Friction Savers....PulleySaver

Ilikestoclimb it Looks Great! Girth hitching a fig 8 on to a foot locking lanyard is brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
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Pulleysaver is fabulous. Light, works fast, minimalist design. I love it. I immediately wanted a second, longer one for wraps and equalising but the $$$ were starting to add up. Picking up on the Treemagineers design, they lead me into some ideas that I called the U-SAVER (posted on YouTube, search "U-SAVER tree"). Check it out, might be useful.

Since the posting, I've gotten a couple of eMails basically asking if I thought the U-SAVER could replacee a PulleySAVER. I specifically say in the video "No, it can't be duplicated", certainly not by me, at least. These things are in two different leagues. It's like comparing a Ferarri and a pickup truck. The PulleySAVER is fast, great design and does a few things superbly well. The pickup truck U-SAVER is clutzy by comparision but it's cheap, flexible and can do more.

Let me be clear: even with "pride of authorship", if I could only carry one (1) into the tree, I'd pick the PulleySAVER over the U-SAVER in a heartbeat.

But, if you were building your climbing kit again, you couldn't just buy a PulleySAVER even if you loved it. You still need something you can set from the ground. Most likely, that's a handful of ring-and-ring savers or maybe some kind of crotch for your access line. To my thinking, the U-SAVER idea is a potential alternative to that assortment of ring-and-ring savers.

Here's my thinking:

Start with a normal, fixed length 2-ring friction saver then

make the big ring bigger;
put the small ring on a prusik;
add a retrieval snap at the end;
and have an option to easily add/remove a climb-rated pulley.

That's it. One adjustable replaces many fixed lengths, plus you get a variety of choking options.

Glad to be here guys. NEWBIE'S first post. Scary. Easier to be 80 feet up ... !
 
welcome, old fart! Your U-Saver was a good vid. I like the name- U-Save a lot of money if you get the U-Saver instead! I agree that it is good, but not like the real thing. I've had dozens of climbers ask me to build them a pulleysaver and I just can't. Whatever is in the core of the eye is PERFECT for the job. I've seen people use tubing, steel cable, glues, wood, and more to try to mimick what the pulleysaver accomplishes. This is a perfect example of when people should just buckle down and get the real deal.

A ring-RING friction saver is such a simple basic plan that anyone can build one. It is as if the classic concept of the ring-RING is owned by the entire climbing community. We all have our own variations of it (with biners, pulleys, screw links, long, short, webbing, rope, steel, aluminum, adjustable, static, etc) but they all work basically the same.

The pulleysaver is quite unique. It takes it to the next level for sure.

Welcome to the buzz. Stick around- we all have a lot to learn, share, and teach!

love
nick
 
Glad to hear it! And I think you shoulda posted your video with your post, so here it is. For everyone else, it shows an easy affordable project you can build that comes sorta close to matching the performance of the pulleysaver.

http://youtu.be/OxWBZOFEsow

It's a 2 part movie. you'll see Part II over on the right.

Question: When you show the pulleysaver- why not put the pulley saver directly on the prusik which will let you take the small ring and the small dyneema runner out of the equation?

Look forward to more videos!

love
nick

ps- a cosmetic splicing tip. That last mark on the splice, I bet you can get by without actually putting the mark there. (the mark that is about 12" down from the eye). That will leave a cleaner, more mystical finished product that will have added WOW factor when other tree-buzzers see it!
 
Nick, only a splicing wonk would notice that mark. But I do, seriously, appreciate the guidance. I'll definitely be going for the mystical.

Your comment about the pulley spliced in is spot on. I actually built one to try it that way. Didn't like it so much because, in some configurations, the pulley actually gets in the way.

For example, when blocking down a spar, you want a nice tight tie-in, a quick release, and less weight dropping from above your head. For foot loops, you don't want it at all. Or the lanyard. And especially to set the ring-and-ring saver, you don't like to see the pulley trying to bulldoze it's way through crotches. I tried it, it can work, but it looks like trouble waiting to happen. The throw line drags the pulley through at a very "unfair" angle.

Maybe you could have two separate prusiks, one with a ring, one with a pulley. Then just choose. But I do like having the Pinto loose to jump to another assignment if needed. Dunno.
 
Nick,

I took another pass at your idea to lose the ring and Dyneema. I've come around to your way of thinking.

First time through, I put the Pinto and its spacer in an end-end splice loop of 3/8" Tenex Tec. By the time the buries were in, the prussik got fat and ugly and kept getting in the way of a smooth retrieval. Didn't like it. In contrast, the 8mm sewn loop/ring/Dyneema would just "flow" through the big ring and retieve was smooth and easy.

This time, I used Amsteel 1/4" MicroBull line. Treestuff Luke was nice enough to sell me a short piece. I put the Pinto, no spacer, in two eye-for-eye splices. Just by luck, the longer Class II buries were almost perfect for what I needed for the finished 8-coil prusik. Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a chestnut ... ! I just extended the tails slightly and tapered them to overlap down the spline of the prusik. The result is a compact, uniform diameter prusik, no congestion at the Pinto, the d/D ratio is better and the Amsteel is actually stronger than the larger Tenex. The prusik is just the right size to "block" on the ring and yet pull through nicely for the retrieval.

I still will take the ring with me into the tree when I don't want the pulley at all. But for all the climbing configurations, this is better.

Thanks, Nick. And I commend to your attention that MicroBull line for your work in that land of mystical splices!!

Tom
oldfart
 
Was looking at the small rubber insert for the small ornamental cobra cabling rope and was thinking that it would make a nice pulley saver loop if inserted in some beeline. what do you think?
 
Please look at my pic<< I make these, and have around 6 different designs, I'm based in the UK, but can post out cheap to the USA, works out at approx $20 post.

I also use a different retrieval method, plus there is any easy way to install, please see my picture below...i use a stainless steel ring to retrieve mine with 100% success.

dsc00293.jpg
 
Tuttle, that friction saver looks terrifying.

"Sorry, did you fall out of the tree? I guess this brush I was dragging snagged on your retrieval line."
 
Ohhhhh. Thats the retrieval snap. The narrow ring must pop through the pinto and catch on the snap im imagining?

I thought for some reason you had that being used as the eye of a friction saver, release it and it comes undone!
 
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