How Often Do You Change your Line ?

[Marco]

Yes to both, a 15 off skier can break a rope, and you can break your ribs. Older ropes, especially if left in the sun, will break eventually. One of my ski buddies broke a rope and bruised his ribs last season, and missed over a month of skiing

[Wish]

You can easily break a worn rope just getting pulled up out of the water.

 

As a side note..mine was less then a yr old and did not break.

[gsm_peter]

Thanks @Marco

I did just check with some old proffesional ropers and they confirm my thoughts below. Also I love ropes and rope handycrafts...

 

I will continue to replace them early.

 

 

FWIW. Just my technical summary.

 

The rope will break at type 2500 lbs.

 

A normal rope splice reduce the strenght by type 35 %.

 

The sun take away some more (hmmm not much in Sweden). That could be a lot after a few years in sunny countries....

 

As @Edbrazil says the wear and tear take away quite some more.

I trim and tape the ends prior to use.

 

Salt stays in the rope and act as small knifes. That is really bad. My saltwater rope goes into a bucket with fresch water prior to storage.

 

I have learned thath a single knot on the rope reduce the strenght by plus 50%...

 

So in the end an old rope could worst case lose type 90% of its initial strenght.

 

 

 

[Edbrazil]

 

I question about taping splice ends. I never did any testing machine checking on that,

but probably you don't want any foreign crud in your line.

 

Knots sure do reduce strength, but I doubt that happens with double-weaved splices.

Those lines also don't 'grow' as much when broken in, since there are no knots to

tighten. I have been able to get simple over-hand knots out of lines, with hammer, etc.,

but the cure can be worse than the disease.

 

Vs. forces getting out of the water: when I was doing the WaterSki Magazine tests, and

before the 'drone' (thank you Ron Tanis), we used a real person for deepwater starts for

0 to 36 distance (thank you Steve Upp). With my Dillon Force Gauge, it was 700 lbs. of

tension in the line while Upp was getting up. Steve was not a lightweight guy.

 

At one time, certain towline colors had lower breaking strength. I made up a gift towline

for Jamie Beauchesne. Think that it broke in the purple segment on him, and not after

much use.

 

In the Back-Back, Jim Sylvester (rip), who was a former AWSA President and Technical

Committee Chair, did a lot of freebie work for the sport. Particularly for towline materials.

Best as I know, nothing like that happens these days, but Russell of MasterLine could

certainly provide 'the rest of the story'.

[Edbrazil]

Pylon attachment, from the Back When. Story from the guy who won Boys SL at the 1973

Nationals, and later won a Masters:

Watching the Boat Judge pulling the line into either 35 or 38 off, putting it on the pylon,

and then doing a wrap-wrap-wrap with it. Skier quote:

"Would you mind putting it back on 35/38 off?". Today:

Great advance with the slide loop design, where you get all of the available line length.

[jpwhit]

For those of us without swivel pylons, do folks put any kind lubricant on the pylon to cut down on friction and rope wear? If so, what do you use.

 

The other reason I was thinking about this was to make the tracking smoother when using a Wakeye or other video recording setup. Sometimes the rope jumps in increments under heavy load due to friction between the rope and pylon.

[GAJ0004]

I buy 4 ropes and handles at a time, and keep them for several years. I replace them when they start to look worn or faded. They get coiled and removed from the boat after every morning of skiing. I take a different one out each day I go skiing.

[igkya]

I like to keep 2 ropes in rotation (1 is a backup but I do use it a few times until it becomes my regular rope). New ropes every other year or sooner if needed.

[ALPJr]

I average about 30 rides a season on my slalom rope. So every 3 seasons or so seems to work. I must say my last two ropes and handles have come from In Tow and have been fabulous.

[skialex]

@gsm_peter trimming the ends is great for extending line's life, if someone looks closely the ends poke through the rest of the line and act as files and slowly cut the threads.

I wouldn't tape or burn the ends though because they would act as a file wounding the line even more.

do you make your own lines, restring handles etc? I'm interested in finding top quality bulk rope in Europe at an affordable price. If you have this info please send me a message.

@Edbrazil cutting ends in angle is a great tip, I had never thought about it and it makes perfect sense. next time I will cut them in angle.

Thanks!

[gsm_peter]

@skialex

 

I use tape from Polyropes that are suited for this purpose and I have not seen that effect.

 

Sent you a message

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jdarwin]

We host 6 record tournaments per year and our ropes get used all the way thru 41. The three ropes we designate as tournament ropes become our club ropes the following year. I estimate we have approx. 175 sets on each rope when it migrates to club use. Another 150 sets of club use per rope and then they are done. Typically by that point, there are wear points, the ropes are becoming out of tolerance (typically short) and are stiff as a cable. With $2000 skis and $60,000 boats, the price of a new rope each year is minimal.

[MattP]

My elbows were a little sore the last few days. I am skiing more than I have in years. So it could just be me over skiing a bit.

 

I bought my ML Slide Loop rope sometime last season? I know it pulled 1 if not 2 college ski tournaments and I have skied at least 100 sets on it.

 

The college kids had a new rope and was crazy out of tolerance. I tossed them mine and it was dead on at every loop. I measured it again yesterday and every single length through 43'off was dead on actual. @Russell y'all make an amazing product.

 

My season will be winding down here in the next few months and was thinking about just keeping my rope and buying another in the off season. If I buy a new one now will it still have the same life in it after sitting through the off season?

[skidawg]

2 per year on a normal year of skiing, only 1 this year

[sunvalleylaw]

I get a lot fewer sets than you guys, and have never replaced so often, and luckily have not had problems. Will start changing yearly now. Two questions:

 

1) How often are you replacing your handle? Seems like it would wear too.

 

2) I looked but did not find a "how to" on this "trimming the ends" thing. Is there one? I am not understanding completely what is happening here. May not be super relevant to us given the relative much less use, and if replacing each year, but good to know what to watch for and do.

 

And I will be advising to my brothers who maintain the boat we use for salt water that we start using new line. We only use that boat a few times a year other than one week, and have certainly skied on a line that should have been retired, luckily without incident. But even for that limited time, better to be safe than sorry for the price.

[ScottScott]

Interested in similar questions as @MattP . What is shelf life of a new rope? ML had (and still do) their 5 section rope on sale so I picked up a couple. How long will it store out of light, in a relatively dry environment?

[TEL]

Had this discussion with Brenda at In-Tow. She said to keep ropes out of sun light but she said that leaving the ropes wet on the floor of the boat or out in high humidity did more harm. I now bring my rope inside after skiing

[Chef23]

I generally replace rope and handle every year. I didn't ski much last year or so far this year so I didn't replace. I bring my rope out of the boat and hang it in the shed after each set. I do have a new rope in my basement that I bought at the beginning of last season that I would expect will be fine when I break it out.

[Edbrazil]

@skialex Learned about cutting ends at an angle when I was doing experiments on an

Instron testing machine. And, trying to get the line to break in a mid-area that was not

in a double-thick area. Circa 1966. Some time later, I saw Kris LaPoint doing it, and

explaining that he and his brother were only getting about a dozen sets out of a towline!!

Back in the days of the 8-strand polypro line.

[david_ski]

Once per season, unless signs of early wear. Masterline or Brenda's ropes. 75-90 ski days a year. $80/year on a ropes is a small price to pay.