Hey there Buick. Yeah, it is easy to fall in love with using the bloody thing. I climb right now mainly with a SAKA and foot ascender with the rope thru a chest roller. It is fantastic exercise. I envisioned my powered ascender just for really long ascents, ascents lugging a bunch of heavy gear, and also I am 65 and was sort of looking ahead to the day when I might need something like that to climb at all. And of course I am a tinkerer and love a project! Anyway, you asked about the GoPro; it is the old original Hero, $40. on eBay. Worked fine right out of the mail box. I agree with what you said, too; I wish I had discovered this rec tree climbing when I was much younger. I did a lot of climbing and high work but it was cranes, masts, gantries in shipyards, etc. No fun there and the gear was so primitive compared to what we can get now. I have loved trees all my life and love being up in one. It is the best therapy in the World. Never fails to lift my spirits to be around trees, and better yet, up in them. By the way, welcome to the Buzz (Not sure I said that yet). Great bunch of chaps here, some ladies too. A wealth of experience and advice to share with us newbies.
Thanks for the kind words, John. I use it with 13mm too and works a treat. Only issue is the need to hold some tension on the tail to keep it slipping in the sprocket. But if I remember to weight the tail with something big enough, I can ascend non-stop with my left hand free. Am looking forward to the event there on Bainbridge Island and will see you there!
Oh, meant to caution you too, that the link you sent is to an r520, not an r500. The 520 has no provision for driving it with a drill. There is no shaft extending to the outside to grab onto. The only model that really works is the r500.
I actually bought two of them for that same reason; one to use as a winch with the original rope. One thing about the Kermantle that comes with them is that under load it cables badly. It gets uncomfortably hard and inflexible when climbing around on it after ascending. And rope that small is less comfortable on my hands anyway, even if it did not cable up.
Your going? Welp guess that is where we will meet. I’ll be the one on the ground
When that occurred, did you have any issues with the rope exiting your wraptor peeling away cleanly without a load of some kind on it? Coming out of the sheave, the rope has to be pushed for just a short way to get to the fairlead in the frame.
