How did those cleats work out?

[TeeDee]

Griz is right about this one. While the cleats may work fine, they don't come with ANY 'insurance strength'. I can't speak for everyone, but if I'm gonna suspend my body weight off the ground over a potentially hazardous drop, I want there to be no doubts about the suspension's ability to hold it. At a 200# rating, the cleats just don't leave enough room for error for my peace of mind.

angrysparrow - question - I was just searching the net and found the CC buckles at the rope1 site which I believe you have recommended. I notice that they only state "Rated for life support".

Do you know what that means?? Does that mean it will hold a 200 lb person on a straight drop or ..... well what does it mean??

Looked on the Crazy Crib site and could find no mention at all of any rating on the buckles.

Do you know what they are rated at?

[Just Jeff]

The Crazy Creek folks don't know what it's rated, either...at least the two customer service reps I talked to, and the people they asked, didn't think they had actually been tested for rating. But they're cast instead of welded...I'm more than comfortable using them for hammocking.

They'd probably be fine for other "life support" uses, too...but any chance of me falling at 100' up and I'm not taking any chances!

[GrizzlyAdams]

Ahhh - not having had any kids around the house for a few decades I am no longer conversant with what passes for humor unless it is at least 30 years after it's use by date. I keep telling people "Well, it'll keep you out of the pool hall"

"Well there's trouble. Right here in River City. With a capital T, and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!"

....
But then I watch 5 or 10 minutes of TV and find out that the humor I see there is usually some poor guy on a home video getting kicked in the private parts or falling over a fence and I ask myself "Is somebody getting hurt supposed to be funny???" And then I turn the TV off for another week or so.
....

We don't have a TV in the house. Never have. Who has the time? Managed to get two kids into good universities, and the two still at home seem to survive without it.

Grizz

[TeeDee]

"Well there's trouble. Right here in River City. With a capital T, and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool!"

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - somebody else actually knows what I mean. I was getting tired of those blank looks.

I didn't think anybody could be as old as I am.

[angrysparrow]

angrysparrow - question - I was just searching the net and found the CC buckles at the rope1 site which I believe you have recommended. I notice that they only state "Rated for life support".

Do you know what that means?? Does that mean it will hold a 200 lb person on a straight drop or ..... well what does it mean??

Looked on the Crazy Crib site and could find no mention at all of any rating on the buckles.

Do you know what they are rated at?

As a point of fact, I don't have specific rating information for the buckles...but since you've asked, I have placed an inquiry with OnRope1. I will post their response here as soon as I receive it.

As JustJeff said, they aren't welded, but are cast. I will be surprised if the actual rating is much less than, say, 25kN...but we'll have to wait for their official answer to know for sure.

[Just Jeff]

If we're placing bets, I'd say it's at least double that as long as there's not twisting force placed on the buckle. Hope OnRope1 has a number for us.

[slowhike]

i mentioned this before but one concern that keeps comming to my mind w/ the cc type or clinch buckles is that the full force is being applied to a very sharp bend on the clinch buckle as opposed to the rounded ring buckle.

as long as the webbing is plenty strong enough, that will probably never be a problem.
just some thing to think about if you like to push the limits on the lighter weight webbings.

[FreeTheWeasel]

I think the interesting test of the cleats will be when it gets cold, and here in Minnesota, it gets cold. According to WeatherUnderground, it hit a low of 40F in Beaver Bay on July 20, 2007 when I was up on the Superior Trail. During the day, I am huffing and puffing, clothes are soaked with sweat and at night I'm pushing the temperature rating of my hammock system!

When the temperature starts to drop this fall, I plan to spend a few nights really bouncing on the cleats to see if the cold makes them brittle. I’ll put a pad under the hammock of course.

I must say, I do like the cleats though. I hope they continue to hold up.

[angrysparrow]

Do you know what they are rated at?

As I stated above, I contacted OnRope1 about the ratings on their 1" cinch buckles. The following is their response:

"I’ve contacted our supplier of that buckle & he tells me that they proof load the frame to 500lbs, otherwise, he wasn’t able to give me any other certification information on this buckle.

I can tell you that we use this buckle on several of our harnesses, which have been third party tested to breaking strengths of over 3,500lbs. We say rated for life support due to the fact that we use this cinch buckle as a life support element in several of the life support products we manufacture, mainly harnesses.

Hope this helps to answer your question.

Chad
On Rope 1, Inc."

Note that he said that the harnesses tested to 3,500lbs, but not that the buckle was the point of failure at that weight. I suspect that the buckles will hold more than that, but that's my own opinion not based on factual evidence. At any rate, 3,500lbs is far more than high enough of a rating for typical hammock use, and is not-so-curiously the same rating as is given to the 1" polyester webbing with which I use it.

[TeeDee]

As I stated above, I contacted OnRope1 about the ratings on their 1" cinch buckles. The following is their response:

"I’ve contacted our supplier of that buckle & he tells me that they proof load the frame to 500lbs, otherwise, he wasn’t able to give me any other certification information on this buckle.

I can tell you that we use this buckle on several of our harnesses, which have been third party tested to breaking strengths of over 3,500lbs. We say rated for life support due to the fact that we use this cinch buckle as a life support element in several of the life support products we manufacture, mainly harnesses.

Hope this helps to answer your question.

Chad
On Rope 1, Inc."

Note that he said that the harnesses tested to 3,500lbs, but not that the buckle was the point of failure at that weight. I suspect that the buckles will hold more than that, but that's my own opinion not based on factual evidence. At any rate, 3,500lbs is far more than high enough of a rating for typical hammock use, and is not-so-curiously the same rating as is given to the 1" polyester webbing with which I use it.

Right but he also didn't state that the buckle was subjected to the full load of the test. The load the buckle was subjected to would depend entirely on where in the harness it is located and where exactly the load was placed and the direction in which the load was directed, i.e., exactly how the forces were acting on the buckle. The load on the buckle is unknown and you will notice that the supplier was careful to make that known.

So what it comes down to is that the rating of the buckle is not really known beyond the 500 lb "proof loading" except for "gut feeling". Nice to know.