Mainline install question

[bawplank]

Installed my first mainline this year and it's working but it has alot of dips and snakes spots.its on high tensile and was installed in the cold and you can see how it was still coiled when we tied it on. What is the basics and tricks to get it correct? ALso, is it a good plan to cut it loose and fix it with the old or will I need new. I plan on using it and just patching any saddle hole that are in wrong spots after reinstall. Thanks for the help.

[ennismaple]

You need to tension the mainline as well. The finger grips work well or you can use rope and half hitches if it is not too long.

[Ultimatetreehugger]

I tie mine up every 10 feet, hook a ratchet strap to it with a finger strap. tighten her up and go to the other end of the mainline and pull toward the ratchet strap. do that every 20 feet or so on your way back to the ratchet strap and you will be amazed at the slack you have. Re-tention the ratchet strap and do it a few times then wire tie everything 12 to 16 inches and you will be good.

[VT_K9]

There is a magic formula which maybe temperature dependent to stretch the line X length.....

I think the theory is to put it up tight around 30-40 degrees and you should be fine on either side.

I used to use a wire puller. Most of the time the wire puller needed a pipe clamp to help it hold well. Then you have to have a free pipe ahead to move it's location. Then to move it's location you should keep a little tension...this makes moving it much harder.

Now I use a prusik for my attachment point to the pipeline. I use two of them so they can leap frog one another to keep tension on the pipe. They have worked great.

Once the tension is on the pipe then I use wire tires placed every 12 or so inches. I generally use my elbow to wrist for a measurement. I have started to use shorter runs between mainline attachment points. Some people will side tie to add tension to the wire. I have wrapped one mainline instead of tying it. That worked well, but it was time consuming to do it by hand.

One of my first 1" mainlines I put up when it was cold I waited a day or so then added more tension. Then after installing the saddles I noticed the line went a little slack as it settled. I had side tied it, but that was not enough and it looked pretty rough. I ended up adding tension...stretched out several of saddle holes. I had to replace saddled every year until I changed out the mainline (three years I dealt with it). I am confident that you will stretch many if not all your saddle holes. I would put this into your plan.

Mike