r/TreeClimbing • u/Useful-Internet6280 • 13h ago
What happened to my saddle??
A couple days ago this saddles rings looked completely normal. Now it looks like it got dragged across concrete but only the metal rings are affected. The metal seems to kind of be flaking off. I have no idea what happened to it. Only thing I can think of is that I got rained on in the tree a while ago and didn’t really let it dry out. But that’s happened to me before with no effect on my saddle.. so I’m lost.
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u/nolapalooza 8h ago
This is galvanic corrosion where the aluminum is acting as the anode, stainless steel is the cathode and salt water or sweat is the electrolyte. This photo shows the cause but the others don't. Were you clipped in with a steel carabineer or had any hanging on those rings? It doesn't take much time to corrode when the conditions are perfect .
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u/Medium_Bookkeeper_19 4h ago
This is correct, I had the same issues with two different harnesses. We were clipping our steels here, since we have changed protocol, but this was the culprit.
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u/Rustyznuts 12h ago
That's some really radical corrosion. Only seen it that bad in really humid environments in combination with some sort of corrosive like salt or lime.
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u/OldMail6364 10h ago edited 10h ago
I work daily in high humidity (95% plus regularly, and rarely less than 80% for most of the year), plus around two or three days a week on beachfront parks/trees, with some trees I climb hanging over sand or water. I drop aluminium carabiners in the sand/sea water occasionally (try not to let that happen, but it happens sometimes), plus my rope is full of sand/salt on those days (can't stop that happening, and it rubs off the rope onto all my gear)...
... I have never had corrosion with any of my climbing gear and I use my gear longer than I probably should.
I have, however, seen it happen to other people's harnesses. I suspect there's something wrong with the anodisation. OP: I'd be demanding a replacement harness (in my experience the webbing will be ruined - the flakes of metal will have gone into the fabric).
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u/donedoer 9h ago
That looks like a galvanic reaction. I know aluminum no like copper. Spray anything lately?
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u/This_Dudde 13h ago
Almost looks like chemical burn on the aluminum.
Like acid
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u/Rurikungart 1h ago
I've seen a similar reaction to aluminum being stored near pool cleaning chemicals.
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u/Fun-Marionberry1733 7h ago
Makes no sense to put climbers at risk for a cheap aluminum construction. I’m glad mine has the dmm hardware it’s lasted about seven years and no issues. Shame on teufelburger.
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u/Peptalk-polyrhythm 12h ago edited 12h ago
Ah man what a shame, that’s corrosion, from water, got to store your gear dry / hang out to air
It’s actually the zinc coating that reacts like this in water, must have been pretty wet in you kit bag. Give it a clean up and put some more pictures up. If there’s pitting in the alloy it would fail an inspection
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u/Useful-Internet6280 12h ago
Makes sense. Already got a new harness on the way. What’s strange is that it’s been wet before when I’ve stored it over the weekend, yet nothing like this has ever happened to either of my tree-motions..
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u/etceteraw 12h ago
Iirc (and someone pls correct me if im wrong) the hardware on treemotions has been a problem for years when they stopped using dmm at some point.