marysboy said:
paul said:
Use a 7mm GO Maillon for connecting your safety link to the bottom of your main Maillon and you don't need a spanner as the 7mm Maillon fits perfectly.
you don't mention type of harness so i'm presuming conventional petzl superavanti/fractio type cavers harness. my understanding is that attaching load bearing links (eg hand jammer safety cord) to BOTTOM of central maillon is not in accordance with the manufacturers instructions for either the maillon OR harness. i think its important that people considering this method are aware of this.
maillons are not intended to be loaded on the gate side. loading on the underside also puts the jammer attachment point below the harness attachment points, increasing the risk of being tipped upside-down in a fall/loading (which is already known to be a risk with the low attachment of cavers sit harnesses). would be interested in forum users' real-world experiences of loading and falling onto this setup - does it match or differ from these expectations?
lastly it seems unnecessary to me to clip the underside given that the safety cord with MR - or without - could just as easily be attached to the upper side of the central maillon as intended. i would be interested to hear your reasoning on this point.
Yes, I have been using Petzl Fractio type harnesses for many years (starting with Caving Supplies, then two Petzl Crolls (yes, it was called that), several Singing River Diggers and then several Petzl Fractios).
The reason I was given to connect the safety-link to the bottom of the man Maillon was two-fold: first was that it left the top section less cluttered already having cowstails, chest jammer and descender attachment karabiner and second, so that a 7mm GO Maillon could also be used to tighten the main Maillon (as covered by Nige in the video clip above).
If I have ever weighted the safety-link, the central Maillon has tended to twist so that the bottom rises in front and the top lowers behind and with the length of the 7mm Maillon means the height WRT the footloop is hardly changed.