PeteHall said:Off topic I know, but while we're on racks, another vote for the BMS microrack. I was given one by an American caver who I took caving on his UK holidays a number of years ago and I really rate it. Great all rounder I think. Good wear resistance as it's stainless. Bars are tubular, which mitigates the poor heat disipation of the stainless steel, but might get a shap edge when they wear through (like the new croll), but this will take a while and should be easy to detect before it goes.
The Petzl 5 bar rack is great for straight drops, but I find it awkward on technical SRT as it is so long. I ended up cutting the end off mine and turning it into a U-rack. It beats the BMS microrack for pull-through trips as it'll do two ropes and it's even easier for technical stuff as it's very short. Only let down is that it's crap on a thick rope (as it's too short). When the Petzl bars wore out, I made new ones from mild steel rod, which have good heat disipation and pretty good wear resistance.
I also have a kong (rackong?). It's pretty much identical to the BMS microrack in size and design, but has aluminium bars which seem to be wearing out VERY fast even if the heat disipation is good and it is lightweight. When they do, I'll make the new ones from mild steel I think...
Each stlye has it's place in SRT, just depends what sort of caving you do. I guess you could say racks for pitches or somethnig like that
I had a Kong Rakong and managed to mash the bars on a single pitch (3mm groove on 15m pitch!). I designed and a mate built a stainless steel (316) micro rack and haven't looked back.
