Version A	Version B	Version C

Overview

[ Top | Version B | Version C | Return to L.C. Ascenders ]

Version A
(#1572)

Front	Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Gibbs ASR,Version A from prstraining.com in 2012.

The Gibbs ASR,Version A is 104 mm. tall, 77 mm. wide, 68 mm. thick, and weighs 246 g. The shell is made from 4.6 mm. aluminum sheet. The rope channel is 18 mm. wide. The cam is punched from aluminum alloy plate, machined, and then hard anodized. The cam radius increases from 15 to 33 mm. over an angle of 104°, giving a 23° cam angle. There are nine rounded teeth on the cam. There is a cam spring that appears to be a shorter version of the Gibbs Replacement Spring Kit, with only 61 mm. between the crimps. Bead chain is used for the QR pin keeper.

Each side of the shell is stamped with "UP," an up-pointing arrow, and "GIBBS" with a double underline. The front is also stamped with "USE ONLY ON NON-METAL ROPE FROM 7/16 to 1/2." The rear is also stamped "NOT FOR SELF BELAY." The QR pin is stamped "AVK PUSH BLS6B13S." The front is printed with "GIBBS/ASR" with a double underline. The spine is printed with an up-pointing arrow labeled "UP."

Comments

The Gibbs/ASR ascenders are modified Gibbs ascenders. The spring works rather well, although continued use will eventually damage the spring. The bead chain keeper works well, and if it breaks, replacement would be easy.

I do not know what "ASR stands for, but since these ascenders came from Arizona, "Arizona Search & Rescue" seems a plausible guess.

[ Top | Version A | Version C | Return to L.C. Ascenders ]

Version B
(#1573)

Front	Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Gibbs ASR,Version B from prstraining.com in 2012.

The Gibbs ASR,Version B is 103 mm. tall, 90 mm. wide, 63 mm. thick, and weighs 255 g. It uses a different cam than the previous version. This cam is milled from aluminum plate and then hard anodized. The cam radius increases from 14 to 33 mm. over an angle of 102°, giving a 26° cam angle. The cam has nine rounded teeth. An extension above the eye facilitates thumbing the cam. The QR pin is shorter than the one on the previous version.

Each side of the shell is stamped with "UP," an up-pointing arrow, and "GIBBS" with a double underline. The front is also stamped with "USE ONLY ON NON-METAL ROPE FROM 7/16 to 1/2." The rear is also stamped "NOT FOR SELF BELAY." The QR pin is stamped "AVK PUSH BLS6B11S." The front is printed with " "GIBBS/ASR" with a double underline. The spine is printed with an up-pointing arrow labeled "UP."

Comments

I was also able to acquire some extra "thumb cams" from the seller, Jerry Smith of Progressive Rescue Solutions, Inc. He wrote, "Gibbs made a thumb cam replacement for the ASR/Gibbs and the Gibbs # 3. The thumb Cam makes it easier to operate the Gibbs in different rescue operations."Progressive Rescue Solutions incorporated the tab on their PRS ascenders, and the Chinese later included it on the Yundxi ascender.

This ascender uses a BLS6B11S QR pin. These have 1.1 inches (27.9 mm between the shoulder and balls, as opposed to 1.3 inches (33 mm) for the BLS6B13S.

[ Top | Version A | Version B | Return to L.C. Ascenders ]

Version C
(#1574)

Front	Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Gibbs ASR,Version C from prstraining.com in 2012.

The Gibbs ASR,Version C is 104 mm. tall, 76 mm. wide, 63 mm. thick, and weighs 235 g. The rope channel is 17 mm. wide. It uses a different cam than the previous version. This cam is milled from aluminum plate and then hard anodized. The cam radius increases from 15 to 34 mm. over an angle of 101°, giving a 25° cam angle. The cam has nine rounded teeth. The spring is on the opposite side of the ascender as in the other versions, and the QR pin keeper is a piece of 12 mm. tubular webbing riveted to the shell.

Each side of the shell is stamped with "UP," an up-pointing arrow, and "GIBBS" with a double underline. The front is also stamped with "USE ONLY ON NON-METAL ROPE FROM 7/16 to 1/2." The rear is also stamped "NOT FOR SELF BELAY." The front is printed with "GIBBS/ASR" with a double underline. The spine is printed with an up-pointing arrow labeled "UP."

Comments

There are no markings on the QR pin, but the pin is essentially the same as the BLS6B11S used in Version B.

The webbing keeper is just long enough for removing the QR pin, with no excess length.

[ Top | Version A | Version B | Version C ]