How long of a tail on a loopie or whoopie sling?

[Kottonwood]

So I nicked a tenex sling a while back. I cut it in half and want to make a short loopie and whoopie sling. I would use it for setting the block in tops or on skinny trees.

I will back splice the ends of the slings. So,what would be the minimum amount of safe tail length to use these? I think I will thread some red thread through to mark it.

Also, How many wraps would you say are the minimum for a timber hitch when using a regular eye sling?

Thanks,
Keith

 

[moray]

By "safe tail length" do you mean the length of the back splice? The only function of the back splice is to keep the long adjuster tail from accidentally being pulled through the sling. This should never happen if the sling is properly set, but if it did, the back splice would probably help. I make mine as short as I can, maybe 5 times the diameter of the rope. I have seen instructions that call for a full fid length for the back splice, but that seems like a waste of good rope.

 

[Kottonwood]

I always wrap the extra tail through, I thought that had something to do with holding it. So it is ok to set a sling all the way out stretched so the backsplice is right on the through splice?

 

[chad556]

In theory you should be fine maxing out the length of your loopie or whoopie sling. The back splice should not slide through the through splice no matter what happens as moray said. So to answer your question, as I understand it: You can safely open your sling all the way up so that your back splice is jammed(lightly) into your through splice (the maximum opening of the sling) and still get the full safe working strength out of it. I agree with moray also on using as little rope as possible for the back splice. For every inch you save on the back splice you gain an inch in your slings maximum diameter.

The important thing is using the loopie or whoopie correctly. In case you don't already know(and I apologize in advance if you do): always set a loopie so that the part you hang the block from is choked by the center of the through splice on the other side of the sling. For a whoopie sling, make sure the adjustable eye chokes the fixed eye at the throat of the splice, not the splice itself and attach all hardware to the fixed eye, not the adjustable one. Sherrill has some good product videos on slings on their website that illustrate and explain this better.

Also, for a timber hitch: 5 wraps/tucks minimum, and they must be spread evenly around the entire trunk. This means the sling needs to be at least double the length of the circumference of the trunk. You could probably get away with less, but with increased risk of failure.