Originally Posted by
Youngblood
I don't think most of us understand the phrase "cross loading the spine on the crab". By 'cross loading' in this case, I assume you mean something like 'bending in on/around the tree'. 'Spine' seems pretty easy-- along the length of the carabiner. 'Crab', that one I would guess would just exclude the gate on the carabiner, or saying it another way, would just be the cast or forged piece of the carabiner?
But I get the gest of what you are saying and have the same concerns myself, especially when folks start using lighter and lighter weight carabiners, or carabiner replacements. One of the carabiner replacements looks basically like a machined aluminum, gate-less carabiner. Regardless, it seems that the more times you cross load, or bend, these carabiners the more you weaken them as most everyone is familar with the concept of metal fatigue and has probably intentionally broken some wire or flat piece of metal be repeatably bending it back and forth. Do climbers replace carabiners after so many uses like they do climbing rope?
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