Camp Turbochest Ascender

Anyone use one of these for top-rope soloing?  They're new on the market so not much written about it.  It pops-up on arborist websites for tree climbers.
https://weighmyrack.com/ascender/camp-turbo-chest

I have played around with it. Its been available for a few years. It may be marginally less friction than the Petzl Croll S which I used previously.

For context: my setup is chest ascender with a short open loop sling to belay loop with small quicklink closure, then a Roll N' Lock below on the belay loop.

Its possible that using a Spoc instead of Roll N' Lock may allow the chest ascender to shine more.

The following link has one customer review that would make me question its use.

Weigh My Rack review of the camp turbo chest

I have TRS'd with a petzl croll and a back up. The TRS fanatics will poo poo on you for something that has the potential to open like the croll. YGD. If the biner on the turbo does actually block that from happening, then yeah, that would be a plus. As long as you are using two devices though I don't think it's really that much of an issue. I've ascended thousands of feet of rope on the croll (with a back up) and have never had it open. 

I personally think chest ascenders are great for TRS. All the extra stuff climbers due to properly orient their devices is unnecessary with the chest ascender which is already designed to sit in that orientation. Just make sure your systems are redundant. 

I asked Camp about the possibility of the rope escaping from the Turbochest Ascender with traverses or sideways pulls and got the following answer back.

the Turbochest has a two-stage mechanism to open the cam. So, there is not a way for this to occur in any normal circumstances. It must be used with ropes within the diameter range marked on the device. I have personally done many re-anchor traverses with it also and have never had an issue with this occurring.

How do you wear the turbo? What’s the system

Remember that with any ascender-style TRS device you'll be stuck hanging on the rope if you fall on overhanging terrain...  It's lame.

The TAZ LOV is the dream.  Buy one and be happy.

evan freeman wrote:

Remember that with any ascender-style TRS device you'll be stuck hanging on the rope if you fall on overhanging terrain...  It's lame.

Not if you know how to ascend a rope.  With a footwrap and a bit of batman, I can get 5 to 10 feet easily.  With further distances, I can simply add a sling to my backup ascender and switch to the traditional technique of jugging a rope.  Also, having to go down is never the better option.

Wholeheartedly agree with Gina. I used the Croll S previously, but would use either chest ascender without pause. Just make sure your devices are spaced appropriately.

When you are hanging, you are weighting the chest ascender, so its easy to take off the lower device, swap out to a GriGri, take up rope to disengage the chest ascender, open its cam to remove the rope, and descend... You could of course use a ATC style device, fig 8, munter, etc to rap if you had to. Just make sure the chest ascender is sufficiently high up to not knock into the GriGri. If you are free hanging and can't muscle it for a second to take up enough, you can put a carabiner through the hole in the top of the chest ascender and redirect the GriGri brake rope through it making a quick 3:1. So, no you are not "stuck" if you approach TRS with this setup and a small amount of pre-planning.

Of course we all know how to ascend a rope.  I shouldn't have used the word "stuck".  The point is that using a device that allows you to simply pull the handle to descend and try that section again is a far better experience than using an ascender.  Swapping in a different device is also kind of lame.  Ascenders (or Camp Lift, MT, etc) are perfectly safe for TRS, and I used one for years before obtaining something better.  If one is buying a new device for TRS, I recommend buying one that is awesome the first time.

At least for me, TRS is about trying stuff that's hard or working sections that I can barely do, so I like to do laps and make it easy to try stuff over and over again.  If I'm just moving quickly up a long route that I'm not going to fall on (like Main Line, the TRS dream), I'll just use a MT or 2 and call it good.

I have a Taz Lov 3 and while it is nice to have it all in one... plus a backup of course... the weight, bulk, lack of immediate lock, and poor rapping experience cause me to choose a chest ascender and other device setup over it.

Desert Rock Sports wrote:

I have a Taz Lov 3 and while it is nice to have it all in one... plus a backup of course... the weight, bulk, lack of immediate lock, and poor rapping experience cause me to choose a chest ascender and other device setup over it.

Lack of immediate lock seems incredibly rope dependent. I have a 9.5mm static it doesn't like to lock off on, and two 9.0mm ropes it does. The skinny statics are stiffer and have a rougher sheath, so maybe that's the difference? 

The taz being picky on ropes is definitely a downside.