Rock Empire Cams?

[szymiec]

Yo!,

I was wondering what you all thought of the Rock Empire cams.

They seem so cheap and sweet. What s the deal, i heard they are made in the Czech Republic. Funny thing, i thought modern Pro was banned there...

I wonder how they test.

8 Cams for 212 USD free shipping...

Whats the catch?

Chris

[The Mitt]

A few people around here have them. I personally think that they don't look nearly as strong as the BD's. I am sure they will do fine in a fall, they just kinda look cheap. I don't mind spending a few extra bucks to have a good feeling about my pro, looks sturdy, has been around for a long time, lots of people have fallen on it, but I had to sell my first born to buy it all

Mitt

[The Teth]

I quite like my Rock Empire Robot Cams. There is not a lot of overlap though, so I supplement my set with a 2.5 Wild Country cam which provides some redundancy in the most commonly used size range. I have encountered on instance where I could not use the Wild Country cam deep in a flaring crack because there was not enough space to operate the trigger mechanism. The Rock Empire cam worked fine in the same placement.

Yes, Robot Cams are not the sleekiest looking cam on the market, but they seem to work well and also seem to be very reliable.

Get a set of Rock Empire nuts while you are at it. I got a set when I got my Cams and I think they cost me less than $30 for a set of 8 nuts. (I was already paying shipping for the cams.) I also have a shiny sleek set of DMM nuts, but find that for some reason I use the Rock Empire nuts instead 80% of the time. Not that there is anything wrong with DMM. I just subconsciously feel more confident in my placements with the Rock Empire nuts. They seem to fit better in granite cracks.

Teth

[Graham]

I know how you feel about the wallnuts. For some reason I always feel a bit uncomfortable when placing them. Anyone else feel that way or am I just "nuts", so to speak.

[martha]

I'm not a fan of the Wallnuts at all. I'm a big 'Smiley' Fan. the BD Stoppers are similar.

It kinda depends on what kind of rock you are on too. If you are on really crystally granite the Wallnuts are good cause of the cutaway bit. You can place that over a crystal in a crack or over a lump etc. on the smoother granite of Welsford I don't find that I have enough friction with them. Of course I'm sure it is all in my head. But hey....I like what I like and the Smiley's are them.

[szymiec]

Just bought a few of the smaller Durango cams online the other day. They arrived with the free ship in 3 days!

They seem really solid and well built. I thought it would be a good start for my alpine rack.

Wish me luck on Skyladder this weekend!

later

[mathieu]

Cams, Skyladder??!? I hope your not hauling a full rock rack?

Play safe and Watch for snow conditions.

[The Mitt]

I was just reading an article in RC.com and I have to take back what I said about Robot cams. Turns out they are identicle to Trango cams and have been tested to failure just as much. There is a very solid history behind the company.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17133&start=30&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
I guess I have fallen prey to the US media machine I still really like BD, and wild country but I am thinking I may buy some Rock Empire just to test them out.

Mitt
Eating crow is my new hobby

[szymiec]

no no, no cams on skyladder.

Once we had a look at the route and the 2 feet of new snow all over it we promptly downgraded our goals. Not for a while yet.

I must have been dreaming.

[Nate]

Wow, you guys really don't like Walnuts? They always seem to find there way into bomber placements when I'm climbing, BD stopper never seem to fit as well. I've climbed on Metolius nuts too, they're sweet

Nate

[PaulB]

8 Cams for 212 USD free shipping...

Whats the catch?

Sounds like the deal friends of mine got on Camasutras about 15 years ago. They were some dodgy looking cams!

[The Teth]

Well I do not know about the Camasutras, but $212 USD is about what I paid for my set of Rock Empire cams four years ago, and that was a fairly good deal then. Looks like the price has gone down a bit as I only got the set of 5, where as now you can also get the three smaller cams for a set of 8 for this price. I am vary happy with my Robot cams. They seem solid to me, and according the The Mitt’s research they are all tested to the European standard. After four years of using these cams I do not see a catch.

Rock Empire Robot cams have been the best value for your money for years. There are a lot of them around considering you can only get them over the internet. I have never heard of anyone having a problem with them. I would say they are a good way to start a trad rack, and if you get a full set of Rock Empire nuts too you can have a fairly impressive rack for under $250 US.


Teth

[The Mitt]

One of the reasons that you don't see them around is that TRANGO owns the right to sell them under the trango name in the US. Before Trango's new designs they were selling the rock empire cams as trango cams. They were designed by the owner of Trango (Mal Daly) and a person from Europe, they meet the CE certification which is set at a pretty high standard equal to or greator than any other cams.

Hope that helps enlighten anyone who is shopping around.

Mitt
P.S I don't own any Rock Empire cams and still like my camalots the most with wild country comming in second. If I were looking for cheap doubles I would consider the Rock empires.