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Kong Duck Rope clamp

L

lancebrackin

New Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2020
Messages
12
I received my Cruzr saddle in the mail yesterday. I am going to start practicing today. I am looking for some information on using the Kong duck rope ascender. I understand how it goes on the rope, but I was wondering if I need the oval shaped carabiner to move freely in it?
Can anyone share their experience?


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I use a kong duck on my tether. I have a regular black diamond locking biner paired with it. Works fine.

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It will work with any carabiner that can fit in the carabiner hole. However, an oval carabiner allows you to freely rotate the carabiner around without unhooking it from the Duck. I find its nice to have that ability to re-align the gate opening easily.
 
I played with the Kong Duck for a while; I much prefer it to the Ropeman 1, largely because it's got smoother teeth that are less likely to chew up the rope or have a rope failure in the event of a fall, and it's rated for 8mm rope and I'm using Oplux for tether and lineman's belts.

I thought the duck was neat, but got rid of it when I decided to go with tended prusiks instead: I'm using the ottolini mini figure 8 with a small loop of paracord hooked into the carabiner as a tender: it's definitely not as smooth as the duck, but adequate.

Some people have asserted that the duck isn't rated for the sorts of uses we're putting it to, but I did some research and disagree with that assessment; caveat that I'm in no way an expert. Specifically, folks point to the duck in a load-hauling configuration where the rope is supposed to go around the central carabiner connection (for example, in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3m_DDP2fA). But critically, that is for load lifting, and has less to do with breaking strength of the duck and more to do with not accidentally unlocking the load. This video from Kong shows this in more detail:

Because of the shape of the Duck, the oval carabiner will move around more freely but isn't strictly necessary. I tried it with an oval and at one point realized that I was cross-loading the carabiner on my lineman's loop, just through natural movement. I noticed before I put a lot of weight on it, but still; that was one of the reasons I moved away from the mechanical ascender in general.
 
DanCrossNYC said:
I played with the Kong Duck for a while; I much prefer it to the Ropeman 1, largely because it's got smoother teeth that are less likely to chew up the rope or have a rope failure in the event of a fall, and it's rated for 8mm rope and I'm using Oplux for tether and lineman's belts.

I thought the duck was neat, but got rid of it when I decided to go with tended prusiks instead: I'm using the ottolini mini figure 8 with a small loop of paracord hooked into the carabiner as a tender: it's definitely not as smooth as the duck, but adequate.

Some people have asserted that the duck isn't rated for the sorts of uses we're putting it to, but I did some research and disagree with that assessment; caveat that I'm in no way an expert. Specifically, folks point to the duck in a load-hauling configuration where the rope is supposed to go around the central carabiner connection (for example, in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3m_DDP2fA). But critically, that is for load lifting, and has less to do with breaking strength of the duck and more to do with not accidentally unlocking the load. This video from Kong shows this in more detail:

Because of the shape of the Duck, the oval carabiner will move around more freely but isn't strictly necessary. I tried it with an oval and at one point realized that I was cross-loading the carabiner on my lineman's loop, just through natural movement. I noticed before I put a lot of weight on it, but still; that was one of the reasons I moved away from the mechanical ascender in general.
Click to expand...


I am curious in the "tended prusiks". Can you show me a picture?

I am not sure if I will stick with the kong or not. I am a fan of the prusik knot.
 
I'll do you one better and link to the video I got the basic idea from. Average Jack Archery gives a much better explanation of how it works than I could:


I'm using one of the ottino (I think I said "ottolini" earlier, but I was wrong: it's "ottino") mini figure 8's and a little loop of paracord to lash it to a carabiner. I understand that Kong started making these things as keyrings, but they work well for this on 8mm rope. You can pick one up from EWO here: https://doublesteps.com/product/kong-ottino-mini-figure-8/

Hope that helps!

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Oh and PS: you _can_ use a duck with a prusik if you want. That's what I was playing with before I stopped using the ascender. As long as the prusik is above the duck, you should be good to go. The duck will act as an auto-tender for the prusik, and you can let off with one hand if you sort of loop the pull tab for the duck through your pinky finger and grab the prusik in your fist.

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DanCrossNYC said:
I'll do you one better and link to the video I got the basic idea from. Average Jack Archery gives a much better explanation of how it works than I could:


I'm using one of the ottino (I think I said "ottolini" earlier, but I was wrong: it's "ottino") mini figure 8's and a little loop of paracord to lash it to a carabiner. I understand that Kong started making these things as keyrings, but they work well for this on 8mm rope. You can pick one up from EWO here: https://doublesteps.com/product/kong-ottino-mini-figure-8/

Hope that helps!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

After watching the video I threw this together with some paracord and a ring I had laying around. So far it works great but I haven’t used it in a tree yet. I had planned on picking up a couple ropemans but I’ll give this a try first. Thanks for posting!
 
Interesting video. I like the idea of a pruisic better than the ropeman but wanted something to make it easier to adjust one handed. That little ring and paracord should work for that. Plus I didn’t have to drop a bunch of money.
 
DanCrossNYC said:
I played with the Kong Duck for a while; I much prefer it to the Ropeman 1, largely because it's got smoother teeth that are less likely to chew up the rope or have a rope failure in the event of a fall, and it's rated for 8mm rope and I'm using Oplux for tether and lineman's belts.

I thought the duck was neat, but got rid of it when I decided to go with tended prusiks instead: I'm using the ottolini mini figure 8 with a small loop of paracord hooked into the carabiner as a tender: it's definitely not as smooth as the duck, but adequate.

Some people have asserted that the duck isn't rated for the sorts of uses we're putting it to, but I did some research and disagree with that assessment; caveat that I'm in no way an expert. Specifically, folks point to the duck in a load-hauling configuration where the rope is supposed to go around the central carabiner connection (for example, in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3m_DDP2fA). But critically, that is for load lifting, and has less to do with breaking strength of the duck and more to do with not accidentally unlocking the load. This video from Kong shows this in more detail:

Because of the shape of the Duck, the oval carabiner will move around more freely but isn't strictly necessary. I tried it with an oval and at one point realized that I was cross-loading the carabiner on my lineman's loop, just through natural movement. I noticed before I put a lot of weight on it, but still; that was one of the reasons I moved away from the mechanical ascender in general.
Click to expand...

I concur with what Dan said. I thought the same thing about the load Dan. You will find videos on YouTube saying that most people are using it wrong. Personally, I think using it without the rope going under and over the "pulley" is fine. We are not loading it with the pulley type of weight. Go watch the video from the website on Kong Duck, and let that guide your decision making.
 
DanO said:
It will work with any carabiner that can fit in the carabiner hole. However, an oval carabiner allows you to freely rotate the carabiner around without unhooking it from the Duck. I find its nice to have that ability to re-align the gate opening easily.
Click to expand...
I'm using it with the Kong Oval carabiner that DanO sells, works great.

doublesteps.com

Kong Carabiner – Oval Alu Classic

Kong carabiner – Oval Alu Classic Screw Sleeve. Recommended for use with the Kong Duck.
doublesteps.com doublesteps.com
 
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