Swabish

[Kneejerk Bombas]

My tres cords last for months. I don't burn out of trees, it doesn't do anyhting for me, it's not safe, and it wrecks equipment. There are times when I do a swing and drop, then I might let it run a bit, but that's only ten or fifteen feet and doesn't burn the ropes too much.
It also helps if you add friction with your boots, gloves, a wrap on your leg, or on long runs just add a mechanical device. Typically, for a long drop I use my boots in a similar postion to footlocking, to add friction, because I like to have nice ropes(It does burn your climbing line too when you burn).

Dropping down fast was fun for about the first twenty times.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i like dragging my feet too on the line, any other friction that can be added to take 'friction load' off hitch. For a specified amount of support, X friction is needed. Any friction becomes a slice of that. Draging feet etc. (besides sensing and watching line) takes part of that friction load and heat; also allows the dissipation of heat between friction points instead of concentrated in one area.

Likewise a 'friction saver' lowers friction that must be made up somewhere else per load/speed to maintain support. The friction will be a specific number, that must be added up to; as it is lost or gained in other areas, other parts of the formulae must adjust to maintain the same sumnation of friction, to support you from falling.

Also, going slower will create less heat, as less force is fought by the friction, thus producing less heat byproduct in the exchange.

 

[NickfromWI]

Bulky knots..

I read a lot of you guys mentioning that the knots are too bulky and things like that. My tress cords are 3/8ths UULS double braid polyester by Yale. I splice an eye on each end. If done properly, the stiffness in the throat actually HELPS the knot open easy when slack tending, yet still does not inhibit the grabbing action of the distel....or whatever you might be using.
I've also used the 3/8ths Sta Set (though I was a sucker and paid a lot for it at West Marine!). I've recently got some of that 5/16ths from JPS (he IS a drug dealer). I am going to splice some cords from that and see how I like the 5/16ths works out! It should be alright...I'm just a light weight (technically speaking, in boxing terms, I am a super middleweight!)

So whattya guys think? Don't say the splice isn't worth the time. The non-bulkyness is WONDERFUL! Brian, who's admitted to burning through cords quite quickly says his are lasting 3 or 4 days. THese things can be spliced up in an hour. For me, a cord lasts almost a month and I always have one or two for backups.

enjoy

love
nick

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Can a tress cord be trusted for longer term/semi permanent sliding hitch on a lanyard?

i can set my friction hitch right down flat on top of barrels, like a flat table, and don't have to untie barrels every time. The only bridge is the barrels. How long/stiff is the splice flare? i have the toss wand; that would be the way to go here?

i look to the most immediate tending, with the littlest play in between. That is why i rode old system so long, for the tending immediate action. So i would tend to favour the least amount of stuff that did that. So i guess that i'm wondering if there is a trade off betwixt the lack of bulk and immediate tending.

i must admit, that i have sat back and watched Brian rise from a less evolved 'all in one system' (at least i was on a split tail); to sky rocket by me, to where i am trying to catch up, and follow that lead. i know that others where doing it before; but there is something about watching that evolution he shared. In some ways i try to do the same thing, i think it is important to capture those moments in showing others the path, rather than the arrival point like a magic act.

Thanx all!



:alien:

 

[Tim Gardner]

Nick, I agree the splices are worth the time it takes to make them. I have made up 5/16" and 3/8" cords that are spliced and they work great. But even with a tight eye they do not grip the biner as well as a knot. It can be a real pain when pulling out slack and everything slides down the side of the biner.

I really dig the 1/2" 16 strand for the way it works but with splices it will not grab. As far a bulk goes, if it is not wider than your biner or stopping the gate from opening how would it get in the way? I do not notice the difference when climbing. The spliced 5/16" cords do look a lot cooler though.

 

[NickfromWI]

Originally posted by TheTreeSpyder
Can a tress cord be trusted for longer term/semi permanent sliding hitch on a lanyard?

DEFINATELY!! I've been using a spliced tress cord for a flip line for a while now. The tress cords perform VERY WELL here because they are not subjected to the high heat of long, rapid decents. Give it a shot. The easiest is probably a 3/8ths Yalex with an eye on each end, put on a normal 16 strand climbing line.

love
nick

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Thanx,

On Lanyards-
i use 3/1 distel for one way adjustable can be tended; 3/2 for 2 way that i wouldn't think you'd want an adjuster.

Have switched to Knut on 3/8" dbl.braid, using a 7k quicklink wrenched down tight ($2), that acts as tender and attatchment; as previously discussed.

i'm seeing 5/16" in my future.............................

extra toys laying around to build things after years of collecting and not understanding all the things you can do with those same simple tools and breaking them out?

Geeeeeeee; i half no idea'r what you mean...............

:alien:

 

[Tim Gardner]

Here is a picture of the lanyard setup I was using before I went to the microcender. Later I figured out that a 1/4" twisted clevis in place of the pulley works better.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Tim, you went from a lanyard which used some type of prussic and a fair lead, to a micro ascender?
It seems that would be a step backwards.

In regard to the micro pulley, it's job is not just to advance the hitch, it also is used to reduce friction when pulling slack, like when you are doing a limb walk. As you move backwards, it's nice to have less friction coming from the tail of your rope, the pulley helps reduce that friction. It's such a small, cheap thing to have in your system, just add it. You may only need a twist clevis to advance your knot, but a pulley allows the tail of your rope to run easier.

Brian mentioned the two different styles of micro pulleys, but he didn't mention the wider pulley seems to have less friction on the tail of the climbing line when it is exiting the pulley at a steep angle. This is just an observation, I could be wrong.

 

[BigJohn]

I have to agree with Mike on that one. The micro seems more advance but funtionally its not. At least not for a lanyard. I too have a micro on my saddle and the only reason for it was I was using a grigri but changed to a 16 strand lanyard with a bulldog snap. I guess my excuse is that I been lazy and don't really use or rely on my lanyard.

I just ordered a new butterfly tonight and on it I am going to use my fly lanyard with a distal and pulley setup for a lanyard. Still waiting on the new cord hopefully it will be in soon.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Originally posted by BigJohn
I have to agree with Mike

Hehe, that's stoopid!

Originally posted by BigJohn
I don't really use or rely on my lanyard.

BigJohn, You have asserted that the lanyard is just a requirement that slows you down and makes you less profitable to your employer. If you were in a tree without a climbing line would you be slower? Hell no. So what happens when you climb a wide tree? Your TIP can't always be perfect. So you use your lanyard to secure and move about.
As an absolute minimum, you safety in when chainsawing, don't you? You also safety in when you get ot a spot to do some work, pole sawing, or whatever?
I use a lanyard for working an area of the tree. I go to an area that needs work, safety in, do my thing, move on. Seriously, if you are tied in on the right side of the tree and working on the left, you don't <B>use</B> your lanyard?

 

[Tim Gardner]

Dang Mike! Your lanyard rope must be very heavy. It is not like pulling 20' of line thru a climbing hitch.

Having used both types of lanyad adjusters, I do not see the advantage of using a hitch over mechanical. I know a lot of you seasoned climbers prefer the hitch style but why? You say the hitch is better but do not really explain how it is.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Tress' adjust while loaded better thn most hardwear.

People laugh at my 30ft lanyard till they see me use it. Being HiVee it is a few pounds, but that is a small fraction of my weight.

 

[Tim Gardner]

Not with pine sap on them. That was the main reason I changed to the microcender. For a while I even used a mechanical climbing hitch but I made a FC and went back to the VT.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Pine Sap can be a big factor, the trade off is adjustability under load and price i think.

My buddy used to climb with 2 seperate, fixed length lanyards, and liked them long, just in case; but really hates it if it drags in his feets, so i made him this, that is a 19' lanyard with a knut on each hip, tended by the attatchment. A piece of throwline through the back pad (as not to have anything hard in line with tailbone /spine in case of slap to that area), brass snaps, the knuts and the safety snaps can keep all of the line out of even my feets. Of course my legs are just barely long enough to reach the ground anyway.

Stumper, i guess you thinx i ne'er hurd that BigShot line B4......... ; maybe it stems from being the first one on the block to have a BigShot. Or perhaps the first one on the block who had a helper throw away the twisted piece of metal trash when the rubber tubing broke. i even got to the last jobsite to check for it, even checked the trash, for it was trash day. But i was so stupid, i didn't go far enough to check the guy's trash across the street, where it was! HelpFull guy was working for guy i was subbing from, was there one day. Just happened to run into him like 2 months later....... (just forgot to do it with the truck, so look out, he is still lurking out thar..........)

So is the guy that i werked with for a few months on a project, that thought it was so smart that i turned the tab of my Pepsi to the 9 o'clock position to id it from the rest; he turned his to the same possition so he could tell his from everyone else's too..........

Yeah, JP; they are laughing at the lanyard, it's okay....

:alien:

 

[Tim Gardner]

Nice deda lanyard Ken. I have learned how to adjust the Microcender under load and just don't notice the difference while climbing with it anymore. I do see you guys point about it though.

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5269

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The point about sap is well taken. I won't ever have to worry about sap because if I was climbing pines often, I would kill myself, 'cus they suck.

Ken, nice job on the lanyard. Why the big clips and thick rope? Have you tried a small diameter lanyard rope yet?

 

[Stumper]

Spydy, Just funnin' with you about the Big Shot.
Nice lanyard arrangement Ken-But I wonder how much I would get tangled up in it? I've been moving down a different path than Tom Dunlap's DEDA. I 've been using a single ended, single adjusting 10 foot lanyard for a few months-Steel snap spliced on left end and VT hitch secured to the second snap with a wall and crown termination on the rope so that it won't pass through my slack-tending mini-'biner. I am about to make up a different arrangement for a longer lanyard. (I just got my Sherrill order with new ALMN snaps yesterday). This time I don't intend to splice a snap on either end, rather I plan to put Stopper knots(wall and crown, Matthew walker knot or such) on the ends with snaps and hitchs for adjusters on both sides. I had figured on 12' for maximum convenient length so that I wouldn't have to trip on the tails but I may incorporate your idea of backpad tending and try a little more length. I'll let you all know how I like it. There is no doubt that snaps on the ends too would add versatility but I get to feeling oveerloaded with so many termination links on my saddle.

 

[dbeck]

anybody, any idea where I could get info on how to tie the knut knot? also, can someone explain barrels to me? Thanks!

 

[Stumper]

Do a search on this site for Knut knot or Knut hitch- there are some posted pictures. "Barrels" refer to the 1/2 double fisherman's knot on a bight-also known as the Scaffold knot.