10 out of 10 climbers agree -- the TB2 is sick
We bought the TB2 holds and LED kit for a 12 by 12 home wall install in our garage and are super happy with the product! Tension was happy to work with us to spread the payment out over a couple installments so that we could stay within our credit limit, and the shipping was pretty quick. We have comments on the installation and the use.
We had some questions for Tension about how the holds and lights would actually be placed on the wall that we built, and they were very easy to communicate with, even sending some photos so we could understand how much room there is between the holds and the edge of the board. (We are working with a 13 foot wide garage so space was important.) Side note for other home installers – we spent about $1000 on supplies (lumber, paint, electrical stuff so we could plug the lights in, etc. We bought a heavy duty enamel paint in a satin finish that the Sherwin Williams guy recommended for floors, and he added a jar of texture so that the surface wouldn’t be too slick.) We spent a couple days building the frame (which we tied into an LVL in our garage) and drilling holes in the plywood sheets that we mounted for the wall, and then approximately 10 hours with a bunch of friends installing the holds, LED kit, and light caps before the first climb.
We watched the videos and read all the material provided by Tension, and developed a system that worked for us. First we used painters tape to label the grid letters and numbers across the top/middle/bottom and left/center/right of the board. We worked in teams of two: one person would unbox a package of holds, set the correct screws in the holds, and then use the PDF of the install guide to search (Ctrl+F) for the code on the hold – then hand the hold off to the second person with its grid coordinates and orientation for that person to screw into the wall. We ran into a couple problems – Tension shipped a ton of screws for us, but only 2.5” and 4” inch screws, none shorter for the foot holds. (We just used 2.5” screws; there were plenty of those.) Some of the wood holds had not been labelled with a code, so we had to set a few pairs aside until the end, when we could figure out comparing the photos of the board with the few missing spots. At least one of the wood holds had a blood stain on it which was a little unnerving upon opening the package. We also ran into a couple mis-placements because of our Ctrl+F approach – once in a while we ended up looking at the spray wall layout versus the mirror layout that we were intending. We mitigated that issue by downloading and deleting the spray wall pages, but I would suggest posting the install guides as two separate files: one mirror and one spray, just so installers can be confident that they’re looking at the correct layout. Probably the most challenging part of the install was getting the light caps in place. We especially struggled with the combo of the light extenders which the guide told us to pair with 10mm light caps – our extenders kept popping out of the back of the board and we wondered if the extenders were meant to be paired with 5mm light caps instead. A few of the plastic holds also had residue around the opening for the light cap, so no amount of rubber mallet tapping would get the hold to stay – we had to pull out a metal file and get rid of the plastic remnants in the openings.
Once everything was ready, the phone tree lit up and everyone came to try the board (and grab a sticker – thanks Tension for including a handful). It has been a real true delight to host our community of climbers for solo sessions and parties. We wish there was a way to get the board registered without putting ourselves on the map (since it is our home) so for now our friends are having to manually enter the serial code for our board, which works. Our board is mounted at 45 degrees, so it’s not the most beginner friendly board, but the huge variety of climbs in the app, and variety of holds on the wall means that there is something for almost everyone. The mirror layout is super for people who want to make sure their training is well-balanced. People who have other home walls or who have tried other similar board particularly like the TB2 – which is great – lots of activity for us! Oh and trick or treaters were surprised and delighted to get their candy from climbers in costume on the wall this year.
Thanks Tension!
