Ropetek Hitch Hiker

This IS work...we're your R&D brain trust :D.

That's good news on the rope diameter front, since tree climbers are on a pretty wide range of diameters these days...and tend to be picky about their preferences there.
 
I would ask you the same ? Shop day for me just dragging my feet.
Yeah good point about the tripple action some times I forget about that.
How about making some sort of bushing like the RW bushing I have read about some where. TB maybe? That might take the biener pickyness out of the equation and help with longevity. but it might hinder midline attachment depends on design I guess.
 
In and out between bids here.... This is interesting man!!

Rajan, I don't follow your free fall thing, how would/could that initiate? From the looks of the design the more weight on the HH the more friction...
Paul, is there "knob" stamped into the back of the HH for extra friction? Like the gibbs
GIB4S.jpg
 
Looks like a great design. I would definetly supply the proper biners if that's an issue.
Put me down for an order when you get to production.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #31
flushcut said:
Looking more at the design it looks like it would grab the rope better and slow your descent in the event of a free fall situation over a RW. Have you done any kind of that testing just asking?
Click to expand...

We break tested the first few to make sure they were all safe for life support, all tested out way over 5000lbs, have done a lot of testing to check for heat buildup which is a very real concern, these suckers can get hot. Hottest we have seen is 190F.

As regard to free fall, yes it is a very likely scenario. The HH merely amplifies the hitch's breaking force, so if the hitch doesn't grab then neither will the HH. Bottom line is if the hitch doesn't work you fall, the HH will not offer any friction in this situation. This is just the same however for dDrt, hitch doesn't grab = fall.
 
sotc said:
In and out between bids here.... This is interesting man!!

Rajan, I don't follow your free fall thing, how would/could that initiate? From the looks of the design the more weight on the HH the more friction...
Paul, is there "knob" stamped into the back of the HH for extra friction? Like the gibbs
GIB4S.jpg
Click to expand...

I was thinking worst case, hitch failure, how very unlikely it is but it came to mind when I saw the design. The design is very close to the Tibloc aside from the teeth I would think it would provide some breaking effort, not much, but not true free fall speed.
 
Sweet man, looking forward to trying it out. I like the way it operates in the video, very smooth and solid it looks like. Looks like I'll be getting it just in time too, lots of climbing, both pruning and removals, coming up here in the next two or three weeks.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #36
If you have hitch failure you will fall to your death, period. Trust me I could load one on a rope without a hitch and it will fall to the ground just with its own weight.

Steel biners are necessary due to a lot of wear from the rope. Remains to be seen how long the steel ones last. They are similar to the clutches on a lockjack or the edges on a Uni, by design they will wear , Im not worried about strength loss of the biner but am worried about sharp edges developing after extensive wear which could cut the jacket of the rope. This is probably going to be the achilles heel of the design but if you pay attention to wear and replace or even smooth the sharp edges you should get plenty of usage. I am thinking about setting up a loop of rope on a Wraptor and running it for hours and hours to get a gauge for wear. Other than using them I don't know how to gauge it.
 
I see the logic with regards to the steel biners. The continuous test would be advisable & help with credibility as it would multiply temperatures & pressures beyond normal working peramiters.
As a rule i as an inspector am required to retire kit here in the UK when the wear exceeds 10%. Not a bad bench mark IMO
 
Pete is definitely correct in regard to wear on a figure 8. If it's extreme, it'll be a single groove with a sharp lip, especially if it's a hard coated aluminium model. In the case of Paul's biners, the rope will be confined to a single track, for the most part. It'll bear watching, for sure...but what life support item doesn't?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #42
pete mctree said:
The continuous test would be advisable & help with credibility as it would multiply temperatures & pressures beyond normal working peramiters.
Click to expand...

we have run 600' of 1/2 through it whilst supporting 260lbs at a rate of 100' per minute ,the hottest recorded temp was 139F. However that was with the stainless version, when we finally nail down the final design we will conduct a full array of test including drop tests etc and have it independently rated for MBS.
 
Mighty fascinating, Paul! It is a wonderfully simple design, and it looks quite different than anything else out there, kind of like slot squeezing instead of cam squeezing. It makes me wonder how the idea came to you?? One of those that comes to you when you are in half sleep or maybe just from staring at biners and ropes and metal and thinking hard till a little puff of smoke comes out your ears...:lol:
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #45
Trust me, just with the Wraptor, it didn't just "come to me" . This is at least the tenth revision of the design. I have an idea and have to build it to see how it works, first ones were out of thin aluminum sheet, started with 1 slot and it didn't really work well. The beauty of the 2 slots is it modulates the braking pretty smoothly, I have gotten it to where you pull your hitch the top biner disengages so allows for easy descent. Some of the original ones would lock up if you put too much force on them and even with the hitch released wouldn't let you descend. I like tinkering with stuff...
 
Awesome!! Bet it keeps you mad busy when you get an idea then trying to perfect it. Just cool stuff!

A nice side benefit of this device is the use of steel biners, which you prefer afaik over AL.
 
Pretty sweet, I'd buy one, but I wouldn't pay a lot. no offense. I'm sure a lot of time and money went into making it, but once it's in production it's really just a stamped out piece of metal you add some carabiners too. which is awsome by the way, brilliant and simplistic. you'll be like the paperclip guy, selling millions of something inexspensive.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #48
Except you will never sell millions, thats the problem with making stuff for tree guys, there aren't that many tree guys in the scheme of things which is why gear costs so much. It will cost over $10k to have a tool and die set made to stamp these out, that cost has to be recouped somewhere and if you only sell a couple hundred the math doesn't add up. Now if you could sell tens of thousands it would be a different gig. Look at Gregg Good, he's been selling GRCS's for what 10 years and has sold something like 1500. Selling stuff to tree guys is not a high volume business which is in a way what lets little guys like me get a foot in the door because the big guys cannot be bothered...
 
Paul, have you thought of using a 300 series SST to keep from corroding and not needing to coat it?
304 or 316 sheet form nice in bend dies.
 
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