New (possibly) knee ascender

swingdude said:
Just wondering why in heaven's name you bought a knock off anything. Especialky for climbing life support or not.
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Because climbing gear is so expensive. I buy DMM, Rock Exotica and ISC for anything life support. I could not justify 80 dollars for a turbo chest when it is for experimental purposes. If I climbed every day I would have bought a SAKA when they were still on the market. Maybe if I get everything dialed in I might make a proper knee ascended when the climbing budget allows.
 
Bob Bob said:
I built an experimental set-up using a cheap $20 chest ascender from ebay following the concept outlined in this thread. I had trouble getting the system working efficiently. One foot seemed to be fighting the other foot. I'm sure there is a learning curve to the technique. I'll post a picture when I can.

On a side note, I would recommend closely monitoring the cheap ascender's teeth on your rope. The blue one I bought had wicked sharp teeth and they wanted to pluck fibers when sliding up the rope. You could probably grind down each tooth individually to alleviate this issue...
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I'm just curious on what you mean by one foot was fighting the other? The only thing I can think of is trying to stand on both feet at once? If that is in fact what your trying to do, you will need some sort of spring or bungee to allow some stretch in the system.
 
Bob Bob said:
The cat seems to approve. Your system is much more streamlined than mine with knots. Are you going to use a pulley at waist or chest height?
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I don't know yet. I plan on doing some testing this weekend. I will post updates as I go. I am going to test a bungee, a pulley and both. I might just get a retractable reel if I can't make something work well.
 
swingdude said:
Just wondering why in heaven's name you bought a knock off anything. Especialky for climbing life support or not.
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There are knockoffs and then there are rebranded units. I do agree to a point, but if strictly for personal use and NON life support who cares? If it works it works, as long as you never cheat and use it as life support for even a moment
 
I like how you tripled the bungee, does that give it more pull?

I have almost the same setup with exactly the same cheap blue chest ascender but I made the cord to the footloop from NE 7mm cord, been working great so far.
 

I watched this video and thought of this thread. The setup that he uses for a knee ascender is installed at 8:00, actual ascent is at 11:15. Seems to work good and the key to it (at least i think so after watching the video) is the bungeed neck tether. A chest harness or LOTS would not work for this application.
 
My understanding is that the knee-strapped ascender's key component is when the modified foot ascender is able to pivot on the stiff tether used to strap it onto and around your foot and upper calf or lower thigh.

Stride length differences are probably minimal, if no less than a matter of inches, between a knee strapped ascender, or a more traditional bungee secured knee ascender. As for comfort, when it comes to having knee-strapped ascender on your leg, versus using a bungeed knee ascender tethered to your chest strap or bridge, I like the idea of removing the bungee from my system.
 
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