Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my NTR from Linko Chen in 2015.

The NTR is forged from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 169 mm. tall, 168 mm. wide, and 16 mm. thick. The rope hole is 64 mm. high and 71 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 13 mm. The shaft length and width are 47 mm. and 41 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 32 mm. high and 16.3 mm. wide. The eye measures 38 mm. by 40 mm. The ears are 34.7 mm. long. My NTR weighs 271 g.

One side is printed with "NTR" and "40kN."

Comments

The NTR is one of the following family of nearly identical forged aluminum rescue eights with ears:

Image Eight Asol, Version B C-Wildyfield Wings 8 Climb Right #85228 Climb X Rescue 8 With Ears Epic Peak	Image Eight Fusion Fusion Terminal Rappel 8 Good Makings, Version A I Climb (元鴻興有限公司) #633	Image Eight Kong Big "8" (805.06) Mad Rock Rescue 8 NewDoar NLNTL	Image Eight NTR Orbsoul S.E.Peak SE–225 U.S. Rigging Supply Proclimb USR–835–AU

Some of these eights are made in Europe, and some in Asia. Some are rebranded eights made by one manufacturer for others.

Each of these eights is 170±1 mm. tall and 170±2 mm. wide. Their weights fall in the 269±20 g. range. Although similar, these eights are not identical, and close inspection will reveal some minor differences in their shapes. Thickness variations account for much of the wide weight range. None of these affect their performance to any noticeable degree.

The Climbing Technology Ltd. eight is similar, but the ears are shaped differently. The Climb Right, Version B has a similar design, but it is a milled eight and is significantly smaller. There are several Kong steel eights that also have similar designs, some about the same size as the Kong Big "8" (805.06) in the table, some smaller.

The eyes and ears on these eights are larger than they need to be for most uses. The belay slot is a reasonable size for a Sticht slot, and insetting part of the slot into the useless portion of the upper rope hole reduces the length of the eight.

Like all rescue eights, these are too large and too heavy for an individual-use eight, and I see no reason to choose them in normal caving or climbing applications. I don't interfere with natural selection, not wanting to deal with the politics, but I question whether these are really the best option for rescue applications. They can be used, but there are smaller and lighter devices that will work better for anything I'm likely to do. The bigger-is-better crowd seems to like them, but I don't rappel on battleship mooring hawsers and I have no need for these.