biner preference

[chicken89]

does anyone use specific biners for specific purposes? such as a certain color biner for split tail, type for lanyard, webbing, micro pulley and the such? what about ball-lock vs twist(3 motion) lock? steel vs alum? pear vs D shape? any brand preferences? lot of questions, just seeing if i was an anal climber that liked things a certain way.

 

[tophopper]

I prefer the petzl twist locks vs the balllocks because the barrel on the gate is narrower and can fit thru tighter areas, plus they are not plastic. I like the balllocks but have had many develop cracks in the barrel

 

[Tom Dunlap]

When I have to terminate more than one rope onto a biner I use ISC Gecko's. They are a bit large but the shape is really nice. ISC is now making one that's small enough to fit inside the Gecko. It still passes the 5k# rating, I'm anxious to find a US distributor.

If I don't have the Gecko's I use a Petzl Williams. My preference is for ball locks. The twisties can open too easy [for my liking] if a rope runs across the gate.

 

[Stumper]

My favorites are Omega Jake tri-acts. They work differently than other tri-acts and are more easily controlled one handed. The Petzl ball locks deserve their popularity (IMO) but I have noticed that they are either loved or despised-guys working on a lot of conifers tend to dislike them because sticky sap can foul them.

 

[Jarod]

I use a Petzl Williams for my hitch cord, and an ISC gecko for my terminal. I never really thought about it much but it makes it really easy to know which biner I'm detaching from my saddle when I want to advance my line. I also tie my cords to the small end of the biner and attach the wide end to the strap that my sliding dee's slide on. I like this system because I don't have to deal with the biner flopping around as much. At the moment I am thinking about cutting the dee off my saddle so it doesn't get in the way. Tom, do you see any problems with this modification?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Jarod,

What saddle are you climbing in? I don't know why a person has to use a sliding d instead of just clipping onto a bridge.

I've learned that it's a good idea to use the large end of biners for multi attachments.

 

[Jarod]

its just a weaver sliding d. I was asking about cutting the d off.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Shouldn't be a problem...but I'm not the manufacturer

 

[glens]

I wouldn't hesitate to remove the dee myself. I don't think you're going to get much of a blessing from Weaver even if you do ask. I was in PA last spring and while passing through Ohio on the way home I called up Weaver to see could I swing north a bit, stop by their place, and pick up a saddle. They wouldn't sell me one. The gal said it was a liability thing; that I might use it to climb a tree in my back yard or something! I finally got her supervisor on the phone and got him to tell me that in fact the reason they wouldn't sell me one was that they don't have a retail sales system in place. That's quite a different story from the "liability" issue, ain't it? Anyway, so long as you don't nick the saddle itself you should most certainly be okay.