Rope Runner Problems

Some times when ascending, the Rope Runner will not engage for me and just flop back down, I have to manually push up on the bird to get it to catch. I don't know if this is the nature of the RR or not.

Called TreeStuff to discuss my issue to find out if it's me or possibly the device, the first person I talked to had no experience with the RR but offered plenty of advice anyway. Some of it down right ridiculous.

Asked if there was ANY changes to the new black one that I should be aware of that might help my issue and was told by three separate people that it was EXACTLY the same as the gold one.

Their solution was for me to send it back for inspection, honestly I have my doubts they would be able to tell if there was something wrong with it, unless you are an expert on the RR, just a general inspection the device looks fine. Or maybe it's exactly the way it should be, which would be disappointing, because I do like the device, other than it not catching when I think it should.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I know Nick Bonner is probably always busier than a one armed paper hanger, but if I were you I would ask to speak with him directly, as he seems to me to be the most knowledgable guy in the outfit with regards to this issue.

Nick claimed in an earlier post that a small modification to the spring has been effected to the newer, black in color Rope Runners, if I recall correctly. I would tend to believe Nick's words here over those spoken by random sales personnel.

As I've said before, I do not own a Rope Runner, but what you describe about the way your Rope Runner behaves does not sound right to me. My guts tell me that you need to have the spring working in a much more aggressive fashion. That is my ignorant opinion.

You might be able to acquire Nick's e-mail address and communicate with him that way.

All this is really too bad; hate to see it happen to you and Kevin and Treestuff. It might be really expensive for TreeStuff to do this, but I think they should just replace the gold units with the black ones for anyone having problems with their Rope Runners. Properly, the manufacturer should take the gold ones back from Treestuff and any other sellers as an even exchange, until they tweak things to the point where no more such issues occur. The cost of making things right should rest with the manufacturer, not the seller, in my humble opinion.

Tim
 
Last edited:
Even when I owned my Blue version I did not like the bird tension. What I did was to just give the spring another wind and put the screw back. It added a little more upward tension on the bird and worked wonders for me. YMMV and if you do it, it isn't my fault for anything.
 
My cell phone number is 440.989.0444 I can be reached at nick@treestuff.com or bonner1040@gmail.com

TimBr said:
I know Nick Bonner is probably always busier than a one armer paper hanger, but if I were you I would ask to speak with him directly, as he seems to me to be the most knowledgable guy in the outfit with regards to this issue.

Nick claimed in an earlier post that a small modification to the spring has been effected to the newer, black in color Rope Runners, if I recall correctly. I would tend to believe Nick's words here over those spoken by random sales personnel.

As I've said before, I do not own a Rope Runner, but what you describe about the way your Rope Runner behaves does not sound right to me. My guts tell me that you need to have the spring working in a much more aggressive fashion. That is my ignorant opinion.

You might be able to acquire Nick's e-mail address and communicate with him that way.

All this is really too bad; hate to see it happen to you and Kevin and Treestuff. It might be really expensive for TreeStuff to do this, but I think they should just replace the gold units with the black ones for anyone having problems with their Rope Runners. Properly, the manufacturer should take the gold ones back from Treestuff and any other sellers as an even exchange, until they tweak things to the point where no more such issues occur. The cost of making things right should rest with the manufacturer, not the seller, in my humble opinion.

Tim
Click to expand...
 
Just me but I would start by opening it up and putting more tension on the spring. Taking it apart, replacing worn parts and checking things such as spring tension and bolt tightness is a maintenance function to me.
BUT! you have ever right just to send it back, it will be made right and you will like it I'm sure.
 
We bought 2 of them and so far they have been fantastic. The only complaint I have is that it can be a pain to get the bollard dialed in when you are constantly switching from one rope type to another (as in HTP, Velocity, Tachyon, Escalator, and Tendril). I am now carrying a 14mm socket wrench in my kit so I can tinker with the bollard whenever I switch ropes. Other than that minor issue I think it is an amazing tool. Now if I can just get my hands on a Bulldog Bone...
 
ARLO said:
We bought 2 of them and so far they have been fantastic. The only complaint I have is that it can be a pain to get the bollard dialed in when you are constantly switching from one rope type to another (as in HTP, Velocity, Tachyon, Escalator, and Tendril). I am now carrying a 14mm socket wrench in my kit so I can tinker with the bollard whenever I switch ropes. Other than that minor issue I think it is an amazing tool. Now if I can just get my hands on a Bulldog Bone...
Click to expand...

ARLO thank you for the help, I wasn't sure before but now I am, it sucks to be me to have only one that's less than fantastic.
 
Thanks Kevin for another amazing tool! I now have two runners and a zk1 and zk2. I haven't had any issues with the runners except for destroying a pulley sheave from a combination of pitch and some fast decents. I have decided to buy only all gear 11.5 24 strand ropes from now on. I was wrenching and ddrting on rocket line before the runner so I now use it for everything. I run the bollard open when new then once it grooves after a little I pop it up a smidge. Love this tool
 
fitz said:
ARLO thank you for the help, I wasn't sure before but now I am, it sucks to be me to have only one that's less than fantastic.
Click to expand...

The one good thing to come out of your tribulations with your Rope Runner is that you are developing a really good habit as a result of being forced to manually set your Rope Runner every once in awhile. You know that the Rope Runner works even without a functioning spring, and what you need to do to ensure safety when the spring is not acting right.

I'm beginning to think that when I get a Rope Runner, I might just practice with it without the spring present until I'm fully confident in my ability to set it manually. Then I'll know what it looks like and acts like under that condition. Then install the spring and enjoy the heck out of it. All low and slow at first, of course.

A question I have for Rope Runner users is how easy do you find the task of taking the Rope Runner off of the rope and putting it back on again, in the circumstance of doing a fresh redirect. Redirects would have to be near the top of my list as a reason to buy a mechanical device. I'm not one yet who can take a hitch based system off of the rope and put it back on again in less than a minute.

This seems like just about the biggest advantage of the mechanical devices. To know that you could do four or five quick little extensions of a tie in point because the process is so fast you just don't mind doing it. With my hitch based systems, I have to admit to kind of dreading the process because it takes me so long.

Maybe that just means I need to sit around the dining room with a nice firm rope setup and practice, practice, practice.

Hey, this would be a powerful event to have in a climbing competition. You could do this one on the ground. Just a pure race with any system of your choice, to see who can swap their SRT system the fastest from one side of a rope to the other, as one needs to do upon establishing a new redirect point.

For the members on this forum that have used multiple different systems, I would love to hear which system you have found to be able to accomplish this task the fastest.

Thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to render an opinion.

Tim
 
TimBr said:
The one good thing to come out of your tribulations with your Rope Runner is that you are developing a really good habit as a result of being forced to manually set your Rope Runner every once in awhile. You know that the Rope Runner works even without a functioning spring, and what you need to do to ensure safety when the spring is not acting right.

I'm beginning to think that when I get a Rope Runner, I might just practice with it without the spring present until I'm fully confident in my ability to set it manually. Then I'll know what it looks like and acts like under that condition. Then install the spring and enjoy the heck out of it. All low and slow at first, of course.

A question I have for Rope Runner users is how easy do you find the task of taking the Rope Runner off of the rope and putting it back on again, in the circumstance of doing a fresh redirect. Redirects would have to be near the top of my list as a reason to buy a mechanical device. I'm not one yet who can take a hitch based system off of the rope and put it back on again in less than a minute.

This seems like just about the biggest advantage of the mechanical devices. To know that you could do four or five quick little extensions of a tie in point because the process is so fast you just don't mind doing it. With my hitch based systems, I have to admit to kind of dreading the process because it takes me so long.

Maybe that just means I need to sit around the dining room with a nice firm rope setup and practice, practice, practice.

Hey, this would be a powerful event to have in a climbing competition. You could do this one on the ground. Just a pure race with any system of your choice, to see who can swap their SRT system the fastest from one side of a rope to the other, as one needs to do upon establishing a new redirect point.

For the members on this forum that have used multiple different systems, I would love to hear which system you have found to be able to accomplish this task the fastest.

Thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to render an opinion.

Tim
Click to expand...
I'll put bdb against anything ....any...thing.;)
 
TimBr said:
....I'm beginning to think that when I get a Rope Runner, I might just practice with it without the spring present until I'm fully confident in my ability to set it manually. Then I'll know what it looks like and acts like under that condition. Then install the spring and enjoy the heck out of it. All low and slow at first, of course....
Click to expand...

Tim, you have a lot of really great ideas. This is not one of them.
 
DSMc said:
Tim, you have a lot of really great ideas. This is not one of them.
Click to expand...

Ok, Dave, I really appreciate your veteran's opinion any time you choose to give it. My first response to your post was intended to be lighthearted and cursory, until I was able to answer in a more serious fashion.

I've posted on this issue before in a couple of places, so it took me a little time to find what I'd written previously.

I wish I could take credit for the idea of utilizing the Rope Runner with a non-working spring, but it is yoyoman who deserves credit for the idea. I'm going to try to post a link to another thread in which I discussed the issue, but also posted a link at the bottom of the post to a video yoyoman produced in which he demonstrates how to do this. His video may have saved fitz's life, because yoyoman taught him how to handle a Rope Runner with no spring tension. Here's the link.

http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/threads/whos-a-self-taught-climber.29249/page-4#post-436411

Thanks in advance for your time, concern, and any further input you care to provide. I welcome it all.

Tim
 
No disrespect to yoyo but I don't believe it is a good idea to use the RR without the spring anymore than it is a good idea to climb with a hitch that doesn't grab without being set by hand. Both can be done but why take such a chance?

There are so many things that can go wrong that we have no control over that purposely climbing on something that has the potential put you on the ground in a moment of inattention, seems like a really bad idea
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom