TCUs in the South

After living in NC for a couple of years and regularly going out to Moores/Linville/The New, I notice a lot of route postings and guidebooks have TCUs listed in the recommended gear. Aside from the occasional Moores route demanding uber-specific gear I’ve found most routes take C4s and Totems quite fine. So just curious and wanted to hear from other people if they think there’s better placements out there using TCUs or if it’s more personal preference.

Mike,

Any small cans work fine.  At the time many of the older guidebooks were published, TCUs were the most widely available small cams.

Tricams can be nice at the Glass, but they are not mandatory by any means.

safe climbing 

A red c3 and blue/yellow tcu’s always seem to fit when you need them most. 

Mike Palmer wrote:

After living in NC for a couple of years and regularly going out to Moores/Linville/The New, I notice a lot of route postings and guidebooks have TCUs listed in the recommended gear. Aside from the occasional Moores route demanding uber-specific gear I’ve found most routes take C4s and Totems quite fine. So just curious and wanted to hear from other people if they think there’s better placements out there using TCUs or if it’s more personal preference.

Yeah, the tcu reference is mostly historical. They were a real game changer 30 years ago, but the placements that require that narrow a head are few and all f these new fangled small cams work just fine, usually better in most placements (have warily become n love with my totems), though Sporty n the past had no issues taking 30 footers on a purple (#0). ‘Bomber man.”
Mr. Ellis is wrong on the utility of tri-cams though, these were even more of a game changer than tcus, and I could put him or any of you on a number of NC routes where these are required (even the big ones, thinking of a route on Fodderstack where you had better f**king have a green—what is that, a #4?) or your head might explode. 

Smh tricams suck and you know it

BigCountry wrote:

Smh tricams suck and you know it

Hush your blasphemy! They're the best thing Jesus ever invented and I'm being dead serious! Repent or burn in ball nut hell!

Ti ck wrote:

It makes me sicker than a Guatemalan hooker when I look over an see someone with tricams on their rack, filth 

If my tricams give you VD. They're even more useful than I ever imagined! 

Danny Birchman wrote:

If my tricams give you VD. They're even more useful than I ever imagined! 

They say the Pink ones get the most milage.

Shaniac wrote:

They say the Pink ones get the most milage.

I mean the pink one is better than the brown one.

"TCUs" were used as a catch-all term for small, flexible cams.  The term represented all brands of cams in the sizes of fingers and everything smaller. This terminology shows up in guidebooks from the 80s and 90s.

Sean Barb wrote:

"TCUs" were used as a catch-all term for small, flexible cams.  The term represented all brands of cams in the sizes of fingers and everything smaller. This terminology shows up in guidebooks from the 80s and 90s.

Almost. They had to have three lobes to be TCUs. For example, the old WC FlexiFriend (1990) went very small, but was never considered a TCU. 

Blue TCU and pink Tricam are the go-to north carolina pieces!

Another one for the blue metolius - hardly ever climb a pitch on NC granite where I don't place mine.