As far as the Kong documentable accidents, I have come up with nothing. My curiosity and pointed question would be this, was it gear failure, or operator error? Was it in normal working conditions, or was it during formal testing.
See, when you test gear, you do all you can do to see at what point or places it can fail. If you are TRYING to make something fail (any product) then you probably will. If you ram the ascenders through branches, or up against a limb just right while pushing up through, then events can happen. I could make Quercus' dual petzls fail if I set my intent to do that, or we could climb safely on them for the next decade without incident.
All ascenders are built pretty much the same, at least from the cam mechanism. Major differences are in the handle design.
We discussed years ago how to back up duals, and how to modify the design of the Kong duals to be more safe.
Basically, this meant shortening the thumb release bars to be shorter, pan-headed, and less like a protruding rod. Place a hole (thru-rivet) in the area where the cam lever seats while disengaged. A keychin biner is inserted through this as a stop, preventing the cam from possibly moving into the disengage position. Add a captive bar (just like Quercus' thru-bolt) to keep the rope from any possibility of escaping the ascender shell and finally, an ATTACHMENT POINT at the top of the ascender for insertion of a locking biner and attachment of your backup.
These first two mods can be done at home, but shouldn't have to be. Kong DID put in the hole for the keychin biner in the last couple years, that helps, but there's still a ways to go, easy, easy to do at the Italy end, and we shouldn't have to mod our gear for enhanced safety. Or reconfigure existing gear into something that's better than current stuff.
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Originally Posted by Ekka Lets see how long it takes Tree Machine to recruit him. |
Knock, knock..... Kong Bonaiti..... are you home....?