Wash that Mule Tape

[timabababaluka]

For a scheme to be successful, have ready-to-adapt tactics or you will end up spending your hammock budget on bouquets and meals at places that have a dress code.

Oddly enough, the Missus has asked me to skip the bouquets and meals, and bolster up the life insurance policy instead--she also wants me to find out where a person can get a hold of some arsenic, but I don't really see what the one thing has to do with the other .

Because the lubricant was water soluble I just used water, but as JohnSawyer forewarned, my garage is starting to smell slightly like soiled bedsheets. So after reading this thread, I think I'll go back again with some dishwashing liquid (palmolive--tough on grease, but mild enough for your mule tape).

@ Jsaults--love that Steinbeck! Master wordsmith, as well as innovator ("Tell me about the mule tape, George...").

@ Papasmurf--I never thought to do anything to the mule tape other than leave it as-is white, but I like the idea of throwing in some dye and getting that nice silver sheen. Now I just need to figure out if I will have to come up with some ready-to-adapt tactics as suggested by heyyou (hmmm, scanning for potential problems: a five gallon bucket of tape, boiling water and die, and six children under the age of 12 running around--Nope! I think I'm good to go ).

Another thing I've learned... you can have mule tape; you can have a pool; and you can have a spouse, but if you try to combine the first two you should under no circumstances allow the third to discover it. I suffer, that others may live.

[abwillingham]

Mule tape is intentionally slick. The lubricant on Mule Tape is water soluble so wash it out. Soak it in a bucket of water with TSP powder from the hardware store (trisodium phosphate is the active ingredient in detergent) or use a washing machine's prewash cycle once or twice, adding detergent each time, before using the regular cycle, maybe with a double rinse. Look for a ring of light oil in the machine after each wash. Wipe it out before your spouse sees it.

Mule tape is not for everyone but the price is often the best. Washing removed the printing too, so remember the size and strength numbers.

Two questions:
1) Why is it important to move the slickness from the mule tape if its used for tree hugging? Does slickness affect hugging?

2) Someone said "mule take isn't for everyone". Who wouldn't want to use it? I'm about to implement it for my huggers and want to know the downside.

Thanks guys.

[DemostiX]

Answer: As per this thread, it is the greasy lubricants that will transfer to everything. I don't want to buy a hammock that was hung just twice but packed along with the mule tape unless the tape was cleaned.

That said, I'd like to get some, as it would seem to be close to ideal on benefit-cost and physical properties. High tensile-strength polyester, flat instead of round, with no compromise in tensile strength for abrasion-resistance.

[timabababaluka]

Two questions:
1) Why is it important to move the slickness from the mule tape if its used for tree hugging? Does slickness affect hugging?

2) Someone said "mule take isn't for everyone". Who wouldn't want to use it? I'm about to implement it for my huggers and want to know the downside.

Thanks guys.

Most people use mule tape as a means of suspending the hammock. If it's slippery, descender rings might start to slip on you.

Slickness probably would not affect mule tape as huggers; however, some people consider it to be a bit on the thin side, and thus potentially damaging the trees/reputation of hangers. Another very practical reason not to use mule tape as a hugger is that the fibers catch onto the bark quite easily and it gets fuzzy, frays, and won't last nearly as long as a cheap Harbor Freight tie-down strap.

Still, mule tape is a cheap and reliable means to keep a hammock off the ground--absolutely love the stuff

[timabababaluka]

Answer: As per this thread, it is the greasy lubricants that will transfer to everything. I don't want to buy a hammock that was hung just twice but packed along with the mule tape unless the tape was cleaned.

Good point. I also forgot to mention that the lubricant starts to smell a bit like my kid's bathroom--my boys are wonderful, but their aim is not. No one's gear should smell like that bathroom.

[abwillingham]

Now its all clear to me. Its for pulling cable and thus lubbed up.

http://www.neptco.com/website/neptco...1?OpenDocument

[DivaB]

I love the stuff and not embarrassed to admit it.

[JohnSawyer]

Answer: As per this thread, it is the greasy lubricants that will transfer to everything. I don't want to buy a hammock that was hung just twice but packed along with the mule tape unless the tape was cleaned.

That said, I'd like to get some, as it would seem to be close to ideal on benefit-cost and physical properties. High tensile-strength polyester, flat instead of round, with no compromise in tensile strength for abrasion-resistance.

Pay shipping and I'll send you some... I can fit 100' in a small flat-rate box...

My brother pulls fiber for a living... they get lubricant in 5 gallon buckets . . . It does dry up, but smells like urine after a time... Later, during a nice overnight rain, the lubes will rehydrate. They don't call the stuff Gorilla Snot without a good reason!

[Streetdoc432]

Pay shipping and I'll send you some... I can fit 100' in a small flat-rate box...

I would love some...PM me your PayPal address & let me know how much shipping is...Thanks!

[the_gr8t_waldo]

it's only lubed IF it's been used ( to pull in wire)...and even then any wire pull that's for big wire the mule tape is only used for a measurment and to pull in a big rope that actually does the work...