Prevent UCR Slippage

[Phantom Grappler]

My second paragraph in post number 6, is my best idea. That 1/8 amsteel spliced inside of 7/64 amsteel holds like a dog on a ham.

It will look like a regular UCR, the 1/8 inner bury barely noticeable. And no extra work. The skinny 7/64 amsteel on outside of bury puts the squeeze on fat 1/8 amsteel.

Nanok, try this with real amsteel rather than the rope you have. I realize, it’s hard to get same stuff that Dutch sells because of import fees, taxes, and shipping.
And no need to combine my idea with the double buries—one long bury and one short bury. No need!
That fat rope will be squeezed so hard inside that skinny rope, that it won’t be able to move or breathe!

Phantom GarnaUtees it!

Don’t skimp on the bury. (All UCRs)
1/8 inside 7/64, shortens the bury. Take this into account, and make bury long enough to be secure!

[Phantom Grappler]

My best idea to secure a slipping UCR while in the woods: form marlin spike hitch in body of bury and if no extra cord to fold up to become the toggle—tightly roll a stinky sock and insert in marlin spike hitch as your toggle.

On second thought, maybe a sock would not be a good toggle here, because it might take up too much length of bury-extending beyond ends of bury. You could use a spoon handle as toggle.

“Oh it will weaken your rope”
A bury is a double layer or two strands rope, one inside the other. It ain’t gonna weaken it enough to break it!

Ah GarnaUtees it!

But then again, Nanok’s advice to stress test various knots and splices—to see exactly the qualities of a different suspensions, is the best route to proceed.
With testing both in controlled settings and in woods, my ideas might be proven wrong.

[Mortus]

My best idea to secure a slipping UCR while in the woods: form marlin spike hitch in body of bury...

I understand this would work 100%, but unless I'm wrong, it shouldn't be possible to make a marlin spike hitch in an already tight rope, as is the case with guylines or single line tarp ridgeline. Am I missing something?

[Phantom Grappler]

Mortus, yes you are right, it might not be feasible to do MSH on UCR on a tarp guyline. Because you would need some looseness in guyline to tie MSH
Once MSH added, I don’t know if it can be adjusted.

You and Nanok are good at figuring this out. I better get better, or y’all gonna leave me behind.

But with a UCR on a hammock, there should be enough slack in suspension to add MSH.

Adjust hammock suspension with UCR to desired setting.
Then adjust suspension a small amount longer (to account for suspension shortening by amount of rope used in MSH)

Milk the bury, tightening its UCR grip

Tie MSH in middle of bury length.

Insert smooth crushproof toggle.
Smooth so it won’t damage tarp, if they touch
Crushproof, because you are not hanging on the knot, in this particular instance.

Re-milk bury, and hand tighten UCR and MSH

I hope this will help a hammock camper while camping, if he notices his UCR is slipping.
I believe if a UCR bury is adequate length, then there will be fewer fails due to slipping.

The other idea using 1/8 amsteel as inner bury and 7/64 amsteel as outer bury or sheath is probably best done at home.

Every where I go, I meet people smarter than me.....
Must be luck of the draw

[Phantom Grappler]

Nanok, your post number 28, had some amazing photos. It amazes me that those slight bends in UCR bury&sheath can help stop slipping.
Did you discover this? Or did you find this technique and adapt it to problem of UCR slipping?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos.

[nanok]

Nanok, your post number 28, had some amazing photos. It amazes me that those slight bends in UCR bury&sheath can help stop slipping.
Did you discover this? Or did you find this technique and adapt it to problem of UCR slipping?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and photos.

yeah, it's a bit surprising isn't it, at first glance. but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense (to us old style knot people :P). i guess you could say i "discovered it", but i didn't think of it that way, once i understood how the ucr/whoopie sling bury works, bending it to stop it slipping was my first thought (and yes, dealing with ucr slippage has been a source of frustration from the start)

you're referring to the s-hook pictures. that little is enough to take it from "vaseline ucr" to "rock solid". what's even more interesting, is that when you want to adjust the ucr, it's just as easy as before adding the s-hook, even while keeping the hook on the line (once you unload the line, it will slide happily together with the bury. and most of all, it's not weakening the rope (yeah, i know, i'm too greedy, i want all my safety factor) and it's non critical: if the rigid object fails, at worse you will have some slip, but most likely not even that, as the bury would already be "set". i just need to figure out how to make some of these out of something that makes them light and small and rigid enough. anyone have a 3d printer handy? :P

[cmoulder]

While you guys are experimenting and entertaining the idea of some sort of hardware... perhaps a tiny bar tensioner with a small length of shock cord to secure that pesky loose end of the bury. As we know, it takes only a small — but reliable and constant — amount of pressure to maintain the outer cord's grip on the inner cord.

But the few times that I've played around with UCRs I've found that a simple Prusik made with smaller, grippy cord (Atwood micro cord, 1.2mm) works very well.

ucr_prusik_small.jpg

[Macca]

While you guys are experimenting and entertaining the idea of some sort of hardware... perhaps a tiny bar tensioner with a small length of shock cord to secure that pesky loose end of the bury. As we know, it takes only a small — but reliable and constant — amount of pressure to maintain the outer cord's grip on the inner cord.

But the few times that I've played around with UCRs I've found that a simple Prusik made with smaller, grippy cord (Atwood micro cord, 1.2mm) works very well.

ucr_prusik_small.jpg

I use UCR's exclusively and also use a prusik, however I've just gone with a 5 wrap prusik straight from the loose end of the bury.

I've got around 20 nights on them so far with zero slippage (I'm 225lbs).

The most load I've had on them is 440ish when I was messing around with my wife and daughter to see if we could all fit in the hammock at the same time (the load was somewhat dynamic!)
Again, all good as far as slippage was concerned.

Macca

[nanok]

yeah, indeed a friction hitch is what i've been using all this time. it does work, but it requires "user attention and education" to properly milk the bury and set the friction hitch before loading the hammock. in that sense, it is a bit "unreliable" (prone to user error). that was the main reason i was looking for a more bullet proof way, and what i describe is indeed bulletproof. i do like to keep it soft and knotty (****, don't quote me on that), but bullet proof has its advantages.

btw, i just recently got some atwood microcord, along with some other cordage for experiments, that thing is indeed very interesting, almost too grippy, and quite impressively strong for nylon.

[Phantom Grappler]

One more idea to help hammock camper stop UCR slipping while camping in woods.

Adjust UCRs for desired hang.
Milk the buries
Lengthen suspension just a bit to account for amount of suspension shortened with the following:

Remove suspension from hammock
If needed re-milk the buries
Tie an overhand knot in center of buries
Hand tighten overhand knot, real hard pull!
Make sure buries are milked again—if any of bury is seen at either end of overhand knot.

Attach suspension to hammock
Gradually add you weight into your hammock-
This will further tighten overhand knot.

I hope this will stop UCRs from slipping
I doubt knot will weaken rope enough to break
And the rope is two ropes one inside the other
So it ain’t gonna break

When you want to untie that overhand knot that you have hung on all night:
Remove suspension
Put knot on a smooth flat rock
You can shield both sides of rope with cloth or paper
Gently hammer knot with a smooth stone or hammer or mallet.
Knot was kind of round or spherical.
Gently tapping will flatten knot to a pancake shape with a raised center.
Now knot can be untied with fingers

I have not actually tried the overhand knot on UCR
But I have put an overhand knot in a long splice.
Even when bury was scrunched up, the splice could not move. The inner rope was stuck in place, just by the overhand knot—not the splice!

If my UCRs slipped while camping, I would make better UCRs when I got home. Or else change to different type suspension. While camping, I would do whatever it takes to stop slipping in its tracks!

A longer bury might help
Add the prusik shown by cmoulder in posts above
Consider using 1/8 amsteel as inner bury
And 7/64 amsteel as the outer bury or sheath
When splicing 1/8 amsteel inside of 7/64 amsteel, more length must be added to outer part of bury
The finished UCR will not be near as long as 7/64 amsteel before the 1/8 was spliced inside.
Make sure finished splice is adequate length to hold your carcass off the ground
Good luck