Looking at those pictures brings to mind a fella with bone sticking out of his leg saying "you think it's broken?"
I'd have replaced them ages ago, but YMMV. +1 to replacing with Amsteel, though.
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Looking at those pictures brings to mind a fella with bone sticking out of his leg saying "you think it's broken?"
I'd have replaced them ages ago, but YMMV. +1 to replacing with Amsteel, though.
... but that's just me. HYOH.
I agree with WV, I have had some that looked worse than yours and hung from them for quite some time. The way it appears in your pic's is that the braid is loosening, which is perfectly fine, I don't see a lot of broken strands.
But in the end you must feel comfortable with what you are hanging from, and if you feel uncomfortable then replace them.
I've personally never been convinced on the 5 to 1 ratio for hanging... sure it works, but when I took the hoisting and rigging course in school, it was 5 to 1 for material, and 10 to 1 for humans. 10 to 1 would make 7/64" amsteel good for someone who weighs 160 pounds. Now I can see where someone would say hey a little bit over the limit isn't too bad, but if you have ever played with the hammock hang calculator... if you change the angle to 28 degrees instead of 30... the tension on the rope increases above the limit... add a little bit of swing and you get too much force for the rope. Also.. how many of us weigh 160 pounds??? I know I don't, I weigh 175. I still use 7/64" but its only after a few years of hearing success stories on HF. Thank you to everyone on HF.
Now add in the fact that a lot of people bend amsteel or dynaglide over too sharp a radius... 3 times is recommended by Samson (this would mean that 7/64" amsteel would have to bend over a radius of 21/64" or 5.25/16" or rounded up a wee bit is 3/8"...... dynaglide would be 6 mm <I believe dynaglide is 2mm diameter, so 3 times would be 6 mm>)... and you are getting a bad situation for some people.
Now, I am not saying that everyone should stop using 7/64" but... I am saying that people should learn and know about the material they use before trusting it with your back.
Mark
I would say you are dangerously close to your weigh limit if they are only rated to 200 pounds. are you 155 naked? how much gear in/on your hammock? how much does the hammock weigh? now figure in a little shock for tossing/turning and you are probably over 200 pounds. thinkabout how little motion it takes on bathroom scales to add 20 pounds by moving a little.
My pair of DG equivalent whoopies looked like that after 20 nights or so. Been using Amsteel equivalent up to then for a couple of years
I asked the great HF Hivemind and was assured there was no weakening of the line like that.
Another 30 nights on them, trusting the advice given, they haven't got any worse.
I'm 220lb and will use them until the fraying has consumed a significant fraction of the original strands.
I say they are fine too. HYOH though.
+2 to what WV and Turnerminator said
I have 2+ years on mine, weigh 180 but with gear and such in the hammock probably push the 200 limit.
Mine look a bit worse than yours do, but I am not changing them yet