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View Full Version : breaking strength of jacklines - pounds vs. kilonewtons



blighbaum
04-15-2008, 10:41 AM
The rules call for jacklines to be 4500 lbs breaking strength. Webbing sold at REI is rated at 18.1 Kilonewtons, which climbing websites call "bombproof." However, I understand that 18.1 kilonewtons is actually only about 4,100 pounds. What (if anything) are people doing about this? Is it necessary to move to the next size of webbing, which I believe is 30 Kilonewtons?

- Tom Kirschbaum, Feral

Alchera
04-15-2008, 12:16 PM
The 18.1 KN webbing will not meet the requirement. The webbing sold by West Marine for their jacklines is minimum 6000 lbs breaking, normal 7000 lbs. I think that's roughly equivalent in strength to the REI 30 kilonewton webbing.

The ORC regulations recommend the same strength as the SSS requirements:

40.0.4.1 iv: 20kN (2,040 kgf or 4,500 lbf) min breaking strain webbing is
recommended

- Mark