Rigging line lighter than 1/2"

[Nailsbeats]

Does anyone use lighter than 1/2" on occasional rigging?

I have some White Oaks to deadwood and was thinking about trying a small hank of 8mm I have for a rigging line. Only a few light pieces need to be roped, but I don't want to cut and throw.

 

[Grace Tree]

We used some 7/16 kernmantle for a few years for light stuff and just general jerking. Didn't hold knots well so we tie a biner on. We abused it as much as we could and the darn stuff still looked almost new when I gave it away.
Phil

 

[Nailsbeats]

We used some 7/16 kernmantle for a few years for light stuff and just general jerking. Didn't hold knots well so we tie a biner on. We abused it as much as we could and the darn stuff still looked almost new when I gave it away.
Phil

I will be using a biner on this setup also.

 

[ducaticorse]

Depends on "light rigging". Half inch seems way over kill for what you describe assuming you have a groundie that understands the concept of "letting it run". Ae you self lowering of a mini porty?

 

[pdqdl]

No.

I don't buy anything smaller than 1/2" except my beeline tress cord, 10mm climbing line, and my amsteel tow line. These are all specialty rope that are poorly suited to burning up on natural crotch rigging. [if not natural, then why would you use a light rope?]

I have a decent hank of Velocity that has been damaged too much for me to climb on; I guess I would use it for lowering branches. I wouldn't count on a groundie hanging onto it though: the smaller diameter rope is poorly suited to hanging onto for heavy yanks. I could see lots of blisters in the future if I planned on doing any heavy drops with it.

 

[Nailsbeats]

Depends on "light rigging". Half inch seems way over kill for what you describe assuming you have a groundie that understands the concept of "letting it run". Ae you self lowering of a mini porty?

Ground man will be doing the lowering, and he could lock it up tight for what it's worth and rope strength wouldn't be an issue.

I just had the thought today that 1/2" line could be overkill for this application, just one of those thoughts that hit's ya and you have to double check that you might be crazy (as I have never rigged with less than 1/2" and have never even considered the notion). But hey, I'll give it a try.

 

[Nailsbeats]

No.

I don't buy anything smaller than 1/2" except my beeline tress cord, 10mm climbing line, and my amsteel tow line. These are all specialty rope that is poorly suited to burning up on natural crotch rigging. [if not natural, then why would you use a light rope?]

I have a decent hank of Velocity that has been damaged too much for me to climb on; I guess I would use it for lowering branches. I wouldn't count on a groundie hanging onto it though: the smaller diameter rope is poorly suited to hanging onto for heavy yanks. I could see lots of blisters in the future if I planned on doing any heavy drops with it.

Oh yeah, It'll be like hanging onto a fishing line, lol. My ground man is tough, he may even try to bare hand it, once, lol.

 

[summit583guy]

Ive used a 200ft 12mm amstell blue rigging line. Its nice because its easy to bunch up into a small rope bag when your done but....... it's hard on the groudies hands due to it's small diameter, it's hard to flip up over branchs unless there is a heavy carabiner on it's due to it being so light. It does burn crotchs if you decide to rig heavy limbs out. It's great for light rigging when you don't wanna coil up a heavy soaking wet half inch line.

 

[Norwayclimber]

We use some approx 9 mm rope for light rigging. It is a junk rope, and we have broken it a couple of times when trying to take to big pieces But this rope is only used when either pieces are small or the consequences are small if it should fail. (for eksample a hole in the lawn) Usually we dont use a breaking device on it, enough for a groundie to just hold an lower with a pair of gloves. Sometimes I may add a wrap around a branch in the tree or put in on a HMS knot on it, on a sling in the tree. It's really nice to have a lighter rope to abuse, and packing up and down is fast and light.

 

[flushcut]

Does anyone use lighter than 1/2" on occasional rigging?

I have some White Oaks to deadwood and was thinking about trying a small hank of 8mm I have for a rigging line. Only a few light pieces need to be roped, but I don't want to cut and throw.

If you are looking for speed and ease of tying use some loop runners and a biner to clip the limbs to your lowering ling.
I have used some of my retired rock climbing rope 10.5 mm for some light stuff around 50 or less but it was almost the same as 1/2". You could look into that Black Widow rig line the Sherrill sells that is 1/4" and crazy strong.

 

[sgreanbeans]

If you are looking for speed and ease of tying use some loop runners and a biner to clip the limbs to your lowering ling.

:agree2:

 

[treeman82]

When I want a light rope for rigging I usually go with some PI or Velocity. They throw well and are lighter and more compact than normal rigging lines.

 

[ckliff]

Keep your eyes out for a crew doing trenchless underground utility work. They often will throw away 300' of mule tape after just one pull thru. Watch your WLL, it might be rated anywhere from 1000 up to 3250. I've used the stuff for light duty loop runners, throwline, and light duty lowering line.

 

[treemandan]

Did anyone mention Black Widow? I think for what your are trying to do you can do with a 8 and some loop runners. Tie off the rig line where you are at and hook the loop runner in between the 8 and the rig line tie off point. when the branch hits the ground you unhook from the 8 and pull the end of the rig line through and back to you. It would be nice to have lighter rope considering its important to hang a bucket for the tail end of the rig line and you sure better pay attention to your climb line end. I usually drape it over a limb out of the way with the tail off the ground.
Treeco showed me how to do this with a porty instead of the 8 and since then I have hucked off MEGA limbs with nary a ground man below me and it sure is fun! Just if you climb with rubber gloves you don't want to use those to lower nope. In fact those gloves can be very dangerous for lowering.
If you have a tree you have to work through instead of just running up and cutting a few then its good to set other climb lines and you will find them useful for lowering too. Or set more rig lines and use them for secondary climb and lowering lines.
I have pruned big oaks and such alone setting all my ropes. I would do one section and completely clog it up then move to another using fresh ropes and DZ. Maybe 4 or five ropes wishing for a 6th.
Sometimes setting a zipline makes it easy though you have to climb it a few times it works with some trees. One was so easy I went up, put three on the line, jumped down and yanked it over like you would never think you need a crew to do this.

 

[treemandan]

Keep your eyes out for a crew doing trenchless underground utility work. They often will throw away 300' of mule tape after just one pull thru. Watch your WLL, it might be rated anywhere from 1000 up to 3250. I've used the stuff for light duty loop runners, throwline, and light duty lowering line.

The web tape with wire in it.

 

[ckliff]

Web tape with wire? Don't know what that is.

About your black widow idea above... I would like to see a vid or pics. I can't quite see it in my head. Are you able to release the lowered piece & then bring that rope end back up? How is that done?

 

[Koa Man]

My neighbor across the street trimmed his mango tree and used 3/8 yellow poly rope. I saw him lowering some good sized branches with it. It surprised me how much that rope could handle.

 

[pdqdl]

Keep your eyes out for a crew doing trenchless underground utility work. They often will throw away 300' of mule tape after just one pull thru. Watch your WLL, it might be rated anywhere from 1000 up to 3250. I've used the stuff for light duty loop runners, throwline, and light duty lowering line.

YES! I found some of that stuff, too. It works ok for tie downs, but I don't think I would like it for rigging. It's flat, and I'm not sure what problems that would lead to.

 

[treeslayer]

I use the black widow all the time, some handy rope.

 

[Nailsbeats]

I already have the 8mm line, a few hundred feet of it, so that's what I'm going to try.

Slings work good I do agree.