Front	Left	Right

Front, Assembled	Top, Assembled	Accessories

Technical Details

I acquired my Rope-Tek Hitch Hiker 2 from Pinnacle Arborist Supplies in 2017.

The Rope-Tek Hitch Hiker 2 is 90 mm. tall, 51 mm. wide, 63 mm. thick, and weighs 311 g.

The Hitch Hiker 2 consists of a body and a dog-bone. The body consists of two side plates made from nickel-coated AR400S steel attached to a 7075 aluminum alloy spine with four hex socket machine screws each. Each side plate has a 36.5 mm. long, 10.2 mm wide oval upper slot for the dog-bone, and a 32 mm. long, 14.5 mm. wide lower opening for the attachment carabiner. The spine is 16 mm. thick, giving a rope channel of the same width. The inner face of the spine is concave.

The dog-bone is 63.2 mm. long, 18.8 mm. wide and 9.5 mm. thick. It has an 11 mm. hole drilled at each end. The center 25.8 mm. are turned to form a 9.5 mm. round shaft.

My hitch Hiker 2 came with a Climbing Technology steel locking carabiner, a 1.2 m. length of 9 mm. cord, and a tether sewn from 6 mm. accessory cord and covered with thick heat-shrink.

The left side plate has "25 kN" cut through it, and the right plate has "H H 2."

Comments

The Hitch Hiker 2 allows one to tie a semi-mechanical helical knot. Under load, the dog-bone slides up the upper slot and wedges the main line against the spine, providing additional friction below the helical. The system works well with the proper cord selection, and sufficient wraps in the helical. In general, smaller cord and more wraps provides a more secure grip, but also results in greater lost motion when ascending. Do not make the sling rope too long, or the knot will slip.

It was designed for arborists, whose needs are different than those of cavers and climbers. Since I am not Tarzan, I will not try to evaluate it for arborist use.

From a caver’s perspective, the Hitch Hiker 2 has several deficiencies, such as the following:

• It is not easy to place the Hitch Hiker on rope or remove it after it has been loaded.
• The Hitch Hiker is massive for a semi-mechanical ascender.
• The lost motion associated with each unloading-loading cycle is excessive.

Due to feedback from many the original Hitch Hiker users, Rope-Tek no longer includes the hitch cord or tether. This allows climbers to choose the cordage they feel most comfortable using. Several of the online arborist supply houses continue to package cord with the Hitch Hiker 2.