Yale BlackMax Rope

emr

emr

Cheesehead Treehouser
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
2,193
Location
Neenah, Wisconsin
Anyone use that crap? Well I did about 10 times and it is garbage already. Literally garbage. Today we were removing a Red Oak and we glazed the s'not out of the rope on a piece of wood that was about 10 inches in diameter and about 8 ft long. The rope was running through a block and we had 2 wraps on the porty. I don't think anyone would ever accuse us of beating on our gear and I don't think that piece of wood was too big to take. Oh yeah the rope was a 9/16" rigging line. So anyway we are now in the market for a new rigging line but I am unsure about getting another one from Yale. I kind of want a Polydyne but I am not so sure now. Do you guys know if that Blackmax is just a low end line that they put out or is it representative of their rigging lines?
 
I like Stable Braid personally. I have heard good things about All Gear lines. I am surprised that line burned up so quick it was hardly a big chunk.
 
There is probably a good reason why almost every decent arb supply house sells Stable Braid and only a select few sell Yale ropes. But don't any of you Yale fans let facts sway your opinion.
 
I didn't know the Black Max was an actual rigging line. It was made for climbing originally if I remember right, sold by Bailey's. 16 strand, loose laid rope and milks a lot. You sure it's 9/16 and not 1/2" ?

I would buy any of the Sampson double braids. I've been using them for years and they seem to be the most consistent in wear, stretch and milking of cover. Very strong ropes.

Greg
 
klimbinfool said:
I didn't know the Black Max was an actual rigging line. It was made for climbing originally if I remember right, sold by Bailey's. 16 strand, loose laid rope and milks a lot. You sure it's 9/16 and not 1/2" ?

I would buy any of the Sampson double braids. I've been using them for years and they seem to be the most consistent in wear, stretch and milking of cover. Very strong ropes.

Greg
Click to expand...

Agreed. And Greg has miles more experience than I do, in this.
 
I have the Yale 1/2" Double Esterlon... Again, like Greg said.. It milks a lot! My only beef about the rope. I'll be replacing the 1/2 Yale with All Gear Husky next round to try it out.
I just purchased 9/16ths Stable Braid and I have been real happy with my 5/8ths Stable Braid.
Might just want to stay with the Stable Braid. The price is not that much more Eric. Stable Braid is a great rope.
The polydyne has more elongation, more stretch.. Something to consider rigging over structures..
 
When you consider the tiny difference in price and then figure out how little you're 'saving' per use, I cannot fathom why anybody who does tree work for a living would buy a cheaper rope to save a couple dollars instead of just buying the best rope they can find. Same reasoning for any of our tools, just buy the absolute best tool for the job and it will pay for itself. If buying cheap actually saved money, then D. Dent would be logging with a Craftsman chainsaw.
 
I did some climbing on blackmax lt a few years ago. Its excellent line if your into the whole falling out of the tree scene.


That stuff was bad news and Yale has a lot of nerve selling that crap. Bad bad news. Think loose cotton rope.

Im going to make a suggestion and you do as you see fit. Take it out of your treework gear. Be done with it. Its the last thing Id use for slings also. It will get a little booger on the surface and come apart entirely on you in an instant. I speak from experience.
 
It's a case of getting what you pay for. Blackmax is a low cost 12 strand like Arbor Plex or Forestry Pro. They are dirt cheap for a reason. But if price is more important than performance, then these kinds of lines are ok. But if you care more about performance, then I would also recommend Stable Braid. Polydyne is 4 x more stretchy than Stable Braid though, which is a good thing if you have to shock load the line in a negative blocking scenario, but it can be a very bad thing when you have low clearance. If you deal with low clearance situations often, then you might not want to get a high stretch line like Polydyne. In a 150 ft piece, you should realistically expect to see about 2 ft of stretch in Stable Braid, compared to about 8 ft of stretch in Polydyne. IMO, that makes Polydyne a specialty rigging line instead of a general purpose rigging line.

The brand has nothing to do with it though. Both Yale and Samson make some very good lines, but they both also make some pretty crappy lines. In general though, Yale and Samson are usually thought of as the top 2 rope manufacturers in terms of quality.
 
Burnham, you have me laughing boss. I hate that blaclmax. i wouldnt spank my employees with it.
 
emr, where did it glaze: the knot, the porty, the pulley, or elsewhere?

The rope you linked to is an all polyester rope. It doesn't matter who made it (full disclosure: I'm a biased fan of Yale ropes), I really believe that whatever caused the rope to glaze would've happened if you were using this rope, stable braid, all gear, NER rigging line, double esterlon, or any other all polyester rope. How they braided it at the factory doesn't change the melting point. With only slight variation, practically all polyester anywhere is melting around 480ish degrees F.

But then that raises the question: how did it glaze? I think we can get closer to an answer by knowing where it glazed.

love
nick
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #19
It glazed at the porty. I have to say.that I know for a fact that I have taken larger pieces with our Stable Braid and never had a problem. I was the one running the rope and I didn't do anything different that time as I have done in the past ten years. I honestly can't figure out anything that was different except than the rope.
 
As to the glazing, what can be done to prevent it, aside from taking smaller pieces? More wraps, less wraps, stop the run sooner, stop it later....? I have both 1/2" and 9/16" Stable Braid that have glazed a little. The 1/2" was due (I think) to running too far, too fast. The 9/16" was glazed on a big chunk (~750#) that was allowed to run about 10' before stopping. It seems glazing can be prevented somewhat by use of a bollard, as the bend radius is greater.
 
Glazing is caused by heat, which is a result of too much friction in a concentrated area of the rope. IMO I would figure out how to spread the friction out over a longer section of the rope. A larger bollard, or taking a wrap on the trunk before running the rope through the porty.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #22
So I Facebooked Jamie from Yale to ask him his thoughts and he asked me to send in the world damaged so tion for analysis. He offered to replace the rope for troubles. Talk about a great, unexpected response! It makes me feel better about doing business with them. I guess I didn't realize how much Yale rope we actually have, and by my calculation, my partner and I have and use just over 1000ft of Yale rope in our operations. I will post later once Yale let's me know what they find.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #25
pantheraba said:
What does "the world damaged so tion for analysis" mean?

Maybe "whole damaged section"?
Click to expand...


Sorry about that. I was typing on my phone and i don't know what happened. It should have said that he just wanted me to send in the damaged section of rope.
 
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