VT hitch advise

My Beeline cords are about 24" eye to eye. My HRC and Bail out my eyes on the fisherman's knots were 22" I believe.
On my 5/16ths Ultra tech they are at 21" centers fisherman's knots.
You might like to try the ultra tech as well Jay. I find that it behaves nicely in both send tending and catching. The cover is not real heat resistant like HRC or Bail Out but the core is.
I still don't believe in a "self tending" knot however. I think the term is loose as can be a knot if not supervised regularly
I took a slight slip on the ultratech not too long ago... it caught.. slipped about 10 feet. My fault as I did not double check setting my hitch. By moving forward to the spar to unclip my flip line, my pulley tended the VT forward due to the weight of the line below me, loosening it. Reminded me to always check my hitch. I had just released my flip line on a spar I was going to rap off and rapid I did

That pic shows a 4-1 with the lowest wrap pulled down a tad.

Peter, with two braids, is it recommended to have the same configuration as in the photo, the same end under the other, or does it not matter?

You can alternate or not, have a play and see which works best. I find one way usually twists my rope up more than the other.

I want to try Ultratech with the rope wrench, heat resistance is not as crucial since the wrench takes a good deal of the friction duty, also, ultratech is firmer and stays rounder making it a good choice for the wrench , I have one eye and eye of it, but it is the retarded grizzly splice, but I'll try it anyways

I just double fisherman mine as I believe Burnam does. Good way to try it out and dial it in IMO. If nothing else, it can be used as a tether considering it's rating

I have a 32" spliced OP on mine, tied like Jay's...on a Hitchclimber.
I used icetail for quite a while, then tried the OP and I like it better.
The one 'non catch' I had was stopped by flicking up on the wraps, mind you I was not going too fast and hadn't gone far...about 4'

I keep thinking that the hitch climber pulley could have ears or flaps that would hold the hitch cord and keep it from splaying outward when the hitch is advanced. Another thought I have is that if the first three inches of the hitch cord where dipped in something and stiffer that it might run smoother.

Whip it

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Whip it good?

Into shape!

The guys in DEVO all seem to have the same haircut. That is awesome!

Bermy said:

I have a 32" spliced OP on mine, tied like Jay's...on a Hitchclimber.
I used icetail for quite a while, then tried the OP and I like it better.
The one 'non catch' I had was stopped by flicking up on the wraps, mind you I was not going too fast and hadn't gone far...about 4'

Click to expand...

32" holy, that is long Fiona, a runt like you should be able to get by with like 2 wraps and a braid maybe

I have over 26K hits on this... it is an old vid but I have not seen anything that beats this set up (for me anywhoo)

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Nate, what cord are you using in the vid?

looks like HRC cord Jay.

Cary, it looks a bit larger than the 8mm I've been trying out, and softened up. The cord getting a memory seems to help, that must be part of the "dialing in" process that folks are advising.

Jay: I understand your fix. The first time I tried the VT, (funny Darin!) I thought, "Cool knot. Works pretty good. I'll probably go back to my Blake hitch." I did. Then I tried it again, and again, and again, ad nauseum. At length, I've discovered that the VT is amazing, but, in my opinion, the very FIRST thing that a person needs to understand, is that the length of the chord is THE most critical element, as Brian and Paul already pointed out.

Here's the thing: you live in Japan. It is so hard for those of us who have had great success with the VT and who are presumptuous enough to attempt to instruct you to explain how VERY short that chord needs to be to work at its prime.

I liked the picture of the knot that you posted (accept that I immediately felt like telling you to spring for the "Hitch-Climber Pulley"--it works so much better! I owe that to Willie.) but, I immediately thought, "He's still got a bit too much slack in the chord."

I know what you're thinking: "But if I go any shorter on it, I'll have a hard time getting it on the beaner." Yup, possibly, but here's what you do: fight that thing on there, and then load it super hard. (I bounce my body weight up and down on it like I'm Andre the Giant.) The slack introduced (I too use fisherman's knots) will be just enough to make subsequent tying much easier. Learn to tie the VT by simply passing the end of the rope up through the pulley and then weaving it--counter clock-wise--through the chord (when both Fisherman's knots are on the beaner.) You can make really cool alterations in the relative grab of the chord this way by either twisting up one knotted end of the chord before putting it on the carib... I'll never be able to spell it... or else making sure that the chord has no twists. I noticed that you had Arbormaster. That wld be just a tiny bit fatter, than say New England Safety Blue. For the Safety blue, I wld put a few twists into the chord, thus rendering it shorter, while, for the Arbormaster, I'd let it be. Try all this junk. You'll like it.

Darin: Really cool idea about the stiffening agent for the "bottoms" of the chord. Or else the "wings on the pulley" thing. I've wondered about that type of stuff before too.

Jed, thanks for the informative post. The photo is actually one that Brian put up of his system quite awhile ago, one of a series showing the tying, and of great value to a lot of folks learning the knot. It sure was an aid for me, as a lot of pics out there show it, but not clearly. I've been using a spliced eye cord, so the length is not changeable, but I'm going to try the knots instead of the splice eye attachment, and see how things change with the shorter length. Just adding a turn as Brian also suggested, has made the hitch usable for me. As far as pulleys go, I am currently using this one:

I used that one (mickey mouse pulley) as well for a while Jay until I felt the system was what I wanted. Then bought the hitch climber. Much smoother and the third attachment point does come in handy

I have both and the hitch climber is definitely smoother. It comes in cool colors too.

Hitchclimber here too, but I started with the Mickey that Jay is using

That hurts guys, but I can somehow suck it up.

pssssst Jay.. I still use it from time to time on a second tie in