?Kevlar kite string for throw line?

[moss]

For nesting there are more suitable fibers that are less work for them to gather and process like the insides of mattresses, pillows, and sleeping bags etc..
-AJ

 

[Marie Muma]

Thanks. I will remember that. I am going to put our Capillary Throw Line (the one we are using presently) onto the fishing reel and just see how it works BEFORE I put the stainless cable on the fishing reel. I am hoping that this reel will work well for this purpose. It sure worked well when I had to reel in a Mahi Mahi in the Bahamas almost 10 years ago!! We shall see.

 

[ATH]

I bought this at 1000' for $32. 100% polyester.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00ZJ597S2?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Haven't used it yet...but I bought it for the same purpose. Except I won't leave the friction saver in. I did stretch the spool out to from corner to corner to mark a property line. Seems like it will work well for 'pull line's after I have set the line with regular throw line.

 

[Marie Muma]

That polyester line is great for UV resistance and does not stretch. I found out that the Capillary throwline that I bought from Wesspur is actually a product called Dyneema which actually is a bit MORE UV resistant than polyester, which costs $38 for 425 feet, but both are great. Dyneema is a major winner when it comes to “breaking” strength.

 

[Winchman]

I have several bookmarks left in the yard trees I regularly climb. The ones I use most often are #18 (200lb) braided nylon net twine from Memphis Twine. Some are over two years old, and still work fine for pulling my climbing rope seventy-five feet up. It's pricey, but not as much as good throw line.

The other bookmarks are twisted nylon mason's twine I get out of the trash at the local football stadium after it's been used for marking the field. It also seems to last a long time, but it's not as strong as the braided nylon. If the tree has one of my permanent friction savers, I'll use it to pull the rope up. If there's no friction saver, I use it to pull up a braided nylon line or an old throw line first.

I just leave the bookmark line on the ground while I'm climbing since I'll be putting it back up when I'm done. Be careful when the rope end approaches the friction saver. The rope will start falling of its own weight, and the small line will get tangled in branches or pulled out of reach.

There are oodles of squirrels here, but they've never bothered my bookmarks. I don't use gloves to handle the line despite my hands being sweaty. I've had squirrels eat pvc conduit and automotive wiring, but never nylon line.

I'd stay away from the stainless cable, especially the very flexible 7x19 type. It's more likely to have broken strands, and they're hard to see and incredibly sharp. I always wear heavy leather gloves when handling cable. A cable with a broken strand could certainly do serious damage to a climbing line.

 

[Marie Muma]

I am not sure what 7x19 stainless cable is. This is what I bought from Amazon. It is not very flexible. Before using this on my bait caster reel, I am just going to see how the reel retrieval/deployment works using my regular Capillary Throw Line. I will keep the drag set so that my rope should not come “tumbling down” once it gets past the Friction Saver. We will put up an accessory line for backup if this fishing reel system should fail.

 

[dmonn]

I am not sure what 7x19 stainless cable is. This is what I bought from Amazon. It is not very flexible. Before using this on my bait caster reel, I am just going to see how the reel retrieval/deployment works using my regular Capillary Throw Line. I will keep the drag set so that my rope should not come “tumbling down” once it gets past the Friction Saver. We will put up an accessory line for backup if this fishing reel system should fail. View attachment 71715

For example, “7x19” means the rope has seven (7) strands, with 19 wires in each strand. 7x19 is the most flexible aircraft cable construction. 7x19 is approximately twice as flexible as 7x7 construction. Aircraft cable is rated by its nominal break strength.

 

[Marie Muma]

Thanks. The 7x7 that we bought seems to have the appropriate amount of stretch for our purpose. It should be fairly easy to work with and not have as much a tendency to get a “kink” in it. The big challenge will be to permanently attach it to the climbing rope. I have heard of people putting a “hot nail hole” into the end of the climbing rope. Hopefully we can do that and then put this wire through it and crimp the end so that it will not come undone. The diameter is 1/16 th inch, so we will follow the guidelines and make the loop about one inch.

 

[Brocky]

Take a little core out of the end of the climb line and put a small loop of cord in and sew it up would be another option for attaching to cable.

 

[Winchman]

Another concern with the stainless cable is electrical conductivity and lightning. Having a conductive wire that far up in a tree seems like asking for trouble.

I made small loops of braided nylon twine on the end of my ropes to serve as pulling points. I worked a ball point pen refill through the rope to make an opening for the twine an inch from the end of the rope, and buried the knot in the hole. Then I whipped the end of the rope with small twine to hold the loops tightly in place. It only takes a few minutes, lasts a long time, and can easily be replaced if necessary.

A short doubled piece of small twine can be inserted in the end of the refill as you push it through the rope, and can be used to pull the larger twine through in the other direction

I would rather shoot a throw line up every time I climbed than deal with 150+ feet of wire rope. Wire rope is great stuff. I've used hundreds of feet of it for rigging in light aircraft and sailboats. This is simply not the place for it.

 

[Marie Muma]

Thanks for the comment. We live in an area where lightning is extremely unlikely. We have lived here for 5 years and have yet to have a strike. Thank you for the technique to get a little hole in the end of the climbing rope. I will try that first before heating up a nail and jamming it into the end of our climbing rope. We are new to recreational tree climbing and the setup in our tree is really just another way for us to get exercise, with our plan of climbing this tree every 2-3 days, so throwing a bag up to 70 feet each time is not going to work for this purpose.

 

[Marie Muma]

1/16 inch wire cable somehow seems workable to me. I suppose I will only know this when I have attempted it. It will be easy to abort and use the regular dyneema capillary line that I bought from Wesspur. The thin cable will be under mild tension as it sits in between climbs, one end attached to climbing rope (stored in a latched large plastic storage bin) and the other on my bait caster reel with the drag set.

 

[dsptech]

To prevent rodent chewing handle your cordage with gloves on. Rodents are not interested in chewing syntheic fibers, they are interested in the salts transmitted from sweat on your hands to the cordage. They are very practical and efficient and do things for a reason ;-)
-AJ

Tell that to the squirrel that ate though the outer sheath and insulators to bare copper on a run of 14/2 in my attic and tripped a breaker.
How that sucker survived that is beyond me but I can tell you that it wasn't very practical..

 

[moss]

Tell that to the squirrel that ate though the outer sheath and insulators to bare copper on a run of 14/2 in my attic and tripped a breaker.
How that sucker survived that is beyond me but I can tell you that it wasn't very practical..

Exceptions to every rule. Although... just because we don’t know why doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason why ;-)
-AJ

 

[Tom Dunlap]

There was a thread on a motorhead forum I follow about rodent damage to car wiring. Not so much daily drivers but cars that don't get driven regularly.An auto tech shared information about the soy based plastic used for wire insulation. Rodents consider it food...grrrrrr. I bought a house adn found a LOT of chewed insulation by squirrels. Found one that had gotten electrocuted. The previous owner didn't have the fascia closed so the tree rats had easy access. Good thing the garage didn't burn down.

 

[ATH]

They chew because they are rodents and rodents need to chew to keep their teeth worn down. They need no other reason.

 

[Rob Stafari]

Don't think I saw it mentioned, but what sort of friction saver are you leaving in the tree? Cable is far more abrasive than any textile. Pulling it 2 or 3 times a week is going to slice through a lot of things in short order.

 

[Winchman]

Even textiles will wear through pine bark if used that much. You can see my cheap and easy to make friction saver here:

Any suggestions for a permanent base anchor?

Now that I've got my permanent friction saver figured out I see the need for a permanent base anchor on a couple of the trees I plan to climb repeatedly. Right now my base anchor is a length of Stable Braid which takes several minutes to set up and adjust. I'd like something that I could just...

www.treebuzz.com

Unfortunately you can't install it from the ground, or at least I couldn't. It's easy enough once you're in the tree, though.

 

[ATH]

A Dan House rope sleeve would be a pretty good solution.

 

[Marie Muma]

Don't think I saw it mentioned, but what sort of friction saver are you leaving in the tree? Cable is far more abrasive than any textile. Pulling it 2 or 3 times a week is going to slice through a lot of things in short order.

We “invented” our chain Friction Saver using a thick rubber hose collar around a substantial chain with a stainless steel ring shackled (tied off with wire) to the chain.
This friction saver is installed about 70 feet up and stays put. Our climbing rope is stored at the base of the tree in a bin and is “permanently” attached to the retrieval line (presently just a throw line). We store it after our climb and raise it each time.
The throw line is very thin (Dyneema) and is a bit hard on my gloved hands while pulling on it to raise the climbing rope. That is why I was thinking of using a reel. Initially the amount of tug is not much but once the rope gets high enough and passes the ring, that is when it becomes more difficult.
The fishing reel is probably not going to work which we tried with the present throw line. I doubt that we will even use the stainless steel 1/16th inch cable unless we can find the sort of reel that can be attached on our decking surrounding our tree.
The back up plan is to purchase a “retrieval” line that is thicker and easier to just haul in hand over hand. This line stays up in the tree between climbs. I will probably use 1/4 inch polyester double braided line which will be so much easier on my hands while pulling on it to raise the climbing rope.