UKC

bit of a boring question i admit, but fed up of almost losing my nuts every placement because the wires get stuck in the gate. any tried and tested racking krabs? cheers

In reply to Jacob k-d: I use these but mainly because the wires hang neatly and don't bunch up. Never had a problem with the gate and losing any gear.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/black-diamond-oval-wire-karabiner-p108235

In reply to Jacob k-d: Petzl Spirit bent gates.

They are a fairly common choice and I've been using them for well over a decade so you can safely say they are most definitely tried and tested.

In reply to Jacob k-d:
Any 'clean-nose' krab does the job. The only argument against the oval krab is that its sometimes hard to tell if its upside down.

In reply to Jacob k-d:
I use 3 large oval ones. I have painted them different colours so I can grab the right set quickly. I find krabs with a tooth best as the tooth sometimes stops the wires from being dropped. Others use toothless krabs for a smoother action.

Standard black diamond wiregates here.

In reply to Jacob k-d:

Which ever work for you.

Personally I hate ovals because I lost loads of wires off one once because I couldn't tell which way round it was. Others love them.

Some people like clean noses others like to have the hooked nose to stop wires sliding into oblivion.

I like slightly oversized racking krabs to allow the wires to spread out a bit.

In reply to CorR:
>The only argument against the oval krab is that its sometimes hard to tell >if its upside down.

Black Diamond oval wire gates for me. If your rack is in so much of a mess that you can't remember or tell which way up you have clipped your wires, then there's no hope.

In reply to Jacob k-d:

BD ovalwire. The nuts move around easily. As others have said, a potential negative is that you can't tell which way round it is, but I've never had that problem. I always put the biner back on my harness the same way so it's always in the orientation I expect. As also mentioned before, the tooth on the gate has saved me from dropping wires on several occasions!

In reply to Nick Russell:

Basically any krab will work to an extent, as long as you don't put too many wires on one krab. However krabs with a broad base will work much better.

I've used BD Oval wires a lot. I wrote a review of them a long time ago: http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=499

Reccently I've started using DMM Spectre 2s, which have the added advantage of being avaiable in different colours and asymetric. They're also a bit lighter too.

I would strongly reccomend not racking too many wires on one krab.

1) They are far likely to tangle when you are fiddling around one handed in extremis.

2) If you do drop them you've drop them you've dropped most of you wires.

FWIV I rack have 6 wires per krab, split over three krabs. I then have an additional small krab with 8 brass micro wires.

Petzl Spirit, BD Hotwires, WC Helims amd DMM Shaddows are all good racking krabs.

In reply to Jacob k-d:

i racked my nuts on a shunt once when jumping into a river with it clipped to my harness the wrong way. f*ck it hurt, almost drowned.

In reply to ice.solo: that comment deserves special recognition.


I get on well with the DMM Spectre, I wouldn't get on well with oval ones for the reason oft stated above - that you don't know if its upside down

In reply to GrahamD:

You've just reminded me that I've got two extra-large Vaude 'Cargo Clip' racking/accessory krabs that are surplus. I used them to rack ice screws before I upgraded my harness to one that took the purpose designed plastic racking clips.

They are probably best suited to racking larger items like pitons but could be used to rack anything including wires.

Photo at http://www.flickr.com/photos/79453431@N08/8638536136/ and now listed on the for sale forum for £8 posted for the pair.

In reply to ice.solo:

& yet another case for the 'like' button

In reply to Jacob k-d: RE oval krabs. I always place them on my harness the same way and I mark them at the gate end so apart from the very few occassions when they spin round on the harness telling which way up they are has never been a problem.

With regard to wires catching on the gates. My preferred method is to have no more than 6 x wires on a krab, 4 with the larger nuts with thicker wires. When I place a runner I unclip the karabiner from the harness and place the wire that I want in the crack. I then replace the krab on the harness minus one nut and then put a QD on the runner. The only time I have experienced nuts falling off the wire or getting caught in the nose of the gate has been when using others racks with too many wires racked on one krab.

In reply to Jacob k-d: these http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/non-locking-carabiners/owall marked which is the top.

No gate notch, so wires don't get stuck.

In reply to krikoman:
I like the DMM version:
http://dmmclimbing.com/products/ultra-o-plain/

In reply to Jacob k-d:

Sorry if this is obvious - but when you've placed a wire, and the others are hanging down from the crab, the crab will usually need to be rotated so that the whole thing can be unclipped from the placed wire. At this point, take care to rotate the crab in the optimum direction, so that the remaining wires slide across the back bar rather than the gate.

I have found Wild country Titan Krabs to be particulary good racking crabs with lots of space, clean nose and nice to handle. Then again most of this is personal preference and most krabs will do the job. I also like having different krabs for different bits of kit i.e titans for racking wires, spectre/prowire draws and phantoms for cams etc

In reply to Jacob k-d:
I really like DMM Ultra-O krabs. Gear hangs neatly, keylock nose stops wires snagging. Only downside as said, its hard to tell if its the right way up,