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taraus_de_bull
Oct 23, 2003, 4:51 AM
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Ok, so i've got nuts, hexes, and tri-cams, and i'm looking to start adding cams to my rack. Their is a bunch of new cams and a ton of old cam choices. What cams do people swear by? The aliens look quite nice and i've heard good things. I've also heard good things about he Power cams and camalots too. So some help would be great. Thanks.
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reno
Oct 23, 2003, 4:54 AM
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Plenty of threads on cam comparison... did you search the archives?
Short version: Play/experiement/test as many of your friend's gear as you can, then buy whichever cams you like the best.
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taraus_de_bull
Oct 23, 2003, 5:04 AM
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yes i did do a forum search and i haven't really ready anything conviencing or anything about the new splitter cams? How do the trango flex cams work? i've read two bad posts and two good posts. they as good as the aliens go for flexible stems?
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savedbymynuts
Oct 23, 2003, 5:06 AM
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I belive aliens are a thing of the past they use to be a very hot item because they are flexible and their for great for horizontal placements since the steam can flex. I would suggest buying either Camalots buy blackdiamond or friends by wild country they are both very good cams and in most routes they are referred to to describe the width of the placements.
when you come to the point of doubling your rack then consider speciality cams. DMM makes 3 cams units that are cheap and very good for small placements but are not as versatile as camalots or friend both classics.
Feature you might consider
-do they have cam stops
-can they protect in horizontal as well as vertical cracks
-do they tend to walk
-are the trigger wires exposed
-do they have a good caming range
-are they heavy
this said the camalots have a greater caming range(because of the double axles) but they are heavier.
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savedbymynuts
Oct 23, 2003, 5:09 AM
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In reply to: they as good as the aliens go for flexible stems? |
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taraus_de_bull
Oct 23, 2003, 5:15 AM
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ok, so i found a thread bashing the splitter cams, so i can rule them out. are the tech. friends flexible, i don't see it where it says???
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jimdavis
Oct 23, 2003, 5:22 AM
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I picked up some Trango Flex Cams the other day. I haven't placed them yet so i can't say a whole lot there.
Aliens are nice for small cams, i've placed Aliens in some funky cracks and they held really well. The Metolius micro cams are pretty cool too, but the U stem makes them flexible horizontally, not vertically. Tech Friends are pretty stiff that way too though.
A buddy of mine guides all summer, he has climbed on just about every kind of gear out there, and he sticks by BD. We were talking today about cams and he just felt that the BD's were more solid, and he trusted them more than Friends, Power Cams, ect. He did say he was planning on getting some Aliens when he gets some money though.
As a whole though... BD have awesome range, WC are lighter than the BD's, U stems tend to wobble in larger sizes and don't flex well vertically, and Aliens don't have cam-stops. Rigid stems suck in horozontal placements too, you can get around it though (it's just not something I want anything to do with.)
Try and place your buddies' gear for a while and see what you like. All cams for the most part are good (except for HB's :evil: ) you just have to figure out if they're good at what you want.
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taraus_de_bull
Oct 23, 2003, 5:25 AM
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ok, so i think i've narrowed it down to a either a set of tech friends size 1.5 - 2.5 (5 cams) or camalots size 1 - 3.5 (4 cams), i'm leaning towards the tech. friends, what do you think?? Keep in mind i've placed cams only a few times and these would be the start of cams to my rack, so would these be a good back bone to build my cams rack off of?? any comments on the TCU or power cams??
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flagstaff_climber
Oct 23, 2003, 5:42 AM
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In reply to: ok, so i think i've narrowed it down to a either a set of tech friends size 1.5 - 2.5 (5 cams) or camalots size 1 - 3.5 (4 cams), i'm leaning towards the tech. friends, what do you think?? Keep in mind i've placed cams only a few times and these would be the start of cams to my rack, so would these be a good back bone to build my cams rack off of?? any comments on the TCU or power cams??
Go with the BDs if the choice is not primarily cost. The BDs are the best all around cam in the mid sizes. You cannot go wrong with BDs and every trad rack should have a set.
Rick
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pico23
Oct 23, 2003, 5:46 AM
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In reply to: Plenty of threads on cam comparison... did you search the archives?
If you did a search you'd have found all this info.
Let me sum it up for you.
Small cams: Aliens
Medium Cams: Camalots
Large Cams: Friends
Second set: It doesn't matter.
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savedbymynuts
Oct 23, 2003, 5:51 AM
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My fist set was BD camalots because choosing the right cam is easier. But you can't go wrong with technical Friends you can have more on your rack for then same weight and price as a BD rack
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andypro
Oct 23, 2003, 5:56 AM
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In reply to: ok, so i think i've narrowed it down to a either a set of tech friends size 1.5 - 2.5 (5 cams) or camalots size 1 - 3.5 (4 cams), i'm leaning towards the tech. friends, what do you think?? Keep in mind i've placed cams only a few times and these would be the start of cams to my rack, so would these be a good back bone to build my cams rack off of?? any comments on the TCU or power cams??
I hope you realize in this decision that the two sets you decribe are totally off in sizes. If you want soemhting to match up even remotely close to the sizes in friends youve chosen, you should think more of a .5-2 with camalots.
Going by street prices, youll only pay 5-10 dollars more for the 5 friends than you would for the 4 camalots, and in my opinion, what everyone thinks makes camalots the best, is pure hype. Go with the friends. They're cheaper, lighter, and just as well built (and you wont have to replace trigger wires. evil things). I own both and I like WC tech friends better.
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cantbuymefriends
Oct 23, 2003, 6:56 AM
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Cam review in Climbing mag:
http://www.climbing.com/equipment/cams212/
BD Camalots and Micro Camalots, Metolius micros sizes, Trango Flex cams and Wild Country Technical friends and Zeros got highest rating (A) in Price/performance value.
CCH Aliens, Metolius TCU and Power Cams, and Wired Bliss TCU and Quads got second to best rating (A-).
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alpnclmbr1
Oct 23, 2003, 7:16 AM
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0 and 00 tcu (some people like the small aliens)
green to red aliens
.75,1,2,3, camalots
tech friends and camalots for larger
for a general rack this is the best and has been for a while (granite in particular) I have never met a pro who would argue with this and as far as I am concerned it is not even debatable.
the only thing I have seen cam stops do is break when the cam pulls.
At one time tech friends were the best available, they are not anymore.
I have full sets of tcu's and tech friends because at one time they were the best.
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phugganut
Oct 23, 2003, 7:34 AM
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In reply to: At one time tech friends were the best available, they are not anymore.
Why not??? I think Tech Friends are the best cams available. IMHO they are the way to go. Get the WC Tech Friends.
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stanagesi
Oct 23, 2003, 9:18 AM
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:) Couple of things that haven't been mentioned.
Camalots are good because they ahve a large expansion range but are much heavier than it's rivals
Double stemmed quadcams (e.g DMM procams) mean the cam is narrower and can fit in slighly smaller placements than their single stemmed rivals ( e.g technical friends)
Look at weight and power stats.DMM procams (DMM is owned by wildcountry by the way) have identical strength and expansion ratings as wild country technical friends, yet are lighter.
And check this excellent link:
www.planetfear.com/climbing/features/howto/cams/cams1.html
Cheers si
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capn_morgan
Oct 23, 2003, 1:04 PM
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a few weeks ago, someone posted a link to a site where some guy has a list of almost all the cams on the market, their width, weight and the min and max USABLE size, I believe he had some mathmatical formula that he has tried with all the major brands..The interesting thing is that the BD cams range was usally not more then .1 or .2 more than other cams, but they weighed as much as 30% more. I have a #3 camaolt (it was 35% off) but i doubt i will buy too many at full price. In the larger sizes, 2+ the forged friends are great, if you need to place them in horzontals just get a gunks tie off. Try and find that chart, its most helpful.
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fitzontherocks
Oct 23, 2003, 1:45 PM
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I've only been trad climbing about a year and got my first set of Rock Empire Robot cams and find them perfectly serviceable. And cheap (a big consideration for me). I picked up a Clog on sale at REI and don't like it. The trigger on the sinlge stem is awkward to pull and the trigger wires got crimped about the second time I used it. There's a detailed review of thin cams in the (current) Dec. 1 '03 issue of Rock and Ice. Much of the info applies to those manufacturers' bigger cams.
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andypro
Oct 23, 2003, 3:13 PM
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In reply to: a few weeks ago, someone posted a link to a site where some guy has a list of almost all the cams on the market, their width, weight and the min and max USABLE size..... .....Try and find that chart, its most helpful.
I think your talking about Clyde Soles chart. It's here. (If this isn't the one you mean, look anyways, it's a good one :wink: )
http://clydesoles.com/ClydeSoles/Front%20folder/Cams%20by%20size.html
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