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Oplux as lineman’s belt.

Bigbucker

Bigbucker

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2018
Messages
53
Does anyone else find that the 8mm oplux isn’t one hand friendly when using a prussic knot on it? I’ve put a poor man’s tender on it and it’s marginally better. I went from doorman 1 on larger rope to this and am not to happy Amy fixes ? Bought this from Cruzr so it’s well made.
 
Search for the friction hitches thread and learn to tie a Happy Hands, or a Bowie, etc.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 
Hmmm. I’ve had this with both of oplux lines. One is a year old the other is a month old.
Happy hands? Will take a look.
 
I use Oplux as my lineman's lanyard with a TRC 6mm friction hitch and a tender from EWO. I use a distel hitch and have no issues. I would never go back to a prusik. You don't need it to grab in both directions like a prusik does and prusiks are notoriously one of the hardest hitches to get moving again once weighted down.

It isn't the stiffest and easiest to flip but it packs down so small and light that I'll put up with that issue.
 
Bigbucker said:
Does anyone else find that the 8mm oplux isn’t one hand friendly when using a prussic knot on it? I’ve put a poor man’s tender on it and it’s marginally better. I went from doorman 1 on larger rope to this and am not to happy Amy fixes ? Bought this from Cruzr so it’s well made.
Click to expand...

What do you mean “bought this from cruzr so it’s well made?”
 
Just clarifying for respondents that it was tied correctly so I don’t get responses about possible errors in the knot.
 
I was using rope man 1’s on lb and tether but for noise sake I switched. May go back to rope man. Any suggestions on a rope ? I like the Oplux for its packable size but to use a rope man I need a larger diameter rope. Ty
 
Now that I've evolved to 99.9% SRT climbing my linesman rope doesn't get much use these days, only bring it on the rare occasion I'm stick or ladder stand climbing. When I was stick climbing regularly though I found oplux to work fine and of course it's very stowable.

I started using oplux as a linesman belt not long after I first got my hands on some. I used it with a ropeman1 because it was all I had, but knowing full well doing so was at the margins. To mitigate that a bit I always use a large and fully round carabiner line the Rock Exotica Pirate to maximize the cam pressure regardless of biner orientation instead of my more compact and forged (flat sided) DMM biner's. I always tie a stopper knot too.

Most climbing ropes I've used tend to be a bit too supple to use as "conventional" flip lines, even as the thickness increases they are somewhat droopy requiring two handed management. There are a few like the sterling htp that are fairly stiff tho and would be easier to manage even one handed as a linesman belt vs something like oplux. However, as mentioned the stiffer rope doesn't stow too well. So there is always that trade-off.
 
I use rescue tech 8mm as a Lineman's with a Kong. It worked ok with a distel and tender, but the Kong is much easier. I might pick up the wild line ropes Lineman's setup to go even more compact.
 
Bigbucker said:
Does anyone else find that the 8mm oplux isn’t one hand friendly when using a prussic knot on it? I’ve put a poor man’s tender on it and it’s marginally better. I went from doorman 1 on larger rope to this and am not to happy Amy fixes ? Bought this from Cruzr so it’s well made.
Click to expand...

I use 8mm cord as my LB, but it's not Oplux. I also use a 6mm prusik with 4x wrap and a simple paracord tender to round out my LB configuration.

The paracord tender has always been sufficient for me. It never gets heavily loaded, so it never locks down super tight. My 8mm cord is relatively supple and I've never had an issue. That said, I don't use it as a flip line.

I one-stick climb and capture the progress as I go, so that there is little or no slack while I ascend. I then lean back into my LB so that I can use both hands to advance my main tether rope and still be in contact with the tree.
 
I personally don’t like oplux for a lineman’s rope. It’s too soft and flimsy. When you use a lineman’s rope, you shouldn’t be reaching around the tree and moving the rope up, it should be stiff enough for you to lean in a little and simply flip the rope up by hand. So I like a little thicker stiffer rope for that. The hitch issue isn’t the rope, it’s more the characteristics of a prusik. A prusik tends to bind when weighted and that is why it’s hard to adjust. Research schwabisch and distel hitches. They will grab reliably and adjust much much easier with a tender after being weighted
 
I tried oplux this year and didn’t love it. What 8mm rope would you recommend, if any? Thanks.
 
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