Just wanted to chime in on the topic from the engineering/design and from the evil corporate perspective. Basically a lot of this comes down to liability and litigation. With that said, I'm not a lawyer, I don't pretend to be one... and while I did work at a law firm a couple summers when I was younger - the only thing I learned was stocking the copy room, the nail file on a set of clippers is too dangerous to be allowed into a court building, tailors make office calls, and there are people vain enough to monogram the cuffs on all their shirts.
Back to business... First from the safety guy standpoint: I think what
@evo and
@trevmcrev were saying is really along the right lines. This isn't that they don't trust people like
@moss (and likely most people on this forum). You guys are committed to your industry - to learning the ins and outs of what's out there, doing the research, discussing the issues, and adopting the best practices to the best of your ability. But like
@trevmcrev said, you guys are likely the 1%...
The whole reason I started climbing was because I hired the tree guy who was working in my neighbor's trees and I thought: "wow, I can do that." For every person like me who dove in headlong and did tons of research on doing it safely and properly (and learned a ton), I'll bet there are easily 100 people who go out and buy some spikes, a belt, and some rope, and go to town. True - those guys probably aren't buying fancy harnesses with rope bridges and swapping them themselves... but the point stands... because between those guys and you guys there's a lot of ?????? in between - probably the most dangerous are the guys who do generally know what they are doing and take shortcuts or do things they know aren't safe because they know what they are doing and their level of acceptable risk keeps growing every time they do something and don't get hurt.
On top of that - we're human. We make mistakes. We get in a rush. Sometimes we're a little too tired, distracted, overconfident... With that said, I don't think the manufacturers are so worried about Mr. HoldMyBeer.
From the engineering/design/business standpoint, I have two words: "reasonable expectation".
Every piece of climbing gear says it's inherently dangerous to use, and you shouldn't use it if you're not properly trained or whatever CYA verbiage is chosen. Take rope for example - there's only so much a company can do - They can ensure the rope meets the specifications they claim it meets, but there are just endless factors that come into play on the usage of the rope. They can do their due diligence in trying to guess typical usage and make it safe - but no one has any expectation for a company to be able to see every use for rope. OSHA and other bodies make the rules on what kinds of rope are OK to use for what to try to help - but look at your standard practices: tie into anything with a rope, and you should add a stopper knot just in case. People throw a Carabiner on things just in case. But how many people will buy enough rope to have a long tail with an additional stopper knot on their rope bridge?
No manufacturer wants to make a "bridge cord" likely because the end use is so highly dependent on not only the end user to install it correctly, but the hardware it's paired with, how it rubs on what in the particular harness... If they sell a "bridge cord" then there will be tons of people who don't know better who will say "oh, this is bridge cord, I can replace my bridge with it" and who knows what their level is. On top of it, the specially chosen bridge cords are often modified in ways that makes it difficult for a person to improperly use it. The stitching to keep it from sliding out if the cover is compromised, and to prevent too short of a tail... Maybe after a few climbs it is set like a rock - but they've identified that if the cover does fail, the core can pull out of even a properly tied knot... if it can happen, and the result is death - that's a high risk in a risk assessment. If the company sells it as "bridge cord" - it's easy for anyone to argue that there was a reasonable expectation of safety in using it on their bridge.
If they sell it as a pre-made bridge with the tails stitched to prevent the cores pulling out, etc. - they've done their due diligence to ensure it's safe to use.
The cost for these little things is high, I know... but you have to figure... $1 worth of materials... but pay a guy to cut it and stitch it and tie it, a guy to handle the material, to handle the products after, packaging it up, the space in the warehouse to hold the products, shipping out to the shops, the sales people, the accounting people, etc. etc. etc. And we're talking about a relatively low volume item that has a shelf life... Same thing for splicing shops - yeah they probably make a handful of things like the tether for a rope wrench at a time, but they aren't mass producing them... What's your total cost if someone hired you to just trim a few branches?
Anyway, Cheers and happy climbing!
Dumpy
