Recovery rope shelf life

[rezdiver]

This question is probably best answered by Alex(masterpull).

What is the Shelf life for kinetic recovery ropes? is there any specs as to loss of life after certain amount of years, storage conditions etc...

reason i ask is I have a couple of brand new 30ft, 3/4inch recovery ropes but they are dated 1996. they have been stored dry and dark for all their life until i pulled them out last month. they are not your ropes Alex, but i am pretty certain they are same material.

 

[rezdiver]

bueller, bueller, bueller...

 

[Master-Pull]

Sorry, I am traveling in Europe this month so I haven't always had internet. If those ropes are a nylon double braid they should be alright still, the biggest impact on ropes that we have seen is the use. When the ropes are put away wet, drug through everything, and so on they tend to lose strength.

Can you post up some pics of the ropes?

-Alex

 

[SunTzuNephew]

FWIW, rescue lifeline or climbing ropes are normally made of nylon, and as long as the core is intact are GTG. As long as they aren't exposed to acids (especially) or petrochemicals. If the jacket is worn through to the core, or there are any soft spots you can feel, it's time to repurpose....

Interestingly, the only time a climbing rope is likely to fail is when somebody accidentally cuts it. I've seen some raggedy climbing ropes (with a furry looking jacket from so much wear) and they're still safe to use.

 

[rezdiver]

i think climbing rope is slightly different, in a climbing rope the inner strands are the load bearing with the outer coating being just that, a protective sheath. on a climbing rope the inner strands are all in line and not braded. climbing rope also stretches much more then double braded because of this.


in a double braid, both the outer and inner braid are designed to take a certain percentage of the load, and the inner core is also braded.

now a rappel rope is designed as a double braid we are familiar with with inner and outer core sharing strength responsibility, as it stretches less and does not need as much of a dynamic quality for its purpose, thats why you never use a rappelling rope for climbing.

those old climbing ropes you are talking about probably never had many falls on them, with every large fall the rope stretches and loses its elasticity or stretch permanently. if you take too many falls and stretch it to its limit then on your last fall it will be more of a static rope and snap during impact or snap your back or pull your anchor out since it has no stretch..

 

[rezdiver]

Alex here is a couple of pics of the rope:

 

[Master-Pull]

On those pics did you pull the splice apart or is the core showing? When they are spliced together you shouldn't see the core. Otherwise it looks like it should be good to go, as will all kinetic ropes make sure you ramp up your pulls instead of going for broke (no pun intended) the first pull.

-Alex

 

[rezdiver]

the other thread answers that best, the core is pulled out of sheath, i took apart the old splice to get a D ring off and found the splice was not done properly, good thing i checked.