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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Author
DMM Torque Nuts (review)

voodoo
18-Oct-2010
6:03:46 PM
I thought I'd share my take on them as I didn't see them feature in any search results...

My original intention was to grab a couple of bits of extra gear to help pad out the cam rack. You know, for that situation where you're climbing an endless, consistently wide hand-crack and you're rattling through all the cams you and your partner brought in that size. :)

I also figured that I'd grab something a little different (rather than yet more cams) because every bit of gear has its strengths and weaknesses - it's nice to have options.

So I thought that some hexes would fit the bill nicely, providing plenty more extension to my existing rack without adding too much weight. I'd selectively add them or remove them from my rack depending on what the climb looked like it would gobble.

So really, the way I saw it, the choice was between the WC Rockcentrics and the BD Hexentrics. I'd had a bit of a play with a mate's rockcentrics, though they were the older variety wired ones unlike the current slung ones. I'd also taken a trip with a set of hexentrics and not really noticed the curved vs straight sides making a huge difference in the quality of my placements. In fact either way my placements always seemed to leave a lot to be desired. They would move and dislodge pretty easily, and more often than is desirable, as I climbed past them!

I'd done the fatal thing and gone looking on the net for advice and those in the BD camp in the slings-vs-wires debate were adamant that wires were better because you could place higher by holding the stiff wire. And this was how I was placing them. Once I started holding the heads of the hexes instead my placements grew better, but still not great. I found the the wire still acted like a big spring to push the heads away from their ideal camming position.

But then looking at the alternatives I could just see 9 slung WC's on a racking biner forming a massive knitted mess. And not a lot of people were posting about their experiences racking all those slings, or how they were going about it.

It was during this paralysing buyer's-indecision that I saw the DMM Torque Nuts. You only get 4 in a set, but the set covers the same range as 7 hexes. For me this sounded perfect - I only wanted to extend my existing rack by the inclusion of a few extra backup pieces. I didn't really want to add another 700g of pendulous aluminium to my harness. And anyway I figured, at $59 I could afford to take a punt - and possibly end up with some colourful paperweights.



The vertict? They're freaking great. They're super easy to place, and for me I tend to find that perfect rock-solid bomber placement right off the get-go. There's fewer of them and each one has greater range which greatly increases the chances of grabbing the right one. And unlike my experience with stiff wires they cam in like little beauties and don't budge a millimeter.

The extendable sling option is nice to have - I have racked each one with a biner, saving a draw and avoiding the possibility of a knitted cardigan impersonation. The other notable feature (?), they're ludicrously LOUD! Clang, clang, clang...

Anyway - super pleased with them, the price (albeit online from the states) is fantastic, and I'd recommend them to anyone.

Miguel75
18-Oct-2010
8:55:08 PM
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Voodoo, I've had a set for ages though feel rather insecure in my ability to place them.

You've inspired me to break them out on Wed when I hit my local...
kimbyl
19-Oct-2010
6:14:34 AM
Hey Voodoo, same racking quandary. I have WC's and have taken to racking them on individual crabs with 7-9 doubled up and clipped through both ends of the sling. This sounded great when I got the idea from the net, looked cool when posing at home and is a disaster in the real world. Any other ideas?

Does the extendable sling on the DMM Torques work?
Estey
19-Oct-2010
8:27:01 AM
I haven't used torque nuts.

I'm a fan of slung rockcentrics ( and hexes in general). The come into there own on long easy cracks, especially on soft rock.

Rack them two to a crab. Place them at eye height.

With an extra crab a slung hex is easily turned into a long draw which can be handy on a long pitch with bad rope drag.

I don't take them on face routes. I never use the tiny one. I'd only take the big two if I knew I was going to need them. That leaves 4 relatively light units and a whole lot more options.


ambyeok
19-Oct-2010
9:18:09 AM
Rack on single biner. 7/10 times you'll clip the hex directly.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
21-Oct-2010
1:32:38 PM
On 19/10/2010 ambyeok wrote:
>Rack on single biner. 7/10 times you'll clip the hex directly.

Ambiguous? ...
Possibly means...
>Rack each on single biner.

Fixed that for you?
humphreyg
15-Dec-2010
1:42:01 PM

I'm a fan of the toque nuts too, the extenable slings do work fine but on occasions they take a bit of a tug to work the excess through to lengthen it out, and you do need to make sure you pull the right piece to prevent the joining taping catching on the nut itself.

Only other downside is that you do sound like a herd of swiss cows tangoing through the valley.

I'd give them a 9/10 though, handy piece of kit to add to your rack.

voodoo
15-Dec-2010
2:24:06 PM
On 15/12/2010 humphreyg wrote:
>Only other downside is that you do sound like a herd of swiss cows tangoing
>through the valley.

I like to close my eyes and imagine I'm at the ski jumping.

There are 8 messages in this topic.

 

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