Tether replacement..when?

[Benb]

I've had a tethrd 11mm tether for 4 years this December. How do I know if i need to replace it? It ain't frayed and never had a problem with it.

 

[MattS304]

Some manufacturers have recommended lifespan on their ropes. Which is probably just a legal thing to lessen the odds of getting sued but some guidance all the same.

There’s also the “pinch test” to compare one section of rope to another recommended by rock climbing folks. I’m not sure how relevant it is to short static lines we use that aren’t loaded by falls.

My main climbing line is around 4 years old and I’m planning to replace it next year. But it gets a bit more abuse than something just used for hanging off of after using sticks or something else to get to hunting height.

 

[Publiclandowner]

I use the same standard as the rope rescue team I’m on uses, which is 10 years from the manufacturing date. Obviously items gets taken out of service earlier if they show any signs of excessive wear or damage.

 

[Alaska at Heart]

Before taking up saddle hunting, I mostly used a Black Diamond RC harness with sewn eye tether and Qsafe as my tree connection rig. I thankfully never took a tumble and put any of it to the 'acid test', but know from gym climbing experience that RC gear is made to take a fall and reuse. Several of the full-body type harnesses are one-and-done, meaning if one happened to tumble off some form of stand and it functions properly to prevent ground impact, it should be replaced. Much of that has to do with materials and design, but having slack in the system to allow body movement also significantly increases the forces in play during an actual fall. Physics is unaviodable when playing above the ground.

With that said, I understand saddle gear to be more closely designed and quality built to compare favorably with an RC harness. So if you took a tumble and needed your tether, bridge and saddle to keep you suspended while doing a self-rescue, you would not necessarily need to replace any or all of it before the next outing. Some probably would replace their bridge and tether for peace of mind, but that is why the safety ratings for such gear is many times typical body weight...to function properly in the event of a reall 'event'. Maintaining constant tension while saddle hunting greatly reduces the slack and compounded forces that a full-body harness wearer would likely experience.

That is all 'worst case scenario' consideration, so when should you replace your carefully used and stored gear that has never been challenged by a fall? As noted above, expiration dates and such are likely a legal 'CYA' precaution by the saddle and rope makers. They don't know how the end users are employing their wares, so they err on the side of caution. Is a saddle that is worn maybe 20-30 times a season in pretty good weather without abuse or modification and stored indoors really 'worn out' in X years? Same with bridge, linemans and tether...if they are used properly and show no sign of wear, are they done in X years of relatively light use? Compared to working arborists, their gear likely gets more wear and tear in a couple weeks than a saddle user puts on in a season...maybe a couple seasons. But in the long run, the cost of replacing a tether, linemans, bridge or even a saddle is very minimal next to an impromptu emergency room visit, treatment costs and PT.

 

[boyne bowhunter]

First let me qualify this post by saying I'm not a rope expert, arborist, etc. I'm just a guy who's been saddle hunting for a little over a decade now so I'll share my observations and personal experience, your mileage may very well vary.

In my opinion the biggest thing to remember concerning possible tether wear scenarios is that, since we tend to hunt mostly similar sized trees, most of the real stress/wear on the the tether occurs at the same very local places. Typically those are where the girth hitch around the tree happens and then especially where the tether to bridge connection occurs. These are the places where the rope is repeatedly compressed and stressed and those are the spots to really concentrate on with visual examination and "pinch" testing as suggested by @MattS304 . The other point to examine is either the eye or link connection used to form your girth hitch around the tree. In my opinion, some fuzziness/chaffing of the outer sheath is probably not much of a concern but if you see outer sheath strands separated or if you think the rope feels inconsistent at any point doing the pinch test then its probably time to retire the tether. Rope is cheap compared to your safety.

In my time saddle hunting I have only "retired" one tether because I felt its condition might be questionable. At that time I was using 8mm Oplex and I noticed an inconsistency in the pinch test feel where my bridge connection typically occurred. Was it bad? I don't know, I never sectioned it to find out what the cause of it was I just moved on to another rope brand/size. Honestly I was considering the change anyway because the 8mm rope is just too small in diameter for my hand to grasp comfortably.

There was one other change I made early on in my saddle hunting experience to my tether connections due to observed wear on my tether. In those days I was using a Ropeman 1 to make the tether/bridge connection on a 11.5mm Predator rope tether. After a season of hunting I noticed the sheath of the rope was really getting fuzzy along a short section. I discovered that the section in question was right where the Ropeman gripped on a typical setup for me. The wear wasn't severe enough to make me worry about the integrity of the rope but it was wear coming specifically from a device I was using. At that point I switched to a friction hitch to make my tether-bridge connection and haven't noticed that issue since.

I've currently been using the same tether (9mm Canyon Elite) for 5 seasons now and I check it regularly but I still haven't seen any reason for concern that would prompt me to consider retiring it. Its a little dirty but there's no chaffing or soft spots.

 

[katiesmom]

I passed out and fell off my hybrid stand. Woke up hanging 15 feet off the ground. I have replaced both my tether and saddle. They were both 5 years old.

 

[BTaylor]

I passed out and fell off my hybrid stand. Woke up hanging 15 feet off the ground. I have replaced both my tether and saddle. They were both 5 years old.

Let's not be doing that any more missy.

 

[katiesmom]

Let's not be doing that any more missy.

Yes Sir. I sure won't.

 

[muzzyman88]

I think it depends on a variety of factors. How well you take care of your ropes. Storage, cleaning, etc. What you're using your ropes for and how often. I one stick and I can say that I will most likely replace mine on a five year rotation. I climb a lot, probably more than most (in the off season I just like climbing... lol), so my ropes see more use and one sticking also puts more stress on the rope than say, a tether used at hunting height. However, you have to remember that these ropes are designed to handle significantly more abuse and stresses than we as saddle hunters will ever put them through, even in a fall. What I do as a one sticker, or someone who rope climbs for example, is barely stressing these ropes.

But I'll replace every 5 or so, just for piece of mind. Even my 40ft of rope isn't that expensive.

 

[phatkaw]

I can switch tethers every day for at least a couple weeks...

 

[Benb]

Thank you. I will now use this Pic as exhibit A to my wife explaining to her that my 3 rope tethers I currently have are a small price in comparison to this table of awesomeness.

 

[phatkaw]

That picture was taken about 2 years ago.
I'd need a lot bigger table to update...