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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

Author

6yo Rope

certifi

11-Nov-2007
9:12:35 PM

hey,
i bought two (well three ropes) today at wilderness shop sale for $129 each. both are Roca Fanatics
8.5mm. when i got home i noticed that they were made in 2001. is this a problem? i wasnt informed at
point of sale. so im just wondering what i should do. do you think there fine? is it normal to have ropes on
the shelf so long? i thought ropes were only ment to be on the shelf for five years or something? shall i
take them back and ask them for newer one considering i wasnt informed? all information related is
greatly appreciated. cheers.

wallwombat

11-Nov-2007
9:29:02 PM

The shop probably should have let you know how old they were before you bought them but I think they will be fine unless they have been sitting in the sun or something, which I strongly doubt. At that price , they are a bargain. Don't worry.

certifi

11-Nov-2007
9:59:02 PM

cheers mate,
i was just a little dissapointed they didnt say how old they were. there still in seald bag with with theat
plastic ribbon stuff around them so i think ill just leve it ey. cheers. anyone else got anything to say?

muki

11-Nov-2007
10:39:43 PM

Don't sweat it the 5 yr shelf thing is kinda like the 8 factor 1 falls the ropes are rated to, or maybe six if
they are 8.5's they will handle many more than that before the rope is truly trashed, it's just a safety
figure that they set so that you will remain inside of set figure/distsance/date, so that they are covered
for litigation, and litigation paranoia is huge in an industry producing such things as climbing ropes. BP

IdratherbeclimbingM9

12-Nov-2007
9:12:44 AM

What?

There is a time limit on ropes??

Does this mean I now have to chuck out my manilla one now???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post edit:
(PVA lol, Heh, heh, heh. I like it!).

pat

12-Nov-2007
9:44:38 AM

No M9, as long as you have reinforced them with PVA they should be fine.

Paulie

12-Nov-2007
10:59:30 AM

Rocas you say, best just chuck them out right now then ;)

gfdonc

12-Nov-2007
11:33:29 AM

I don't think a definitive answer exists anywhere. Various links and references have been posted over the years. Breaking strength of nylon ropes does not deteriorate markedly with age, but one theory is that the impact force increases as the rope loses elasticity.

Here's some reference material:
http://www.xmission.com/~tmoyer/testing/pull_tests_11_98.html (see test #9 & 10)
Of interest regarding the test method involving a tank (!) and the failure of different slings.
(Note also the home-sewn slings being stronger than bar-tacking...)

http://www.bdel.com/scene/beta/qc_kp_archive.php
Black Diamond's tips on retiring old (worn) ropes (scroll down), plus the "cat pee" experiment. Oh, and some tests on Ukrainian cams for those who are interested .. actually this whole doc is well worth a read.

http://www.tradgirl.com/climbing_faq/safety.shtml
Quote:
9. The suggested life span of 10 years which has been given for ropes is to help the user determine life span . However, after contact with ICI it was found that although after 10 years there was a measurable degradation in nylon (not just in ropes, but all nylon textiles) ageing itself would not cause a rope to break, unless it was loaded over a sharp edge.

http://www.ssrsi.org/ods/climb.htm

Wollemi

12-Nov-2007
11:40:03 AM

"...although after 10 years there was a measurable degradation in nylon (not just in ropes, but all nylon textiles) ageing itself would not cause a rope to break..."

Isn't this a contradiction?

muki

12-Nov-2007
12:12:12 PM

On 12/11/2007 Wollemi wrote:
>"...although after 10 years there was a measurable degradation in nylon
>(not just in ropes, but all nylon textiles) ageing itself would not cause
>a rope to break..."
>
>Isn't this a contradiction?

"Measurable" degradation is relative to the measurement, ie some buildings I've worked on have
cracks that are measurably opening due to settlment of the earth under the foundations, but this
measurement is in microns per year, it's a measurement sure, but the buildings not gonna fall over due
to settlment.
the nylon is measurably degraded, (whats the measurement?) not enough to make the rope break.
I recently retired all my dog bones on my draws, cos I could'nt remember wich ones were 10 yrs old
and wich ones were 15 yrs old, so because of the amount of time they had spent in the sun, wich is
the main reason nylon degrades (moreso than age, lesso than chemical damage) I retired them all and
bought new ones! now I know what is what and feel better about them, but I've seen ropes that had no
uv damage in caves, and they were fine after 15 yrs! some measurable degradation perhaps! BP

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