No.58 2025 Summer Gear Review
Gear review and technical advice Spring/Summer 2025
KINISI MAX
DMM’s first and premier collaboration with TREEMAGINEERS, a remake of their classic TREEMOTION harness.
For those of you newer to the industry, it may be confusing as to why Teufelberger and DMM have exceptionally similar looking
harnesses in their collection.
The original TREEMOTION, was designed by Beddes Strasser, Mark Bridge and Chris Cowell and brought to market in collaboration with DMM and Teufelberger, circa 2007.
DMM made the hardware and Teufelberger the software and it became an instant classic, everyone wore a TREEMOTION.
There were several iterations; Standard, Super Light and Evo, each with slightly different design concepts, weights, price points etc.
After the Evo model, contracts between Teufelberger and TREEMAGINEERS weren’t renewed, & Teufelberger produced subsequent models by themselves, both hardware and software, leading some to wonder about an obvious drop in product quality.
KINISI MAX is the flagship model in the new collaboration between DMM and TREEMAGINEERS.
Quality is back to being top notch and there are four models in
the series; MAX, PRO, AIR, KEY.
It took a while for me to get the settings dialed in on my MAX, and I ended up chatting to Mark about it.
Ordinarily the fit of a harness is adjusted by lengthening and shortening the upper and lower webbing along with the bridge length.
A longer bridge puts the device further away from the climber and when moving from side to side, as the climber changes position, it moves slowly.
The longer the bridge the less force is applied into the climbers hips.
A shorter bridge puts the device closer and side to side movement is faster.
A shorter bridge increases force at the hips.
When SRS climbing became popular in 2009 everybody seemed to want a short bridge, to help when ascending.
I’m not sure what the fashionable thing is these days.
Having options to adjust the bridge length is great.
I assumed that the long bridges would be a nuisance but the thing is they are long enough to store tidily away when the bridge is used in a normal length configuration.
(Photo 2) guides both bridges upwards from the adjustable cams.
(Photo 3) keeps them from drooping downwards.
(Photo 4) tidies the ends.
More recently I don’t adjust them often and when I do I have to remove them from the retaining carabiner.
The personalized placement of the STOWAWAY loops and XSRE carabiners is great.
The upper and lower webbing controls both your bodies centre of mass and the restrictive or looser feel of the harness.
I was struggling because the back pad kept sliding upwards while I climbed, so I incrementally shortened the upper and lower webbing, to the point that the whole harness felt restrictive.
Mark suggested using the side and rear elastics to control the feel and position of the back pad, this allowed me to lengthen the webbing & stop the back pad from sliding up my back.
Finally it felt great without sliding out of position.
It’s a large and heavy harness and comfort is supreme while allowing for great customization of gear racking and overall feel.
Photo 1:
The CAMP gyro has a steel loop that keeps wear and tear and the bridge to a minimum.
They are compact and offer a choice of 2, 3 and even 5 attachment points.
Photo 5:
Using Petzl Rollclip karabiners on the front D’s is useful.
Fairleading the rope is the main point and are well placed to clip rigging ropes and slings into.
Photo 6:
Matching MEGA VAULTS on the left and right hand side helps to keep the climber from being ergonomically left or right side focused.
The MEGA VAULT has a unique feature in being able to hold open the gate.
When the chainsaw is in constant use keep it open, close it when climbing.
Photo 7,8,9:
Sawpod have recently done a kickstarter to re-release the Ropepod.
The new version comes with a DMM CAIMAN pre-installed. I copied it.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/didarby/ropepod-arborists-retractable-lanyard
Photo 10:
My lanyard guides through the small IMPEL pulley, attached to the REECOIL hydration pack.
The purple pouch is a prototype from REECOIL.
Photo 11:
Lanyard carabiner attaches to small STOWAWAY loop.
Photo 12:
I’m still adjusting these three attachment points, small STOWAWAY, VAULT LOCK & MICRO VAULT. The OYAJI STICK always clips onto the MICRO VAULT with a locking XSRE, as I’m scared to lose it!
EW46
ODSK finally released the new Elephant Winch! Its like the big brother of the
small sister, which is the powerful and elegant original EW40.
My rigging style uses multiple lightweight elements, 10 and 12 mm dyneema rope,
multiple winches, smaller blocks. This allows me strength and control. Putting
a smart winch or GRCS into a rigging system is helpful but such a depressive
thought when the worksite is far from the parking area. Strength of the Smart
Winch and GRCS comes down to the bolts holding the Harken 46 onto the backplate.
The EW46 is literally the same strength as both these classic and heavy winches.
As I was carrying, mounting and using the EW46 these last few months I felt that
the era of over-engineered, heavy, rigging tools is over. Its over. Welcome to
the Elephant Winch era.
PCW4000 / 4500
High speed constant winching with MAKITA drills tends to damage radial winches.
For work sites that require long lateral winching, the PCW series is great. I
love the 4000 and 4500 because of the in-built clutch. Easy to use, fast and
powerful. I’ve been using 10 and even 8mm dyneema on them as the smaller
diameter puts more wraps (holding power) on the capstan.
ROPEPOD + DMM Impel
Its an old tool that went out of stock years back and is now being remade in the
UK. There is a kickstarter running at the moment. The main reason I’m putting
this on the list is because of a cool little pulley from DMM that I configure to
the ROPEPOD, called IMPEL. I reinstalled the ROPEPOD on the rear off my KINISI
MAX and was being bothered by the lanyard catching on things. Now the lanyard
runs upwards, through the IMPEL and lets me pay out the lanyard with zero
friction. The ROPEPOD makes storing rope very tidy and the way it runs through
the IMPEL keeps it clean, low friction and easy to use.
LONG + MEDIUM GAFFS
If you are a tokushubasai person I recommend quitting short pole gaffs immediately.
Distal have brought out a medium length gaff too.
FIRST AID preparation
Do you carry first aid materials into the work site? What do you consider as basic requirements?
For me this are always with me; blood stopper. poison remover, tick remover, splinter remover
Additional summer items; wasp spray, heat stroke patches, OS1, water and salt.
BIG SHOT TRIGGER
I’m conservative and believe in hand throwing as a core technique for Arborists.
The Big Shot is cool but it disables skills if used too much.
That said, certain trees need a near vertical shot and are very tall, and the Big Shot with trigger is very helpful.
The trigger can be easily raised an lowered depending on how much height is needed, giving you access to anchors over 30M. The trigger lets you take time to aim the BIG SHOT pole and gives you great efficiency when working in big trees.
Buy a Big Shot but remember to keep practicing hand throwing!
LA SPORTIVA Trango Tech GTX
This model is constantly in evolution, the recent leather model has been extraordinary for removal and pruning works.
Its a perfect balance of stiffness and flexibility.
I’ve had several Trango tech models over the years and they seem to get better and better.
I never liked the Arborist brands, ArbPro etc, La Sportiva have better design and fitting too, I think.
KM3 10.5mm
Is this the best rope in the world?
I think so.
Low stretch, twin carrier cover, spliceable and comes in a range of colors & diameters: 9.5, 10.5, 11 and 13mm.
OYAJI STICK
Uratsuji Shunsuke, who runs a great Arborist company in Nara, is one of the most careful and creative thinkers that i’ve ever met.
He is always looking at ways to make difficult work safer and efficient, and impresses me with his chess-like
approach to problem solving and risk assessment. The trees he works in are often large, old with many decaying and dead branches and he came up with a solution for rigging ropes in hard to reach places.
Extendable poles with hooks are not a new thing.
Shun san used many and his problem solving brain came up with a simple yet profoundly useful hook shape, that screws onto an extendable ‘landing net’.
(1) Original hook on right
Attached to 3M long ‘landing net’
Shun commissioned a metal artisan to make his hook design.
Photo 1 shows the original hook (right side) next to more recent models.
The small pole on the rear allows a rope to be laid over the top of the hook and gives just enough friction to keep it in place, while allowing it to be pulled off easily.
The pole and hook section has an ‘elephants foot’ shape, which stops the rope inadvertently slipping off the hook.
Ropes can be lifted, placed, pulled and flipped into place.
Techniques seem to flow out of the design.
Shun kindly offered me use of one and I confidently told him that I wasn’t an old man, that I can climb anywhere and I wouldn’t use such an embarrassing piece of equipment.
By the week’s end I sheepishly asked him if the offer was still open could I take one home with me.
It has been a game changer in two major areas.
Two Rope techniques involve throwing ropes into redirection points, with the OYAJI STICK I can easily pull the rope back to me. It saves time and energy.
The second is the major time savings when receiving rigging ropes.
They are sold privately through Shun san, please get in touch through his companies Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yayoizouen?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=YjZlY3BuZnducDVx
Shun san, the original OYAJI!
Takeuchi san, metal artisan
ART Blackbird
Finally the long awaited SRS device from ART!
Such a unique approach to design, ART gets top scores for individuality.
In essence it is a Positioner with an in-built rope wrench, but the design is clever with many interesting features.
Its amazing how they have integrated the upper friction element into the MRS attachment point.
It sinks in and out of the device, and looks like a transformer robot.
As always with ART products, the cams are replaceable, in this case the upper and lower ones.
There is a choice of two cams for the lower point, depending on which rope diameter you climb with.
The upper section has an asymmetrical cam that can flip over to give ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ friction amounts.
I’m glad that the friction settings are minimal, climbing devices should be designed as simple as possible, while being able to perform on a wide variety of rope diameter and style.
To descend you put fingers over a lever, similar to previous ART devices, pulling harder gives more speed.
As there is no anti-panic feature climber has to be careful not to go into a free-fall.
It has a mild feeling, quite easy to get used to and not too fatiguing.
You can ascend as normal, by clipping a small chest attachment into a dedicated pull-up point.
As the climber can change easily between SRS and MRS modes, without having to remove any hardware, makes it a user-friendly tool.
I found that it can work on smaller diameter lines than the minimum 11.2mm, which is a boon, but you must be careful when configuring outside of the manufacturers recommendation.
3:1 MA isn’t great.
The small pulley means that rope runs against your fingers.
Unfortunately it cant deal with pine sap and becomes immovable.
