This would be youth and the belief I was invincible, risking your life several times a week will give you this delusion.
Vince
Hang it high and God Bless!!
Vince
Sometimes, I feel like that AFLAC duck, after his encounter with Yogi Berra.
Dave
"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."~~~May Sarton
I'm surprised by the results, especially considering that you gutted the paracord. Without the inner strands, paracord loses much of it's rating.
While I don't doubt what you're reporting is true it worries me that people will repeat what you've done and use the paracord shackles for hammock suspension, despite your cautions. People are always looking for shortcuts and cheaper, easier to come by solutions. Similarly people were substituting easier stopper knots than the diamond knot when making Amsteel soft shackles which resulted in failures.
Quack!
Knotty
"Don't speak unless it improves the silence." -proverb
DIY Gathered End Hammock
DIY Stretch-Side Hammock
Stretch-Side "Knotty Mod"
DIY Bugnet
If I were reading this and wanted to use these on my hammock I would do a similar test that I did to insure the soft shackles were safe for me...I make no claims for anyone but me.
For me I did the test because so many people were commenting that the 550 shackles wouldn't hold my weight...I will not be using them and those that do use them on a hammock should be willing to fall the couple of feet to the ground if the soft shackle fail.
I fell a few times before I got tired of falling and jerry rigging and just bought amsteel and made whoopie slings. That is my suggestion for hanging a hammock.
I will be using the 550 soft shackles to hang gear on my new DIY backpack...should come it at 12 oz when its done tomorrow.
Vince
Hang it high and God Bless!!
Vince
Be careful! I love 550 too, but also love not falling on my ***!
I'll give Vince his due, and he's probably due more yet:
He's assuming his own risks in something of the spirit, I suppose, of some serious climbing-equipment testers. HF refers almost exclusively to break-strength. To get a sense of the importance of other parameters, go to http://www.caves.org/section/vertica...hsc/cthsc.html
for examples of tests and direction to protocols for testing gear similar to what Vince was playing with.
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Ignoring the hook , when the 2 lb test line breaks for the angler who was hoping to land a 10 lb fish with it, a fish swims away better off for the breakage.
I just posted my paracord fail story: http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=37889
-Digrat
"Better than a map!"
Code:_ _ ( )_( ) (o o) \ / >.<
I am using 5 soft shackles now on my DIY backpack and I love them. I was going to make some amsteel soft shackles but decided against it since all my 550 shackles are holding up weights less then 5 pounds and I don't want to waste Amsteel on such a light implementation.
The heaviest thing I use my 550 cord for now is my ridgeline of my tarp.
Vince
Hang it high and God Bless!!
Vince
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