Thread: Ropes illegal to tie a load

Originally Posted by Ratel10mm

Dave, iirc the telltale dates back to (at least) the days of sailing ships in the Royal Navy. Each RN rope walk used a different colour telltale so that the rope could a) be traced to point of manufacture, and b) if (or when) stolen it was evidence that the rope belonged to the Crown, rather than the 'owner'.
And c) the telltale is in one twist, this marking that twist & making it much easier to follow the twists correctly when splicing.

all almost all correct...

the tell tale also allowed the rope to be quickly identified when you had multiple lines in one location. Some also had a different material woven into them so they could be distinguished by touch.

back to the telstra/telecom/parmatta rope.

the other thing the plastic insert provided was a wear indication function. when the rope was placed under tension or roved the plastic trace and the markings on it would be distorted and smudged. A well roven rope would show obvious signs of wear but one that had only been stretched not so much.

On paper if your length of rope hadn't come off of the drum you would find a section near the end and check the plastic trace, if you could read it you could use it.

Originally Posted by Scouse

Make the bight on the right hand side longer when it goes through the loop and then tie a hitch around the rope that goes over the load. Then, once you the free end tight, to give you even more tensioning, tie a second truckies hitch on that, pull tight, then finish with clove hitch to the rail.

Originally Posted by p38arover

Crikey! How does one remember how to do that? Even with pictures I couldn't tie that. My wife laughs at me as I tie my shoelaces (which regularly come undone).

Even i can do that one.Once you have done it many times,like riding a bike,you never forget.

It was drilled into me as an apprentice,tying large commercial refrigeration cabinets onto HQ utes.In those days they had proper heavy duty tie rails running down both sides of the tray.Not like the utes today.

As for telstra rope,we use it all the time.

Originally Posted by carjunkieanon

Make the bight on the right hand side longer when it goes through the loop and then tie a hitch around the rope that goes over the load. Then, once you the free end tight, to give you even more tensioning, tie a second truckies hitch on that, pull tight, then finish with clove hitch to the rail.

That makes it harder to undo when unloading. I just like to undo the finishing clove hitch, yank on the rope & the main hitch comes undone.
Easy peasy when using the right rope & can make a big difference when you have to release up to 10 of them on a truck.

Off to Google clove hitch.....

.... nah, that looks impossible to remember.

The cops were fining people in CQ for a while for things like work boots on ute trays, I even had a friend threatened with a fine for unrestrained load for things inside her car!
Happily some one fought it in court. I cant remember the exact wording, but the judge said it had to have a reasonable chance of falling off/out to be fined. The cops have not been enforcing it since.

If a person is knowledgeable enough and caring enough to determine the correct level and method of load restraint, they will do it regardless of whether they use a strap, chain or rope.

The "other" people that do not have the knowledge or level of care will not use the correct restraint regardless of whether it is a rope or strap or chain.

Making it illegal to use a rope does not make any actual impact in restraint safety.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

all almost all correct...

the tell tale also allowed the rope to be quickly identified when you had multiple lines in one location. Some also had a different material woven into them so they could be distinguished by touch.

back to the telstra/telecom/parmatta rope.

the other thing the plastic insert provided was a wear indication function. when the rope was placed under tension or roved the plastic trace and the markings on it would be distorted and smudged. A well roven rope would show obvious signs of wear but one that had only been stretched not so much.

On paper if your length of rope hadn't come off of the drum you would find a section near the end and check the plastic trace, if you could read it you could use it.

Good point Dave, I'd forgotten that one. I have seen some yachts using multiple colours of rope for the same reason.

Interesting about the Telstra Trace, too.