Front View	Rear View	Left Side View	Right Side View

Technical Details

I acquired my Swiss-Roll from AJ’s Super pawn in 2017.

My Swiss-Roll is 120 mm. long, 217 mm. wide, 85 mm. high, and weighs about2700 g.

The Swiss roll consists of an 8 mm. back plate, a unidirectional rotating drum, three guides, and a dedicated large carabiner. The back plate has a forward dogleg bend at the top that centers the upper attachment eye above where the top of the inner rope strand runs. The upper eye is 18 mm. in diameter, and a smaller 15 mm. eye lies to its right. The lower eye is 13 mm., and is straddled by two 8 mm. holes.

The drum is 89 mm. in diameter and 51 mm. long. The rope channel is 39 mm. wide and 9 mm. deep, leaving a 71 mm. inner radius. The drum (and attached yellow cap) rotates freely in a counter-clockwise direction, but not clockwise. The mechanism is hidden behind the yellow cap, but it does not appear to be a ratchet as there is no play nor any audible sound made when the drum rotates. There is a rope guide block below the drum that keeps the rope in a 24 mm. wide channel. This channel is tilted to match the helix the rope forms when wound around the drum. A tall rope guide sits on the left (rescuer) side of the drum, and a shorter guide sits on the lower right (patient) side of the drum, below the rope’s initial contact point with the drum.

My Swiss Roll came with a mm. Maillon Rapide link attached to the central lower hole.

The front of the plate has a sticker saying "SWISS-ROLL. The rear is stamped "36992" and has two stickers. One says "Gravitec" and "4065." The other looks like this:

Comments

The Swiss-Roll is part of a kit that also includes a pulley to attach to the Swiss-Roll, a traveling pulley, carabiners, rope, an ascender with lanyard, and a carrying bag. The Swiss-Roll is the only part of this kit that I have, but it is the interesting part. It arrived poorly packed in a broken cardboard bow, and two small pieces (the lock washer and acorn nut on the small guide) had fallen out in transit. I replaced them with similar hardware.

The Swiss-Roll came in two versions: one for 9 mm. rope and one for 13 mm. rope. From the dimensions, this appears to be the 9 mm. version.

This is not the kind of tool that I use, and so I won't attempt to give a practical evaluation, especially since I don't have the entire kit. What I will say is that the Swiss Roll is solid, it is heavy, and it operates very smoothly.