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Scaffold knot the cure for a saggy tether?

W

WayneboM10

New Member
Joined
May 13, 2021
Messages
12
Location
Holly, MI
The 2020 season was my first year for saddle hunting. I have learned a lot from reading these forums over the past year, so thanks to all of you for sharing your knowledge. However, I only recently decided to become a member. This is my first post and I am not sure if my attachments are going to come through or not, so please go easy on me.

Like many others here, I have been annoyed by my tether sliding down the tree until I can get it cinched in. I have tried castration bands, passing the rope through the eye twice, clamps to hold the rope in place, and just about everything else suggested here. They all were better than just passing the rope through the eye, but I didn’t really love any of them. Making a girth hitch out of the eye seemed to work best for me. However, I switched to a tether with a sewn eye, and the eye is too tight to double over into a girth hitch. That put me back at square one.

I was thinking about ways to keep tension on the rope and decided to try using a slip knot (scaffold knot) to create an adjustable eye loop. Once the rope is wrapped around the tree, I can open the loop enough to easily pass the rope and carabiner through the sliding eye. Then I can draw the eye down tight onto the rope. This way the tag end does not fall through the loop. You can create a non -slip tree loop that is bigger than the tree, so that it can easily be adjusted into place. Once the correct height on the tree is chosen, you can pull the tag end to cinch the tree loop down to the tree. The knot will cinch down tight, so I girth hitched a light rope to the end of the loop. This makes it easier to pull the knot apart when you are ready to disconnect.

I tested this for a few minutes at ground level, and I think that it is better than anything else that I have tried. I plan to do a lot more ground level testing before making this my hunting set up. I figured that it would be good to get some other opinions from here in case there are concerns that I have overlooked. I realize that the breaking strength of my scaffold knot is not as strong as the sewn eye or figure eight. Some online estimates showed rope strengths ranging from 50 to 75% when using a scaffold knot. I realize that is not ideal. However, I accepted some level of risk when I sold my five gallon bucket and seat cushion and took to the trees. Therefore, I think it is worth consideration. What do you guys think about the idea? Can you think of any reasons not to do it?
 
Sorry when I read your comments I guess I didn't get the whole thing at first. Didn't see where you already where using this.


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Slip knots that want to untie themselves (they are trying to tighten to the point where the swallow the loop and are no more) aren't meant to be used on flexible items like rope. Imagine really thin rope inside your scaffold knot. Pretty easy to imagine it getting pulled so far inside the knot that the knot unties itself. Now, what thickness rope is sufficient so that that cannot happen under any situation? My answer is no rope is unless so thick/stiff that it isn't useful.
 
Just cut a piece of 1” tubular webbing about 15” long and slide your tether through it. It will immediately get fuzzy with use and cling to the bark thereby holding your tether in place. The added benefits are that it will protect your tether and allow you to slide the tether with the sleeve to adjust where your connection hangs.
 
207bowhunter said:
So the method in the video is safe?
Click to expand...
Girth hitch does theoretically half the strength of the line. But so do other knots. None of this is safe but the method in the video is less patently unsafe than using a scaffold knot to cinch down on a piece of rope. The scaffold knot will "eat" a flexible line and untie itself.

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I tried the Ranger Bead / Celtic Button on the eye of my tether, and it seems to work pretty well. I am going to practice with this set up, and hopefully carry it to my hunting set up. Thanks kobudo!

BTW… I did some testing with the scaffold knot idea. I had some retired old DIY lifeline ropes that are ~15 years old. I tied one up to a tree using the scaffold knot and hooked the other end up to my pickup. I left about ten feet of slack in the line, and then drove off. Each time the rope jerked the truck to a stop, and the knot did not break. After about four or five tries, I decided to get more aggressive. When I did, the rope broke where I had tied a double fisherman’s splice to lengthen the rope. The tag end of the “tether” did get sucked into the coils of the knot a little. However, there did not appear to be any danger of the knot pulling through or the rope being cut through. I am not saying that the scaffold knot is safe to use for this application, nor am I recommending that anyone else use it. But based on what I saw, I would be willing to accept the risks that would come with using a scaffold knot if the Ranger Bead fails me.
Scaffold Test.JPG
Attached is a picture of the knot after all the truck testing was completed.
 
The simplest thing to do is to slip an 1.5" rubber fender washer with a 1/4" hole onto your tether rope. Adjust the girth hitch where you want it and slide the fender washer up against the loop.
It won't go anywhere until you want it to, and if you happen to rappel down and forget to slide the washer to the backside of the loop, just give it a sharp tug and the washer will slip right through.

I don't like the method in the video. It's more complicated than it needs to be and if you forget to undo the connection and rappel down.......well you're going back up to retrieve it.
 

Tether Tender

Rubber fender washer. 1 1/2” OD x 1/4” ID fits nice and snug over 8mm rope, but still slides easily for adjustments. This keeps your link in place and your rope from falling down the tree It’s also flexible enough to fold and push it through the link when your ready to rapell down, or if you...
saddlehunter.com
 
^^^ I really like the rubber washer trick.
Buy a bunch because they do wear out after a while...

Buy different sizes too. 8mm ropes and 9 or 10mm ropes will need different hole sizes.
 
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