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Pulse Line (tie-out cord)
Owner Review by Rick Allnutt
6 August 2004
PERSONAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Rick Allnutt
51 Year old male
6' 0'' (183 cm) in height
190 lbs (86 kg) in weight
Email address: rick (at) BackpackGearTest (dot) org
I live in Dayton, Ohio
BACKPACKING BACKGROUND
Over the last several years, I have become an ultralight camper with a
three-season base pack weight of about 11 lb (5 kg) and skin out weight of 20 lb
(9 kg). I have completed many section hikes on the Appalachian Trail (AT) in all
four seasons, with a total mileage of nearly 450 miles (725 km). I am a gearhead,
a hammock camper, and make much of my own equipment.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Manufacturer: Yale Cordage
Year Manufactured: 2004
Manufacturer's Link:
http://www.yalecordage.com/
(Yale Cordage does not sell direct to the
public -
I would be glad to send a list of possible suppliers to anyone who requests it
by email)
MSRP:
Not available
Listed Weight: Not listed
Measured Weight: 1.1 oz (31 g) per 60 ft (18 m) section - the amount I
carry
Color: Orange
TEST CONDITIONS
I have used Pulse Line as the tie-out material on my hammock tarps for all of my
backpacking trips over the last 18 months. This has included all my AT section
hikes, a week long trip to the Boundary Water's Canoe Area in Wisconsin, and all
my Ohio hammock testing including many mid-winter nights. Temperatures have
ranged from well below freezing to about 90 F (32 C).
REVIEW
Pulse Line is a thin cord designed for the sailboat racing community as a
"tweaking line for racing applications." I became aware of it for backpacking
application with a strong recommendation by Ed Speer on the hammock camping
group's discussion list. He said the line was first rate and was exactly
what he wanted in a cord for pulling out the ends and corners of a hammock tarp.
He suggested I give it a try. I did and have never turned back.
The line is 1/16 in (1.6 mm) in diameter. It has an ultra high molecular
weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) core. Brand names for UHMWPE include Spectra and
Dynema. The breaking strength of the cord is listed as 275 lb (125 kg) and the line
is covered with a polyester sleeve.
As background, before turning to this cord, I had used two different kinds of
cord for tie outs on tarps. (I supply this information, not as a
"shoot-out" between brands, but only because I believe many tarp users
may have tried one
of these cords already.) Those two cords include nylon mason's twine and white
nylon parachute cord. Though Pulse Line is more expensive than either of these
no-brand cord types, it is far superior in several ways.
I normally suspend a tarp with six 10-ft (3 m) sections of cord for a total of
60 ft (18 m). The tarp is set up
as an A-frame over my hammock as seen in the picture at the beginning of this
review.
Two pull-outs form a midline ridgeline, defining two equal rectangles on either
side of the ridgeline. The other four tie-outs are either tied out from
the corners, as shown in the first picture, or form loops which are attached at
two places on the tarp as seen below.
 The first set-up gives more living space and great views. The second set up,
especially when set up very close to the hammock, is
better for high winds or driving rain.
The specific problems I have had with the
no-brand nylon cords involves slip, difficulty in untying knots, and snags on
tree bark. Pulse line has solved these problems for me.
Strength is
not an issue. Pulse Line is plenty strong for the pull-outs on a silnylon tarp.
I have used it for both large and small tarps. In heavy winds, I once had
the tie-outs fail on a tarp, but have never had any failure of the cord.
To be fair, I have never had a problem with either of the nylon cords failing in
strength either.
I have had difficulty with knots slipping when using mason's twine.
Especially when new, this nylon string has a tendency to either slip under
tension, or to "untie itself" when not under tension. This tendency is
moderated as the twine becomes weathered. Its surface is no longer as
slippery. Parachute cord is usually not very slippery and knots do not
untie themselves - but try to untie it! (more below) Pulse Line has a very nice
tactile feel to its polyester sleeve which has
just the right amount of friction to hold knots very well without becoming
stuck.
One of the characteristics of the line I like best, is my ability to untie knots
very easily. It has just the right
characteristics to pull at a cord with my fingernails to start the untying process
or to push the cord backwards through a knot. Even with difficult knots,
the cord is easy for me to release. As opposed to this, mason's twine
tends to unravel to individual strands when a difficult knot is being released,
and parachute cord locks down to a small compressed bundle of slippery nylon
that I often can not release without damage to the cord or resorting to a spike
to separate the cords.
Another feature of the Pulse Line is that it is resistant to forming a bird's
nest of tangled loops when packed with the tarp. It seems to have just the
right amount of stiffness to resist getting into hopeless jumbles like the
limper nylon cords do when stuffed in my tarp's stuff sack.
A specific hammock camping problem I have had with ubiquitous white parachute cord is
its tendency to snag on every piece of bark on a tree. Just wrapping the
parachute cord around a tree, I often snag the cord in several places.
When I pull the nylon cord away from the tree, either the nylon case or the
nylon fibers inside the parachute cord are pulled away from the cord to form
little puffs of cord. Even a single weekend of use leaves the cord with a mass of
bumps and tufts, each of which is increasingly prone to get stuck on a piece of
bark, twig or plant on the ground. Though Pulse Line is also a fiber
cord inside a sheath, I have never had a single instance where the UHMWPE core
formed a tuft outside the polyester sheath. In addition, the sheath has
never hung up on bark or a thorn or a twig.
One other feature I appreciate about the Pulse Line is the orange color.
It is not bright enough to be seen more than several yards away from the tarp -
so it works for stealth camp sites. However, it is bright enough to be easily
seen day or night when I am walking up to my tarp. It serves as a good
warning and keeps me from tripping over the cords.
What I really like about Pulse Line
- Easy to tie and untie
- Carefree resistance to tangles
- Easy to see against the ground
Read more reviews of Yale Cordage gear
Read more gear reviews by Rick Allnutt
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