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Retired rope for tire swing

PostPosted: Sep 5, 2017 9:20 pm
by William Bagwell
At first glance a no brainer, better than anything I could buy local at Home Depot / Lowes or a hard ware store.

But how old is too old? Two remaining ropes from my caving days are about
33 years old. Retired from caving in the late 80's and though rarely used
are used hard when they are. Safety rope when felling trees for fire wood so
they have been jerked on pretty hard, especially back when my skid steer
loader still ran.

Wanting to put up a swing for our grand daughter (and us adults :big grin: ) so it
needs to be safe. Had one for our kids at our old place that was incredibly
fun. Horizontal tire with three large eye bolts, straps going up to meet the
rope and mounted on a hill side! Had to take it down because we could not
keep neighbors kids off of it. Never got around to putting it back up after
we moved (to a more rural location) because we could not find a spot that
would duplicate the old one.

This round will be on flat ground for safety. Not only our grand daughter,
but my wife's 76 year old mother is eagerly awaiting its completion :roll:

Oh, will PMI still test a chunk of their on rope for free? Back in the day
they would, seems like it was 8 or 10 feet minimun so it could be rapped
around a drum at both ends.

Re: Retired rope for tire swing

PostPosted: Sep 11, 2017 3:44 pm
by tncaver
If in doubt use a new chain for swings. I did use some old Blue Water rappel rope to hold my attic stairs up a long time ago and surprisingly
after just 8 years it broke. It had been used a LOT.

Re: Retired rope for tire swing

PostPosted: Sep 22, 2017 9:12 pm
by William Bagwell
Unless I can find some far younger retired rope will most likely use chain for the future 'adult' swing. :big grin: Thanks for the suggestion! Out of time for meeting our step grand daughter for the first time next weekend so used two strands of ~33 year old PMI. Did not break with my 190 LBs so it should be safe for a nine year old. Bet even one strand is stronger than the six strands of brand new 1/2 braided from Lowes that split down for the last four feet.