Spider jack 2

I wish I started low and slow, started with a big storm damaged sugar maple removal over a shed, paved walk and immovable landscape lighting with multiple large tear outs. I peed my pants a few times getting the feel for it. Lol. Just speeds up the learning curve.

The price tag is scary but I would certainly recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone considering it.
 
Crazy Jim,

Buy one for sure.

I love it.

I'm not as fit as I once was in younger years, but the spider jack II moves so well that I often ascend with it, with IT alone. Hand over hand, no other ascenders, no foot ascender no foot locking. for up to 35 or 40 foot ascents.

It does NOT feed slack on my 1/2" Hi-Vee every time, but most of the time is way better than never.

and on removals, heck, with spurs you just lightly spur up a spar feeding the spider jack slack, so effortless, it almost makes you laugh how easy it is.

crane assisted removals, it is so awesome! When you are ready untie from the crane, just unclip the eye, pull it out, while you are pulling it out of the crane tie in point, the spider jack is eating up the rope, when rope comes out, there is little or no slack to run through it, you are ready to put rope into your new tie in point.

Spider jack makes things so easy, this is what keeps me from using the rope wrench and SRT more often.

Spider jack ascents = easy, little effort.

SRT ascents = somewhat fast, but tiring. Plus you need another ascender for help. For me.

I used the spider jack on a mid size trimming for the very first try.

Nothing scary, felt like it was made for me.

Went big with it ever since.

my cam is the original, not worn out and I started using it this past summer, maybe August?

Few things to be aware of; like in my "spider jack not so good for flex in tree" thread. I have a few more that I don't have time to explain right now:

1. leaning into the climbing line, makes spider jack slip.
2. groundmen holding some of your weight, as in pulling you to a location with your tail, can make SJ slip.
3. And if tie in point is a very large diameter and you are near that location, velcro comes off, spider jack pulls to the side of biner, gets side loaded and hard to fix.

explain later maybe.

It's an awsome tool and any good tool is not cheap.

I don't think $340 is much cost for such a wonderful tool that makes things so much easier for me every day. (at least, that's what i think it cost me?). I was thinking of buying a second one, just so I could keep one on a short climbing line and the other on the long climbing line, when I have some extra money.
 
you have to take down the thin edge on the falling end, the the cam end smooths out/depens and the peek of the curvature hits the body limiting "sqeeze" re setting the two angled feturse is less crutial. it gives me a couple of extra weeks on the cam. I dont make eforts to babby my jack, i climb frequenlt wiht no fals croth, don't wash rope very often bla bla. it is a huge improve ment for me. i still use a knot too, its just another tool in the sack.
 
Treemanluke, Could you explain that one again? i did not understand it, i would like to get a few more weeks out of a cam.

X man , the man, how on earth do you get more than half a year on the first cam? let us in..please
 
I use the wooden brake on decents like they stressed, that's all. I don't know.

for a little while, i was a little upset that it wasn't taking up the slack always, so I even tried for a while to wear it out with fast very long decents with very little wooden break, hoping that maybe if i wore it out a little, it might work better. But I didn't see any difference yet.

I smell the aluminum in the air when decending all the time too, so I'm sure it's wearing, but it is not slipping at all yet.

I'm using new england 1/2" high Vee.
 
Wierd that is what i do too. I get about 6 weeks up to two months out of a cam. Then every year and a half or so the body wears out. That really surprised me at first. And pi§§ed me off too. By now i am on my third body. It is a black one, i am hoping it will last longer..

Honestly i don't see the point of them wearing out at all. From a consumer perspective that is.

Then i also have a giant zip lock bag filled with old cams screws, 102 allen-keys and some odd ends. I was thinking of writing this ART bloke to see if he wants them back..

All in all i have to say that the spider jack is my climbing pal all the way!
 
X I got mine today and played around with it some.Im sure if you had Tachyon or something smaller it would feed better,mine does with tachyon.But like you noted the clutch wouldnt last as long with the smaller diam rope.
I love it thus far,but I need to give it a month or so before I can really establish an opinion.
 
I got mine in august and put it on some pretty clean (no sap, no natural crotch) blue moon (same as PI) that I had been using for ddrt. I started to get slippage after a only a few months. Although I was getting use to it and I also was getting used to a PULLYSAVER at the same time so I'm sure that has something to do with it.
So at TCI I picked up some Vortex. At first it wouldn't self tend but after I milked a couple feet off it worked great. To bad that didn't last long, once the rope got worn in and a little soft feel to it, it stopped self tending again.
So then while I was still waiting for my local supplier to get my new cam in. (Ahh the frustrations of supporting the local guy) I figured maybe the cam had worn some from a bigger rope, so I tried the blue moon again but it still slipped. Then for the hell of it I tried some old Tachyon and what do you know, no slippage. I now have a new cam but I'm getting everything I can out of this old Tachyon worn cam combo.
When I do replace it I think I'll put it back on the blue moon (because it performed awesome), and see how long I can get out of it now that I've gotten a little more use to it.
Also I am still using mine on a ring. I think a swivel would help with the hand position
 
Congrats on the purchase Jimmy!

Bill I run mine on Poison Ivy and a swivel on the bridge of my Sequoia and its great
 
Thanks Im stoked,with my wraptor,the spiderjack 2 and treemagineers pulley saver- I honestly think I got the perfect setup for production efficency.My goal is to have plenty of energy left to do fun stuff after work.
 
scrat, how does the sj work with the swivel? Is it ez-er to get a good hand angel to give line on a limbwalk or does it twist away and thus losing control?

Also how is it with twists in the line during a climb? do you think you have more or less of them?

I am left handed, the SJ is a right hand device i have been wondering if a swivel would benefit left handed use.
 
maarten it definitely makes it easier to use with your off hand and gives you the ability to just toss the running end around you when you get a twist.
 
[ QUOTE ]
scrat, how does the sj work with the swivel? Is it ez-er to get a good hand angel to give line on a limbwalk or does it twist away and thus losing control?

Also how is it with twists in the line during a climb? do you think you have more or less of them?

I am left handed, the SJ is a right hand device i have been wondering if a swivel would benefit left handed use.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maarten
I had all the same questions about using a swivel with the SJ2 (pic swivel with runner)and now having used one I have found it easier for hand angle and not putting twists in my line when climbing DRT so definately superior. I have found that when working SRT with a VT hitch and Rope Wrench that on long descents that the rope may want to twist a time or two but I believe that is really because the rope below the hitch had twists and and if the end is not free to spin (in rope bag or pile) those twist get compressed in a shorter distance of rope and then migrate (equelize) above the hitch because the swivel has no rotational friction. All in all not a problem.

As far as being left handed I use the SJ2 in both my left or right hand and have no real problem but what I found was if you use the technique shown in the spiderjackery 3 video where they add a short loop runner thru the velcro add a biner and attache the working end of the rope above the biner the SJ2 is attached the diameter of the runner and SJ2 (pic 1 lefty w runner) in the left hand is reduced more than the original configuration (pic 2 lefty original,3 lefty original finger placement) and allows the SJ2 to be closer to the palm (pic 3 lefty runner finger placement)thus allowing greater leverage of the fingers and thumb to work the clutch and break for better dexterity and overall control (pic 4 lefty runner finger placement. Take a look at the attached pictures and you can see what I am describing with finger position and so on.

I am using the Rock Exotica S2L (large swivel) from Treestuff.com I like the larger eye which allows multiple biners if needed and the edges all have a smooth radius.
 
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