Break Away Lanyard Question

Just put a piece of Velcro looped around. Old truck, works great with the hazard trees. I'd rather take a vicious swing than go down with the ship, and don't want to feel the violent rip of a break away lanyard.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
The topic of breakaway lanyards pops up routinely.

Many years ago Dave spencer suggested shower curtain rings. He did a static test by hanging a five gallon bucket with one and filling it with water until it broke. His conclusion was to use two of the rings he had bought. Of course a dynamic load would
Change the results.

If I were to ever be in a situation where I wanted a breakaway lanyard I would want the links at both ends of the lanyard to break. I might even take off any hardware too. If the Stem breaks and he lanyard breaks like I would plan I don't want pieces whipping around and smacking me
Click to expand...

Tom, I know that this topic has come up over the years but I think you just identifed DFT: Double Failsafe Technique. That I have not heard of and it does make a great deal of sense. :)
 
yoyoman said:
I have done a few very sketchy dead pines and followed these discussions before. Pretty "ify" stuff predicting breakage and when it is needed and how it will happen. No clear answers for sure. What I did was practice like I was going to be in an old western quick draw with my lanyard, payed lots of attention to the tree I was on and hoped like hell I would sense it going south in time for me to "turn and shoot" (release my lanyard). For sure that second connection to another tree or trees means nothing when the one you are in wants to take you with it.


Click to expand...
Richard, that looks sketchy to climb. On this recent leaner, I had my groundie looking at the tree and ready to scream if it starting moving. I think that once the stem begins to fail, the pressure is pretty immediate. I don't know that I could unclip that fast. Thus, the need for a failsafe. I liked Worthaug's suggestion of a trigger, like for the bigshot.
 
ward said:
Richard, that looks sketchy to climb. On this recent leaner, I had my groundie looking at the tree and ready to scream if it starting moving. I think that once the stem begins to fail, the pressure is pretty immediate. I don't know that I could unclip that fast. Thus, the need for a failsafe. I liked Worthaug's suggestion of a trigger, like for the bigshot.
Click to expand...
For sure, I used the two adjacent trees to make what would have been a circus trapeze if I had to use it plus the constant...is this thing going...worry was fun. I too like the idea of a fast but secure release. I'll go for that next time.
 
I did test that small accessory biner out today (small cheap ones at hardware store). I had my nephew (115 lbs) sit directly into it with my saddle one (cushions underneath of coarse : ) It held. He bounced into it a little but not too hard, it held. I pushed down on him with a bit of force and it bent pretty good. I bet we were at 150lb's when it was bending out of shape.
 
Last edited:
I did recently read a quick little something about sewing webbing. Perhaps it came from a link some one posted here. It was an old cavers zine. They came up with a way to stitch the webbing where it would indicate a overload by tearing some of the stitching (but not the load bearing). I believe that this pattern had a predictable outcome each time.
I'm not looking to do this since I personally don't have the need nor time but all it would take is take two strips of webbing say 8-10" fold them over to create your hold fast eyes (for attachment), and stitch them using On Rope's instructions. Then simply take the tails and lay them over each other and run however many passes of stitching needed. Use rated thread, and remember each stitch is about 160-180% the strength of the thread.
 
If you get quality glued heat wrap, and end to end some tech cord at 1'' it would give at 80lbs on average, you could experiment with different wrap and cord, to get a perfect setup, I will do some testing over the next few days.
What's the ideal strength?

Got you, you want 125lbs, is that correct?
 
These are the tests.

4mm and 5mm tech cord, rated at 1240lb and 1930lb.

4mm stitched 5 times, lockstitched, and small heatshink, held fast at 300lb. Did not want to break it, as its used daily.

The dillon is 50lb divisions.

DSC01273.webp DSC01284.webp

5mm tech cord, no stitches, 2" of shrinkwrap, gave at 200lb

DSC01288.webp DSC01289.webp DSC01295.webp
DSC01294.webp
 
This thread got me a thinkin'. Back in my younger rodeo days me and some of my riding buddies came up with a concept to have a break away rigging that could be released in the event of a rider getting his hand hung up in the rope or riggin. We used a seat belt buckle from a C130 aircraft. Just attach some sort of lanyard to the release lever and viola!! It would have to be manually activated and of course the possibility of an accidental release is a very real possibility if the climber was up there fighting some heavy brush. Just wanted to add my two cents worth.seat belt..webp
 
ward said:
Funny, Ryan, you should remember this view: the other two doug fir stumps were your work couple of years ago. Our customer decided to leave the last one as there were no root issues then. I guess the moral of the story is don't leave the last one standing!
Click to expand...

Lake Oswego where we used the crane for the wood?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I would want something that would break under a determined shock load to prevent serious injury and yet could be released under load. The c130 belt and white water rescue belt idea.

Imagine your tip in near by tree, and tree you are in "starts" to fail, loads up your primary (climbing line) and loads up your lanyard, but not enough to break the "fuse" in your lanyard.
 
If you used the shrink wrap idea, you can work out any break away strength, from 5lb to 50olb, I used to make 40lb breakaway tags for petzl shunts.

If you look at the 'zigzag speed feed thread' and adopt that method, it offers around 130lb.
 
colemanjessenz said:
Ive had situations in the past that have been similar and instead of a breakaway i just used the tail of my climbing line with a slipknot for a quick release .
Click to expand...
kstreehuggerco said:
This thread got me a thinkin'. Back in my younger rodeo days me and some of my riding buddies came up with a concept to have a break away rigging that could be released in the event of a rider getting his hand hung up in the rope or riggin. We used a seat belt buckle from a C130 aircraft. Just attach some sort of lanyard to the release lever and viola!! It would have to be manually activated and of course the possibility of an accidental release is a very real possibility if the climber was up there fighting some heavy brush. Just wanted to add my two cents worth.View attachment 30411
Click to expand...

Im digging these. For some reason, i like the idea of being in control of the release, rather than it being automatic at a certain point of load. At the same time, i understand that reaction time plays a HUGE factor, but.. Still, im hesitant on the low break strenght solutions. Dont ask me why.
 
Thinking way out side the box, what about a pair magnets (maybe Richards). If they could hold a safe weight then I think that maybe they could also be quickly released by just quickly pulling/pushing/slapping at them at an angle. Just a thought but untried yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Kask Stihl NORTHEASTERN Arborists Wesspur TreeStuff.com Teufelberger Westminster X-Rigging Teufelberger
Back
Top Bottom