Beeline Bridge Broke: Close Call

[Daniel]

true blue stand up well to a whooping in natural crotch rigging.. I have a couple bridges that need replacing.. I'll give it a try.. probably use an anchor bend and stitch up the tails with spectra.. seems bomb proof... any objections???

 

[Maui Palm & Tree Care]

12 strand seems like it would feel too bumpy for a bridge. maybe velocity or a pieces of that new 7/16 stable braid.
josh

 

[JeffL]

Petzl bums me out, im dreading the day I ruin one if those bridge rings since they are unwilling to replace them. Those screw shackles like they out on that Buckingham Edge saddle look like the solution.

 

[tophopper]

[ QUOTE ]
Petzl bums me out, im dreading the day I ruin one if those bridge rings since they are unwilling to replace them. Those screw shackles like they out on that Buckingham Edge saddle look like the solution.

[/ QUOTE ]


They will only replace them, if you send the harness to them in Utah. They replace the ring and send it back to you. 2 week turnaround.

Just send me the ring!

 

[TreeDoctor]

Recently I have been taking a close look at some of the
bridge failures posted here. I wanted to share a close call involving my sequoia srt webbing bridge and sugoi handsaw.
I was pruning a thick and nasty Siberian elm.Leaning away from my tip at a good angle and secured only with climbing line. saw scabbard hanging low on my right thigh attached to leg strap.As I pulled the saw from the scabbard by feel only IE: no visual, the saw nicked my bridge close to the ring on my right side. I was in an awkward position and working fast. The attachments of the side D rings and the webbing which connects the bridge to the harness is NOT ideal in my opinion. Very wimpy construction and the webbing interferes with clipping my right side D if I am leaning at an angle.
Needless to say it scared me to realize how easily I could have cut that bridge and fallen from the tree. I rigged a backup with a short piece of spectra from the swivel on my bridge to my center anchor. I missed the beefy construction of my older Buckingham master classic and the fact that my climbing hitch and all critical links were in the middle of my waist in easy view. I like the sequoia in many ways but some crucial pieces are very light construction, adequate in terms of tensile strength but weak in bulk and mass.After I replaced the bridge I tensioned and cut through it with less than 1/4 stroke of the saw.
I attached a picture of the bridge with back up. We work at height with razor sharp tools very close to the ropes and harnesses we stake our life on.
Be safe out there Guys.

 

[banjo]

During this discussion I forgot about Roope, it seems like a promising bridge material. There is a vid on the bottom of the page.

Thoughts?

http://www.teufelberger.com/en/products/treecare/tools/roope.html

 

[Jamin_Mayer]

[ QUOTE ]
...I rigged a backup with a short piece of spectra from the swivel on my bridge to my center anchor...

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting & good idea.

 

[evo]

I've had the same issue with replacing my bridge on my petzl
stripped shackle and customer service finaly aid they would sell me a new ring for more than I wanted to pay.... I cut the gold ring off with a hacksaw (supprisingly hard material) then replaced the rings with tree austria's stainless allen head shackles. The stainless seem bomb proof. I can't wait untill I wear my petzl out so I can trash it, and never buy one from them agin... bummer for them...

 

[joedietz]

Hey TreeDoctor,

You might think about using a different rope as your back up. You mentioned that it is spectra and if I'm correct, that type of rope does not handle dynamic shock loading as well as a polyester rope would. In the event of a bridge failure you would end up falling a little distance before your fall would be arrested by your back up rope. This would put a shock load on that back up rope.

See video at this thread:

http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/showflat.p...true#Post274707

The non polyester rope used in the video was a spectra type rope. http://www.yalecordage.com/oceanographics/single-braids/ultrex.html

Just thought I'd let you know.

 

[moray]

[ QUOTE ]
...that type of rope does not handle dynamic shock loading as well as a polyester rope would. In the event of a bridge failure you would end up falling a little distance before your fall would be arrested by your back up rope...

[/ QUOTE ]

It is true Spectra and similar ropes will have negligible stretch and thus negligible energy absorption. But the same short backup rope made of polyester will also have negligible stretch simply because it is so short. There may be plenty of other reasons to prefer one over the other, but stretchiness would be down near the bottom of my list. I use Dyneema tethers on my ascenders because they are very small, tidy, cut-resistant, and no knots are involved. But in the case of a fall, they would not absorb as much energy as an equal-length tether of polyester. The vanishingly small disadvantage in energy absorption is easily outweighed, for me, by the advantages I listed.

 

[joedietz]

You are probably right moray. I just thought it was worth mentioning to ensure that people are educated about choosing the right rope for a particular application.

You're right that a short piece of polyester is not going to have as much stretch as a longer piece, BUT I'm guessing it is still going to stretch more than the spectra rope. It looks like they are using about 6 1/2' length rope for the test in the video. If it makes a difference at a 6 1/2' drop, I'm guessing it still makes a little difference at a 1-2' drop.

For me, even small differences in effectiveness of different pieces of equipment changes my opinion on weather I choose to use it or not. This is MY LIFE hanging from this equipment, if there is a safer option (although even slightly) I'm going to choose it.