Clove Hitch Not Setting in a Connect Adjust

Pretty niche here, but for the last year or so I’ve been carrying both a connect adjust and a sling for extending my rappel. Well, I recently saw a few vids of people clove hitching their device into the middle of the connect adjust and doing away with a separate sling for extending the rappel. Problem is, I’ve tried this a bunch of times now(while sitting on the couch) and I can’t get the clove hitch to set and it will unroll when I pull either end of the rope. I’m certain it’s a clove hitch and not a munter by accident. Anyone else have this problem and/or a solution?

Adding an example of what I’m trying to do: https://youtube.com/shorts/ohxfAkiFFg8?si=HXIW20IXpLyMT4UF

Edit: Going to try taking it to a gym and weighting while on a bolt. Hopefully that will resolve any issue as people suggested.

Can you post a video of your rolling clove so we can see? 

can you post a few pics on what you're doing?

Will do!

I think you probably need to practice your clove hitches. It's pretty tricky to tie one in this short bit of rope. I use this technique with the same equipment and it's sound.

J B wrote:

I think you probably need to practice your clove hitches. It's pretty tricky to tie one in this short bit of rope. I use this technique with the same equipment and it's sound.

JB is probably right, I've setup a few rappels that way but it's easy to mess up the clove when tying it like that and it'll just slip through

Here are some pictures of the problem: https://imgur.com/a/K5LnyHv 

 I tried to show the clove before and after the unraveling, in case that's where the issue is. It seems like the clove basically unfolds into the two loops that form it. It doesn't appear to slip and it doesn't do this 100% of the time, but I'd still be freaked to rappel on something that looks like that.

You can set the knot by grabbing the carabiner and pulling each tail of the clove hitch firmly. With use the rope sheath will wear a little, soften and knots will set more easily 

skill issue

The issue seems to be mostly that the clove isn't being set hard enough by weighting the strand that connects to your harness.

If you're trying this while sitting on the couch, I'd guess you can't get enough body weight on the clove to set it well. Try this while attached to an anchor you can properly weight and it will work fine.

What’s wrong with an alpine butterfly? I understand it will require a tad more rope but not *that* much… and honestly, the largest part of the problem likely stems from using the factory rope (yes, also combined with such a small stock radius to wrap the clove around). If you replace the rope with thinner cord, it will lock up much easier/faster

Christian Hesch wrote:

What’s wrong with an alpine butterfly? I understand it will require a tad more rope but not *that* much… and honestly, the largest part of the problem likely stems from using the factory rope (yes, also combined with such a small stock radius to wrap the clove around). If you replace the rope with thinner cord, it will lock up much easier/faster

It’s considerably more rope for an alpine butterfly, especially when you have maybe two feet of rope to begin with 

if you replace the rope with a thinner one your knots might lock up easier and faster but the lanyard device itself (the thing called the “Adjust,” the metal doohickey at the top) will start to slip at lower loads and depending on how dumb you are it could just stop working entirely 

It is indeed more rope, but only about 4 more inches over a clove… which shouldn’t be a huge issue, IMO, especially if you’re using an Evolv adjust (I know the OP said he was using a Connect, not an evolv).

OP, fwiw, you always have a quickdraw, right? And you always have a locker, right? I start each rap by stripping a QD, hanging each biner on the front of L and R gear loops, and wiggle the SlideLock into the rope side (tight side) of the QD. Clip that to belay loop, clip rap device biner to the other end. Viola, you’re extended. Also you have a free biner on either side of harness to hang the rope from (I typically don’t drop the end of the rope, but whip an overhand on a bight at the end, then clip that to my harness). I use two alpines for tethers, unless I happen to have my Evolv on my harness. Considering how long I have to make my Evolv strands, I could afford the extra 4” to make a AB instead of a clove, if I tried your method. Obviously the Connect is far shorter than the factory length Evolv.

Bb Cc wrote:

Pictures or you’re not sober typing, or maybe I’m…

Glad I’m not the only one that didn’t follow. 

The creep in the pictures is happening because the clove hitch is on the side of the carabiner opposite the load and so is pulled over the spine and gate.  This may be more a feature of the couch installation than what happens in the field.  I think there may be a general tendency to leave clove hitches loose, which is asking for trouble in many applications.

I think cloving the rap device to an adjustable tether is a kludge of no real utility. I seem to encounter many cases when I really want the full length of the adjustable tether and don't like to shorten it, even with a clove hitch. Oh, and an alpine butterfly is out of the question. 

For several years now I've always had a locking draw on my rack for clipping especially mission-critical pieces.  Use that to extend the rap device and leave the adjustable tether to do its job without shortening it.  Or do the extension with an over-the-shoulder runner doubled through the belay loop; this doesn't take any longer than tying a clove hitch on the tether.

Bb Cc wrote:

Pictures or you’re not sober typing, or maybe I’m…

I think the idea was to take the carabiners off of the draw, giving a free dogbone, and then using the dogbone as an extender.

I like you Alex, you’re a quick study. And yes, correct.

yes, edelrid slidelock has the smallest cross section of any locker I’m aware of, so it slides into the “keeper” side of a quickdraw dogbone more easily than most. 

Petzl connect for tethering and locker draw for rappel extension is *chefs kiss*

… a great idea.

Finishing Spencer’s thought.

Thanks, rgold.