Which hangboard? Need advice

Hi all,

I'm in the market for a hangboard that I can train my fingerstrength on. I'm currently stuck on 7a (Europe) or 5.11d (USA) and I feel like the finger strength is keeping me back from climbing harder projects.

I'm mainly looking 25mm/20mm/15mm edges, and a nice bonus would be some slopers.

I don't really care about 1 or 2 finger pockets.. If I want to hang on 1 finger, I could do so on a wide edge as well.

The 3 options I consider are:

1. Y&Y verticalboard one ( yyvertical.com/en/products/…)

++Nice addition is the middle grip where you could add a resistance band to in case of on arm assisted hangs/assisted deadhangs

++I think the board is nice and wide for a hangboard, allowing for better shoulder positioning while deadhanging (for my build).

++ 3 types of slopers, although not positioned nicely for the shoulders

++ I like the versatility with the 10mm inserts

- the holds are symmetrical, which means that the shoulder position when hanging is not ideal of all edge sizes

2. Owl Climb Square ( epictv.com/owl-climb-square…)

++ simple design

++inexpensive

++ the outer edges are 25mm/20mm/15mm, which would probably be the only edges that I would use on this board.

- no slopers

3. Moon Armstrong Fingerboard ( eu.moonclimbing.com/trainin…)

++The assymetrical holds allow for a good shoulder position on all edge sizes

- only 1 type of sloper

other options I have considered:

- rungs (not an option, since I need to drill too many holes.. most rungs have 2 holes x 3 rungs x 2 sides = 12 holes in the rental appartment)

- beastmaker 1000 and 2000 series. No markings on the depth of the edges, and too hyped for my likings.

- tension climbing grindstone - I would love to have it, but with shipping+tax for europe it would be a $250 hangboard.. which I find way too expensive

- Metolius prime Rib - missing the 10mm option.

What are your thoughts? have you tried any of these hangboards?

Have been lurking here for some time, but posting the first time here.
You are overthinking it. The Beastmaker is a solid hangboard and the one of if not the first commercially available hangboards.

Hangboards are not highly complicated devices. You will spend most of your time on 20mm(ish) edges for finger training. Some jugs for pull ups are a nice addition. Some slopers are nice as well.

Just get a solid one that you like the look of. Definitely don't try to import something fancy for a huge price difference.

The key is to train consistent. And that's possible on all the hangboards you mentioned.

Moon hangboard looks pretty rad. My gym has a bunch and I mostly use the beastmaker 2000 and sometimes supplement with little screwed on 6-9mm edges. I think the 35deg sloper is more useful than the 45deg anyway on the beastmaker (try one handed, weighted, etc). So basically for one board the moon one looks pretty awesome. That or the beast 2000 with some extra screw ons all mounted to a piece of plywood  along with whatever hooks or pulleys you want would be my preference. Try a sharpie if you can't remember the sizes?

As this is a Gear Forum:
I personally train on a Beastmaker 1000 and try to work my way up to 8a.

I also own the "Captain Fingerfood" portable hangboard from a small German company. I think the idea of having a permanent mount with angle changes is nice, but I don't have the mount myself.

I am happy with both products. Hanging on the portable board is quite a bit harder on the same nominal edge size. Probably because of the swinging involved.

I haven't tried any of the hangboards you posted. But the Y&Y looks pretty much like a copy of the BM1000 (so should be great).

The owl seems like a downgrade.

The moon Armstrong looks good as well, but I don't love the look of it.

Hangboards have been commercially manufactured for quite a while, I bought a Metolious Simulator in 1989 or so. In recent years a few companies have added several sophisticated features but nothing in the essence of the tool has changed; A variety of holds to hang on to, nothing someone with a router couldn't make. The previous poster was correct, I think. Hangboards are not overly complicated, and you would probably be happy with one of the popular models that, with consistent use, are very effective.       

Your cheapest option is screwing some campus rungs and micros/slopers to a backboard and using this. You might want to have a backboard anyway…

The tension and Beastmaker boards are miles better, thought out, comfortable than anything else on the market. Wood, radius, holds selection etc.
get one of those and you might actually use it which is the most critical factor.
I don’t like the big radius on the lattice hangboards, as it is to condition dependent imho. The opposite end of the spectrum would be the Lopez boards which are incredibly sharp and painful. This can be useful to prep skin though.

get a Beastmaker 1000. maybe used if you want to save money.

Oh, and don’t expect to become a better climber by hangboarding. Being strong on a hangboard does translate way less to climbing performance than people selling hangboards and training plans might make you think. So don’t be disappointed if you don’t break your plateau even though you can one arm a 20mm edge.

BM 1k and call it. It has all the edges you’ll need, hanging should be simple, it only takes a few grips to progress. I personally never train on slopers as it’s mostly conditions depends and (imo) doesn’t produce effective recruitment 

Tension Grindstone Mk2 is great. Sometimes they sell cheaper ones with very minor defects.

I'll pile on to what others have said: don't over complicate it. Get whatever wooden hangboard has the edge sizes you want. If you don't have a pull up bar, make sure you have some jugs. I have the beastmaker 1k and it's great but I pretty much only use the ~20mm edge and the jugs. If I changed my setup, I would do campus rungs/edges on a backboard. IMO, slopers are useless, climbing on slopers is way more about a combination of body position, open hand strength and wrist strength. Open hand strength can be trained on any edge and wrist strength can be trained with free weights.