Spring broke

By the way, it is just a really great thing the way that this forum is set up to automatically "embed" or display the video itself, instead of just showing a link to click on. Well done, site administrators, whoever you may be.

Tim
 
First of all no offense taken or intended but I would never stand on anything besides the ground without setting any kind of ascent or descent device. That makes me not worried about the spring effect.

I think with the zigzag hes on target other than the fact its on dDrt so the initial travel would be less dramatic than on single rope and if you are on single rope with the zigzag and a wrench then the descent is slow as well.

With the example on the rope runner Richard showed the weight is plumb under the runner and its only a 3 foot drop. Half the time it caught. With your runner on your bridge you are way out of plumb and that would encourage engagement of the bird. I don't necessarily agree with the debate however I'm not willing to disable my spring and jump from height. The simple weight of me hanging off the runner causes a bend lower in the device compressing the rope. I don't think the sky is falling here. I thought enough about it to change devices for the rest of the day until a repair could be made. I wasn't worried about the rest of that particular climb. I think managing your device no matter what it is remains the same. I would watch a hitch just as closely as the zz, bdb, rr, while ascending through brush or ivy. It's simply prudent to be in tune with your gear. Nothing is bomb proof. It all requires attention to detail and oversight. I have sucked pieces of rubber glove, leaves, and sap through all the devices that have caused a little drop on descent. It was never more than a inch or so but I was aware and expecting it.

I just think its mute. The bdb has no spring. I think it's quite easy to take a drop with it however I feel it will catch me due to the rope angles and my body weight being off plumb. Now if you disengaged it and let it drop with little weight on it, I think its gonna keep going until it stops. I have a spare saddle and if I had time and a rescue dummy it would be interesting to conduct a realistic test of Richards examples. Not discrediting him at all, just don't think the controlled testing in the video isn't quite the situation we may encounter.
 
@Steve Connally; Wow, thanks for such a great response, Steve! I appreciate you taking the time to give such a thorough, well thought out answer. It is really interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has been living with the device for quite a long time.

I like the way you think with regard to your watchfullness of any and all devices you choose to employ. It is habits like those that will keep you alive. I appreciate all of the subtlety of your response.

Thanks so much, again.

Tim
 
There is no widespread issue. There was an small issue with the blue runner and a safety/inspection bulletin was sent out immediately. It was on here, every tree gear site you can think of and a direct contact for customers who bought one from treestuff. That was months ago.

As so far as my spring goes. Not hearing chatter about a widespread issue. Things break for whatever exponential possibility of contributing factors. Its tree gear and it's used hard. This was not a failure by definition. There was no incident. The spring broke. That's it. I remember one of the first blue runners that had the spring come loose. The guy hollered about his runner failing and lucky to be alive, blah blah blah. Dramatics and he was cooked over the fire with his choice of words. His device didn't fail. It continued to work. If it had failed he would have fallen. He did not fall. The screw came loose and he noticed a loose spring. It's like all the dramatics over the zigzag "failures". A cracked link doesn't constitute a failure. It' means a link cracked.

Sometimes the choice of wording means everything!
 
Without the spring it's simply a game of chance. In a fall the bird will lay disengaged and accelerate to the ground at the same speed as everything else. At this time we would hope some other variable such as sap on the line, a bump, a change of direction or anything would cause the bird to engage. It would be fun to test but I value mine too much to exceed safe working loads.
 
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