Buying a new harness and rigging rope

[Wood Collector]

I am looking at getting the Buckingham Ergovation or the Buckingham Aussie Economy Harness. I was just wondering if their are any gotchas with the ergovation compared to other harnesses. I am also looking at getting a rigging rope an was thinking of a 3/4" but I am still not too sure what to get looking at getting 40m of 134' a rigging rope. Are their any good ones that I should consider getting. I am on a bit of a budget as I only do holiday work.

 

[MasterBlaster]

3/4 is a tad too big, for the most part.

 

[Pelorus]

Majority of the rigging I do uses 1/2" Arbormaster.
Heavier stuff getting negative blocked gets 5/8" StableBraid, but that is the largest dia. rope I own or have ever needed.

 

[candoarms]

Wood Collector,

You'll have to look at your green weight log chart before deciding on a rigging rope for your needs, but I think you'd do well with the Sterling Atlas rope in 9/16". It's rated for around 10,000 lbs. TreeStuff.com sells it for about 86 cents per foot. Using their online discount codes, you could save up to an additional 10%. Use discount code "Online" or "Arborist". Not sure which code will give you the best deal.

Joel

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

3/4 inch is way overkill. Most of my rigging is 1/2 inch the strand, or arbor Plex. Not fancy. I have an almost unused 9/16" stable braid, that is 5-6 years old.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

P.s. uncontrolled speed lines take a lot of weight out of rigging. You can crash into brush/ branches.

All depends on what your rigging. I'm going to look into a 3/8 double braid, at cursedvoyce's suggestion.

 

[squisher]

I concur, get a 1/2, 9/16, or 5/8, rigging line. Only buy a line like 3/4 if a job comes along where you need it. 99 percent of your rigging is going to be done with the smaller line and be so much nicer to handle than a giant ass heavy rope. You could switch up your climb line and get a new one. Just remember once a line goes to rigging, it should never go back to life support.

 

[squisher]

If you're buying a new rigging line. I'd recommend the husky all gear 1/2" or 9/16" available at Tree Stuff. Great rope I used all this last year.

 

[mistahbenn]

Forestry pro 1/2 inch from treestuff is great, and withstands natural rigging for months. A great buy IMO. http://www.treestuff.com/store/catalog.asp?category_id=143&item=495

 

[Limbrat]

Don't know what you'll be rigging, but 90+% of what most folks do here is with 1/2". I'm with Squish, I've been using some Husky for the last couple of years and it works great for me. The 1/2" has a tensile strength of 9500 lbs. The 5/8" is good for heavy rigging or pulling and it's break strength is 18k. I hope I never have a need for anything stronger than that.

 

[flushcut]

1/2" 9/16" is 90% of my rigging every now and again the 5/8" and 3/4" come out to play but not very often.

 

[treebilly]

I use a 3/4 quite a bit. I'll also agree that it is usually overkill. Groundies don't like changing ropes out even though I'm the one that coils them most of the time.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

1/2" 9/16" is 90% of my rigging every now and again the 5/8" and 3/4" come out to play but not very often.

Ditto

 

[Wood Collector]

the majority of the trees are eucalypts and pines with some other exotics such as jacarandas. I have made a pulley that fits 3/4" rope so would it be fine to run a smaller rope in it or should I make some new wheels to fit something like 1/2"?

 

[Grendel]

I've got two 5/8" lines, two 9/16" lines, and four 1/2" lines. The half inchers get used for basically all rigging at height. I use the Arborplex for whole tree stuff. Bought the 5/8" Stable Braid for one job and haven't used it since, still basically new.

Don't forget some slings, a good block, and a porty if you can swing it.

 

[MasterBlaster]

The ground guys shake with fear when they hear me call for the 3/4 line!

 

[sawman]

 

[Wood Collector]

I think that I am just going to go with a 16mm LOWERING ROPE 16mm x 50m LENGTH DOUBLE BRAID POLYESTER is their any downsides to using this rope. It has a breaking force of 5530 KG should I be looking for something stronger?

 

[squisher]

What's the actual rope you're looking at?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

11-12,000 lbs for about 5/8ths rope is crap IMO

 

[Wood Collector]

below is a pic of the rope and the website that I am looking at getting the rope from.Should I look for a stronger rope of will this be fine for most work. http://www.splicingandcutting.com.a...-50m-length-double-braid-polyester-p-118.html

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

All depends on the work.

 

[Wood Collector]

The majority of the work that I would be doing is lowering branches and the odd cut and pull of small limbs

 

[Bermy]

I know they say its arborist rope but That looks like boat rope to me. Who is the manufacturer?
I like 9\16" Samson stable braid. Its a little larger than a climbing line , prob 16mm compared to 13. Its not too heavy and is soft on your hands.
I think they make it in 13mm also.

You talked about having 'made' a pulley, be careful, shock loads and rigging weights need proper rated hardware to handle them safely. Do you have any way of telling what kind of load your homemade pulley can deal with? Or did I misread your post?

 

[candoarms]

Wood Collector,

I checked out the rope you were looking at. There is nothing in the listing showing the manufacturer's name, nor any rating specifications. I'm all but sure that the rope in question is a cheap import.

You'll need to decide if this rope will get you by until such time as you can earn enough money to buy a rated rigging rope made by a reputable company. You could always use the unrated rope as a tag line or haul line, although it would be a bit large for those duties.

Your pulley likely has a relatively long axle, as you say it is capable of handling larger diameter ropes. If your side plates are spaced far apart, the axle may bend, or be seriously stressed. Over time, a stressed axle will crack and fail.....and usually at the most critical moment.......when it's under load.

Joel