what I think is called a "Gibbs" ascender, and it pushes up the rope really easily. Once I get into the crown, this ascender gets used in combination with a small pulley and a biner to create a 3 to 1 mechanical advantage for limbwalking.

That's all for now, sorry to be so long-winded.


Tim
 
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Treehumper I hear you. Its a viscous cycle. The main problem is when he gets on my tail I get very wound up and angry, loose the ability to think clearly and get pretty mad. The things that run through my head during my internal
argument with him cloud my judgment and I tend to make stupid mistakes while I'm yelling expletives in my mind. There was a time in my career that I set a tip on every. I mean every ascent. Made me very proficient with the throw bag but the reality of it is it slows production sometimes. Again, lame excuse but I'd rather just get up there when he's around than have something shitty said to me that ruins my day. Believe me, I hear you. You are rite and I am wrong. I should take the time to set a tip or get productive climbing up with a choked system. May be the happy medium for us both. The key to my situation is to work for myself with my own guys. Not gonna happen in the foreseeable future. I do appreciate your input and it isn't taken lightly. There are many things I'll stand my ground on to the point I get sent home as punishment. This just wasn't one of them. In my mind the steel core lanyard was infallible so it was a calculated risk. I was wrong based on the recent accident's. Therefore I am reevaluating my approach to ascent.
 
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