knotless rigging

[allmark]

A while back I talked to someone who used spliced rope for rigging w/ beaners. I was wondering who still does this and with what variations. Or improvements.

 

[No_Bivy]

Definitly, spliced ends.Choker for each limb is faster then tying, and stronger. More goober proof too!

 

[Kevin]

On smaller branches I use loop runners choked on the limb and attach four to a rigging plate and cut one at a time lowering all four at once.

 

[treesandsurf]

don't like biners for rigging purposes, could get f@!!@# up and then malfunction if placed under intense strain at a bad angle, wouldn't know it and then fail on you. would prefer to just tie a knot, IMHO.

jp

 

[No_Bivy]

Slim chance of biner failure clipped to splice. Choke limb clip to spice = easy, fast, bomber.

 

[treesandsurf]

[ QUOTE ]
Slim chance of biner failure clipped to splice. Choke limb clip to spice = easy, fast, bomber.

[/ QUOTE ]

for lighter stuff, see your point. wouldn't want to use a biner with heavier situations, but to each their own.

jp

 

[allmark]

Have you used shacles for larger pieces. or gone back to knots. Seems like it would be more weight unless groundie was pulling it back and you could rehook?

 

[RemovalWizzard]

I use a splice and a 65kn screw gate... i have seen some of the twist gates open... when i am roping big wood, i will use this system also.

i hear people talk about bend radius around the biner, but with all of the friction of the first hitch and wrap, i can't see it being a problem

 

[Colin]

Probably me who supported loops and biners.

I use spliced loops all the time and love them.

My biner is a 72kn Omega steel screw gate and the gate opens at a slight angle missing the spine so you can get larger dia ropes in.

http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductD...0&langId=-1

Coz you are using loops (or slings I call them) it's very fast on and off, the biner seldom gets smacked around, no knots to untie on the ground that are stuck under the piece and you have more than one sling so off you go to the next cut .... groundies can just unclip the sling and fire the rope up to you. The end of my lowering rope is a spliced eye with some protective webbing over the rope. This would be the only weak point due to bend ratio around the biner but that is debatable as it's a static point unlike running a rope over a small dia pulley.

It's fast, it's safe.

However on large trunk sections I will tie rather than use the biner idea as I want to get some half hitches around the section etc... no big deal, just take the biner off and tie away or use the other end of the lowering rope.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i send abour everything down with sling and krab for 10+ years now. i carry 4-8 Dyneema sling + Foin as recomended by Tom for lightest weight.

A sling and krab set is a very multi-purpose, modular rigging opening up many more strategies and tweaking a system. Bending lines clear of each other; forcing a trail of more or less friction to suit etc. i used to leave'em in truck; and then if i needed weight he 'expense' of having someone ask what i needed 2 more times, searching for and finding, returning, tieing on, dragging up etc. against what i thought i could get out of'em at the moment. Then i took them on as my permanent gear to bring up every time; and use and learn the oodles of ways that you can use a simple krab and sling set.

 

[Demo]

Beaner and an endless loops work great on our white pines can lower about 20 limbs at ounce Ticks the ground men off though.

 

[TLHamel]

I don't splice eyes in my rigging lines. The stiffness of the splice makes it difficult to tie knots quickly when using the rope with the biner removed. I keep my ends plain. If the job is light, I'll attach a steel biner using an Anchor bend.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

The Blue Streak that is used for light rigging has an eye splice for a heavy duty biner. Dyneema slings are choked around limbs and wood and clipped to the biner. Several cuts at once come down in a 'bouquet' or 'chandelier' making it a VERY efficient system.

At times I'll use heavy slings for lowering chunks and bigger limbs too. The nice thing about using slings is that the attachment between the sling and rope is never on the bottom of the log. When I tie directly to the log the running bowline seems to always be under the limb. That means either rasslin' with the log or chunking it to untie the log. That wastes time for everyone. Unclip the rope and send it back to the climber who has several slings. While the next cut is being setup the groundies can clear up the one on the ground.

Using a knotless system does have limitations. All of the working loads need to be accounted for or a break could occur.

 

[Zac]

We use a steel ladder snap and tenex slings for everything except big wood. A few splices were showing a lot of wear so we cut them off 8 feet up the rope. Now both ends of the rope are being used so it's wearing more evenly.

 

[Norm_Hall]

I have a 1/2" SB 3 strand with a locking ladder snap spliced on 1 end. Use 3/8" New England filament dacron and Samson tenex for loops. It's fast and fool proof. Many limbs can be lowered at once. For lite rigging only, 650# max.

 

[Jamin_Mayer]

So are you all using these slings in a "basket hitch" or "girth hitch" position?

 

[Lumberjack]

I have used slings with biners on pine limbs before.

I tie the bottom limb, then girth hitch the rest clipping into the rope, cut them free, the bottom limb acts as a stopper for the rest, I think I have sent a max of 5 limbs off at a time.

Another kewl option to have is setup an easy speed line, same slings and biners, tie the rope to top of the tree, the other end runs through a 8/porty. The groundy slacks the speedline, climber attaches any limbs that he can to the SL with the slings, groundy uses human power (no MA for sake of speed) to remove the available slack in the line, climber lets the limbs fly 1 at a time, groundy lets out slack to drop the limbs in the precise spot, all facing the same direction and neatly stacked, works best on smaller limbs, again mainly used in pine.

 

[Lumberjack]

Girth hitching nottahacker.

I have send multiple limbs down at once using the same rope with clove hitches. Takes a long time to rig up, takes a long time to clear, mainly did it for the novelty of it.

 

[Norm_Hall]

Choke the loop onto the limb, clip it in the locking ladder snap, have ground crew cinch the lowering line and cut away.

 

[Kevin]

I unclip the biner attached to the rigging plate and girth hitch the biner and runner to the limb then re-attach the biner to the plate and continue on with the remaining loop runners.