Got one last week and used it for the first time today. Medium size, the large wasn`t availble. Bought a whoopie sling, too. (We work with minimal gadgets but this porta-thing just looked too cool.) Tried it first with a piece about 150lbs and it lowered effortlessly. Next piece was about 300lbs and it was effortless as well. Nothing actually required lowering but we wanted to see how well it worked. And boy did it work well. Can`t wait to use this thing in a situation that actually requires it.
A problem, if you would call it that, is that the porta-wrap locks up the falling piece, which means the climber either has to control the piece after it`s cut or be ready to avoid a swing back before it gets lowered. So if you have a heavy piece that requires a controlled descent and you know the piece is very heavy but not how heavy, i.e., how many wraps you take to control it, odds are you will take enough wraps to have the piece lock up or at least fall so slowly that you risk having the piece swing back on the climber. I can`t see leaving slack in the rope to have the piece fall clear of the climber before it locks as that will put too much impact on the gear, or will create such force that maybe the piece will fall too fast for some distance after the impact even with the wraps.
Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.
A problem, if you would call it that, is that the porta-wrap locks up the falling piece, which means the climber either has to control the piece after it`s cut or be ready to avoid a swing back before it gets lowered. So if you have a heavy piece that requires a controlled descent and you know the piece is very heavy but not how heavy, i.e., how many wraps you take to control it, odds are you will take enough wraps to have the piece lock up or at least fall so slowly that you risk having the piece swing back on the climber. I can`t see leaving slack in the rope to have the piece fall clear of the climber before it locks as that will put too much impact on the gear, or will create such force that maybe the piece will fall too fast for some distance after the impact even with the wraps.
Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks.