Check out this block by Ronstan

[bay surfer]

That block looks like its made for slippery rope like Amsteel.

[Slappysan]

The 2014 Naish Ride uses something like this. Also I think a few of Epic's kites have been using it for years.

[bnthere]

a step in the right direction (looks like it anyway)

[jespin4845]

working load 385 lbs...is this enough? i don't know, the amsteel is at least 1000 and lines are at least 550...

ive been buying the switch sliders and replacing my sand clogged ronstan pulley's, i wonder what they are rated at...

[Dimitri M]

RONSTAN asked me if we could test these new pulleys on our EPIC KITES. So for 9 months now we have been testing these pulleys on the EPIC prototype kites and they work very nice no complaints at all. They are different then the ones we have been using on our 3G kites. They look almost the same but the material is lighter and they come in different colors.

[jespin4845]

looking at the pdf on murray's second page, the normal WL of the old shitty sand clogged ronstan pulleys is 330 lbs, so the shock block is actually an upgrade...nice to hear these are good dimitri

[BWD]

But how quick do they explode once the sand destroys the anodization?

[edt]

But how quick do they explode once the sand destroys the anodization?

I think all the performance of this block is in the enamel paint, if that gets worn thru you are supposed to throw it out. I think the anodization is there just to make the paint stick. The failure of a wheel pulley means you have to flag out your flag, swim in and replace the pulley. If this aluminum block fails --- that is if it gets to the bare aluminum thanks to the sand, then it should wear straight thru the bridle line and instead of replacing a pulley you get to replace a pulley and a bridle. Or maybe these wear so slow you can replace them at the same time you replace your bridles for wear?

We'll see, the test is what these look like after 2 years of use, better or worse than pulleys.

The friction numbers for one of these new is really good for a sliding block, it would be great if they didn't wear too fast. I like the ronstan orbit block kite pulleys a lot if they fail you can kite back in and replace the pulley because it has a line thru the hole to catch your bridle.

But even if these sliders are supposed to be disposable it could be a lot cheaper than a ronstan orbit block.

[uncle sammy]

If Dimitri is using them for 9 month now then they are probably solid.
Wonder how they would perform after 4 years.

[Kamikuza]

RONSTAN asked me if we could test these new pulleys on our EPIC KITES. So for 9 months now we have been testing these pulleys on the EPIC prototype kites and they work very nice no complaints at all. They are different then the ones we have been using on our 3G kites. They look almost the same but the material is lighter and they come in different colors.

How much better are they than the ones you have available now?