Monday, September 22, 2014

Trucker's Hitch and Water Knot

Mike Barter, the video-savvy Canadian guide, has a new video that describes a couple of knots. In this piece he covers the trucker's hitch and the water knot.

Check out the video below:



After re-posting a lot of these videos, I've started to notice that Mike is a bit gun-shy. I get the impression that a lot of people are giving him negative feedback on some of his content...which is too bad. He's making some very good instructional videos.

So instead of negative feedback, I'd just like to make a couple of additional notes.

First, I'd like to reiterate the fact that the trucker's hitch is primarily for tents and tying things down. It doesn't have an application in climbing proper.

And second, I'd also like to note that the biggest danger of the water knot (also known as the ring bend) is cyclic loading. In other words, weighting and unweighting the knot can cause the tails to slowly work out. You can occasionally see this at rap stations with old webbing. As such, it is very important that there is plenty of tail when you tie the knot and that you always check rap stations closely.

--Jason D. Martin

1 comment:

Cale Hoopes said...

With the water knot, if you leave enough tail, you can back each tail end up with an additional overhand on each end which will help prevent the knot coming undone. Just thought I'd mention that as a way to add a little more safety to it. Find myself using the water knot on a chest harness webbing as well as an anchor runner.