Thoughts on omega pacific cams?

I'm looking into getting a set of omega pacific cams and have never used them. Are these thing worth the price and can the stand up to a beating

In my opinion, no and no. I'd rather have two lighter cams for the price of one heavier cam. Heavy and expensive often means harder to break. Doesn't seem to be the case with OP link cams.

This is a photo from the "dumbest gear purchase" thread.

This is what happens if you fall on a Link cam

I've been using the red and yellow's for a few years with good success. Just have to be carefull with horizontal placements so that shaft can't be loaded. Nice to have in a sketchy stance where you need to plug and go. Not good experience with the two smallers sizes.
Very easy to overcam. I find the Metolius offset cams to be a better choice for the small sizes.

Short answer = no. They are not durable and, iirc, have been known to explode if not placed perfectly in line with the direction of fall. Ymmv, but I sold mine and would neither recommend them nor climb above them.

manky junk

Thanks for the heads up fellas!

Steve,

I'd be more than happy to part with my complete set of them. Let me know if you are interested...

But I agree with the others...I've never fallen on them, and don't plan on it...

Cheers,

Love mine. Never a concern. Never whipped on em. I get them on prodeal, which makes the price palatable. I've never noticed them walking and I've never come across on that had been fixed in place. Never known anyone personally or seen at the crag with a busted one. I think the failures get blown up because they are more expensive and there might be an allusion of safety or quality that comes with them. Lots of good posts about them, mostly their drawbacks, but I use mine frequently and with confidence

I have 2 link cams. Both were gifts. I have fallen on my #2 (gold one) and it held contrary to an earlier post. I have the .5 but have not fallen on it.I sort of like them, but prefer my metolius cams & camalots better! Save the money and buy more cams.

Two sets here-
Steve

I have a set of them, place them often and have even fallen on the yellow one. I bought them second hand and would only recommend them if you can find them for a discounted price.

The second discussion posted above is ridiculous! Skip to the end if you read. The OP of that thread is a total turd burgler. He had a trigger wire break or snap and OP replaced it within a few days. But he didn't explain the failure just that the cam failed and OP ignored him. He sprayed the interwebs with crud in the 24 hours after mailing the cam back. Omega Pacific set him straight but he went on and on about failure of the cam, an it was a busted tigger wire all the while. Total bergler

Maurice Chaunders wrote:The second to last discussion posted above is ridiculous! Skip to the end if you read. The OP of that thread is a total turd burgler

why is that?

I have both purple and the gold and have whipped on both, with no event other than they caught my falls great. I have actually whipped on the purple more than I would like and am totally comfortably plugging them in on the fly. They will spoil a new leader of figuring out proper cam placements and judgment, and they are expensive. Other than that I have met a lot of people who love them and some who hate them, but I have not met anyone in person who has had one explode on them. I have heard that the failure was due to a factory defect of the first generation, which has since been recalled. They would apparently develop micro cracks around the lobe rivets, which is why they are forged from stainless steel now. Just invest in nuts, and hexes and stay away from all the new gizmo's and gadgets son!

I have had one green sized one on my rack for years. It is a great cam and is perfect for the oooh shit situations like pumpy underclings and liebacking as well as a piece to hold onto for more options at the belay. The green size has also been the key to success on splitters when they go from ring-locks to fingers... great for walking through sizes. The limitations have already been stated and are pretty obvious when you are staring at the placement. I occasionally want other sizes but I really only need it for what is desperate for me. It has more moving parts and weak joints so yeah... not the go to whipper piece... but I try to place nuts before cruxes anyway.

I own all 4 and have whipped on all of em

The purple 10+ times

None of em broke yet

They arent beginner pieces

;)

caughtinside wrote: In my opinion, they are only good in perfect placements. Any irregularities the lobes can catch on can torque sideways on the thin brittle joints and break them, which is what happened with mine. Given that few placements are truly perfect, they just aren't that useful to me.

well put, and to me a perfect OP link placement is when you have pulled back the trigger all the way in order to get all the weak links out of the way, at that point you may as well have a real cam that can take a thousand whips without even blinking an eye.

its all a gimmick for gear heads in my experience, they are cool to look at and play with on the sofa though!

MJMobes wrote: well put, and to me a perfect OP link placement is when you have pulled back the trigger all the way in order to get all the weak links out of the way, at that point you may as well have a real cam that can take a thousand whips without even blinking an eye. its all a gimmick for gear heads in my experience, they are cool to look at and play with on the sofa though!

You mean like 3 X4s =P

As long as the link cams are in horinzontals or are in the direction of the pull in vertical/diagonals theyll hold as well as anything else

Put a draw on em so that they dont walk

As evidenced by the recent blew out 3 x4 thread, any cams that get into poor placements can fail

;)

Idk I have two golds and the green never given me fits as far as placements go , the only thing I don't like about them is racking em , they tend to hang lower then I like , I fixed that with a small loop of 6 mill , now everything's peachy .

Btw I've seen every make of cam out there fail, bust a wire, tweek cables or break , even your vaunted C-4 black garbage cams, almost every case has been due to operator error .....................

so what's your point ?

Idk I have two golds and the green never given me fits as far as placements go , the only thing I don't like about them is racking em , they tend to hang lower then I like , I fixed that with a small loop of 6 mill , now everything's peachy .

Btw I've seen every make of cam out there fail, bust a wire, tweek cables or break , even your vaunted C-4 black garbage cams, almost every case has been due to operator error .....................

so what's your point ?