potential gear loop failure

I probably noticed tearing on my harness' (women's Solaris) gear loops a few months into owning it. It looks like Edelrid designed the loops such that the sheath on the outside is the only thing connected to the main part of the harness and the hard plastic part is just there to give it shape. So, once the sheath tears all the way through, there goes my rack. My friend recently pointed out to me that all four of my gear loops are a ticking time bomb until a gear loop fails. Is this right and anyone have this happen to them? I'm waiting for Edelrid warranty to contact me. 

probably best to use your rack instead of your partner's rack for a while :)

This is one main reason why I like my Arc'teryx harness. The plastic is on the outside wrapped around the cloth material. When I scrape up against rock the plastic part is what takes the brunt of the wear. Retaining the integrity of the cloth piece attached to the waistband.

Generic Arc'teryx harness pic for reference - i1.wp.com/thealpinestart.co…

slim wrote: probably best to use your rack instead of your partner's rack for a while :)

Other way around, unless they know where you live...

It happened to me about 3 years ago on a multipitch. I got all my gear back by miracle. Switch to safe tech harness after that

Here's my guess.......

And just FYI a dirtbag's dirtbag doesn't take advantage of a climbing company by using the "warranty" route to get a new piece of gear you wore out by using it. It's lame.  Maybe shady.
If you use gear it gets worn.  Sometimes worn out.  Get over it.  
The rest of us will be paying for your "free" gear btw.

Julian H wrote: My guess

Dirtbag climbers buy the cheapest gear the weights a ton because they know it will last a lifetime.

Companies don’t really care they mass product the gear and worry more about their reputation 

Wow...are those Bell TopTex helmets??!!! (1960's, maybe early 70's) 

   BTW, I love my Safe Tech harness(s) even the gear loops are rated as tie-in points. If your gear drops, it's your fault, not the harness's  [ On my 2nd one now]

My partner’s gear loop failed half way up Clean and Jerk in JT. Lucky I was belaying with a helmet as I got pelted with cams and nuts. I’ll ask him what kind of harness that was and report back.

Had the same issues on 2 Edelrid harnesses. Tape solves the problem.

They're not sexy like the mass-produced stuff, but if you want to

1) not worry about this again
2) support a small US company building stuff locally and paying living wages

Metolius harnesses are bomber. All the gear loops are rated to something ridiculous like 10kN.

https://www.metoliusclimbing.com/climbing-harnesses.html

Manual states 5kg maximum gear loops on the Edelrid harnesses. Same for many other brands.

From my industrial climbings days, we were trained to make sure to differentiate between the load-bearing points (an industrial one has several) and gear loops. No gear on the loadbearing points unless in use (positioning lanyards, descender, ascenders, backup device, etc). When not in use, they go on the gear loops. When attached to the load-bearing parts, gear can catch on things while falling and stop you abruptly. Even had the special velcro attachment points for the scaffold hooks as they tend to get in the way and catches on things really easily.

When I apply that experience, I see gear loops as something that should fail. Nuts and cams seem to catch on things easily. Split gear between left and right, so you won't be caught without gear halfway a climb. Which is handy anyways as cracks and bolts can be left or right of you.

Too cheap to buy the EN 12277 to confirm actual requirements.

Wow, this got more interest than I expected. If I had some hindsight, I'd preemptively tape the corners of the loops, but at this point, the loops are ready to blow with a big whip. Now I'm just buying a new harness from a different company with hard plastic on the outside.

I just think this design is plain stupid. More current Edelrid harnesses have the core of the loop sewn into the harness, so seems like they realized they had a faulty design. As for how I got the corners torn, idk. Unlike some guesses, I don't downclimb offwidths or slide on downtown sidewalks very often. I tend to carry heavier gear on the right side and that has the most wear, but not sure why it's on the bottom corner. 

Eventually the fabric will rip and the gear loop fails...coat the damaged area with seam seal or shoegoo and it will bond the fabric to the plastic and make it last a good bit longer. 

I once emailed DMM about the strength of their gear loops because I was concerned about something like this. My DMM harness has a very similar construction of plastic inside fabric. This is what they got back with. I felt pretty good about my harness after that. But of course once there's significant wear from abrasion, it will probably fail eventually

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Good morning
 
 Thanks for your support of DMM and our products,
 
 Your are right, the gear loop is not a load bearing part of the harnesses so subsequently we do not have any rating for it.
 
 For your interest we cyclic tested the gear loops to 0.75kN, 1000 times and found some signs of wear to the plastic outer gear loop, but there was no failure.

Lisa Rosenthal wrote: I probably noticed tearing on my harness' (women's Solaris) gear loops a few months into owning it. It looks like Edelrid designed the loops such that the sheath on the outside is the only thing connected to the main part of the harness and the hard plastic part is just there to give it shape. So, once the sheath tears all the way through, there goes my rack. My friend recently pointed out to me that all four of my gear loops are a ticking time bomb until a gear loop fails. Is this right and anyone have this happen to them? I'm waiting for Edelrid warranty to contact me. 

Shoe goo the wear points when new or not too worn.  Start using a gear sling when your loops are that bad, I use one almost all the time.  Just bought a Corax II and need to goo the loops.