Ronin Battery Powered Ascender

A powered ascender would surely be of much more versatile use in tree work if it was mid-line attachable and also worked with a range of sizes of normal climbing rope instead of requiring a dedicated and captive rope. Also, the photos of the Ronin suggest that the batteries are internal and perhaps proprietary? If they run down, can they be quickly swapped out by the climber at height or does one plug the whole device into a charger? If the batteries die and need to be replaced in the future, is Ronin the only source for new ones?
 
I could be wrong, but my assumption is that the rope is fed through the top of the machine in order to load the rope. Personally, if I were to use such a device I would set my rope as I always do when climbing srt, with just enough tail to reach the ground. With that approach, I see no real issue with the design.
 
If that is the case, then you are right, no real issue. I would probably also have a dedicated rope like the wraptor.
 
If that is the case, then you are right, no real issue. I would probably also have a dedicated rope like the wraptor.
 
Levi.CO said:
Why the emphasis on midline?
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150'-200' tall conifers, base tie... That's a lot of rope to feed through after your initial ascent, to set up for the next. But I've never used any type of power ascender


x2 on the battery question!

Sounds like to me that this is a infomercial and not someone with no vested interest sharing about a cool tool.
 
In addition to the limitation of not being able to use it on other ropes during the same climb, it seems to me that an issue with a captive rope that maybe has to be powered thru the device before use is that it is an unnecessary drain on the battery.
 
Just another guess, but I doubt that running the machine to get to the end of your rope after use would tax too much juice, considering the load it's built for.
 
What about for descending the machine? Wouldn't it suck to have to untie your basal anchor to remove the unit from the tree? Then re-install your access rope if you want one in the tree?

How does the wraptor work on that level?
 
We have the battery powered Husqy climbing saw, which we love. But damn it's a pain to have charged batteries in the morning. If the guys show up with 3 dead batteries, they plug one and then the next morning that's all we got.... Not sure how this works as I have done no research, but if you need multiple batteries for a days work it could be a pain.
 
We have good luck with getting juice for our husky batteries from outdoor power outlets at customer's houses. Though it can be hard to remember to bring the charger with us when we finish the job! I think there is a truck charger as well, fwiw.
 
matdand said:
We have the battery powered Husqy climbing saw, which we love. But damn it's a pain to have charged batteries in the morning. If the guys show up with 3 dead batteries, they plug one and then the next morning that's all we got.... Not sure how this works as I have done no research, but if you need multiple batteries for a days work it could be a pain.
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It looks like this adapter plugs into the back of the regular "charging station", for truck charging.

https://www.husqvarna.com/us/accessories/battery/qc80-battery-charger/967335641/

Or, just get the back pack, lol

https://www.husqvarna.com/us/accessories/battery/bli520x-battery-backpack/966775901/
 
matdand said:
What about for descending the machine? Wouldn't it suck to have to untie your basal anchor to remove the unit from the tree? Then re-install your access rope if you want one in the tree?

How does the wraptor work on that level?
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The wraptor is mid-line attachable. You could advance you access line and keep the base tie. I don't know how it descends. A figure 8 would solve that.
 
we need to grow taller trees. I would absolutely get one then. 1250 is cheap though wow. getting the unit down to the ground seems the difficult part not being midline attachable. although it seems you can go down with it as well. no not be too bad to just use it as your primary climbing device. kind of tough to go through tight crotches with it though.
 
Santiago Casanova said:
My suggestion is to order a rollgliss R500 for 100 or 200 dollars and attach a cordless drill. Some of us don't have deep pockets and innovate our own affordable tools.

The ronin looks like a good product. Just too expensive. Skylotec also makes a motorized belay device and it has a remote control. Also too expensive.

Also, I am not going to be an early adopter. I will wait for the bugs to get worked out and the price to come down. If you can afford to be an early adopter, by all means, do it. It helps out the whole process of innovation.
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can you make a video of you using this? I was going to get one and go down that path but I saw a video where you had to hold tail weight in order to ascend and I thought that looked tedious and not worth the effort. also a good quality cordless drill isn't cheap at all. have you figured out an ascent that doesn't require constant tail weight?
 
Levi.CO said:
We have good luck with getting juice for our husky batteries from outdoor power outlets at customer's houses. Though it can be hard to remember to bring the charger with us when we finish the job! I think there is a truck charger as well, fwiw.
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Put a/ some cones with the charger.

When I charge my phone at someone's house, I clip my vehicle keys to the cord.
 
Just reading all the post, let me just address the battery, it is swappable, so no it is not internal and can be changed out. There will be two options for the batteries priced around $200/$250us.

They are designed specifically for the Ronin so yes you would have to purchase them from Ronin, but not sure you could find cheaper lithium Ion Batteries. I wanted a lithium for my snowmobile because it was lighter, was quoted $350 for that option.

So you could have one charging while your using one.

So using the Ronin, I would mostly be Ascending from the bottom, so no issue loading the tail through. Then I would work and then descend with the ronin using gravity power and end up at the bottom again right where I started. So for me Mid-Line is not an issue, I can perform my work with the device attached. I. I can see how an arborist might just want to ascend the rope ditch the ascender to do work because of the bulk to do their work.

I have lots of trees around my house so I will do a video of using it for tree trimming etc soon.
 
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Burrapeg said:
A powered ascender would surely be of much more versatile use in tree work if it was mid-line attachable and also worked with a range of sizes of normal climbing rope instead of requiring a dedicated and captive rope. Also, the photos of the Ronin suggest that the batteries are internal and perhaps proprietary? If they run down, can they be quickly swapped out by the climber at height or does one plug the whole device into a charger? If the batteries die and need to be replaced in the future, is Ronin the only source for new ones?
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You can use different Climbing rope, but you should be using an 11.m with very low elongation for best performance. So I hate to point it out but an Arb working in trees uses dynamic rope as it is the main part or their fall arrest system in which the dynamic rope cushions the fall. I will be testing lots of different ropes including Dynamic and report back.
 
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