Swivels on bridge?

NorthWoodsDiver

TreeHouser
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Sep 14, 2010
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Location
Duluth Minnesota
I am interested in putting a swivel on the bridge of my Sequoia SRT. I have seen pics of this done somewhere. I'm just not sure which swivel to use. Petzl makes 2 varieties, a large and a small, and various other manufactures make them. Ideas?
 
they are 36kn I think, stronger than the bridge rings I use .
 
Some folks say your line will still get twisted, and with a swivel you won't be able to un-twist as easily...fwiw.
 
The first thing you have to do is examine what causes the rope to twist. In my experimenting with different hitches and friction savers, I determined that it was my hitch introducing twist into the system. If you have your wraps and braids balanced on your VT then you can greatly reduce the twist. Running your rope in a smooth natural crotch instead of on a pulley style friction saver can help keep the rope from twisting also. But one of the drawbacks of all these fancy new systems is that there's nothing to slow down the introduction of twist into the rope. Go ahead and put a swivel on your saddle and watch your rope corkscrew while you are completely isolated from the rope and can't stop it from twisting.
 
As you move around in the tree, you'll turn the same direction a time or two and your line gets twisted...but an even greater tendency for your climbline to become twisted can come from the action some friction hitches impart to the climb line.

So if you have a swivel, the legs are free to wind around each other, even if you are keeping your body square to your tie-in point. And when you want to untwist, spinning your body around the axis of your climb line fails to untwist the legs because the swivel just spins with you.


Ahhhh....Skwerl is faster on replying than I :).
 
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If it will make it worse i dont want to try it. Usually i get a half twist but i clip directly to my bridge maybe adding a pulley would help? the scary thing is sometimes the half twist causes my hitch not to bite so i have to keep an eye on it.
 
Well, it won't hurt to try it, except for the cost of the swivel. At least with the Sequoia it's easy to put it on and then take it off when you find out ol' Burnham and tha Skwerl might just have been right :).
 
when you find out ol' Burnham and tha Skwerl might just have been right :).

LoL thats why i ask first. If i felt strongly enough about it i would try it but its just a thought and i saw this thread and figured i would inquire about it myself. Thats one of my favorite things about the Tree House anything i can think of has been done by at-least 1 and usually quite a for more people here so i get to pick everyone's brain.

Now if i come across one to try as a loaner its a different story but i don't think i'll drop the coin to test my theory.
 
wouldn't the tail of the rope stop it from corkscrewing? Maybe a wrap or two. The same thing will happen when you turn around one way or the other while working and you will still be left unwrapping or uncliping and straightening out your line.
 
If there's twist in the line, you can unclip, straighten out the legs, then reclip to the swivel and the inherent twist will spin the rope into a twist again as the swivel allows it to spin freely.
 
I wasn't trying to scoop you, Burnham. But I think the different descriptions help clarify the point we both are trying to make. :thumbup:
 
Good post, I've been wondering the same thing lately, every so often in my meanderings round the canopy I'll get a twist or two in the legs of my line...great to read the replies, I'll stick to having to pirouette in the tree from time to time, can do a lot of those for $90!
 
So your climb line doesn't get twisted as you turn and twist your way around in a tree...
I can get a couple of twists in my line in the course of a trip through a canopy while pruning.
Often wondered about a swivel, but the reasons against are well outlined above, besides its never been THAT much of a problem.
 
I use a swivel with SRT, but I have dropped it from my DdRT system. I prefer a pulley on the bridge for DdRT. The swivel is a bad word on doubled rope. I used it for about a month and could find no configuration which benefitted the style. SRT works nice though.

Twisted ropes can be a bugger, but it teaches one to create more efficient work plans.
 
I'm not talking about a twist IN the rope, just twisted legs OF the rope...happens from time to time during the day, just reverse course or pirouette and it undoes (is that a legitimate verb?)
 
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