Had a blast this morning on my first official buggy ride. Only problem I had was lines snapping, twice.. Bought the kite used so not sure if lines are up to par anymore. Its a 3m trainer and I weigh 210lbs. What kind of line do you guys look for for replacement lines, any certain brand?

They are almost certainly bad with two failures in one session. You can inspect them by running them through your hands from one end to the other. The fuzzy spots are the bad places.

It might not be immediately what is fuzzy and what is not, but as you run down the lines you will find a variation with some parts fuzzier than others. You will almost certainly find that the breaks were in very fuzzy spots.

Philip

Eggy, what kite do you have? How many lines does the kite have and what lengths are you looking for?

Its a 3m Slingshot trainer. A 3 line kite. Lines are somewhere around 83- 85 ' long.Thats measuring after knotting things back together to get a little more fly time...

My sponsor at powerkiteplace has linesets for the HQ Rush4 Pro, which is a 3-line trainer, listed for around 57.00, but if you don't need the 3'rd line,(if you can use your old one)you can get a 2 line set for around $38.00. Prolly any of the dealers here can help, whoever is closer.

Quote:

Originally posted by eggy Its a 3m Slingshot trainer. A 3 line kite. Lines are somewhere around 83- 85 ' long.Thats measuring after knotting things back together to get a little more fly time...

I hope that I am stating the obvious [and for the benefit of other newbies] but you do know that any knot in the line is the weakest spot right? PBC's fuzzy spots not withstanding most of my line breaks have been at a knot and usually in winds that I wanted the line to break rather than the bridle. The major exception being when I sawed a pair of Port side lines on a light post [stupid field furnature :o].

Another cheap skate option if you know how to sleeve lines you can "recycle" the ones you have by shortening down to your "new" line length.

Yes I am a cheap skate right now being I am trying to save up for a 13m Venom as a first depower kite. I will look into sleeving and I know knotting a line is a bad idea but it was my first day on a buggy and I was having a blast!! Thanks...

Tried fixing my lines today. Should buy me some time before new lines.. 1 question is when I have the 3 lines disconected, should they all be the same lenght or is the relaunch line longer?

The brake/relaunch line on the 3 line trainers is usually somewhat longer than the other two, so it will hang slack in flight.

The relaunch line will be slightly longer. The kite flies off the front lines so the rear line will be slacked a little as it is just there for killing the kite/landing/relaunching.

Thanks much!! Thats what I was hoping after re-tying a bunch...Now I need to invest in a line sleeving tool.. Using a stripped bread twist tie about put me in the nutt house!!!

Old steel guitar strings are good for a sleeving tool. Braided masons line are good cheap sleeve material. you can also buy bulk line from several dealers and make your own any length to save money.

What are the weights (pounds) and type you guys use? Just so I don't accidentally go buying spider man kite string..

Looking at the line specs for other kites in that size, it seems that 400-500 lb Dyneema or Spectra for the main power lines and 200+ for the brake should be good.

burritobandit has 1 set of 330lb/220lb Ozone lines left for $45 which would probably work fine... would just leave you with an extra 220lb line to save for a rainy day.