recovery rope/gear

[Pine-sol]

Hey all. So I'm trying to put together a sled "recovery kit" to keep in my trailer.
Which will consist of rope, pulleys, slings, and associated attachments. What I'm having some indecision on, is the rope. There are so many choices out there, that I'm not sure which direction to go(arborist , nylon, solid braid, multiple braid). Also, what weight parameters should it fall in? What length, and should that total length be broke up into an assortment of lengths?
Right now I think I want to go with 600', broke up into a 300' section, with 2 150' sections. I'm also thinking that a 5000# rope would be enough.
The prices on this stuff is all over the board, so although I need something that I can trust when need be, I don"t really want to drop $2500 on something I might never use. In other words trying to keep it practical.
Any advice or experience shared would be appreciated.

Thank you

John

 

[theultrarider]

1/2" or 5/8" three strand nylon rope works very very well. I like the nylon because it acts much like a snobunjie. There is a lot of stretch in a 600' nylon rope which is a good thing. Also the price isn't going to break the bank with nylon. Leave it wound up on the spool. Much easiers to pack, and deploy that way. Bulkier, but it won't be all knotted up when you get to the recovery location.

 

[mickyd32]

I am not sure your background on this area, but this would be my advice
I do high angle rescue at work (falling from height into very odd places)

We use a combination of gears and ropes, but I would think you would want something fairly resistant to abrasion. never know what you will have to run that rope over. To go with that, I would think you would also want some sort of softening device. A rubberized pad or blanket. Use this for when you need to wrap your ropes and slings around rocks and trees, or when you need to pull your ropes and slings across those same trees and rocks to prevent cuts and tears. If you are spending the dollars, protect your investment.

If you are getting a pulley system, I would suggest some sort of 4-1 pulley system. The ones we use at work are pre assembled units, but you can easily build your own. youtube likely has all kinds of videos. The thing with a 4-1 pulley system is you will be able to move much higher weights with a single man. freeing up bodies for other things

If you want I can talk to our safety department at work and get some more suggestions. Possibly some brand names, I know we pay ridiculous amounts for our gear, but we are in the mining industry and pay 4x the going rate for anything

 

[mickyd32]

1/2" or 5/8" three strand nylon rope works very very well. I like the nylon because it acts much like a snobunjie. There is a lot of stretch in a 600' nylon rope which is a good thing. Also the price isn't going to break the bank with nylon. Leave it wound up on the spool. Much easiers to pack, and deploy that way. Bulkier, but it won't be all knotted up when you get to the recovery location.

suggestion; buy yourself a rope recovery bag, or youtube how to make one, and how to coil rope into one. There is a way to properly coil rope into these bags that guarantees you never have a knot and can quickly deploy that rope. It will also make it very easy to carry the rope to your destination

 

[theultrarider]

suggestion; buy yourself a rope recovery bag, or youtube how to make one, and how to coil rope into one. There is a way to properly coil rope into these bags that guarantees you never have a knot and can quickly deploy that rope. It will also make it very easy to carry the rope to your destination

I understand and agree with you micky. However this is something that may get used once a season. Or less. Not a big deal. Likewise, the rope isnt going to be a lifesaving or high risk thing generally speaking. Usually a tow rope and not a dead crane lift unless you are extracting one out of a glacier crevass. Even then, should the rope fail, there shouldn't be any humans below it to worry about death or injuries. If you were to do this as a living, yes, I can see spending thousands on the correct rated gear. You do bring up a great point about using something a rub protector in high stress areas. Yes, we do generally do this as well. Likewise with the pulleys. It is amazing what a little mechanical advantage can do for you. A handful of pulleys are worth their weight in gold for alot of situations. We are on the same page and I understand where you are coming from as you do it for a living and have a code and regulations to follow. But that is also like the sled makers having to abide by epa standards! How many of our sleds will meet those standards after we get our hands on them? Be safe and be smart. And pray one never has to use the just in case gear!

 

[LoudHandle]

For your intended purpose, I would strongly consider Mule tape. It comes in a couple ratings, as it is flat- it takes up nearly zero room. Is available in any length, up to mile long spools. It quite common in the electrical / lineman trades for pulling wire thru conduit and from tower to tower. It is strong abrasion resistant and most importantly for us cheap even new. That said it is rarely reused in the industry and most places toss it after one use. There have been many threads on here about it for sale or advocating it's use.

Maybe a lineman with access / expirence will chime in with better sources / knowledge.

 

[Rocketboy]

For your intended purpose, I would strongly consider Mule tape. It comes in a couple ratings, as it is flat- it takes up nearly zero room. Is available in any length, up to mile long spools. It quite common in the electrical / lineman trades for pulling wire thru conduit and from tower to tower. It is strong abrasion resistant and most importantly for us cheap even new. That said it is rarely reused in the industry and most places toss it after one use. There have been many threads on here about it for sale or advocating it's use.

Maybe a lineman with access / expirence will chime in with better sources / knowledge.

I will keep an eye open around here.......

 

[chriswelters]

I was able to get my hands on some of the mule tape from work. I think the tape I have is rated for #2500. Ties knots easy, very light weight, stores easy too. The underground guys use it more for pulling wire through conduit and most of the time throw it away like you said.

 

[sledhooligan]

Im a whitewater rafter also most rivers require use to have a z drag kit ( three to one). Look up NRS rafting supply they make a pre built kit with crib notes for about 250. Look on mountainbuzz.com and do a search for z-drags there is a good dicussion of what ropes and pullies to use. Also try used sporting good stores in climbing towns u can find some good rope for cheap.

 

[theultrarider]

I've used the mule tape as well. It has it's place. The downside to it is that it does not work very well with a pulley or snatchblock. That is key in alot of nasty retrievals.

 

[sledneck_03]

Oh&s states all rigging to have a 5 time safety factor for equipment and 10 time for lifting personnel for overhead lifting.

Shouldnt need to follow that but gives you an idea what to spec.

Also when designing truck recovery lugs a truck stuck up to its axles in mud is to be designed for double the weight.

 

[Popik]

I work for a dealer that sells Arborist equipment so both cutting and climbing and rigging gear. I carry 2 50' lengths of 1/2" braid (the cheap stuff) and a couple of our little billet pulleys and a few beaners. If i can't something unstuck with this its Heli time and I'm only out about 150$ for the whole kit

 

[mickyd32]

I understand and agree with you micky. However this is something that may get used once a season. Or less. Not a big deal. Likewise, the rope isnt going to be a lifesaving or high risk thing generally speaking. Usually a tow rope and not a dead crane lift unless you are extracting one out of a glacier crevass. Even then, should the rope fail, there shouldn't be any humans below it to worry about death or injuries. If you were to do this as a living, yes, I can see spending thousands on the correct rated gear. You do bring up a great point about using something a rub protector in high stress areas. Yes, we do generally do this as well. Likewise with the pulleys. It is amazing what a little mechanical advantage can do for you. A handful of pulleys are worth their weight in gold for alot of situations. We are on the same page and I understand where you are coming from as you do it for a living and have a code and regulations to follow. But that is also like the sled makers having to abide by epa standards! How many of our sleds will meet those standards after we get our hands on them? Be safe and be smart. And pray one never has to use the just in case gear!

I also understand what you are getting at. For a rope bag however it doesn't have to be a "rope bag" as per purchased. You should easily be able to make a retrieval rope bag out of a back back and the rope of your choice. Include your pulleys, caribeaners, padding, and whatever else you choose to include and this gear can all be packaged into one easy to carry, organized, system that is quick and easy to deploy

I mean who wants to spend all day doing manual work instead of sledding

 

[Pownar]

I have 200' of 1/2" dynamic climbing rope, caribiners, 4-pulleys and a pulley ratchet plus some shorter pieces of rope to attach to trees and whatnot. I can reduce the weight and then hold it there with the ratchet pulley. Works great for one man recovery and only weights a few pounds. I keep it in my little under seat bag.

 

[mickyd32]

If this is something you can stow under that crappy little under seat bag, I would like to see the pics of your chosen gear. That is impressive. I can barely get some fuel conditioner and a make shift set of useable tools in there

 

[TIM]

some one beat me to it. But look at the whitewater rafting stuff. I typically carry a small kit in my truck. A sling, a pulley, some carabiners and mule tape. that stuff works.

We also used one time a 12 inch pulley strapped to a tree, 3\8 inch cable. I would put the pulley on the tree, ride the sled down to the dead sled, tie the cable with a bolon knot and than proceed down hill pulling the sled up hill. We had to rehook 20 times, but it worked. the cable was strong but you could tie it in a knot. My buddy kept that setup in his truck for his turbo sled. It always broke down.

 

[Pine-sol]

Tim
That's the method I'm setting up for. It's just that we've found ourselves doing more drop in rides, & the trees are pretty scarce. Hence the reason for the extended length.
Thanks to everyone so far for their input. Please keep it coming.
John


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[volcano buster]

Does a road flare to hide the evidence count?

 

[theultrarider]

Tim
That's the method I'm setting up for. It's just that we've found ourselves doing more drop in rides, & the trees are pretty scarce. Hence the reason for the extended length.
Thanks to everyone so far for their input. Please keep it coming.
John


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

When in the open we have augered in a running sled to use as an anchor to attach a snatchblock to and use it as a tree.

 

[overboard]

Don't go overboard...

I think you need to determine realistically what you need. A sled weight maybe 800 lbs (4stroke, fuelled, snowed-up). Double that so say 1600lbs would be a maximum lift. I carry 150' of 6 mm static climbing rope (static is actually not for climbing) that has minimal stretch. It is rated at 765 kg (1683 lbs). Also a couple small Al snatch blocks, and HD caribiners. Cost is for rope is ~ $0.50/ft. It all weighs < about 5 lbs, and small diameter rope does not take much room. If you want go up to a 7 mm rope it has 1325 kg tensile (2900 lb). Learn to tie a couple basic knots, have a knife in case you need to cut a few feet off to tie around a tree. It even works as a tow-rope if you need to cut off 20'. I have been carrying this around (in pack or on sled) for 10+ years, only needed it a couple times, works for me.
In a situation where you need 600' of rope seems very unlikely to me - as Popik says its probably heli time.