SAR Rope Dog's
REF: RR025

The SAR Rope Dogs are a soft form of rope clamp, used on the old sailing ships for at the grip end of a pulley system when tensioning rope. It is similar to a prussic but where the prussic grips the rope until it breaks or tears the sheath, the rope clamp will start to slip giving the user a maximum Safe Working Load. By giving a Max Working Load prior to slipping it gives you a warning of any overload in the system. It can as like some prussic knots be off loaded and re-loaded whilst under tension, allowing control of the mainline tension. This enables the user two balance the load over two ropes which is ideal for cable way’s or Tyrolean’s. The Rope Dog should be made from rope of the same or slightly larger diameter than the one it is being used on.
The SAR Rope dog is made from 12.5mm Hawser laid Nylon rope
And therefore is best used on Kernmantle, Braid line or Hawser laid ropes from 10.5mm to 12.5mm dia.
The Dog is plaited tightly onto the rope. If slack it will start to slip at a lower load so the tighter it is the better it will grip prior to slipping. It will only slip back to the maximum load it can take, but if the user allows this slipping to continue by not observing when load is put on, it can cause melt between the two ropes then as the melt cools at the tail ends it starts to grip harder until finally the rope sheath could break.
When in use a Safety Observer must watch the dogs at all times as they have tension/load put onto them.