On Friday, December 18, 2020 at 12:45:56 PM UTC-5, Dan Daly wrote:
On Wednesday, December 16, 2020 at 12:31:34 PM UTC-5, Bob Hills wrote:
What is the consensus of opinion of using steel thimbles on aero tow ropes?

Currently we use some clear tubing in the loop to protect the rope from wear of the Tost tow ring. Not only does this allow the rope to bend sharply causing a weak point but it also seems to fill with dirt. This then manages to find its way to the sharp bend in the rope where it grinds away at the rope (poly) and precipitates a breaking point.
A steel (or other hard material) thimble in the loop would seem to eliminate this problem and look a lot more professional too.

Anyone out there do anything different or profess not use thimbles?

Bob 7U
We protect the rope in the area and thimble with cloth hockey stick tape. It wears, nothing else does. We tape when new, and have a roll at the flight shack to retape as necessary. As a bonus, you can also tape your hockey stick. Four 15m rolls go for $CAD5.61 at Canadian Tire; this will last a season. Amazon dot com has it, but a lot more expensive.

Rope flailing is indeed a destroyer of the rope end.
Many years ago, I , as CTP, introduced the experiment of a plastic funnel to keep the rope taut.
It stopped the flailing and made the rope end more visible when retrieving. However, club members found
replacing the worn funnel too much trouble and the idea died; we also tried cubes of foam
with a slot to take the rope, and bound with tape. This also works but requires maintenance.
Maybe support personnel are more motivated now, to repair things. Certainly RVSS seems to have
a hard working group.
John F