I don't really dig tri cams and never carry them at the gunks but in other areas i've seen pockets that would only really take a tri cam. what i don't get is these tiny new ones that look so hard to place and then the smallest one is only rate to 3kn. I'd rather use a ball nut for that placement. especially because then i get to say BALL NUT...

are the tri cams casted or milled? the rolled sheet metal pin always scares me on those tri cams even though i was told that's one of the stronger points

The rolled pin is the limiting factor on the strength for the new micro ones...

i've had tricams on and off my rack for years. Most recently, carried four of 'em at Red Rocks, and placed one in a pocket where nothing else would have gone, but mostly just because I could; there were other options. I used them passively a fair amount.

I think they are way overrated in camming mode by those that luv 'em. You can usually get a cam in that is as good or better. With an occasional exception, of course. And skilled or not, cleaning them is a pain on steep ground when you are tiring and have only one hand to work with. It seems like the leader placing a tricam means the second will have to use aid, and the party will be slowed down (which is fine in the Gunks but not so good on a long route).

On the other hand, I think tricams are way underrated as passive pro, especially for places like the Gunks where pebbles in the crack can ruin nut placements. Sliding those rails around a pebble and setting a tricam in a constriction guarantees a bombproof placement.

The sewn slings are another problem; people keep using them for years (a practice to which I plead guilty), probably long after the slings are adequate for their purpose. And the nature of tricam placements seems to wear tricam slings far more than cam slings.

So, the tricams are in my pack with the Ballnuts and other swat rack gear. My partners don't like 'em much, so they don't make the trip up the crag very often, but I'm still ambivalent personally. As for the new small sizes, I agree that their primary effect will probably be a wave of ugly fixed gear.

As an engineer, I love 'em as both active and passive pro. As active pro, the maxim being the less moving parts, the better. and also, you can get that thing behind a pebble and make it mo' bomber just as with the passive mode.
as rg said though don't put them in where a second could have trouble getting them out.
they sure are nice to have on the long pitches where you might run out of active cams and need something.
For some reason stopped carrying them so much as of late. the slings on mine are really old. does anyone re-sling these guys? can you send them back to camp do it?

Mountain tools will resling them for $9.50 apiece.

If you looked at the forum first, I clearly posted the same thing about four posts down on the list.

WAAAAA?

There's a new thread about the evils of dogs at the cliff every couple of seconds...

New ones are only $15 or so, as a result I just replace them every 5 years or so as opposed to dealing with getting them reslung.