What you guys think of the Hitch climber system??

[ArborItaly]

i been use it for a wile and to be honest, to move around the tree crown its great, to ascend kinda suck, that's why to ascend i'm using another rope and then i set up my working rope with the hitch system or i'm attaching a blake's hitch on the system to ascend, i was wondering if you guys use the hitch system and what you think of it?
P.S. what you call that hitch knot in english? we call it Valdostano.

 

[Djlunchbox]

In english you call the knot a Valdotain Tresse. I have no experience climbing on it though, still new and practicing.

 

[NewGuyMA]

The hitch climber pulley works great with a Valdotain Tresse. I use 4 wraps and 3 braids. Smooth as glass.

 

[NewGuyMA]

BTW, welcome to the site ArborItaly

 

[ArborItaly]

hey thx it's great to be here...so i guess we invented that knot because it take the name from a mountain region here in italy...that's cool i didn't know that

 

[NewGuyMA]

hey thx it's great to be here...so i guess we invented that knot because it take the name from a mountain region here in italy...that's cool i didn't know that

Nice. The VT hitch is the only one I use with the Hitch Climber because it seems to work very well. Have had no problems with it.

 

[cjtreeclimber]

i been use it for a wile and to be honest, to move around the tree crown its great, to ascend kinda suck, that's why to ascend i'm using another rope and then i set up my working rope with the hitch system or i'm attaching a blake's hitch on the system to ascend, i was wondering if you guys use the hitch system and what you think of it?
P.S. what you call that hitch knot in english? we call it Valdostano.

Here is My hitch climber set up:

View attachment 291431

I started out using a swavitch prussic then chaged to the Valdotain Tresse; however with braiding downward I use1 less which smoother. Also I insert my upper carabiner in the middle hole on my pulley which seems to give it the prussic a bit more distance from snagging on the eye splice - which could keep the knot open and leaving me with no friction. I know I have the same problem sometimes with the prussic knot cinching up sometimes when descending , but when that happens I just take my weight off the prussic and kinda re dress it with one hand. I've used different types of material for the knot, differnt types of rope, different knots . . I finally got something that works smooth now after breaking it in a bit; so with that said, you just have to mess with it and maybe not take it off once you got it set in right. Miy prussic knot stays on the rope always. Its the same set up that world champion tree climbers use.

Here is one of my favorite climbers I like to watch using this hitch climber set up.
[video=youtube;OrVRQ26_BhM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=OrVRQ26_BhM[/video]

 

[ArborItaly]

man he's good...moving on the tree like a fu..ing monkey,
yea i guess i just got to find the right set up to ascend.
the hitch its great i love it.

 

[tramp bushler]

Ya, like a monkey is right. Wow.

 

[miko0618]

strap a 10 lb chainsaw, 10 lbs of gear and crap dangling from his saddle and I bet he transforms from a monkey back to a human

oh, and throw him in a 40 year old, 50' maple with a vertical crown and the last safe tie in at 40'. now have him prune the whole tree top. little less running, lot more grunting.

no disrespect intended. just teasing.

 

[tramp bushler]

Ya and add 25 years to his age

 

[pdqdl]

You can take all my extra gear off, give me 25 years back, and I still am never going to cat-walk down the middle of branches like that.

I'm not willing to risk losing my balance and falling off the branch, so I'm pretty slow when I limb walk. Furthermore, he must really have sticky shoes to just walk up steeply rising branches like that.

 

[cjtreeclimber]

strap a 10 lb chainsaw, 10 lbs of gear and crap dangling from his saddle and I bet he transforms from a monkey back to a human

oh, and throw him in a 40 year old, 50' maple with a vertical crown and the last safe tie in at 40'. now have him prune the whole tree top. little less running, lot more grunting.

no disrespect intended. just teasing.

I learned a lot in a short time watching these kinda climbers. I'm doing a little bit more swinging and stuff like that now when I climb; but, all the foilage inside the crown you've got to fight through typically, and nobody wants to do mere crown reduction, just take downs! all the time .. Tired of take downs give me them jobs that I can climb like that with a mere silk hand saw to knock off little twigs. a 13 lb cs 8000 gets heavy for blocking off three and a half foot thick peaces of oak logs with no bucket.

Here is my wishful next upgrade. five hundred bucks for the spiderjack
[video=youtube;MBfyrzZzsvk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBfyrzZzsvk&feature=related[/video]

 

[climb4fun]

i use the same setup you guys have been posting pics of and i ascend with it just fine. im tall though (6ft) and i think it works best when foot locking. i find that it helps to push the knot upward before i set my weight back onto it, just so i dont lose that extra inch from the slack in the knot. tie it with enough braids to keep it tight though, really helps. for moving around in the canopy like that video, you'll notice that he always keeps one hand on the rope while he's moving. that so that if he gets off center he can push or pull on the rope (above his center of gravity) to keep him on the limb, while his lower hand is constantly tending slack. im not as fast as him but i can damn near sprint atop a limb without losing my balance. fun stuff but i have paid the price a few time hahahaha! helmets are a good thing!