Jump to content

Log in or register to remove this advert

steel strop snapped


heartwood tree tech
 Share

Recommended Posts

Log in or register to remove this advert

  • Replies 139
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Gentlemen, This WireCore Flipline is in excess of 8 years old. Yale started maxijacketing the fliplines over 4 years ago, and the snap on the end is ancient to what we are offering currently.

 

In no way should the climber have been on this lanyard if they follwed the inspection criteria called out in the original packaging or on the Yale Cordage website.

 

Yale Cordage has sold tens of thousands of these wire core fliplines and I have never heard of a complaint like this. I know that your orginal post was to let everyone know to be safe and check their gear, but you sir are the one who needs to inspect your gear more closley. I would not rely on someone else to check my gear. You should respect your stuff and inspect before every climb, after every climb. Things happen in the field to your gear that demand attention. If you were inspecting your gear before and after each climb, this would have been thrown in the bin long ago.

 

If you can still read the serial number on the end, I will report to you exactly how old this lanyard is. My bet is pre - 2003

 

Finally, in good spirit, I am arranging to have a brand new flipline sent to you from our distributor in the UK. In return, I would like to have this one for our museum of Arboricultural artifacts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally, in good spirit, I am arranging to have a brand new flipline sent to you from our distributor in the UK. In return, I would like to have this one for our museum of Arboricultural artifacts.

 

how good is that! nice one jamie

 

long live yale cordage and all who dangle off her

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gentlemen, This WireCore Flipline is in excess of 8 years old. Yale started maxijacketing the fliplines over 4 years ago, and the snap on the end is ancient to what we are offering currently.

 

In no way should the climber have been on this lanyard if they follwed the inspection criteria called out in the original packaging or on the Yale Cordage website.

 

Yale Cordage has sold tens of thousands of these wire core fliplines and I have never heard of a complaint like this. I know that your orginal post was to let everyone know to be safe and check their gear, but you sir are the one who needs to inspect your gear more closley. I would not rely on someone else to check my gear. You should respect your stuff and inspect before every climb, after every climb. Things happen in the field to your gear that demand attention. If you were inspecting your gear before and after each climb, this would have been thrown in the bin long ago.

 

If you can still read the serial number on the end, I will report to you exactly how old this lanyard is. My bet is pre - 2003

 

Finally, in good spirit, I am arranging to have a brand new flipline sent to you from our distributor in the UK. In return, I would like to have this one for our museum of Arboricultural artifacts.

 

Gee whizz, that is AWESOME service. I am truly blown away.:thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbup1:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In no way should the climber have been on this lanyard if they follwed the inspection criteria called out in the original packaging or on the Yale Cordage website. ...

 

... If you were inspecting your gear before and after each climb, this would have been thrown in the bin long ago.

 

Could you please provide a link to the inspection criteria on the yale cordage website Custom Rope Manufacturer | Custom and Specialty Rope | Yale Cordage | Yale Cordage I have looked though the menus and tried searching for "inspection", but couldn't find anything.

 

Also: Which inspection criteria would this lanyard have failed "long ago"?

 

From the pictures published in this thread (prior to cutting open the lanyard cover), I couldn't see much corrosion, although the pictures did not show close-ups of the exposed parts of the wire-core.

Edited by morten
highlight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting thread this. I have two wire core flip lines and we have no LOLER inspections in NZ (at least as far as I know) so only your own inspection to go on. I'm looking at my flip lines, I have no idea how old they are as they were supplied to me by my last employer and who knows how long they were sitting around in the supply shop/store room. Neither can I see any rust spots but I'm wondering if that now counts for nothing and I would just be better off getting replacements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice post. Interesting comments. Thank- you Jamie for your reasoned input.

LOLER is there to protect the user. As far as is reasonable in what is a very tough environment, but as someone has said the daily pre-climb checks form part of the LOLER system. We have 8-9 climbing kits that all have to be checked twice a year on top of the daily checks and weekly form filling. Self-employed climbers and/or business owners don't have to have LOLER but if anything was to go wrong your insurance and HSE wouldn't be too pleased.

All our big clients ask for our LOLER, PUWER etc before being allowed to start on site and this information is available for inspection by any of our other clients.

Most guys who've been climbing for a while know pretty well how to look after their gear and don't conciously put themselves in unnecessarily risky situations by using defective gear. Most of our regularly used kit doesn't make it past 3 years let alone 5. Nicks from saws or spikes being the main reasons.

IMO some form of refresher training or a short module might make sense to educate users of climbing gear exactly what to look for and more importantly why a piece of equipment is a fail. We do tool box talks when a piece gets failed in-house as well as by our LOLER inspector.

I also support very strongly the post that said to check the gear and the tree all day long. Become too reliant on textbook safety systems and you end up unsafe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can PM me or Jamie and let us know the contact of your LOLER inspector maybe we can make sure he knows how to reach us if he has any questions regarding age or manufacture dates of Yale items. "ARB" LOLER inspectors should have a good and detailed knowledge of all arborist equipment. Unfortunately I know of several companies using crane specialists to do their LOLER testing these guys will not have the same experience or contacts to ask "Is this OK?"

 

LOLER tests are only as good as the inspection on the day the day after an item could potentially fail so regular self inspections also need to be carried out as per industry guidelines.

 

There was a comment that a LOLER inspector suggested that steel core lanyards could last longer than 5 years. I would suggest that if your hitch or rope grab in attached to the outer (textile) sheath and it fails you might slip, fall and potentially injure yourself so on this basis alone I would suggest you follow textile guidelines and replace these every five years (of use) that way if there was any corrosion in the core it won't matter as you have retired the item before it becomes an issue.

 

I found out recently how corrosive Leylandii sap can be, apparently burns to flesh removal and corrosion on metal items have all be seen after exposure to it. I had no idea how corrosive it can be and wonder how many of you are also unaware? I didn't have a clue and in addition to age exposure to it may give us some insight in to what may have occurred here.

 

I hope you are all backing up your steel core lanyards with a climbing line just below it, just in case accidents can and do occur.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share


  •  

  • Featured Adverts

About

Arbtalk.co.uk is a hub for the arboriculture industry in the UK.  
If you're just starting out and you need business, equipment, tech or training support you're in the right place.  If you've done it, made it, got a van load of oily t-shirts and have decided to give something back by sharing your knowledge or wisdom,  then you're welcome too.
If you would like to contribute to making this industry more effective and safe then welcome.
Just like a living tree, it'll always be a work in progress.
Please have a look around, sign up, share and contribute the best you have.

See you inside.

The Arbtalk Team

Follow us

Articles

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.