That would work too! I won’t be using the original line next time I get the device out. Currently in pieces in the shop! Began cutting away in needed materials and fabricating a fare lead assembly that I can attach to the unit.
I'm not picking on you but agree it looks like a cluster F of gear, tethers etc. Each link in the chain is a potential point of failure. Perhaps have your back up ascender on a separate tether. Skips the tripped up sling, and either extend your bridge or use a dogbone (?one of those rock climber sewn webbing connectors) . Ascend to the TIP, then lanyard in. (think redundancy) . Afterwards back off on the rollgliss disconnect, then remove the tether of your ascender backup taking it back down to your bridge. Remove lanyard, and play.
Hey Evo, thanks for the input. I am actually already using most all of what you suggest, though these short video demo's might look confusing. These were just short up and down things for the camera and don't show me lanyarding in, moving around without the power ascender, etc. As to bringing the main tether back down to the bridge after disconnecting, actually my main tether stays there all the time. It is never disconnected from the bridge. It merely is lengthened to make room for the Rollgliss below it in parallel. The Rollgliss is simply added on a separate tether temporarily til I get up at height, and can be attached or removed without touching the main tether and multiscender. The only added items in the life support chain from bridge to my BDB or ZZ/RW are an additional rated biner and a short rated sling (which is also tripled to shorten it a bit) so I am never depending on anything that is not rated and never have to disconnect from any of it. (This extra biner and short sling would not be necessary if one has an adjustable rope bridge - in that case nothing at all would need to be added to the main life support chain). I think the videos, which are admittedly pretty jerky and unclear in places from my inexperience with the GoPro, might make it all look more complicated than it really is. Say, you are close enough to me to come over on a day off and have a go with it yourself. if you want to check it out in person. You are barely an hour's drive from Anacortes and I live only 600 yards from the Lopez ferry landing. My machine shop is right behind my house so am usually around here even if it is a work day, and I have ropes in three of my biggest trees right now. A number of guys at the BIOMAS event on Bainbridge tried the gadget out and loved it. You are most welcome to come over. In the meantime, I will try and get some better video, maybe with a friend holding a separate camera, to show the set up better.
I don't see why that wouldn't work.
Also the rope that comes with these devices is a 3/8" (10mm) KMIII made by New England Ropes. I had cut the snaps off of mine and removed a couple inches of core to make a taper on the end to make it easier to feed through the device and found a ribbon in the center that shows the NE name and the NFPA and EN1891 standards printed on it. When I looked at NE's web site it looks exactly like the KMIII.I am using mine exactly the same way one would use the Ropetek Wrapter. I started to cut it all up and make the mods that @Burrapeg had made to his, but after looking at the Wraptor videos online I decided it was good the way it is! I even reinstalled the braking system back into the device. Worse case the device would lower me back to the ground as was it's intended use to begin with.
I think that is an excellent way to use the RollGliss, 39Buick, and also involves almost no mods other than adapting the drill to it. I had a couple of reasons for the other mods that I did. First, I may have to hike some considerable distance to find trees sometimes and I wanted to adapt the device to my main climbing line to avoid having to carry a second rope just for the device. Second, I wanted to resell the smaller kermantle that came with it to recoup some of the purchase price. A third advantage to the mods I did to make it mid-line attachable on my regular ropes is that it could actually be used to traverse or when moving the TIP up, by swapping it over to my tail or my hook line. Now, a serious downside to this thing is that it is spoiling me. It is so nice to use that I am getting lazy about climbing the normal way and am not getting enough exercise!
No traverses with it yet but I am going to try in the morning. I solved the problem of having to hold tension on the tail of the rope coming out of the Rollgliss, to keep the rope from slipping in the shiv. I machined up a swinging arm with a wheel that rides on the rope near the output side, under tension with a short bungee. It climbs steady now on high speed with no slip at all and no need to use my left hand. The bungee flips off really quick so that the arm can swing up to allow the rope to be inserted or removed. I went up and down today about six times to maybe 30 feet with no issues at all. I will get some photos soon and also some more video with the GoPro when I get a chance.
Thanks for the kind words, dsptech. I don't have any drawings for the home-made BOLA; I just sort of reverse engineered it from seeing it online, in my head. I have had a severe slow-down with work into the shop so have had to tighten the old belt. Otherwise I would have just bought Gordon's. I did buy a Bone from him and love it.
The width of the shiv groove does not seem to have much to do with the rope slipping under load. I experimented with different shims before I bolted it together and nothing helped. Something has to physically hold the rope into the shiv near the output side, then it stays completely tight all the way around and works OK. Positioning the rope further into the shiv seems to have little effect except the further in, the slower you ascend. I discovered with my second unit that the shiv does not even need to be split and widened and my full 1/2 inch rope still works fine; and I found I ascend a bit faster since it is riding higher in the shiv.
I know this is an older post , Im ''intreested'' in one of these units, are they still available
