Metolius cam placement with head rotated 90 degrees

I've been climbing trad for 3 years or so but using almost exclusively Black Diamond C4's and C3's. Today I came across this picture on the Metolius website:
http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/cam-range.html

That is a feature of the Metolius Super Cams. They look pretty neat. I have a small and medium. I find them to have nearly the same expansion of my #2 and #3 C4's. Perhaps with a bit more head width/surface area on the cam lobes which I believe makes little difference when placing on granite.

I think those illustrations are examples of supercam placements. Supercam shave asymmetrical lobes resulting in these sorts of placements. Any standard cam placements should look more like what you see up top.
-Mackley

I think you've misread the picture to think that both cam lobes are rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Actually, the larger lobe is rotated counter-clockwise 90deg, and the smaller lobe is rotated clockwise 270deg.

youtube.com/watch?v=FGve4mu…

doak wrote:I think you've misread the picture to think that both cam lobes are rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Actually, the larger lobe is rotated counter-clockwise 90deg, and the smaller lobe is rotated clockwise 270deg.

Lower left hand illustration - looks like it would act just like a nut, but with the springs adding to it's power to remain placed. Possible drawback; if I have my physics right, all the load would drop onto the lower cam lobes, rather than being distributed over 4. If Metolius has made the cam lobes strong enough to deal with a typical fall, you're probably in pretty good shape.

Side note: The "green" range of the SuperCams looks like they have more inward range than other cams, but tip out at about the same spot in the curve. That may be a more useful piece of information for you than their ability to act as a nut. I'm thinking the trigger wires are going to interfere with "nut" placement, where they won't with "overcammed" placement.

I will just add that a small/silver supercam placed in the green range is the most solid feeling for cam placements of any cam I place. Maybe its the super stable width of the cam lobes on the axle, maybe it's the beefy surface area, or maybe that it is just bomber. I don't exactly know. It just reminds me of placing a hex, only for cams.

Just my opinion.

ps- My opinion of the largest size (blue) was that I felt that it had a tendency to walk slightly more than a blue #3 Camalot.

caribouman1052 wrote:Lower left hand illustration - looks like it would act just like a nut, but with the springs adding to it's power to remain placed.