Non-mechanical, Adjustable Bridge Design for Saddle Hunters 

Thats a tall compliment and it's appreciated.

Glad to assist!

If you adjust your bridge often, it definitely adjusts easier WITH a smooth surfaced Delta link at the bending point instead of the friction of a your bridge loop. I currently have one of my bridges with the link and one without. 'Appreciate your comments, which are my reward, so thank you. Glad i am helping. I am also having fun.

Ok brother, just make sure u gotta plan for everything. Buddy of mine had a climber bottom collapse and he was stuck on his seat a long time til help came. We all should have a rope and rappel plan. Can ask me questions on Facebook or via website. Plenty of people wanna sell ya something... I am just here to help.

@@jrbtc thanks do have figure 8 and 32’ of climb rated rappel rope and have trimmed my tree and safely rappelled down. I evaluate risk and if too great i build a fail safe or I don’t do it. Hope your buddy recovered from the suspense ordeal. When I first bought mine I missed the instructions to tether the 2 pieces. Tore my legs up shimmy down to the foot part.

My intention here was a conservative and rugged design for the bridge. I don't adjust my bridge much except before a climb. When Hitch climbing, i get my short bridge as snug as a loose belt and this has been working great.

That's appreciated. I also would rarely adjust my long bridge, but I do adjust my short bridge and use this design... if ya adjust it frequently, consider a delta link on the side that adjusts. It's just easier and causes no unnecessary wear on your bridge loops.

My pleasure Billy. If you adjust it alot, you may want to go with the delta link, and feel free to let me know how it goes.

If ya will adjust often, use a delta link cuz its smoother.

@@jrbtc I don't adjust often,thanks for the tip though and all the rest of the information you make available.

Good question... ok off the top of my head: 1. If you want to replace your bridge, with that design, you would need to buy 3 things: a rope, prussik and tender... instead of one piece of cord. Knowing exactly what to get, meaning the best rope and the best hitch cord or prusik Loop... well it's actually a more complex system because there is uncertainty even before we've started to build it. 2. Your life depends on 2 of those 3 things. I am seeking to minimize the number of things on that list: one piece of cord, closed in a bend. 3. A prussik is always going to be much longer up the one side of the bridge, often too long, and restricting a full turn to the one side. This is extremely compact. Big advantage here. 4. In order to make your prussik bridge longer, you need to have it engaged and have the perfect amount of weight in it... just enough so that you can break the prusik and control how much slack comes into the bridge. If there is NO load on the bridge, ya can't get slack in without 2 hands. I realize that this feature is not necessarily needed by everyone, but I do need it when I am using my system for certain climbing applications. 5. Tenders are messy. I understand why we use em, but I don't like using them for anything, and have better solutions for every situation where i need something tended. 6. The prusik system needs that stopper. What if your stopper worked loose... would ya notice it? I like how this is foolproof. 7. This costs $10. 8. Lastly, If you like a friction hitch on your Bridge, that's great, but I would encourage you to check out some other hitches. The prusik holds but is not one i recommend here.

It's a strong, high quality cord, but to the best of my ability to research the topic, a bridge is typically made of a flexible, traditional fiber. The Nylon/Technora combination is strong but a bit stiffer than Nylon. It will take wear and bend in the same spot and will also be a bit more difficult to get your Blake's hitch to bind. And so, i wouldn't recommend it. If you were to try any cord, the first thing to try is a simple Blake's hitch to make sure you can set it. Not all ropes and cords bend well enough to do so.

@@jrbtc Great advice Thank You

A delta link or screw link is smaller, that's all. A locked carabiner is fine, but may double the size. And if you run it really short, and are turning all the way to the left or right, it just increases the possibility of the Blake's hitch contacting our main Carabiner on our Bridge. But you can use whichever works best for your system.

If you're on Facebook, find me at JRB Tree Climbing Group. I answer questions there, and can arrange a conversation or video chat. I will announce any places where I might be headed.

For my stationary doubled rope system, I have several systems varying from 75 to 100ft. 80 ft is is a good number and means that you can climb any tree with a tree crotch up to 40 ft tall. I realize that you only might want to climb to 20 ft. But if the forest is mature and there are no low crotches, this will help. I never regret carrying too much. But every once in awhile 75 ft is not enough for me. More info: jrbtreeclimbing.com/

@@jrbtc Thank you. I really appreciate the reply. I've been one sticking but obviously that is an extremely flawed climbing method as there are multiple times per climb where the girth hitch is well below your waist. Your method is exactly what I've been looking to add. Now to find 100 ft of canyon elite somewhere lol

@@coolasafan1029 there are some references on my website. If you are building a stationary doubled rope system, I recommend 8 mm. jrbtreeclimbing.com/content/jrb-climbing-system/

@@jrbtc Cant thank you enough. That website is worth its weight in gold. Thanks for all the effort

I prefer 7. As far as I know, Sterling doesn't recommend their standard 6mm for Life Safety applications. I am not saying it wouldn't work or that it's not strong enough. I'm just saying that it's not an application where I would skimp

Is it adequate for the ascender hitches?

@@ronaldcramer5371 I realize you prefer a yes/no answer but I can't give your one. The manufacturer would say no. But do the math: a good rule of thumb is that we want our life safety system to be 15x stronger than the load on it. In a JRB doubled stationary rope system, you are putting roughly 100lb per side, target 1500. The cord strength is 1843. Your load is balanced on the 2 strands exiting the hitch (doubling the overall strength) but one side has a bend, cutting it back in half again, roughly back to the 1800 number. By my math, it's good and i have climbed on this combination. I just prefer something even stronger and better performing. I would not use it for a single rope system though, because we will not hit the 15x Target with our full weight on one rope and hitch