By Tommyj
From Fort Collins, CO
Sep 29, 2008
| I had a #2 (yellow) Omega Link Cam pull at Vedauwoo(SOLID GRANITE!) and am feeling a little less confident about these things. I was kinda pumped so the placement may not been IDEAL, but....the beauty of these things is that they are a little less finicky to place...cam and jam right?? Anyway... has anyone else pulled one?? Just wondering.
tom |  |
By C Tirrell
From Fort Collins, Co
Sep 29, 2008
| I've whipped on both my #1 and 2 link cams several times, and not had them pull. However, I have lost both the #1 and #2 in the past month and am changing how I think about these cams.
The #1 was over-cammed when placed, but became unretrievable when one of the trigger cables broke under normal, non-violent retrieval attempts with a nut tool. Under most any other circumstances, that cam would have been retrievable. I replaced it with a new one, but a couple of weeks later lost my #2 link to a standard, slightly outwardly flared placement. The first and part of the second cam lobes were in contact when I initially placed the piece, w/long runner. When my second went to retrieve the cam he was completely unable to move it, as it had walked in to full retraction, with all 3 lobes fully engaged. I lowered and spent an hour working on the thing and simply couldn't budge it. Once those multiple lobes are completely retracted and sunk in about two inches... Good Luck getting that sucker out!! I'd previously never lost a cam I'd placed, and removed many that were stuck. From my personal experience, these cams are more susceptible to walking that other cams, and since they sink in so much more deeply than traditional cams... getting them out is tuff!
Having big second thoughts about replacing that fixed #2, and think I'm going to stay away from the new small ones coming out soon. A shame, as I believe this style of cam is a step forward in protection design, obviously all the kinks just aren't fully worked out yet. | |
By Tom Tresslar
Sep 29, 2008
| Tommyj wrote: ...cam and jam right??
Urrr, not right. I think even in a perfect hand crack you still need to look at your placement and consider a number of factors. I almost pissed my pants after ripping a perfectly placed #3 BD in Indian Creek last winter; the rope caught me about 2 ft off the ground. My arm hit it on the way down which knocked it out of position and it ripped. It happened so quickly i really didn't even know what happened until someone watching helped me piece it together. My point is that even though it was placed well, the cam still ripped. That doesn't mean the design is flawed.
I really doubt it was your link cam that failed, even if your perception was that it was placed well. It was more than likely an outside variable. | |
By Buck Dooley
Sep 29, 2008
| I used a #2 this weekend as a directional piece at the top of a beautiful hand crack. When the second came up to remove it he gave it a good yank and the trigger cable on one of the outer lobes completely removed itself from the swage crimp fitting (OP calls them "swivlets").
It was the first time that the piece had ever been placed, and there was never a fall on it... the cable just popped out. I am waiting for a reply from Omega Pacific.
I am not writing off the design, I still like it, especially as a last piece on the rack for anchor setup or as an "OH $HIT" piece, but this was a failure not addressed by the recall of the cams a few months ago. | |
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