Bruce,list,
It depends on the weave of the nylon according to a guy who used to rig
parachutes at the Marana,Az. skydiving center. That's why I said PROPER nylon
tow line. Some of it has very good shock absorbing qualities while other nylon
has almost none. I like the ideas being kicked around on the shock absorbers
but we would have to over engineer the things at first until we understood all
the forces involved.
Bad enough to loose a chute, let alone tear the back of the car off with a
bunch of hardware going overboard.
Howard
----- Original Message -----
From: FastmetalBDF@aol.com
To: wspotter@jps.net ; nafzger@vtc.net ; land-speed@autox.team.net
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2000 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: Parachute lines
Wes, You' re right about the nylon snapping on a solid hit ! In
the 60s
I made up a nylon tow line with boat thimbles spliced onto each end ( paid
an
" old salt " fisherman who knew how to splice the slippery stuff ! ), and
used this
to tow my gasser on the return road at the drags . We managed to snap this
twice, even though it was 1 / 2 " diameter rope with a high strength rating
.
I then drilled the front crossmember to take a 3 / 8 " dia eyebolt, and
slipped
a big truck valve spring on the bolt, on the backside of the crossmember .
This ' shock absorber ' eliminated any more broken tow lines on a
nylon line that could probably have lifted three or four small blocks
.......
but couldn' t take that sharp jolt .......
Bruce
VOTE TODAY !!! and VOTE OFTEN !!!
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