Version A	Version B

Overview

[ Top | Version B | Return to Figure Eights ]

Version A
(#935)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired this eight from Alan Shelby in 2004.

The Rappel Rescue Systems Pro-Pak is forged from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 191 mm. tall, 86 mm. wide, and 16 mm. thick. The rope hole is 42 mm. high and 60 mm wide. The top center thickness is 12 mm. The shaft length and width are 46 mm. and 23 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 24.3 mm. high and 52 mm. wide. The eye measures 41 mm. by 42 mm. The ears are 30.6 mm. long. My Rappel Rescue Systems Pro-Pak weighs 294 g.

The front of the Pro-Pak has "PRO" in raised forged letters, and the rear has "U. S. A.," also in raised forged letters.

Comments

The Rappel Rescue Systems Pro-Pa falls into my miscellaneous figure eights with ears category. I started searching for the Rappel Rescue Systems Pro-Pak after seeing it in the second edition of Tom Martin’s book, Rappelling (by the way, Rappelling features several items from my collection). Finally, in March 2004, Adam Noble spotted one that Alan Shelby was selling on eBay. Adam remembered seeing this on my Ten Most Wanted List and let me know about the auction. Many thanks to Adam and Alan.

If you look closely, you will see that my Pro-Pak eight is slightly different than Tom’s. I believe mine is the newer model. If you spot an older model, please email me.

The Pro-Pak was designed for use with Kevlar webbing. Webbing tends to provide a much faster rappel than rope does, so the normal Figure Eight arrangement will not be adequate for most people to rappel safely. The Bar in the Pro-Pak allows one to add more friction. The small picture shows one higher-friction arrangement.

A problem with webbing is that it has far less abrasion resistance than rope does. In general, rappelling on webbing should be a one-time, last resort use.

I have one other webbing descender in my collection: the Air Force Lowering Device. Compared to it, the Pro-Pak is huge.

This design was protected by U.S. Patent #4,714,135.

[ Top | Version A | Return to Figure Eights ]

Version B
(#1215)

Front	Rear

Technical Details

I acquired my Rappel Rescue Systems Pro-Pak, Version B used from Centurion Surplus in 2009.

Version B is forged from aluminum alloy and then hard anodized. Mine is 189 mm. tall, 84 mm. wide, and 17 mm. thick. The rope hole is 42 mm. high and 61 mm. wide. The top center thickness is 13 mm. The shaft length and width are 45 mm. and 22 mm., respectively. The auxiliary hole is 24.3 mm. high and 51.9 mm. wide. The eye measures 42 mm. by 42 mm. The ears are 29.7 mm. long. My Rappel Rescue Systems Pro-Pak, Version B weighs 299 g.

There are no markings on the Version B eight.

Comments

This time I got an entire kit (model number PP 110), consisting of the following components:

• An oval black nylon case with a Velcro® closure
• A rappelling harness (it is by no means obvious how to wear this harness)
• An bag containing the following two items:
  • An inner black nylon deployment case with 33.5 m. of 17.5 mm. tubular kevlar webbing with a snap hook sewn on the end.
  • The descender itself.

There are several tags with information that I will not repeat here, but the following are particularly interesting:

• The kevlar webbing has a 40 kN breaking strength and a 2.2 kN safe working load.
• There is a space for a serial number, but no serial number printed in it.

[ Top | Version A | Version B ]