Rope Wrench, without incident.

So obviously to a newcomer like me - this mysterious 'Reg's photos and words show him to be someone who really knows his stuff - but it's only now that I've discovered his youtube channel that it is really beginning to sink in... Simply viewing youtube without practice will only get you so far - it's the accompanying endless practice that can yield better results.

If I seek the company of the great, surely I can't but help slightly better myself?...

As my Dad once said to me with a wry smile after questioning him... 'I'll forget more than you'll ever know...' - So it is for me with so many on here.

Thank you.
 
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I have a question for @Reg or who ever really how or where maybe I should say do you guys connect your neck teather to your rope wrench setup. Just purchased one and having a bit of trouble with teather setup. Also was not thrilled with how my VT performed.
 
@Magnum783, When you say you "just purchased one", what do you mean? You just purchased a neck tether? Or something else?

What I have is a home made webbing harness that I wear that has one circle of webbing that goes horizontally around my chest, plus another piece that is sewn to the horizontal component that runs up and over from back to front. This vertical section acts to keep the chest harness from being pulled down when ascending.

I have another loose section of 1" wide webbing strap that I tied to the horizontal back side of this chest harness, and then brought up and over my right shoulder. I tied a loop into the front side of this webbing strap to hold a spring-loaded marine clevis. This clevis is connected to the top hole of my triple attachment pulley, just about as short as I can make the webbing strap.

I'm leaving out a few details about my setup, so I should say here that a regular clevis would be a safer choice for attaching your over the shoulder strap to your triple attachment pulley, as sometimes a spring-loaded clevis can pop loose if its release ring gets snagged by something. Let's just say I've built in redundancy. The advantage of the spring-loaded clevis is that it releases easily and quickly when unweighted, and there are no parts to drop.

Since the webbing strap is thick and strong running up my back and over my shoulder, it helps to hold me in a vertical orientation easily while I'm ascending. It is also strong enough to hold me if I get tired before I reach the top of the ascent, and need to take a seat in my harness, and lean back against the webbing strap.

When I first tried making my home made chest harness, I tried to do the easy thing of just clipping a connector of some type to the front of the harness, without the benefit of the over-the-shoulder webbing strap. This did not work for me, as it pulled hard on the horizontal component of my home made chest harness, and it was quite painfull as it pulled the horizontal strap into my ribs. This setup also caused there to be too much distance between my chest and the rope, which meant I had to waste precious energy trying to hold myself vertical by grabbing onto the climbing rope as I was ascending.

Having the strap just barely making it over my right shoulder meant it was holding me as close to the rope as possible, plus it was causing my climbing system to be tended from as high a point as possible.

I don't know if any of this is making any sense or not; it's hard to convey spatial relationships using words. Feel free to ask any questions about things that don't seem clear.

Tim
 
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I just bought a rope wrench and am using an Isc rope wrench pulley. I have a chest harness just don't know how to attach it to the runner setup. The pulley I use is narrower than a pinto if that makes sense.
 
Did you buy the Rope Wrench, which is a hitch-based device, or the Rope Runner, which is a fully mechanical device? Thanks.

Tim

P.S. Upon re-reading your post, I presume you bought the Rope Wrench, since you also bought a pulley, which you would not need with the Rope Runner. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Yup I bought a rope wrench, trying to figure it out with Hitch too not too bad. I just have to figure out how to tend the thing. My next try might be the hitch climber pulley. It is a simple system I gotta figure it out.
 
HC pulley with the tether in theIMGP0024.webp top hole, easy access to the center hole for tending or a lanyard.
 
Hey, Magnum, at 2:57 of this video by Lawrence Schultz, you'll see him clip his neck tether to the part of the pulley opposite of the opening. It's a great video, all around, and well worth watching the whole thing. This "clipping on" happens really quickly, so you'll probably have to watch closely and maybe re-play it a few times. Here's the link.


Ok, I take it back. I just got a look at that ISC Rope Wrench pulley (that I think you've already purchased) over on TreeStuff, and now I'm the guy who does not get it either. With the kind of pulley that Lawrence was using, which either is a Pinto pulley or something similar, he had what I think is called a becket on the pulley, which is an extra piece of metal at the pulley wheel side that a climber can clip an accessory biner to in order to have a neck strap or chest harness clip onto.

With the pulley that you have, it appears that the pulley is open all around, with no becket. I don't know if it's possible to put some throwline through a couple of the small holes in the frame in order to have a place to clip into or not. I'm frankly mystified as to why they would design a pulley intended for a Rope Wrench in this fashion. Other more experienced Rope Wrench users might be able to chime in with an answer.

What I use is a triple attachment pulley, and a home made tether that has two legs at the bottom that can fall to both sides of the triple attachment pulley. Then I have my choice of the top two holes to clip into for my tending arrangement.

Climbers that like everything as light and streamlined as possible might prefer a Pinto pulley type of arrangement. I think TreeStuff even sells a stiff tether that has been spliced onto the becket, in order to have the Rope Wrench facing in a more optimal direction, (namely, away from you, so that it is less likely to hit you in the teeth). Here's a link to the Rope Wrench Pinto tether I'm talking about. Be sure to read the few reviews available for it, as the guys give a few good hints about the product. With this item, since the tether is permanently attached to the Pinto pulley, the carabiner side stays open, and the chest harness tether can then be clipped directly to the biner in between the side plates of the pulley. It seems like a really slick arrangement.

http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=1912&item=14665

Here's a link to a cheap ISC pulley that features a becket. http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=135&item=1886

Tim
 
@Magnum783 , you can simply make a small loop of Throwline and girth it around the bottom eye of your Rope Wrench tether, right where the tether is captured in between the pulley plates. This little Throwline loop will hang nicely at just the perfect place to tend from...nice and low on the system, flexible, no need to twist or reorient anything, and totally unobtrusive.
 
oceans said:
@Magnum783 , you can simply make a small loop of Throwline and girth it around the bottom eye of your Rope Wrench tether, right where the tether is captured in between the pulley plates. This little Throwline loop will hang nicely at just the perfect place to tend from...nice and low on the system, flexible, no need to twist or reorient anything, and totally unobtrusive.
Click to expand...
That's my current plan just didn't know if I was missing something. All of you who helped Thanks a ton for all your help! I do have a HC pulley just liked the small space of the others
 
Magnum783 said:
That's my current plan just didn't know if I was missing something. All of you who helped Thanks a ton for all your help! I do have a HC pulley just liked the small space of the others
Click to expand...
Let us know how rad it works! Ha!
 
Magnum783 said:
I have a question for @Reg or who ever really how or where maybe I should say do you guys connect your neck teather to your rope wrench setup. Just purchased one and having a bit of trouble with teather setup. Also was not thrilled with how my VT performed.
Click to expand...
Id never put something around my neck whilst climbing a tree. I know people do, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Some more wrenching yesterday. A 200 footer.
DSC04381 (1024x768).webp DSC04384 (1024x768).webp
 
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