tarp ridgeline snapped

**nu2hike** · 09-05-2011, 18:17

I agree that if given the choice between the ZingIt breaking and my BMJ tearing I was glad it was the ZingIt!
I use mason line for my guylines and had no issues with any of them! Of couse that may have been due to the shock cord incorporated into the lines!
Dutch! Thank you for your kind offer, but I purchased this roll of ZingIt elsewhere!
I realize that it may have just been a defect in the line. I just hope the entire roll isn't defective!

**Knotty** · 09-05-2011, 19:30

Breaking a tarp ridgeline made from ZingIt is certainly a surprise and a reminder to all of us that forces on our various lines are often much higher than we think.

**Jsaults** · 09-05-2011, 19:46

Since we normally tension tarp ridgelines rather snugly is it possible that swaying trees could have overtensioned the zing-it? I always wondered about that possibility......

Jim

**MAD777** · 09-05-2011, 19:51

Originally Posted by Jsaults

Since we normally tension tarp ridgelines rather snugly is it possible that swaying trees could have overtensioned the zing-it? I always wondered about that possibility......

Jim

That's an excellent point that I had not considered! Sharp thinking there Jim.

My money's on this answer

**Knotty** · 09-05-2011, 20:08

Excellent analysis Jim. You're quite the sleuth.

**nu2hike** · 09-05-2011, 20:52

I never considered tree sway as a possibility, but I think that may have been a real possibility! The trees I was hanging from were pines! Both were good size trees, but like I said the wind was really blowing!

**DemostiX** · 09-06-2011, 07:45

Originally Posted by Jsaults

Since we normally tension tarp ridgelines rather snugly is it possible that swaying trees could have overtensioned the zing-it? I always wondered about that possibility......

Jim

Excellent. And this line doesn't stretch. Once the constructional looseness is out of the line, it hardly matters whether there is 10 lb of tension or 40lb on it for load margin. Whats left might be 350lb in the first instance and 320lb in the second. Depending on the line, once it is tight, there may be as little as 3% stretch at which point it has snapped. Exact % is in charts from the rope and cordage makers. 4% for Amsteel Blue according to Samson:

http://www.samsonrope.com/get.php?file=311

If this is what happened, then add to site selection criteria for hanging the tarp between two trees: same size, species, and leaf load to bend the same amount in the same wind.

All smilies implied.

**MAD777** · 09-06-2011, 08:03

If the sway of the trees is at fault, then the concept of the single ridge line is in peril. My old system consisted of two guylines for the tarp ridge, and on one of them was a loop made from 12" of 1/8" shock cord. That system would absorb the sway.

Of course, I just cut 30' of zing-it and made a continuous ridge line for my tarp.