bigbro - what d'ya know?

[iceslut]

so, i finally broke through the forcefield that was keeping me from purchasing a bigbro after years of wishing i could try one in an alpine setting. now i have one and i'm wonderin' if anyone has any practical experience. i'm lookin' for some objective dos and don'ts based upon experience. cheers.

[erik]

not that good imho.

 

way tough to place! pretty much need two hands.

 

such a specialty piece.

 

 

[forrest_m]

I have only placed my big bro like 3 times in ten years. The key is to find a very parallel spot in the crack, otherwise is it hard to get the ends of the tube to sit firmly. Like a nut, all it takes is one crystal to make your placement unstable, but you need much more surface area for the big bro. If you can’t get both sides to sit nice and flat, at least try to place is to that if it starts to rotate, it will at least be moving into a constriction (again, like a nut). Or get the crystal/bump/knob inside the tube, so that the big bro sits in the crack like the rod in a toilet paper holder. The problem is that these imperfect placements usually concentrate all the force on a single point on the tube rather than distributing it around the circumference.

 

I’ve found that they’re pretty easy to place with one hand if you get the location right on the first try, but as erik says, it’s almost impossible to adjust or fine tune the placement without two hands. This is one piece that usually stays home unless we know we need more than 4 or 5 big pieces (i.e. almost always)

[chucK]

They are pretty good to use as an adjunct piece to a monster cam. You can slide the monster cam above you as you climb, and set a bigbro or two as the leaver pieces. This is preferable for a few reasons.

 

Those giant cams are pretty unstable, especially when tipped near their maximum. They're much better suited to a bodyweight (perma-toprope) piece that is being continuously monitored, than as a leaver piece that might fall out as you thrutch by it, or jiggle the rope one too many times.

 

With the security of the big-cam "toprope" you can fiddle with the big bro until you have a bombproof leaver placement.

 

The big bros are less bulky and lighter than the giant cams. A mix of big bros big cams is less weight and hassle than all big cams.

[JoshK]

giant cams make an excellent wilderness survival tool. Attach to length of perlon and use as a swinging death weapon.

[iceslut]

gracias, i did not expect to use it in a pinch, more for bomber anchor fodder. although, weaponry did not immediately come to mind, removing the stop screw could allow it to be used as a nice projectile launcher....

[Bill_Simpkins]

They are good for sandstone offwidths. So I've heard....