Moderator: Tim White
Amazingracer wrote:NZ, I had looked at the Omni, but I like the stainless steel, and I hate the auto-locking carabiners. They seem unsafe to me. It's just a mental thing for me, I know they are perfectly fine, just something about an auto locking carabiner irks me. Thats why I wont use a Freino with my stop.
Dwight Livingston wrote:The problem is more likely to be the spacing between the two sets of male threads, not the thread size. In one D maillon I had, I corrected the problem by putting the maillon in a vice and cranking the gap closed a little. It took a quite a few trys but I closed the gap and the thread worked fine. I also tried that for another maillon and it made it worse. I think in that case the threads were out of alignment. Anyway, it's something to try.
NZcaver wrote:Yeah, I have to admit I was once a little suspicious of auto-locking devices too. My regular carabiners were always screw-lock (or non-locking). The Omni Tri-Act and Freino are the only two exceptions, and since I got them I've never looked back. I just couldn't come up with any legitimate reason why an auto-locking device would be any worse than a screw lock in terms of safety or functionality. I physically check mine are closed and locked each time, just like I would a screw lock. There's some anecdotal evidence that auto-locks can become fouled easier, making it tough to close or open. But it's never happened yet with mine, and I don't clean these any more diligently than I do any other device.
I also know there are a number of cavers out ther (not necessarily you) that "won't trust" 20kN-rated aluminum maillons... and yet they happily trust aluminum carabiners all the time. Never understood that.
ek wrote:I think the suitability of an auto-locking carabiner for caving depends greatly on what kind of auto-locking mechanism it uses. I have never heard of anybody having problems using the twist-lock on the Freino, and I have never heard of anybody *not* having problems with the Am'D Ball-Lock (it's hard when your hands are cold, and even if the mechanism is not penetrated by dirt, you can't find the little ball when it's all covered in mud...).
I also know there are a number of cavers out ther (not necessarily you) that "won't trust" 20kN-rated aluminum maillons... and yet they happily trust aluminum carabiners all the time. Never understood that.
Maybe they habitually leave their maillons open and are counting on steel because it tends to deform rather than shatter when overloaded.
ek wrote:My Triact-Lock Omni doesn't fully auto-lock anymore, and hasn't for quite some time. I have to do the final turn myself. I always checked to make sure it was locked, so this has never been a safety problem *for me*; I just have to remember to make that turn.
On the other hand, I have a lot of trouble working it open when my hands are cold, so I'll probably buy an Omni Screw-Lock in the not-too-distant future.
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