Stiffening old tricams

Unlike the new style of tricams which has a stiff webbing for easy one handed placements, the older style tricams have a loop in them that makes them floppy and cumbersome to place since you have to hold the tricam closer to the head, or old them by the head itself, which is awkward in the smaller sizes. I guess that CAMP made them like that so that rope tugs could be slightly mitigated on the placement of they are clipped directly. I really don't do that much clipping direct since I use tricams on easier routes or slabs which wander and whatna.

Anyway, does anyone know of a way to stiffen these up to be placed like the modern tricams? I use them somewhat often, usually on easier routes or in the backcountry to supplement cams for less weight, and the occasional visit to the Gunks in the future may be nice to have extras for anchors. I figured a few wraps of masking tape but I was wondering if anyone has any other ideas or had a novel fix for this already. Thanks!

{insert inappropriate Viagra joke here}

I seem to recall seeing a guy that cut a strip of plastic from a milk jug as a backbone and then wrapped the whole thing in athletic tape.

Tape by itself -- or wraps of tape to hold thin plastic strips in place that have been inserted between the strands of webbing. But, IMO, the stiffer slings have led some people to sort of blindly place tri-cams deep into cracks -- insert deep, yank, and go (like SLCDs). This makes them much harder to eye-ball and extract -- which is usually a fingery task.

Edit: Nathanael beat me to it!

Buddy of mine does what Nathanael indicates, except he uses strips cut from the lid of a rubbermaid tub and wraps with duct tape. Seems to work really well.

^ Wraps of plasic marking tape works well. You could probably splint it with a pipe cleaner or a plastic coffee stirrer.

-Z

I use plastic electrical wire ties (zip ties) cut to length and taped at both ends. Works great!

Tape, zip ties, flattened plastic straw from McDonalds, plastic milk carton. They all work.

Sewing machine. run a couple lines of straight stitches up and down the floppy area until you like the stiffness level.

Find a piece of cardboard to put in the middle and than wrap it in tape. It is simple and works good.

This is a picture of holding my new and old ones straight out in the air (picture top down) not laying on the ground.

Seth Jones wrote:hairspray. lots and lots of hairspray.

I'm going with apparently my default answer for all tricam repair threads:

Tricams are what? $20?

I'm not spending $20 on new tricams when I have ones for free that are just a bit floppy that took me 5 minutes to fix with a set of small zip ties and an old orange juice bottle.

Nolan Huther wrote:I'm not spending $20 on new tricams when I have ones for free that are just a bit floppy that took me 5 minutes to fix with a set of small zip ties and an old orange juice bottle.

Use climbing tape to tape a ziptie backbone to the tricam

I find it funny that noone has said get a few reslind with dynema. I was looking into getting some of mine redone this winter and i saw like 7 or 8 bucks per tricam to get them redone. If you have any onlder ones with ratty slings. Why not give this a try?

grant N wrote:

I find it funny that noone has said get a few reslind with dynema. I was looking into getting some of mine redone this winter and i saw like 7 or 8 bucks per tricam to get them redone. If you have any onlder ones with ratty slings. Why not give this a try?

If I'm understanding your post correctly...  You are suggesting that getting Tricams reslung with dyneema webbing will make them stiff like the new style Tricams webbing?  If that is correct, then unless you know something I don't know, this won't work. I have not been able to find any resling service that will resling Tricams in the newer reinforced/stiffer style. And having it reslung it with dyneema or nylon will end up with a floppy Tricam sling that you'll have to find a way to stiffen if you don't like how it places like that. 

grant N wrote:

I find it funny that noone has said get a few reslind with dynema. I was looking into getting some of mine redone this winter and i saw like 7 or 8 bucks per tricam to get them redone. If you have any onlder ones with ratty slings. Why not give this a try?

How will that make them stiffer? (Which is what the OP asked for)

Unfortunately the name of the busiess that resling them illudes me, i want to say it is in arizona or texas. Their website mentioned that the relinhing woul be stiff, like the current ones. I think dynema is a little stiffer than nylon to begin with.

But it would be professionally sewn probably more so than trying to sew the nylon ones himself. In addition if professionally done it would be sleek and streamline, me so than a diy job.( dont get me wron I love DIY jobs, Aka Magivering) But by having it professionally done it will be ganunteed integrity with stability. Not nessasarily so with a diy. The streamline would also help with cumbersome placements and would would not obscure the view of the whole tricam like a bulky diy job might

Finally a use for all your old Tublular webbing! Cut a strip, place around the sling (Two open ends, slide tricam sling through), viola! Works pretty well and we all (at least a lot of us) have the antiquated style webbing sitting around.

Nolan Huther wrote: Meal plan, bruh. That's not *real* money. Swipe away and I have food off my beloved tuition.

cause I'm sure nobody ever pays for that...