My new permanent friction saver

[Winchman]

I made this friction saver this yesterday,

and installed it this morning.

It's made of heavy plastic from a 5-gallon bucket with #14 copper wire hoops. I pulled it up with a tag line after running my bookmark line through the hoops. I'll shorten the tag lines, and tie them to the closest lower branch the next time I climb. I'll leave it in the tree because it's my favorite and most convenient place to climb, thirty feet from the garage door and seventy feet to the TIP with a straight clear drop.

The next one I make will be longer with rounded ends, so it'll be a little easier to pull over the crotch.

I wanted something that would weather well and not be eaten by the squirrels. I looked at the one Dan House makes from extra-flexible metallic conduit, but it has too large a minimum bend radius. The fact that I could make this one in an hour from scrap materials on hand was icing on the cake.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

What?!

You didn’t solder the ends of the loops together?!

Just kidding

Very nice looking false crotch

 

[Cereal_Killer]

Idk what the official bend radius of the Dan House Conduit cambium savers are but I've made numerous in the exact McMaster-carr ultra flexible Conduit he suggestes and they'd for sure be able to handle the diameter of that limb. I've never ran into a situation where they didn't have a tight enough bend radius.
Try one out some day, they're <$20 of material, the hardest part is sourcing the end caps locally, I had to buy whole little kits to get the end pieces.

For the time being though your solution looks more than good enough and I'm a sucker for anything up-cycled.

 

[Winchman]

The ad for the Dan House cambium saver says the minimum limb diameter is six inches, which matches the info from McMaster-Carr. The bend radius is the same for the slightly more expensive 1" conduit, so that's what I'd use because that reduces the potential problem of the end fittings having a smaller inside diameter. I could make end fittings out of aluminum on my lathe if necessary.

What worries me is I won't be able to see if the flex conduit has come apart internally before it shreds my anchor rope. The edges of the steel wrap are likely to be pretty sharp and unforgiving. There's not much chance of the rope coming in contact with anything sharp on my homemade friction saver.

I climbed last evening to shorten the tag lines. I'd say the effort to pull the anchor rope and my climbing rig into the tree has been reduced by at least half if not more. The downside is that I'll have to be really careful not to let loose of the anchor rope while putting up or taking down my climbing rig. Everything could be on the ground in an instant, or worse yet, hopelessly hung up in the tree.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

I just measured one of mine, it's a 4" bend and could be squeezed tighter when conformed to a branch. If I remember I'll wrap it around a small branch and take a photo tonight

 

[Winchman]

Here's the latest version of my permanent friction saver.

It's a lot easier to make them with scrap rubber hose and zip ties. The wider spacing between guides works better, too. There's a copper wire on the inside of the curve that helps shape the friction saver so it stays in place after a load has been put on it.

The pvc pipe pieces on each are tapered on the inside of each end to ease entry of the ropes and knots. Entry is so smooth I can't even tell when the bookmark/rope junction goes over the friction saver as I pull the rope up.

I've even figured out how to use my telescopic pole to lift a friction saver into position with a throw-line and weight already in it.

This is the ticket if you have a favorite tree you climb repeatedly. Setting up is much easier, there's little chance of damaging the tree, and it reduces wear on your ropes.