Rope storage and carry

[Hunkyfunkster]

Hi guys,

Not sure if this is in the right place, but it's a constant thorn in my side.

I am USELESS at coiling rope. Always have been. Whenever I use rope or cordage, unless it's off a reel, I ideally spend ages untangling it, and again when packing it away.

What awesome tips and techniques can you guys suggest so I can finally have some tidy bundles of rope in my pack?

Thanks in advance




Alex

 

[sandbender]

You could chain it, that can keep it tidy but easy to deploy.

A quick search found this example.

[video=youtube;75XNCMKW7XE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75XNCMKW7XE[/video]

 

[barbed wire leather]

Chaining electrical cord is what I do and have been doing it for years. It is also a way to prevent tangles and can be stored in a bucket or chest. The only thing................... make sure you start pulling is apart from the right end

 

[John Fenna]

Take a reel to wind it back onto?

 

[bopdude]

If you struggle then wind it / them onto something you already carry

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[baggins]

for my climbing ropes (both rock and tree), i have a small rope bag, that i feed the rope into. this keeps the rope untangled, cleaner, as only the rope being used is out and its just as easy to feed it back into the bag. also means its easy to carry. i've been doing this for over 20 years now and find it so much less hassle that coiling.

 

[bearbait]

Are you using braided or twisted ropes? Do you coil in-hand? On the floor? Or between palm and elbow? How do you secure the coils?

A sailor will generally re-coil a coiled rope before before deployment (sometimes into figure eights or flakes, also known as fakes), especially if relying on it to run out fast without a tangle, e.g. using a heaving line.

 

[Hunkyfunkster]

These days it's generally just paracord, or the odd piece of general purpose rope for tying things to the car. If it's short pieces I coil in hand, longer pieces I do palm to elbow. It just never ends up tidy. I see pictures of folk with perfectly neat bundles of ropes, but mine's always ends up a tangled mess.
I like the idea of coiling it back onto something our wrapping it round things I already carry. Might save me some hassle.

I know it's not a life threatening problem, but was coiling some paracord today and realised how untidy my little bundles of cord really were and it annoys me, lol

Thanks for the suggestions so far



Alex

 

[sandbender]

This may be a daft question but are you twisting the rope as you coil it? If you are not making that little twist with each coil it will end up looking like a dogs breakfast.

 

[fenrir]

-> Go to any climbing hall and ask one of the lads or lasses to show you. Will take 5min.

-> Ask for someone who does alpine climbing (and not just plastic walls), and he/she'll show you how to properly do it such that you can make it into a backpack-like package. It's really just a few slings at the right location and you are done.

 

[Hunkyfunkster]

That is a bloody good idea. Thanks

 

[Brynglas]

It's quite straightforward to hank cordage

http://www.animatedknots.com/coiling/#ScrollPoint

For twine, or think cordage I keep it in a tin with a hole in the lid

 

[Nice65]

This may be a daft question but are you twisting the rope as you coil it? If you are not making that little twist with each coil it will end up looking like a dogs breakfast.

That sounds exactly the problem. Everytime you wrap a coil, you'll put a twist in the rope. It's most noticable on electrical cabels.

I've been coiling ropes for most of my life (tree surgeon). I put a reverse twist on every gather of rope as I go, elbow to hand is the worst, so just gather to one hand, reverse twisting and adjusting loop length.

 

[The Lord Poncho]

That sounds exactly the problem. Everytime you wrap a coil, you'll put a twist in the rope. It's most noticeable on electrical cabels.

I've been coiling ropes for most of my life (tree surgeon). I put a reverse twist on every gather of rope as I go, elbow to hand is the worst, so just gather to one hand, reverse twisting and adjusting loop length.

There is a very easy way to coil rope or any cordage to remove the twist - no wrist action (snigger!) needed. You essentially coil in a figure of 8 between your hand and neck. Very difficult to explain in words, but it enables me to coil a 60m 10mm climbing rope in about 90 seconds.

1) Find the middle of the rope (not essential, but makes it quicker, and reduces the likelihood for knots/tangles
2) hook the middle of the rope around your thumb, and stretch out your arm to the full extent, holding it away from your body
3)with your other hand, pass the (doubled) rope behind your neck, then hook it back onto your thumb.
4) repeat, but each time you pass behind your neck, alternate the shoulder you pass it behind, thus the rope crosses over itself each pass, and it forms a figure of 8 between your thumb/hand, and your neck (it is this action that magically removes the twist)
5) when you have a couple of meters of rope tails left, lift your hand/thumb that is holding the rope, and shrug it off your head- you will end up holding a set of uniform non twisted loops of rope in your hand
6) with your spare hand, wrap the tails of the rope around the hank 3 or 4 times, and tuck in on itself to secure (or if you want to be really clever, there is a better way to finish this off that uses no knots, and turns the tails of the rope into two handy carrying straps for the rope - but having just attempted to describe that in full, i have realised its impossible in words and deleted it!)

 

[Brynglas]

To properly learn how to coil a rope is fairly straightforward but you'd have to be shown how, it's difficult, nigh on impossible to explain the action of making the slight twist in the rope to avoid it developing kinks.

 

[PDA1]

Figure eight wraps over thumb and little finger would be OK for narrow cord like Parcord. See this Youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUZNUe2X2t0

Plenty ofvideos on coiling climbing ropes

 

[Yossarian]

For larger rope (climbing rope), the backpackers coil is the preferred method. It is really quick and can be learnt in a matter of minutes and doesn't put kinks in the rope.

This vid demos it well --> [video=youtube;a4uwdLAKT1g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4uwdLAKT1g[/video]

It is easy to deploy, can be carried like a rucksack and also can be used to carry someone on your back quite easily.

Conventional coiling is a pain, as people point out, you need to slightly twist on every step. When climbing, you have to take the coil out, which is a pain in the butt, hence the backpackers method is the preferred choice for mountaineers.

For really advanced rigs, the mountaineers coil (also referred to as Alpine Coil) can be extremely effective, but not really useful in the Cotswolds

Check out Mikes Vid - [video=youtube;eWMuyNgiEew]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWMuyNgiEew[/video]

 

[Joonsy]

only just noticed this thread but thought i'd make some comments. Coiling rope to avoid twists/tangles is simple enough but first you need to know some things. You say you coil longer lengths of rope around elbow and hand, this will indeed put twists into your rope so stop doing it. Always coil towards the end of rope that is free and not connected/tied to anything so any twists roll out of the free end as you coil, coiling towards an end of rope that is fixed/tied to something will put kinks into the rope and the closer to the end you get the worse the twists will be. It's okay to coil with one end tied to something provided you coil towards the free end of rope. First to start remove any kinks in the rope (you are sure to have some if you've been coiling wrong), you don't necessarily need much space you can do it in the living room if you wish no matter how long the rope is, just hang a carabiner from something and pull the rope several times through the carabiner making sure both ends of rope are free and not attached to anything, works best when there is a good angle between rope and carabiner. Next determine what type of rope you have as this will affect the type of coil you use, there is braided rope and twisted rope, twisted rope is either right hand lay or left hand lay (hold the rope vertically and note which way the twists rotate, to the right is called Z twist and to the left is called S twist, most twisted rope is right hand lay called Z twist). You coil right hand laid rope (Z) in a clockwise direction and you coil left hand laid rope (S) in an anti clockwise direction, if you coil in the wrong direction you will put kinks in the rope as you coil. For right hand twisted rope (the most common) start by holding the rope in your left hand and make the coils in a clockwise direction with your right hand giving each coil a little clockwise twist (roll perhaps describes the motion better than twist) between thumb and finger as you place each coil into your left hand. For braided rope it's different, do not use that little twist between thumb and finger and just let it lie natural, braided rope will naturally form a figure of eight shape as you coil the rope, this is correct and how it should be coiled, do not try to remove the figure of eight shape in braided rope coils, any twists should be worked out when coiling provided the end is free and not tied to anything. Try to keep each coil a similar size, however this is not critical, if the rope is coiled correctly in the first place it will run out smoothly even if coils are a little different in size. Finally regarding wrapping rope around a drum or something, the same thing applies regarding wrapping in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction using Z or S twisted ropes.

 

[nunzionuk]

holy wall of text!

I coil all my ropes, as I have a lot of different lengths, as it aids in seeing what one is what too. Only thing I use the hand to elbow method is network cables.

 

[LiveAndrew]

Nowadays I normally just flake my climbing rope into a rope bag but occasionally I'll do a backpack coil. It's pretty simple when you get the hang of it and perfect for long ropes. Here's a how-to video. Like the lady in the video I start at the centre of the rope tol remove kinks, although most demonstrations on the internet seem to start at the end.

[video=youtube;ppYanQ5DDPM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppYanQ5DDPM[/video]