What Makes a good lowering rope?

[josharb87]

what makes a good lowering rope and why?

 

whats the construction diffrences?

 

looking for a new heavy rigging rope for use on a fixed bollard any experienced persons opinions on which one AND why?

 

thanks

[Paul Smith]

Lots of things including personal preference. Strength, it should be your weakest link in the system, durability, hard wearing. I like a double braid and use double Esterlon and Yale polydine on my GRCS. Is it easy to tie and untie? Blocks or dare I say natural crotch rig!

 

Make sure it's compatible with the rest of your rigging gear.

[MattyF]

Speak to nod at tree worker , tell him what your lowering with and the size of bits your doing or expecting to max out on, can't remember what he sold me but it's been spot on with what I asked.

[ad15]

"What Makes a good lowering rope?"

 

 

 

 

1. one that doesn't break

 

2. one that goes down not of up

 

sorry, couldn't resist..

[Paul Jenks]

Beat me to it ad15

[Peter]

If you are using a bollard and pulleys in the tree, then a double braid is the best construction.

 

Double braid is essentially a rope inside a rope, so the load is shared by core and cover. If you use DB on natural crotch rigging, the extra friction taken by the cover means it takes more than its fair share of the load.

 

If you do a lot of natural crotch rigging then a 12 strand hollowbraid or 3 strand rope is better.

 

Assuming you want a DB, then you are looking at strength and ability to absorb shock loading.

 

The best in my opinion on those two points is Yale Polydyne. Yale are so confident in its ability to absorb shock loading that they calculate its Working Load Limit with a 5:1 Safety Factor.

 

Personally I use a 10:1 SF on all textile, even with that it still comes out on top.

 

Make sure the diameter rope you buy is compatible with the bollard and your pulleys. Unless you have specific kit for a large rigging system you will probably need a max 16mm rope.

 

It is possible to build a rigging kit around a 19mm line, but you will need 25mm DB slings for the pulley, and the pulley itself will need to be either the big DMM or the big ISC, with the 19mm sheave.

[josharb87]

brilliant response, cheers Peter!

[Big 'Ammer]

I have always been happy with Double Esterlon and have recently bought a new 60m rope.

 

We run a 16mm system.

 

We have just got a Stein single bollard to run it on, but havn't tried it yet.

 

60m is a lot of rope, but by the time you have run it through two or three pulleys, theres not a lot left on a 50m rope on a decent sized tree.

 

Plus, as the two ends get a little tatty from use, it can be shortened by a couple of metres at each end and still have a decent working length.

 

I recently asked on here if Double Esterlon was worth the extra money over Portland braid.

 

Bob and Frank reckoned it was, in the value stakes alone, apart from being stronger.

 

So I have stuck with what I am happy with.

 

This is for 'proper' rigging.

 

The odd light branch just gets a rope over a fork like the old days.

[John Shutler]

Double Esterlon 16mm has always been good for us

 

got a 12mm marlow rope which is grippy on the hobbs style bollard ive got which is great for winching ops, but its grippyness (is that a word?) can be a bit annoying when letting things run (lots of friction and gets hot in the hand)

[niftysteve]

what makes a good lowering rope and why?

 

whats the construction diffrences?

 

looking for a new heavy rigging rope for use on a fixed bollard any experienced persons opinions on which one AND why?

 

thanks

 

some of that kevlar rope i got in the shed ive not broke it yet so it must be strong The bloke from BT that i got it from said its 7 t cable winching rope