Congrats to Dream Hammocks and the Smurfs. Very colorful little aliens. I love that there are so many little items that are becoming more useful for my hammy and hiking. Very cool.
Congrats to Dream Hammocks and the Smurfs. Very colorful little aliens. I love that there are so many little items that are becoming more useful for my hammy and hiking. Very cool.
Enjoy and have fun with your family,before they have fun without you
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...he-speed-hooksOriginally Posted by HandyRandy
The problem is you can't really see it. I think part of the nature of the beast so to speak. The amsteel cordage will kink, but you can massage it out so there isn't any visual impact.
The individual fibers are damaged, but the rope as a whole looks okay.
What Dutch is describing roughly- Say you hang at trees 14' apart for this weekend. Next time you go out they are 16' apart. The point of 'failure' is where you hung last time. (about a foot up the line between hugger and hook). If you hung on trees 12' apart... then the damaged portion wouldn't be loaded... it would be on the slack end of the hook.
I don't know the individual thread count in dyneema cordage- but say it's a 100 strands in 7/64" and each hang you damage one or two...how long can you go before you bounce it broken.
That said... 'Failure' means that you've dipped below a 4 or 5 times body weight safety factor.
Not a completely unworkable product if you're really pushing... but not a good product for general use.
In one sense... the speed hook was a loop alien stripped down to it's core function. A piece of metal to pin a bight of amsteel against.
In another sense... the large diameter and likely better finished edges (plus the opportunity for multiple wraps) on the loop alien may be enough to spread the load and reduce or even eliminate the damage.
The loop alien is basically a miniature figure eight (for climbing) with rounded edges... much better than a hard 90* edge. You can run climbing rope through a figure 8 for the life of a rope- but trash that same rope in just one rappel off a sharp rock edge.
I'm also picturing another common climbing mishap... running a flat webbing anchor over a leading edge can nick an edge of it and cause the webbing to unravel or tear well below it's load rating.
So my concern with webbing is you're more prone to load an edge of it and perhaps nibble away it's strength.
On the flipside... with rounded cordage you may have enough radius to achieve what the speed hook couldn't... a smooth enough bite.
One option may simply be oversizing your cordage (to increase safety factor).
A light feller who could normally use dynaglide could bump up to 7/64".
A bigger fella like me could use 1/8".
So even if there is a 10% reduction (roughly what Dutch reported) you should be able to get a 100 night season in easily and still be within a reasonable margin of safety.
I'm very firmly in the SGT. Rock camp with regards to suspension. So I'm not looking to poo-poo the idea, just want to better understand the limitations so I can work within them.
There are a lot of appealing things with this system (especially with webbing) but as one approaches 200 lbs or more in weight it gets messier.
It is bend radius that kills rope, both with knots and hardware. The bend radius thru the alien is much larger than thru the speed hook.
I will get a video out with close-ups of the method I use, so you can see how the line runs thru the alien.
I (and my friends) have been using this system for over 3 years (still using the same Amsteel), and I'm 210lbs and my friend Mike is nearing 250lb. I know it's not a large sample set, but I'm happy with it.
I would be interesting to hear from those who have had failures of the cord/webbing with this system.
In the meantime, here is an overview of the system I use with both Amsteel and dyneema webbing,
https://youtu.be/K2remMHDIBo
https://youtu.be/l5_2khFFw5g
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Gadget
Perhaps Bob is indeed my dear mum's brother!
I'd have to look harder, but I believe your initial feed is different than other uses?
Point being you aren't using that first bend in quite the same speed hook like manner I've seen with the Ridgeline or other tension methods.
It's a bit off to me as that would be how you'd miss feed a figure 8 for a rappel as that rope on rope friction would burn the rope... but perfect application here.
Besides being a tight radius- the speed hook relied on a single hard bend and pinning of rope on rope on metal.
The initial pinch of rope on rope on metal happens after your first wrap... despite the rest of the alien if you stopped there you'd just have a basic speed hook. (how the Alien is normally demonstrated)
But being able to add two or three more thicknesses of rope pinned between the standing line and the alien over the large radius loop greatly reduces the pinch produced on each individual strand. You're laying your weight over 3 diameters of line. In fact it looks like the primary tension coming over the wraps from the standing line falls roughly in the center of the loop alien. So three wraps, passed twice each over that face (backside in first video) actually means 6 diameters of rope pinned against the metal by the standing line with the standing line bending over 3 diameters.
If I follow it all correctly; that's the key difference.
This is functioning a bit more like a rappel rack than a figure 8 https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Professi...escenders/RACK
Because of what you're doing- webbing may indeed be a better use here as you'd increase rope on rope friction. What's your experience/thoughts on the webbing?
I could see it getting too bulky and perhaps becoming counterproductive if you couldn't get 3 good clean wraps without spilling the rope.
20' of 1.5g webbing and 8.4g of TI is getting appealing.
Though I could see a 4 wrap dynaglide perhaps doing the job if I'm feeling naughty and thinking of my single layer M10 hammocks.
Granted that's if this light bulb in my head has screwed in properly without burning out.
I still use my speed hooks, and haven't died yet, or killed any amsteel before it's time. So, YMMV.
I can’t wait to get my TiXL’s and play with them. They should arrive Thursday. The interesting thing about the LoopAliens is that they can be used in so many different ways.
I was playing with some of the TiUFA versions and found out a really, really neat way to use them! I haven’t seen anyone else use it like this and it might only be possible with the UFA versions, but I will be trying to apply it to the TiXL when I get it too. Regardless, if it proves effective for a CRL, I’ll post a thread explaining my idea.
So is there any way to get a TiUFAXL version like the inventor displayed in this video below? Would it be strong enough to use for hammocks as well?
https://youtu.be/eopy2m54FQM
I also still currently use a SH since the first production cycle and I just changed out my Amsteel lead this year. Not for lack of strength, but to change color on my head end.
There was visible wear on the individual strands but very little before I made a change in how I secure the lead. Now, instead of taking the tail and making a half turn before slipping over SH, I first double over the line so the tail is going back towards the SH where the line comes out of the hole, then give it a full turn. This puts a lot of line in the bight to increase the diameter of the turn.
Seems like the LoopAlien will be a little faster with less twisting.
Enjoy and have fun with your family,
I've used the long 2g/ft dyneema tree strap, that I demonstrate at 4:45s in the second video, for over a year with no dramas. It still slides to adjust, in the same manner as Amsteel. I have also used it with the bulkier polyester webbing, it fits, but it's less convenient. I'm looking forward to testing my new Spider Web 1.5g/ft tomorrow.
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Gadget
Gadget,
I know the last post in this thread was a few months ago, but I was wondering if you ever tried out the Spider Web 1.5g/ft. I am using it with a slipped becket hitch on a 7/64" CL. I find it slips just a little bit until it bights down hard on itself and becomes hard to untie by just pulling on the loose end. (it's easy enough to untie by pulling on loop and loose end together away from the CL. Anyway, I am looking to switch to some lightweight hardware for a water break and was thinking Loop Alien. Has anyone tried the Spider Web 1.5g/ft with the Loop Alien? If so, how did it work? I tried the Spider Web 1.5g/ft. with slipped becket hitch on CL, J-bend with CL, with Dutch Beetle Buckles, with Dutch Double Whoopie Hooks.
The Dutch Beetle Buckles immediately slipped with minimal weight in hammock, less than 150 pounds. (as Dutch said...don't use with buckle type hardware) I did find a way to thread the Beetle Buckles so they don't slip, but then they became a PITA to adjust which defeats the whole purpose.
The Becket and J-Bend both worked fine, tried one on each end for a few nights with no problems.
The webbing gets a little shiny and even rolls up laterallay a little after any of these methods...which got me to thinking...so I tried the Dutch Double Whoopie Hooks. I threaded them like the were his old speed hook. So far it's working great...I will try and get a picture of it later tonight in case anyone else wants to try.
I like this way (if it turns out to continue to work after furhter testing) due to minimal weight (as long as yer not gonna die), minimal components, and "no knots"
Basically just webbing that goes around tree to a whoopie hook that clips on your CL. (could even use Grappler Hitch at tree for almost no weight penalty that gives you easy adjustments around branches)
I'm going to try it tonight and take some pics and post.
Thanks everyone on this and every thread here at HF that I have browsed through.
Yeh, my regular suspension is the Spiderweb 1.5 now, with loop aliens.
My friend uses it with a Becket hitch, but I prefer the quick micro-adjustability of the aliens... And I'll suck up the 10g weight penalty for that convenience!
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Gadget
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