Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Topic Date User

DMM Torque Nuts (review) 18-Oct-2010 At 6:03:46 PM voodoo

Message

I thought I'd share my take on them as I didn't see them feature in any search results...

My original intention was to grab a couple of bits of extra gear to help pad out the cam rack. You know, for that situation where you're climbing an endless, consistently wide hand-crack and you're rattling through all the cams you and your partner brought in that size. :)

I also figured that I'd grab something a little different (rather than yet more cams) because every bit of gear has its strengths and weaknesses - it's nice to have options.

So I thought that some hexes would fit the bill nicely, providing plenty more extension to my existing rack without adding too much weight. I'd selectively add them or remove them from my rack depending on what the climb looked like it would gobble.

So really, the way I saw it, the choice was between the WC Rockcentrics and the BD Hexentrics. I'd had a bit of a play with a mate's rockcentrics, though they were the older variety wired ones unlike the current slung ones. I'd also taken a trip with a set of hexentrics and not really noticed the curved vs straight sides making a huge difference in the quality of my placements. In fact either way my placements always seemed to leave a lot to be desired. They would move and dislodge pretty easily, and more often than is desirable, as I climbed past them!

I'd done the fatal thing and gone looking on the net for advice and those in the BD camp in the slings-vs-wires debate were adamant that wires were better because you could place higher by holding the stiff wire. And this was how I was placing them. Once I started holding the heads of the hexes instead my placements grew better, but still not great. I found the the wire still acted like a big spring to push the heads away from their ideal camming position.

But then looking at the alternatives I could just see 9 slung WC's on a racking biner forming a massive knitted mess. And not a lot of people were posting about their experiences racking all those slings, or how they were going about it.

It was during this paralysing buyer's-indecision that I saw the DMM Torque Nuts. You only get 4 in a set, but the set covers the same range as 7 hexes. For me this sounded perfect - I only wanted to extend my existing rack by the inclusion of a few extra backup pieces. I didn't really want to add another 700g of pendulous aluminium to my harness. And anyway I figured, at $59 I could afford to take a punt - and possibly end up with some colourful paperweights.

The vertict? They're freaking great. They're super easy to place, and for me I tend to find that perfect rock-solid bomber placement right off the get-go. There's fewer of them and each one has greater range which greatly increases the chances of grabbing the right one. And unlike my experience with stiff wires they cam in like little beauties and don't budge a millimeter.

The extendable sling option is nice to have - I have racked each one with a biner, saving a draw and avoiding the possibility of a knitted cardigan impersonation. The other notable feature (?), they're ludicrously LOUD! Clang, clang, clang...

Anyway - super pleased with them, the price (albeit online from the states) is fantastic, and I'd recommend them to anyone.