Cord and Prusiks

**Campdavid** · 04-12-2011, 21:44

A while back I bought a pair of the extra long cords from GT....the ones with the knots tied in them on which to hook the biners. To make them more adjustable, I took out all of the knots, wrapped the cord around the tree the same way it was intended, made prusik loops out of the standard GT cord (same as the extra long, different color), wrapped those loops around the tree cord and hooked the biner to the prusik. Now I can slide the prusik along the cord for quick and easy adjustments.

I know Amsteel is lighter and straps are better for the trees but, aside from the cord being a bit "bouncy" when using greater lengths, is their anything inherently wrong with this setup? I hooked it up in the yard to test it.....ended up falling asleep for a few hours and there was no slippage or additional stretching.

Hi, my name is David and I am a prusik-a-holic.

**Knotty** · 04-12-2011, 23:07

If they hold and don't jam after hanging on them then it sounds like there's nothing wrong with your approach.

No, about not using tree huggers...

**^shane^** · 04-13-2011, 06:08

Originally Posted by Campdavid

...is their anything inherently wrong with this setup?

Tree damage.

**Campdavid** · 04-13-2011, 14:57

My plan to avoid tree damage in the short term...I have an old cargo net that has somewhat stiff nylon webbing "sleeves" on either end. After cutting these sleeves off the netting, I intend to run the cord through them. Their weight is neglibile and s/b long enough to cover the cord around most trees.

Once upon a time I had a budget big enough to buy most anything I wanted...three kids and a lousy ecomony later...well suffice it to say, frugality and creativity really come in handy.

Originally Posted by ^shane^

Tree damage.

**Knotty** · 04-13-2011, 19:59

I feel your pain (recently unemployed) but when your run a line through webbing it doesn't really distribute the load across the width of the webbing so there can still be tree damage. Lots of people have done tree huggers on the cheap by using straps from Harbor Freight. They discard the ratchet mechanism. You should be able to find info on that approach by using the search function.

**Bubba** · 04-13-2011, 20:54

I tried the same thing with some extra cord I had. Worked well for adjustability. I used about 4 feet of webbing as tree huggers. As Knotty and ^shane^ said avoiding tree damage is really the only issue with that set up. You could take a bunch of trail sticks and place them between the rope and the tree (parallel to the tree) evenly spaced to help distribute the pressure.

**Campdavid** · 04-13-2011, 22:22

Sorry to hear about the unemployment situation. It's a drag that's for sure..I wish you good luck and blessings. I'm hiring in Chicago....ever sell brick?

After some research I did find that the webbing/cord thing does not really help that much. Talked to one of the "soccer dads"'while at my daughter's practice....turns out he owns a company that makes custom straps.

Better still my crew buys truck straps from them! Anyway, he's going to make me some nice polyester straps with stitched in loops etc. Since we already buy a lot of product from him I will probably get these for the good guy price.

Thanks for the input and advice.

Originally Posted by Knotty

I feel your pain (recently unemployed) but when your run a line through webbing it doesn't really distribute the load across the width of the webbing so there can still be tree damage. Lots of people have done tree huggers on the cheap by using straps from Harbor Freight. They discard the ratchet mechanism. You should be able to find info on that approach by using the search function.

**PackBacker81** · 04-14-2011, 10:55

Sounds like you found a great connection. Good luck and have fun!

**Hector** · 04-14-2011, 12:42

First, I'd love to see a photo of the setup.

Second, you should be able to use the cord with tree huggers -- just loop the cord through the loop(s) in the hugger instead of around the tree. If you don't have any huggers, just find some webbing and tie loops in the end as needed. This is really nice when something like sap on the tree gets on the huggers and not your rope. And the trees, especially soft-bark trees, really appreciate it.

**lustreking** · 04-14-2011, 13:13

Originally Posted by Knotty

Lots of people have done tree huggers on the cheap by using straps from Harbor Freight. They discard the ratchet mechanism. You should be able to find info on that approach by using the search function.

This is what I recently got:

http://www.harborfreight.com/set-of-...aps-67386.html