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Soft shackles to rock harness?

T

Teamclark

New Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2019
Messages
24
So I currently use a modified sitdrag with a rock harness and I prussic/carabiner to my bridge and a 2nd prussic/carabiner to my rock harness. I am switching to a ropeman 1 for my bridge connection instead of the prussic and I am wondering if anyone has switched from a carabiner to a soft shackle to the prussic knot on their tether before. I am trying to avoid having 2 carabiners on my tether for both noise and bulk reasons. I thought about connecting my rock harness which is really my backup tether connection via soft shackle so I only have my bridge carabiner/ropeman on the tether. Any thoughts/suggestions? Trying to avoid that awful carabiner on carabiner clank when setting up my tether.
 
There is a post on here about the soft shackles guys been using I’ll try to find it and link it up.

here is some info

Soft shackles?

Bet it's not what you expected....... Little Trees??? Too Awesome
saddlehunter.com
 
For life support gear, I never DIY anything unless my modification is actually stronger and safer than the conventional alternative. So, I wouldn't do this.

First, if I was going to soft shackle anything, it would be the sit draw and not the harness, since the harness is life support. I would use a rated carabiner for the harness. Another option is to use a climbing sling attached to your harness prusik or a longer prusic to offset the carabiners so they won't clang. Then run two of the ultralight locking 'biners and wrap them in something to keep them quiet.
 
U can buy certified soft shackles with nice protective sheath and they usually stronger than equivalent carabiners.....

I'm not exactly sure of your application but if it's a rope to rope connection that requires movement (ropes sliding against each other...tether hip rotation) that will create some friction/heat and that cant be good.

The two soft shackles that I do carry are used for backup emergency get down the tree gear and are just anchor sets that once loaded dont have any movement between the ropes.
 
I saw that slackline people use them to fasten their slacklines to an anchor. They seem to be very concerned about safety. It should be strong enough under continuous load. If a connection is alternately tightened and loosened, I don't know.
 
bj139 said:
I saw that slackline people use them to fasten their slacklines to an anchor. They seem to be very concerned about safety. It should be strong enough under continuous load. If a connection is alternately tightened and loosened, I don't know.
Click to expand...

A carabiner as used by a saddle hunter is potentially under various loads and moved around a bit by bumping, body shift, or a fall. I don't find a useful analogy between saddle hunting and slacklining. After some googling, soft shackles are also used to pull vehicles out of ditches. In my opinion, strength while under a steady, directional load is not sufficient, otherwise we'd all be using non-locking carabiners.

What happens when someone slips and falls 1 foot and the soft shackle shifts into some cross loaded scenario? Does anyone know? Or you panic and throw an arm up and smack the thing? I view them like non-locking carabiners.
 
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raisins said:
A carabiner as used by a saddle hunter is potentially under various loads and moved around a bit by bumping, body shift, or a fall. I don't find a useful analogy between saddle hunting and slacklining. After some googling, soft shackles are also used to pull vehicles out of ditches. In my opinion, strength while under a steady, directional load is not sufficient, otherwise we'd all be using non-locking carabiners.

What happens when someone slips and falls 1 foot and the soft shackle shifts into some cross loaded scenario? Does anyone know? I view them like non-locking carabiners.
Click to expand...
I like auto-locking carabiners because when partially released by contact with something they auto lock back to fully locked. I wouldn't use a soft shackle in place of a carabiner for saddle hunting at this point in my thinking. Not enough to gain, IMHO.
 
I’ve built and used soft shackles a lot. Some for off-road recovery and in place of a caribiner on my treestand harness. I used it on the treestand harness to eliminate noise. I also rubbed in a little tree pitch on the loop to give it more body and keep the loop from opening as easy. Once loaded, you really had to work to get the loop open. A little pitch just below the stopper knot does the same thing and takes away some of the Amstel slickness. If properly tied I wouldn’t worry about strength. There is plenty of testing data to validate thier strength. I also personally tested them in various positions from set hard to loose just over the stopper knot. Pretty subjective, but I wanted to see what happened. All of them held with a 135# shockload. I do think it’s a valid concern that if one is unloaded and manipulated just right, the loop could slip over the stopper knot. The analogy to a non locking caribiner is pretty accurate.

I’m new to saddle hunting but not rope/rescue work. I’m going to stick with metal for now. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of things that look questionable to me in an effort to save weight. Some of these things have been from team members and mountain guides with a lot more experience than me and who trust. These guys have forgotten more than I’ll ever know about ropes. So I think it comes to a persons comfort level, as long as they understand what they are doing.
 
Teamclark said:
So I currently use a modified sitdrag with a rock harness and I prussic/carabiner to my bridge and a 2nd prussic/carabiner to my rock harness. I am switching to a ropeman 1 for my bridge connection instead of the prussic and I am wondering if anyone has switched from a carabiner to a soft shackle to the prussic knot on their tether before. I am trying to avoid having 2 carabiners on my tether for both noise and bulk reasons. I thought about connecting my rock harness which is really my backup tether connection via soft shackle so I only have my bridge carabiner/ropeman on the tether. Any thoughts/suggestions? Trying to avoid that awful carabiner on carabiner clank when setting up my tether.
Click to expand...

Have you considered just tying a figure 8 loop + stopper to your rock harness? Once you do it a few times it can be done pretty quickly.
 
BenG said:
Have you considered just tying a figure 8 loop + stopper to your rock harness? Once you do it a few times it can be done pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Great call. I forgot seeing rock climbers do this!
 
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