Modded Double Rope Bridge! [pics]

[iclimbtreesbro]

I am a new member here, though I have been a climber for a few years for a major corporate tree company and just graduated from Virginia Tech's forestry program!

I just began a new job with a startup tree service to pursue a much better opportunity, and they loaned me a grand to buy any tree gear I wanted! I bought a SherrillTree Edge and decked it out with some upgrades... a Silky handsaw will be added as soon as I burn through the Fanno.

Post a picture of your saddle if you are running some type of MODDED bridge or othwrwise unconventional configuration!

I am climbing on 150' of brand new 11.5mm Lava/Tachyon, and loving the hitchclimber pulley setup with a long 8mm OP e2e prusik! I carry enough biners/hitches to allow 2nd/3rd tie-in points and allow the option of replacing worn or damaged hitches on the fly with a variety of materials (especially if something gets sappy). My experiences as a foreman have lead me to believe in Murphy's Law and be prepared to the extreme. Extra gear weight doesn't bother me...I lift hard at the gym 3-4x a week and can do a dead-hang pull-up with 110 lbs strapped to my waist. Ok I am done bragging for now.

Post photos of those modded bridges! Mine are the factory Edge replacements @$17/ea, paired with two of the large Climbing Technology steel rings. My goal is to increase the bend radius and increase stability...the 2-eye CMI micropulley worked ok for me and I didn't want to buy one of the CMI zipline double pulleys. I have replacement bridges stowed in my gear bag in case anyone is wondering.

I know there is already a thread for saddle pics but I want to specifically see who's out there innovating their gear so I can learn from them! I will post a review weeks or months from now stating whether I experienced any issues with the two rope bridges abrading each other. Thanks for your time if you read this long post... peace out arborists!

 

[benjo75]

Nice saddle. Why would you want to increase the bend radius of your rope bridge? Why 2 bridges? Two steel rings, I think you could rig a top off of that saddle. Looks very strong.

I have a Cougar that I have done a Liger conversion on. After 2 recalls on the same spliced bridge, I got tired of wondering when my saddle would kill me. And $40 every few months for a new "upgraded" bridge was a bit much. Now it looks better, feels better and a hundred times safer. I used to have a pulley on the rope bridge to decrease the bend radius but I decided I like the friction of a ring better. So I added a Bat plate so I can have additional attachment points.

In the first pic you can see the new bridge vs the brand new spliced bridge after just a few climbs. Look at the difference.

 

[iclimbtreesbro]

Thank you for the reply! Very cool saddle... part of why I bought my Edge was to essentially have a factory-installed Liger mod along with a bosun seat. I went with rings because I didn't like the reduced friction of a pulley, and a second ring/bridge firther reduces the friction while creating a less sharp bend in the bridges. I will be doing a lot of cabling and large removals so I want plenty of space to easily attach gear and tools on the fly. That, and I like to go overboard on terms of preparedness. The second steel ring can keep my bridge from getting too cluttered when I have two or more tie-in points. Depending on the job, I may run the second bridge/ring completely separate from the primary bridge. Plus there is always the fraction of a chance that one bridge could accidentally be nicked by a handsaw, etc. even though I am extremely safe. I couldn't find another person who has run this same setup, at least online, and I wantes to spark some thoughtful conversation. Thanks again for the post! :]

I like your setup, do you make your own rope bridges with Velocity or Blaze?



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[iclimbtreesbro]

Now I am left wondering what the kN rating on my factory Edge rigging plates are... I will check on that later and report back. They do not appear to be as beefy as the aftermarket Petzl/CT/etc rigging plates.

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[benjo75]

My bridge is Yale XTC Fire. It's 6,200 lbs. The CT and DMM Bat plates are both 36 kn. So the entire setup should be the strongest point on the saddle. I just converted it over about a month ago so I haven't been climbing on it too long but so far it feels a lot better. It changed the geometry of the saddle a little but I actually like it better. I also like that I can change from a ring to a plate to a pulley in just a few seconds. Even though after using the CT plate I doubt I'll use anything different in the near future. I also like that it only costs about $2.50 to replace the bridge now. And it only takes a minute instead of having to undo all the buckles and spend about 30 min on it. You can see the old bridge in the lower left corner of the first pic. I held it by the XTC to see the difference. And that spliced bridge only had just a few climbs on it. I had just replaced it. Nearly $40 for that!

I'm not sure about the rings on your saddle but the rings on my Cougar were aluminum obviously. And they felt extremely light and small. Which they are. Probably if I had taken it apart when new and felt the little rings, I'm sure I would have replaced them before ever climbing on it. I would never climb on them now. I'm sure they're plenty strong especially since there are 2 and each one only sees half the weight. But I like the plates way better. They feel bulletproof. Plus there's extra attachment points. Way better set up all the way around. The extra few ounces doesn't bother me either. It it did, I would just skip a cheeseburger for one day and there it is.