Version A
Version B
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The Simmons Roller had been out for about four years when Robert Landau showed two interesting chest rollers during the 1985 NSS Convention vertical session. To my knowledge Robert never put his roller into production, but he had a few for sale at the session and I bought one of each.
Landau’s rollers were single channel chest boxes consisting of a body and a single roller assembly. He milled the bodies from aluminum. The rollers were nylon with deep U-shaped rope channels. These ran on an axle held between two side plates. These plates attached to the body with a quick release pin.
The two versions differed in the side pieces and their attachment to the roller axle. On the first version, Robert milled the side pieces from aluminum. Because the roller was wider than the body, each side piece required a dogleg. Perhaps this was a case of “design as you build.” In any case, he press fit the axle into the side pieces. These do not rotate on the axle so they stay aligned, making it easier to rig the roller.
The second version had a wider body which allowed cutting simpler side plates from 1/8-inch sheet aluminum. He did not press the axle into the side plates but chose to hold them together with external retaining rings. This allows the side plates to rotate on the axle, so the user needs to individually align each plate when rigging.
There was considerable discussion during the session as non-engineers and non-machinists expressed total distrust in the press fits on the first version. These folks did not mind trusting small external retaining rings. It would be possible to use a press fit with ex-ternal retaining rings, but this would be more complex and probably unnecessary.
The Landau Rollers are slightly heavier and larger than the Simmons Single. Each of these are narrow and pull a chest harness away from the chest under load. This reduces climbing efficiency and laterally constricts one’s chest. Many single rollers utilize wider chest plates to improve efficiency and comfort. These are, of course, wider and heavier. Once again, we see an example of why asking “which is best” is often a silly question that does not have a universally correct answer.
[ Top | Version B | Return to Chest Boxes ]
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| Top | Open for Rigging |
I acquired my Landau, Version A box from Robert Landau at the 1985 NSS Convention.
My Landau, Version A is 57 mm. long, 57 mm. wide, 57 mm. high, and weighs 99 g. It is a single channel chest box consisting of a back piece and a single pulley assembly. The back piece is milled from 5/8-inch (16 mm.) aluminum plate. It has s 50 mm. tall slot for attaching the box to a chest harness. The nylon roller rides on a stainless steel shaft that is press fitted into the aluminum side plates. These attach to the back piece with a quick-release pin. The side plates are milled so that the clearance at the roller is about 3/4 inch (19 mm.).
The quick release pin is stamped "AVIBANK PUSH" and "BLS5B10S."
The Landau rollers are compact devices. The narrow design means that it tends to pull the chest harness away from the chest.
[ Top | Version A | Return to Chest Boxes ]
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| Front | Side |
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| Top | Open for Rigging |
I acquired my Landau, Version A box from Robert Landau at the 1985 NSS Convention.
My Landau, Version B is 63 mm. long, 57 mm. wide, 60 mm. high, and weighs 108 g. It is a single channel chest box consisting of a back piece and a single pulley assembly. The back piece is milled from a wider (17.5 mm.) aluminum plate than Version A. It has s 50 mm. tall slot for attaching the box to a chest harness. The nylon roller rides on a stainless steel shaft. The roller shaft is not press fitted to the side plates, but is retained by external retaining rings. The side plates are larger than Version A’s, cover the roller, and lack the milled step that Version A has.
The quick release pin is stamped "AVIBANK 55207"
Version B is generally superior to Version A, although the press fit in Version A is less likely to fail than the retaining rings used in Version B.
[ Top | Version A | Version B ]
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