Hitch Question

[dtreez]

I love climbing on a hitch, but I've been really noticing a problem I've been having where my hitches don't seem to want to set when I put my weight into them unless I manually push them up the rope to "activate" them.

One of the things I love about mechanical devices is that I don't have this problem.

Does anyone have any advice with hitch-tying to address this? I've tried the Michoacan, Catalyst, VT, and they all seem to have that same problem for me. Distel seems to be the best, but I find that it grabs too tight and can be a bit of a pain for me to break.

Maybe I'm just chasing dragons?

 

[Steve Connally]

I'm not a master of rope so I can just tell you what works for me. I use the Catalyon with a 28" prussic. 26" sets too hard and drags bad making it feel like it's actually making my day harder. 30" wont set without me manually doing it and the setback is a confidence killer. 28" is the sweet spot as long as I load it hard when I first tie it. Weight test makes it work for me as we should do anyway I guess LOL. I tried a 28" beeline on my Komora and it wouldn't set. I immediately removed it an put my normal back on and everything was fine. Like I said, I'm not a student of this but diameter and construction makes a huge difference. I also love mechanicals but have decided to go back to hitches for a while just to revisit where I started for various reasons. Long story that would derail your thread. Hope this helps.

 

[Quintanana]

If a Michoacán won’t hold, throw an extra wrap and flip that baby around. Petrocan for ya

 

[Matias]

I have had good results from just tightening the whole thing up. I run fat hitchcords on skinny ropes, and from all the info I have seen, it shouldn't work well, but some guys here run their setups similarly without issues. It took me a while to understand what was meant by "tuning" the hitch, but just keep fiddling with it in a methodical, systematic way and you will find what you seek.

I like a 3 wrap petroacan with fatter hitch cords on slimmer ropes.

 

[ghostice]

I was going away from hitches until I heard about the arbsession hitch on Treebuz somewhere. I had same problems and went to mechanicals but for me this hitch was a gamechanger. Now i'm . . back to hitches (and the arbsession caralink V2 tether setup). Maybe give it a whirl? Cheers

 

[Brocky]

The Catalyon is to the Arbsession as the Michoacán is to the Petroacan. Naming a hitch something different, that has simply been rotated 180 degrees, seems to take credit away from the originator of the hitch.

 

[misfit]

If your hitch cord is new, especially Ocean polyester, it is probably a bit stiff and wants to straighten itself, so when the tension is off the hitch, the cord will try to pull itself away from the rope. That problem will eventually work itself out, but you can speed it up by working the cord in your hand when off the rope. Just coil it up as tight as it will go and hold it there for a little while, and then coil it in the opposite direction as tight as you can for a while. Do that a few times to loosen it up, and it will probably function better.