Metolius cam placement with head rotated 90 degrees
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I've been climbing trad for 3 years or so but using almost exclusively Black Diamond C4's and C3's. Today I came across this picture on the Metolius website: |
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That is a feature of the Metolius Super Cams. They look pretty neat. I have a small and medium. I find them to have nearly the same expansion of my #2 and #3 C4's. Perhaps with a bit more head width/surface area on the cam lobes which I believe makes little difference when placing on granite. |
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I think those illustrations are examples of supercam placements. Supercam shave asymmetrical lobes resulting in these sorts of placements. Any standard cam placements should look more like what you see up top. |
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I think you've misread the picture to think that both cam lobes are rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Actually, the larger lobe is rotated counter-clockwise 90deg, and the smaller lobe is rotated clockwise 270deg. |
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doak wrote:I think you've misread the picture to think that both cam lobes are rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Actually, the larger lobe is rotated counter-clockwise 90deg, and the smaller lobe is rotated clockwise 270deg.Good call Doak. Thanks. |
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Lower left hand illustration - looks like it would act just like a nut, but with the springs adding to it's power to remain placed. Possible drawback; if I have my physics right, all the load would drop onto the lower cam lobes, rather than being distributed over 4. If Metolius has made the cam lobes strong enough to deal with a typical fall, you're probably in pretty good shape. |
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I will just add that a small/silver supercam placed in the green range is the most solid feeling for cam placements of any cam I place. Maybe its the super stable width of the cam lobes on the axle, maybe it's the beefy surface area, or maybe that it is just bomber. I don't exactly know. It just reminds me of placing a hex, only for cams. |
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caribouman1052 wrote:Lower left hand illustration - looks like it would act just like a nut, but with the springs adding to it's power to remain placed.I'd say it's more like a Tricam (one side fixed, one side rotating), with the springs adding to it's stability. A fall would cause the width of the cam to expand, unlike with a nut. |