Friction saver for rec: leather or conduit or rings vs cost

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zapblam

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For home/rec, which would be better for a friction saver.

leather $24 , caterpillar conduit thing $40 , arbor rings $60

or just save for rope wrench $80 and eliminate need. (cant use for work yet though)

I use works rings on the days they let me train in the trees. Just want to play and practice my ddrt at home and at the lake.

Safe and best bang for buck. Gotta keep costs down too.
 
I have been using Dan House rope sleeves for rec climbing, they seem to work pretty well and aren't expensive. I like the sleeves better than the rings because the sleeves kind of take the shape of the tie in point and you don't have such a sharp bend in your rope like you get from the ringed cambium saver. I also like the ease of installing and retrieving the sleeve type cambium savers. One mistake I made with the rope sleeve type cambium saver was that I purchased one that was pretty small, the sides of my rope rubbed against the sides of the large branch I tied into and got all dirty.
 
None of the above. Use a throwline to set a static line into the tree with a pulley on it. Static line gets anchored to the base of the tree. Your lifeline goes threw the pulley. REI has an acceptable pulley for 16 bucks.
 
None of the above. Use a throwline to set a static line into the tree with a pulley on it. Static line gets anchored to the base of the tree. Your lifeline goes threw the pulley. REI has an acceptable pulley for 16 bucks.
That works but requires a second rope and only works well if you're using a mechanical hitch like a zigzag since there's no friction at the tie in point like with sleeves or rings. Your hitch can bind up in descents since it's trying to dissipate all the energy. I have both the Dan House conduit sleeves and a Teufelberger fimblsaver (which I really like). I also used a uSaver but it got stuck a lot and I ran into the pulley issue since I climb with a hitchclimber system. The main issue I have with the Dan House sleeves is their bend radius limit. I've broken one because I forgot.
 
You can do it with the hitch climber just fine... But it does wear out eye to eyes prwtty quick. Hmm forgot about that. I switched over to a zigzag quite awhile ago.
 
For home/rec, which would be better for a friction saver.

leather $24 , caterpillar conduit thing $40 , arbor rings $60

or just save for rope wrench $80 and eliminate need. (cant use for work yet though)

I use works rings on the days they let me train in the trees. Just want to play and practice my ddrt at home and at the lake.

Safe and best bang for buck. Gotta keep costs down too.
Not sure where you're getting your rope wrench but the wrench and tether is well over $80.
 
I have the leather sleeve one, works well.
simple, easy, cheap and effective..
 
I prefer the leather cambium savers. Simple, effective and bullet proof. Ring and ring or the other pulley saver type devices are great but gear intensive and slightly more complicated to set up. The conduit style cambium savers are simple but can be damaged by tight crotches and can be crushed by equipment. Nothing is going to beat a pulley or ring and ring as far as reduced friction. The conduit cambium savers offer less friction than the leather type but are not as forgiving. You can also modify the leather cambium savers by removing the stitching and replacing with heavy duty Velcro to make it midline attachable (great idea but not mine). Some say SRT will reduce the need for a friction saver but I still use one for every SRT climb since you still have to pull a lot of rope over a branch to do the initial set up.
 
I leave a counduit cambium saver on my climb line at all times. Once I pull about ten feet of climb line up, I go ahead and tie my slip knot and start pulling up the cambium saver. The throw line goes over the crotch pretty easy then only about ten feet of rope to bark then the cambium saver is there. Pull the rope and it's set. Makes pulling on the throw line a lot easier as the climb line is coming down. Keeps the rope cleaner too. Especially in wet trees.
 
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