KM III 11mm reviews

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Leafguy

New member
Hi guys, looking at getting some KM III 11mm rope. What's the ideal application for this rope. Rigging,climbing or not worth it. I can't seem to find any specific reviews of it. I found some for 40cents a foot. Cheap but I still don't want to spend if it's not worth it.
 
KMIII has a poly cover over a nylon core and as Waldo stated it is a static rope.

It won't do a Blake's hitch, but of course you can do DdRT with a split tail.

Knots in static rope typically don't pull up as snug as arborist type rope so you may need to evaluate what kind of knots work best for your application.

I haven't climbed on my 11mm KMIII much, but it did quite well in ground anchored SRT applications. As I recall, 11mm KMIII is heavier than say 11mm Velocity, but then what arborist rope is lighter than Velocity?
 
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KMIII has a poly cover over a nylon core and as Waldo stated it is a static rope.

It won't do a Blake's hitch, but of course you can do DdRT with a split tail.

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Keep in mind what the ANSI Z133.1-2006 says about climbing lines; "It must be designated by the manufacturer as suitable for tree climbing".
Call New England Ropes an ask if it meets that criteria. I wouldn't think so, not enough elongation. It's a great SRT ascending rope, though.
 
As always, excellent point Norm!

As I recall, KMIII is pretty stretchy compared to similar ropes. Of course that doesn't really mean anything, what Norm said about the suitability determined by the ANSI reference is what counts.
 
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As I recall, KMIII is pretty stretchy compared to similar ropes.

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I'm not sure about this. KMIII is a near static line designed more for SRT work where you don't want to have a lot of stretch in your climbing line

It also meets the EN1891 Type A rope construction, which guarantees sufficient energy absorption in a factor 1 fall (10 feet of fall/10 feet of rope).
 
chris,

I'm not saying KMIII approaches dynamic by any means. But I just checked NE's website and guess what? They've replaced the elongation percentages with XX.XX. IOW, they no longer publish elongation specs.

Again, I have to go from memory here, but as I recall, an 11mm KMIII had significantly more stretch than say an 11mm PMI EzBend rope. That doesn't make KMIII bad or any less useful, I just think it elongated a bit more than similar ropes.
 
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aborist

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LMAO some New Englander spelled it the way he pronounces it hahaha. I wonder if he spells car "caa".
 
LOL, "Ayup" that is how we talk up North here!

You'll hear a lot of that if you come up to Mayer's Party this weekend.

Funny thing really is that I someimes catch myself using my New England accent and have to laugh.
 
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...I'll also ask about it's use as a DRT rope....

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I'm eagar to hear what they say about that. It's been a while since I used my KMIII 11mm, but I'm pretty sure it will not hold a Blake's hitch. But I haven't seen a rope yet that wouldn't work with a BeeLine, etc. split tail.
 
Thanks Norm, I checked the NE website earlier and was surprised that they had xx.xx in place of the percent of elongation values. Your data sheet gives the elongation values.

When I said in an earlier post, "...As I recall, KMIII is pretty stretchy compared to similar ropes...." I was remembering this comparison:

PMI 11mm EzBend - elongation @ 300 lbs = 1.8%
KMIII 11mm .....- elongation @ 300 lbs = 2.9%

I know that doesn't look like much, but KMIII has about 61% more elongation @ 300 lbs than 11mm EzBend.

So 100' of EzBend would stretch 1.8 feet, KMIII 2.9 feet or a foot more. Rounded off a bit KMIII would stretch about 3 feet where EzBend would stretch less than 2 feet.

I don't see how that would matter much, especially considering that most of us don't weigh 300 lbs, but that's what all I meant by "...KMIII is pretty stretchy compared to similar ropes...".
 
Thanks guys,

Bought a chunk today. Works O.K. for climbing and a blakes was fine on it. Not as nice as some others though. Somewhat cable like. I'll try in in a few applications and see. The price turned out to be .25 cents a foot so I couldn't pass it up.
 
When I do the coils on my KMIII, the coils are quite loose. The three that the tail feeds back through get some 'fill' from the tail, but the two top coils have to be 'force compressed' into the rope.

No doubt setting and loading will do that. I just wonder what that much 'force' does to the fibers of the rope in the top two coils.

I've successfully used a Blake's on 10mm HTP, but I don't like it for the same reason, the coils have to be forced compressed onto the rope - just doesn't seem like a good thing for a rope. Of course it could be argued that knots do the same thing, so maybe a Blake's is ok.
 
I have a 300' hank of KMIII and it is bomb a$$ SRT rope IMO. I use it for getting into big Doug firs and Cottonwoods. I only use it for ascent though, only once for decent with the F8 system but didn't care for it. Very low stretch and ascenders go through it like butter. Doesn't knot over well though, which is a characteristic of most harder jacket static lines. I don't think I would recommend it for anything but ascent.
 
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