Tachyon Tests Well

Treetools conducted a stress test on the new Tachyon rope from New England on Tuesday evening at D.M.Standens (aka The Rope Centre) to see how strong it was when terminated with a double braid Class 1 splice and a double fishermans knot. The Fishermans knot snapped at 2.26 tonnes but the splice was unaffected (to the eye).

It was interesting to see how much tail was sucked into the knot - about 5cm, ALWAYS leave a long tail when dressing your knots! (or get splices). This test was conducted on a brand new rope with a straight pull. This method of testing stressed the rope beyond a typical work situation since tree climbers usually climb on DDRT system (doubled rope system). 

We also tested a VT tied with Donaghys Armor Prus that had seen 5 months of hard use -the VT started slipping at about 1.5 tonnes due to the main line (Donaghys Spark) stretching and becoming thinner but it still did not snap. The same hitchcord was then tested in a doubled situation and it snapped in the middle, where the bend was, at 2.8 tonnes - not bad for 5 month old hitch cord.
 
I have been using the Tachyon with my cinch today and it works fine - this might change if it fluffs up but at the moment it works sweet.

Blog by Drew Bristow for Treetools