This is the Rope Jack manufactured by CMI. All the components are aluminum and it works to give you a mechanical advantage using the portawrap and rigging line to pre-tension those lines before you make a cut. It’s going to give you a 5:1 mechanical advantage, it’s rated up to 1,000 lbs, you can run anywhere between a 3/8” line and a 5/8” line. You don’t want to add a breaker bar or a pry bar to add more leverage to the system.
Installation of the Rope Jack is fairly straightforward and easy. You’re going to open the cams up on the tooth ascenders, carabiner attached to the bottom hole of ascender, which is going to be attached to the portawrap. So, as those cams are opened up, simply install the device. You’re going to make sure the carabiner is connected to the portawrap, and engage the cams. Now you’re actually ready to engage the mechanical advantage this device provides. We’ll unload the portawrap, and now I can begin to pre-tension this rigging line. Again, just me by myself, I’m getting roughly a 5:1 mechanical advantage on this rigging line. I’m able to put quite a bit of tension on this line.
Okay, so we have the rigging line pre tensioned for whatever rigging operation we’re going to perform, but obviously we need to remove this device before we can perform that operation. To uninstall, you want to create a little bit of slack in the system. You may have to let a little from each cam go at a time. But, we’re basically, going to allow this device to become slack. Then you want to detach it from the portawrap, go ahead and unlock the load from the portawrap. Depending on how many wraps you want on the portawrap, you’re ready to perform that rigging operation, obviously, being at a safe place away from the drop zone.
So, if you’re looking for a device that allows you to pre-tension you rigging lines, definitely, check out the Rope Jack by CMI.
