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Who the heck is making Amsteel tethers and Amsteel prussic combos and selling them on FB???

It is nice to see level headed conversations between open minded individuals here. I’ve been lurking on this thread.

For me, I only use amsteel in sit drag when I have the RCH tied in. My fear of pain, injuries and worse keeps me to mostly adhering to what arborists use. I have added oplux, but still use 11mm rope. Not sure what I will decide on long term. But that is my risk analysis and my comfort level.

The only inputs I can offer up is:
1. Redundancy is good
2. Do not become lax in anything because you have redundancy in your system. Redundancy is not meant to compensate for sloppy technique or laziness. It is to compensate for Murphy.
 
Treehopper2 said:
I’ve been using this setup for sometime now and to be honest I feel more secure and confident in it than my oplux setup.
Oplux is great rope but on a tether it can try to roll at the Garth hitch when trying to reposition around the tree amsteal holds better for me.
I’m not recommending Amsteal for the tether to anyone but for me it works.
I one stick climb with it and once my knot is set it doesn’t move through the climb or hunt.
Everyone is different but for me this setup works and I keep going back to it.
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IDK man if I was gunna fall 6ft I’d prefer not to be caught by amsteel but rather something more common in the climbing/arborist world
 
DanielB89 said:
My point of that is the concept of it being weight rated and fully capable of handling the weight, it's the concept of it not being rated as a bridge. It's not what it is stated, it's what is not stated. (it's a very vague point at best, but I believe it still applies). As strong as webbing is, amsteel is WAY WAY stronger and I don't see how the use of amsteel as a bridge is directly violating it's intended purpose.
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Calling amsteel/dyneema "way way stronger" makes me queasy. The more that I've dug into comparative testing of high-tech vs. more "traditional" rope performance (e.g. https://caves.org/section/vertical/nh/49/cthsc/cthsc.html ), the more the performance often equalizes or even favors nylon. Aramid fibers suck in bending. Spectra sucks in heat resistance. Both are iffy in knotted strength and bend radius. Failures happen significantly earlier than you'd expect (relative to "weaker" materials that don't fail) under shock loading.

Way Way stronger than webbing? 1in tubular webbing is 18KN/4000 pounds of reliable, proven strength. make a loop,about 6k. 1/4 in amsteel is what, 7700 pounds? Looking good so far...as long as your termination (splicing, since knots tend to be ~30% strength - knotted amsteel is about as strong as knotted accessory cord) is good and you don't do anything to abuse the rope.

There's also the load-amplification factor of spectra vs nylon, which can give higher loads for the same fall/impact loading than nylon - for example there are some examples here where the spectra took almost twice the load as the nylon...and failed (while the nylon survived) https://dmmclimbing.com/Knowledge/June-2010/How-to-Break-Nylon-Dyneema®-Slings

Not saying that these are directly comparable - but at a minimum they inform me to NEVER make claims that ANY "high-tech" rope or cord is "way way stronger" than any remotely comparable rope, cord, or webbing without heavy testing or qualification. The extra inefficiencies can REALLY add up fast.

I mean - if everything goes well, then everything's almost certainly fine. And we should all aspire to make every hunt as uneventful as possible, from a safety perspective. If things don't go well...amsteel (and high tech ropes in general) have a huge ability to go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.

So keep your tethers high and tight.
 
pesqimon said:
IDK man if I was gunna fall 6ft I’d prefer not to be caught by amsteel but rather something more common in the climbing/arborist world
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Like I said I wouldn’t recommend Amsteal to anyone for a tether but I have a year experience with it and it shows less wear than my other setups.
I don’t use aiders so I would never have 6 foot of slack in my setup one sticking .
In my opinion if your introducing 6 feet of slack in your tether setup your asking for trouble Amsteal or other wise.
Again use what you feel comfortable with I myself trust my setup.



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I still use 11mm climbing rope for my tether and linemans belt with 8mm friction hitches. I just like the big heavy stuff when it comes to the one thing keeping me from falling to the ground. I figure a lot can go wrong with over built gear before it completely fails. You would definitely notice wear on 11mm rope before it ever reached the point of failure.
 
JCLINE84 said:
I still use 11mm climbing rope for my tether and linemans belt with 8mm friction hitches. I just like the big heavy stuff when it comes to the one thing keeping me from falling to the ground. I figure a lot can go wrong with over built gear before it completely fails. You would definitely notice wear on 11mm rope before it ever reached the point of failure.
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same deal with me, the first hunt of this year I was hanging there looking at the 9mm htp that I used all last year for my
line setup and bridge, and it looks small, although strong enough,
switched back to my 11mm fixed bridge and climbing rope right after that hunt
now I use my petzl rig on my srt setup and my petzl zig zag on my drt stands,
feels much better although it adds a couple of pounds to my setup, but I really don't care

I have always resisted the idea of using a rope that is 1/8" diameter for anything life support
even though it is strong, it just never looked right.
 
I'm a rope weenie as well.....bigger is always better in my feeble mind. Also, I always run my gear within specs. (GriGri+, Ascenders, Ropeman, ect...)

I will add this: I think it is awesome that the DIY'rs have developed some really cool gadgets and gizmo's to aid in their Saddle experience. I'm a big fan of ingenuity, at the same time assuming your own risk. Keep up the "out of the box" thinking guys...and good luck.

Have fun and be safe!
 
There's so much to comment about in this post. I will try to be succinct. Amsteel is about saving weight. most will probably find more weight savings in their personal use items than their safety equipment.
Climbing ropes don't break and Knots don't fail from breaking in real world situations. Ropes abrade or cut on the edges, knots fail from being incomplete or incorrectly tied.
There is no reason for ever having slack in your system.
I am always blunt. I believe in personal responsibility and responsibility for your actions. If you choose to play the margins that's fine I've done so many times myself, free soloing and kayaking class 5 rivers. But I never encouraged anyone to join me in my lunacy.
Shoot Straight
 
JCLINE84 said:
I still use 11mm climbing rope for my tether and linemans belt with 8mm friction hitches. I just like the big heavy stuff when it comes to the one thing keeping me from falling to the ground. I figure a lot can go wrong with over built gear before it completely fails. You would definitely notice wear on 11mm rope before it ever reached the point of failure.
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Still rappelling down and/or SRT? If so, what rope are you using for that?

I like the compactness of oplux, but feel warm and fuzzy with using the Bluewater assault or predator rope.
 
sojourner said:
Still rappelling down and/or SRT? If so, what rope are you using for that?

I like the compactness of oplux, but feel warm and fuzzy with using the Bluewater assault or predator rope.
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I’m still using sterling htp 9mm for rappelling
 
I have a 1/4 amsteel bridge and that about it....1 thing I wonder, why is 1/4 amsteel the saddle hunter standard....I've worked with larger diameter in the 4x4 off-road world and even the big stuff is lighter than most ropes....it's easier to work with as far a splicing goes and for a tether or similar seems the larger diameter would maybe be a positive thing
 
Weldabeast said:
I have a 1/4 amsteel bridge and that about it....1 thing I wonder, why is 1/4 amsteel the saddle hunter standard....I've worked with larger diameter in the 4x4 off-road world and even the big stuff is lighter than most ropes....it's easier to work with as far a splicing goes and for a tether or similar seems the larger diameter would maybe be a positive thing
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I got my hands on some half inch stuff to play with. I think that by the time you hit the recommended bury length on anything heavier than 1/4, you would have a 48 inch bridge!
 
enkriss said:
I have been using my DIY Amsteel utilibridge all summer practicing and all season and have not had it slip once. It is however a real pain in the ass to break and move.

I pretty confident an Amsteel tether will hold just fine.
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I was thinking the same thing. i made mine this year and i can tell you with absolute certainty that my prussic aint slipping nowhere. that damn thing is locked like a vice once i put the slightest bit of weight on it. i almost rethought it since the "adjustability" is almost zero since the knot locks so tight and you need to wrestle the ever livin ****e out of it to loosen.
 
C
Thogg said:
Amsteel is about saving weight. most will probably find more weight savings in their personal use items
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My thoughts too. The difference in weight and size between tubular nylon, 8mm ropes, and amsteel is very slim. 2 out of 3 of those are recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists. Especially if you're doing a full bury the length of the your bridge or tether. So...why risk it? What do you gain as the guy dangling from it? The company gains a marketing pitch ("strong enough to lift a jeep!!) but aside from that, I'm at a loss. The stuff ain't cheap or easy to find. Heck, that's why I run webbing. Cheap, easy to source, and I can tie a new bridge or tether in just a couple of minutes if I notice wear or tear on a piece of equipment that is holding my butt 20ft off the cold, cold ground.
 
Nutterbuster said:
The difference in weight and size between tubular nylon, 8mm ropes, and amsteel is very slim. 2 out of 3 of those are recommended by 9 out of 10 dentists.
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Always trust the 10th dentist. He's the real expert. Worked wonders in keeping my teeth healthy!
Baby-bottle-tooth-decay-close-up.jpg
 
I did have an interesting thought about dyneema and hard bends. Bowstrings are made of dyneema and have very severe angles sometimes around cam post and they seem to hold up fine
 
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