• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Tether safety backup?

arm breaker

arm breaker

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
637
Location
Arkansas
Hi Folks,

I’m a relative newcomer to the saddle world. I have seen hints of folks running some types of backup options on their tether but cannot white follow what folks do. Is this a thing or am I way off? For example, would the stock Tethrd tether and a ropeman (or Oplux and a Duck) be all that most people use or is there some type of redundancy to build in?
 
arm breaker said:
Hi Folks,

I’m a relative newcomer to the saddle world. I have seen hints of folks running some types of backup options on their tether but cannot white follow what folks do. Is this a thing or am I way off? For example, would the stock Tethrd tether and a ropeman (or Oplux and a Duck) be all that most people use or is there some type of redundancy to build in?
Click to expand...
A fella named “arm breaker” asking advice about how to avoid falling out of a tree is pretty rich. Haha
 
Lots of people say to not to use the ropeman for your tether because it's not meant for that. Lots of people say it's fine. I choose to stick with a prusik for main connection from bridge to tether. I have a second prusik on the tether above the main prusik, that I connect my linesman belt to after I have my weight loading the main prusik and it's safe to disconnect the linesman from tree. I have a ropeman on the linesmans connecting it to the saddle. This gives me two connections to a single tether and the only extra gear to carry is the second prusik/biner. The linesman always has a little slack in it as the backup, except when I want to stand or stretch, the ropeman makes it easy to remove the slack in the linesman and I never need to move the prusik during the hunt. Since this pic, I've changed to thinner ropes and a Kong Duck on linesman but the functionality remains the same. There are endless options and opinions on this so do a lot of reading and testing at ground level to see what makes you comfortable based on other successful setups.

PS a few people go as far as using two tethers. I'm comfortable with just one.
d38047c3a2cfb2009942cd482999e165.jpg
 
Last edited:
Great question! I’m new to saddle hunting and had the same question.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
GTel said:
Lots of people say to not to use the ropeman for your tether because it's not meant for that. Lots of people say it's fine. I choose to stick with a prusik for main connection from bridge to tether. I have a second prusik on the tether above the main prusik, that I connect my linesman belt to after I have my weight loading the main prusik and it's safe to disconnect the linesman from tree. I have a ropeman on the linesmans connecting it to the saddle. This gives me two connections to a single tether and the only extra gear to carry is the second prusik/biner. The linesman always has a little slack in it as the backup, except when I want to stand or stretch, the ropeman makes it easy to remove the slack in the linesman and I never need to move the prusik during the hunt. Since this pic, I've changed to thinner ropes and a Kong Duck on linesman but the functionality remains the same. There are endless options and opinions on this so do a lot of reading and testing at ground level to see what makes you comfortable based on other successful setups.

PS a few people go as far as using two tethers. I'm comfortable with just one.
d38047c3a2cfb2009942cd482999e165.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks! This is helpful. So you’ve got your bridge connected as normally recommended and then your lineman’s connected to the regular loops for it almost acting as another bridge?

On the ascenders, is there anything definitive on them for an application like this? I guess that’s part of my concern. I like the ease of it but man if that goes you are gone without a backup.
 
arm breaker said:
Thanks! This is helpful. So you’ve got your bridge connected as normally recommended and then your lineman’s connected to the regular loops for it almost acting as another bridge?
Click to expand...
Exactly. It is acting as a backup bridge.

arm breaker said:
On the ascenders, is there anything definitive on them for an application like this? I guess that’s part of my concern. I like the ease of it but man if that goes you are gone without a backup.
Click to expand...
I don't think the manufacturers say anything definitively about what NOT to use them for in their documentation but you can read their manual to confirm. The main concern people have posted about is that the ropeman's teeth could possibly slice through the tether if you fell with enough slack in the line, which is something that shouldn't occur if you're using it only for their intended use of ascending that doesn't introduce slack. Watch the manufacturer videos to see its intended use in action. I used it in place of my lower prusik for a few hunts but found I was never adjusting it because I already had one on the linesmans belt that I used for temporary adjustments, so went back to a prusik.

Sent from up in a tree
 
Any ideas in using the linesman rope as a backup to the tether rope in the unlikely event that the tether rope itself broke?? Thanks newby Greg
 
I agree it is "more safe" to run some kind of secondary connection. That said, I don't. My tether is Predator, the stuff is almost bombproof.
 
May seem like a funny question here as my saddle has yet to ship so I don't have experience with one yet. Has anyone ever had a saddle, bridge, tether, etc fail from normal use that caused them serious injury/death? Now I know they can wear out, but if you inspect them before use and replace once they start to wear then is it really necessary to have a 2nd tether or bridge hooked up. Even if you have a 2nd bridge hooked up if your loop on your saddle fails the 2 bridges hooked to it would fail also. Now I am all for safety, but it would seem that you would have to have 2 of everything hooked up to you including 2 saddles to truly have a backup system. When hunting out of treestand you don't have two tethers to your harness.
 
Last edited:
cspot said:
I know they can wear out, but if you inspect them before use and replace once they start to wear then is it really necessary to have a 2nd tether or bridge hooked up. Even if you have a 2nd bridge hooked up if your loop on your saddle fails the 2 bridges hooked to it would fail also. Now I am all for safety, but it would seem that you would have to have 2 of everything hooked up to you including 2 saddles to truly have a backup system. When hunting out of treestand you don't have two tethers to your harness.
Click to expand...

My linesmen belt used as a backup bridge is connected to the linesman loops which are separate from the Bridge loops. On the jx3, they are actually on separate belts as well. There are thousands of posts on this topic and I think it comes down to your trust of the appropriate equipment that's been tested by manufacturers and your trust in your usage of the equipment. The main point of my backup bridge is for human error since I'm more likely to make a mistake than the equipment is to fail. Some people even go as far as wearing a rock climbing harness with their saddle. And since 2019 is the Year of Safety, I never compare my current safety precautions to the stupid stuff I did the past 20 years with my hang ons and climbers, which I honestly never felt that safe in.

PS these are just my opinions, not advice. There are lots of threads on the site about this topic. You should read them all, twice, and get lots of different perspectives.
 
Last edited:
joel0711 said:
Any ideas in using the linesman rope as a backup to the tether rope in the unlikely event that the tether rope itself broke?? Thanks newby Greg
Click to expand...
Some people post that they do that. It might be easier, albeit slightly heavier, to carry a second tether if you really wanted one. Completely disconnecting and reconnecting the linesmans from your saddle 2x during a hunt, at least one of the times is probably in the dark, would be more work than most would want to do and introduces a higher chance of human error.

Sent from up in a tree
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top