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Re: [tradmanclimbs] OP Link cam rack:
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bandycoot
Sep 15, 2011, 9:51 PM
Views: 5250
Registered: Nov 25, 2002
Posts: 2028
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tradmanclimbs wrote: I have seen at least half a dozen photos of those things in pieces. when they get cranked sideways they break, when the little pins and hinges break the cam basicly seems to fall apart. When a C4 gets loaded sideways it simply rotates to the direction of pull. The only time we have seen a broken C4 on one of these link cam threads was one time somone posted a completly thrashed booty gold #2 cam that had been hacksawed out of the rock. I don't know if there have been injurys or fatalitys. Not my department to count that stuff. i do know that i have seem multiple photos of of busted cams and the failure mode is similer in most of the photos. Broken tiny little hinges. My thought is that folks are not whipping on these things all that much or we would see more faliures. You would have to be nuts to trust your life to something that delicate when the option of complete bombproof is there for you. Rps and micro cams are delicate as well but you have no choice when the crack gets that small. With a large crack you want something bombproof. No way would i ever be able to consider the link cam Bombproof. Scenario. i just led a thing flaring crack at my limit, i stuffed as many tiny cams and micro wires into the thing as i could but the pump as well as the flares tricky nature of the crack limited my options. Suddenly the crack goes to hands. I know that none of that micro crap is worth the time it took to place and I want something bomber Now.. I reach for my trusty gold camalot that I KNOW will hold a keg of beer but it's not there because i am useing my partners Fluffy rack with the shiny new gagets on it. I plug in a link can and proceed to jam past the cam, with both feet in the short jamcrack, as i pass the link cam it gets kicked and rotates. the crack goes to extra wide flare. I got nothing that will fit but i have put all my beans in the Link cam basket. I Run out of gas and grease out. the link cam is loaded sideways and blows apart,the micro crap in the sandy flare rips and I die in a situation where a #2 C4 side loaded would still have been bomber. OOps.... A few points: Tens of thousands of Link Cams have been sold, and you're overexaggerating the rate of their failure, to say the least. I'll bet it would be interesting to compare a % of Link Cams that have broken in falls vs % of all cam placements that have broken/failed/pulled/etc in falls. I know it's impossible to gather that data, but I've had textbook placements pull, and when I set Link Cams with the express purpose of causing one to fail I couldn't damage it in the least when I jumped off. I broke a C4 my first time falling on one (axle bent and the lobes were locked in the closed position), but I'm logical enough to know that was a freak accident and climb on them confidently. It seems off that you defend yourself saying that "It's not my department to count that stuff" with regards to failures, but you'll make outlandish claims like "Take a real fall on one of those things and for some reason it does not load perfectly it Will blow apart and you will die." It's not wise to trust your life to a single piece, period, which is what you seem to be promoting with your rant about the gold camalot. Just curious, but have you ever fallen on a Link Cam? I'm not saying trust them outright, but after using them, falling on them, learning about how many are on the market vs # of reported failures, and personal experience, I revised my opinion from a similar gut distrust to having more respect for them. I'm amused that this is on the front page because I just wrote a review up on Link Cams and posted it last weekend if anyone is curious: http://pullharder.org/.../11/link-cam-review/ Josh
(This post was edited by bandycoot on Sep 16, 2011, 1:47 AM)
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Post edited by bandycoot
() on Sep 15, 2011, 9:55 PM
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Post edited by bandycoot
() on Sep 16, 2011, 1:47 AM
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