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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

 Page 1 of 3. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 47
Author
What cams to buy ?????

Rayda
3-Mar-2007
7:42:19 AM
Hi all - bout to lash out on a rack and can't seem to find any decent, unbiased opinions regarding the best cams to buy. Some say BD are great, but apparently the triggers need replacing, but they never walk. Then others say WC are the bomb. I've been climbing with someone who has nothing but WC on his rack - so he is biased. Just interested to know the opinions of everyone - plz, sales people need not reply.


muki
3-Mar-2007
7:28:57 PM
I,m probably biased I use nothing but BD the new ones are so light, and make exellent pasive pro when
needed, the trigger cables do tend to break if you bend them alot over the course of many years, in and
out of the pack , but if you take care not to do that, ie have a small bag or gear roll for them so your
draws and other bits and pieces don't interfere or snag on the cables then they should be good for a long
time.
When they do go, just replace with string this is a one off repair as the string is flexible enough to
withstand the bending and not snap, and strong enough to actuate the trigger.
at one stage I had all my cams strung rather than on cable and they were good for four years before I
replaced the string with fluro strings that light up at night if a light is shone in their direction.
Plus the new C3's are amazing, and go into the smallest places I've ever placed a cam.
darkxst
3-Mar-2007
8:53:06 PM
i would also recommend BD cams! but then i must be biased since I only have BD cams on my rack.

kezza
3-Mar-2007
9:18:23 PM
I've used both WC and BD cams. To be honest I haven't noticed a HUGE amount of difference. But the BD's are lighter, which makes fiddling around with them a tad easier (when picking the wrong size and reracking to choose another size etc), but with regards to placing the gear I like them both.

Rayda
4-Mar-2007
12:44:20 AM
Thanks all heaps for the insights. But I am afraid all you have done is confirmed what I was leaning towards already which was BD C4's. I was in a store and had both WC and BD in my hot little hands and I just seem to get a more solid feel from the BD's C4's. Call in instinct, call it whatever you like but I know my climbing partner is going to say, go WC, you know you want to. And I'm sure they are just as good, but I also like kezza's approach which is both, but to start I will do a few mid size BD's, 1,2,3....then I will mix it up a bit, maybe one brand for a smaller range, different for mid then another for the larger.

interesting kezza that you say the BD's are lighter, some people say they are heavier, or is that the old camelots?


muki
4-Mar-2007
12:38:08 PM
On 3/03/2007 Rayda wrote:
> Some say BD are great, but they never walk.

All cams will walk, heres a basic guide, 4 caming lobes/walks in, 3 caming lobes/walks out, if you move
them around enough, they only stay put if you place them in a pocket or other feature that holds them in
place, like a crack that has a chockstone jamed in it and the cam is placed just under the stone.
the best way of making them stay put is to give them a nice long runner this runner does all the moving,
and leaves them nice and still,not walking in or out.

Rayda
4-Mar-2007
1:03:24 PM
Yeah nice, bomber pro. Makes sense, because I am just going to go nuts with gear, I was thinking 10 quickdraws for when I do some sport, and then interchange the carabiners with "nice long runners" . I was thinking 4 x 120cm, 6 x 60 cm dyneema slings to start, for my trad rack. (cost saving)
Any advice in this area would once again be greatly appreciated. Also, with quickdraws do you think it would be a good idea two sets of 5 with different length dogbones, or just keep with the same length throughout. What is the norm in this area???

cheers

muki
4-Mar-2007
2:46:13 PM
I have 14 draws on average, more if needed on long pitches eg 60m pitch
10 short sports style 15cm, for cliping wires, bolts, short extensions on cams.
4 longish runners 30cm, to get the gate away from ledges that might break them, or cracks that might
jam or cut them, or slightly off route gear.
plus two 1m runners that help with drag if I'm roof climbing or traversing left then up or right then up.
If I'm going to traverse right then up then left and up, I'll take 4x 1m slings to help with drag.
Infact I'm investing in 2 DMM revolvers (biners with pullys built in) just for those rope drag situations.
A cheaper alternative is a small plastic pulley that slips onto the rope end gate and does the same job.
Petzle make these and are easy to put on or off,use oval biners only! a slightly beefier version of this
theme would be to use a pully that is rated and put this on the rope and then clip it to the long draw,
this would be fidly and require two hands so you would want a good stance.
the other thing these pullys do is to decrease the drag on the draw that cops the load in a fall, this
translates to decreased impact on that piece and transfers some of the load to the rope and its ability
to stretch, and the belay and its ability to absorb the impact ie dynamic belay.

kezza
4-Mar-2007
10:39:44 PM
Rayda I stand corrected WC's are apparently lighter.
But I do like em both.

Gear is only as good as you place it.

Happy Cam Hunting!

mousey
4-Mar-2007
11:01:25 PM
my 'rack' of cams (errr that'd be a grand total of 5!) are 100% booty

nmonteith
4-Mar-2007
11:18:08 PM
i've got some other booty cams i donate to you josh if you'd like. they are mostly bent and mssing any
lube. ha ha. dodgy.

Rayda
5-Mar-2007
12:58:42 AM
Cheers kezza - decided to buya "middle of the road" set of BD c4 cams .4 to 3. Very excited. Now just need to place them as good as they are made for placing. Cheers to everyone for there opinions. Much help.

westie
5-Mar-2007
8:46:11 AM
Hey Rayda,

Metolius are lighter than both - more cams on your rack for the same weight. They do have shorter stems though.

gordoste
5-Mar-2007
11:53:45 AM
BD all the way. Old version used to be heavier, but the new C4's are similar weight to most other cams. Metolius are good for in-betweeners.

Rayda
5-Mar-2007
5:35:19 PM
Well, I just made my purchase with Steve from rockhardware.com.au - I'll give him a plug. Gr8 value, gr8 service, gr8 all round. So now it is just a question of contributing to the great starting rack, at a slow but steady rate for years to come. I'm sure metolius cams will sneak there way onto the families rack sometime in the future.
But for now, the level at which I am at, .5 to 3 BD's I'm sure will suffce. If I want to lighten up - I think I will start with getting my fat ass on a treadmill, that should lessen me up by at least 8000 grams, can't save that sort of grammage with a few cams. he he.

Dam food - oh why do I love you so.

mousey
5-Mar-2007
5:38:28 PM
On 5/03/2007 westie wrote:
>Hey Rayda,
>
>Metolius are lighter than both - more cams on your rack for the same weight.
>They do have shorter stems though.

i hate metolious cams, the szies are all heaps different to any other cam (so you pick a size by looking at it but it always ends up being to big because the cams dont depress as much or something
and the walk like crazy. horizontals are the only place i can ever get em to stay where i put em

Rayda
5-Mar-2007
6:10:31 PM
thanx 4 the tip mousey

what are climbers opinions on smaller cams to cover ranges from approximately
8 to 20 mm.


muki
5-Mar-2007
6:44:43 PM
BD c3 nuf said
gfdonc
6-Mar-2007
11:55:18 AM
On 5/03/2007 Rayda wrote:
>what are climbers opinions on smaller cams to cover ranges from approximately
>8 to 20 mm.

I've got a size 00 Friend, size 0.5 friend and green, yellow and red Aliens.
The 00 Friend offers a higher rating than the black Alien but the head is a little wider. It gets used surprisingly often.
The Aliens are good except my concern (posted a while ago?) that the cams don't fully expand in uneven cracks.
I looked at the WC Zeros but they didn't seem to offer anything above the Aliens and the strength rating in the same size as the 00 was inferior.
The new C3s do look really good and would be high on my list if I needed to replace.

manacubus
6-Mar-2007
12:56:57 PM
In terms of placement size, your 00 WC Friend (10 - 16mm) is more comprable to a blue alien (10 - 17mm) than a black (8 - 14mm). (FYI, Spadout has a nice comparison tool which makes comparing gear like this very easy).

 Page 1 of 3. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 47
There are 47 messages in this topic.

 

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