Back story........... 4 years ago 2 other guys and I were trying to teach a gal how to do a changeover on my friends ropewalker system. He uses a climbing style onrope1 harness with the belay loop. Both the rack and the QAS were on the same biner, clipped into the belay loop. No mater how tight she rigged the rack into the rope when doing the changeover from up to down, she couldn't do it and we couldnt figure out why. Later on we split the QAS onto 1 biner and the rack onto another separate biner and the changeover was accomplished with ease. I didn't think much of it as I use a caving harness and I have ALWAYS had a 7mm oval screwlink attaching the rack to the D ring, so I could remove the rack from the D ring without removing the D ring from the harness (ie on rope).
Fast forward to the weekend. I was climbing Fantastic Pit with my new 18" long rack which I was tuning for bridge day this weekend coming up. I tossed my pack to some friends at the top, went to do a changeover, and for the life of me I couldnt get the slack in the QAS line no matter how tight I rigged the rack. My 14" frame is 90* offset so the screw link puts the rack in ideal position for long rope where the face of the rack faces left and right. The 18" long rack of course is a straight frame so I put it directly onto my D ring. No matter what I could not change over so I ended up swinging into the attic, standing up, removing the qas, then rappelling back down to TAG hall.
The next day I used the 7mm oval screw link which put the rack face towards me (Do not like it this way at all) in Birthday pit, and it worked............. Sunday on the way home I climbed out of Cagles, 7mm on the long rack, and successfully did a changeover on the 18" rack like it was nothing, just like with the 14" frame.
What gives?
Why is it when the rack and the QAS/Cowstail is connected to the same "biner" or "d ring" with no link between, I find it impossible to do a changeover? Doing a changeover at the top of fantastic was rather frustrating due to this fact but whatever, I dealt with it.
impossible to do a changeover.
possible to do a changeover.
Pics of a quick mock up in the garage.
Anyone have an explanation?
When I do a changeover I usually put on 5 bars on a 14" 6 bar frame, wrap over the hyper then back down through the rack frame and lock it off with the last bar. Then I put on my knee basic and stand up and disconnect the QAS. I am at wits end.