Uneven lines issue

[F27Corsair]

My front lines on my OR bars have stretched out a lot. I went to swap the front and steering lines around but have found that on both of my bars, the old steering lines/new front lines are different lengths (off by about an inch). The only solution i can think of besides re-sheathing is throwing a knot or two in the longer front line but i know this is going to reduce the strength of the line. I'd rather not have to re-sheath this problem.
Options? Suggestions?

Thanks,
Travis

[noel]

Couple of things you could try.
Hook your back lines to something solid and try to stretch them to the same length.
Under the foam floaties there should be some adjustment knots to lengthen your back line. That may help a bit.
You could add extensions to the back lines to lengthen the back lines.

[edt]

what noel said, you should just pull out an inch difference, shouldn't take more than 15 minutes of pulling on the line to stretch it out. Or just make some pigtails out of bridle thickness line. Under no circumstances should you put a knot in the kite line itself.

It's ok to put a knot in the sleeved end tho, if you want to do that, the thickness of sleeve means the knot won't get a chance to really bind down on that dyneema core and cut it.

[AndKite]

Consider the possibility of lines shrinking instead of stretching..

The lines that get more use might become shorter, as dirt, salt etc may enter through the fibers. Aslo, if the line gets a lot of wear, it becomes more rugged, thus each strand will become ever so slightly thicker, resulting in a few cm shorter line.

I have tried and tried to re-stretch lines when one has become longer than the other, and they always go back, sometimes you can even see the line slowly creep back. Im a 95kg former alpine ski racer, so i think i can put in enough stretching...

In my case, since it is the flagging front line that always ends up shorter, my conclusion is that it shrinks. It gets used on almost every session to flag the kite as we teach with them. Logically it should stretch longer since it gets more load when the kite is flagged, yet on every bar so far it has become up to 10cm shorter. The line itself is more used, more dirty than the front line that does not stretch...

My next thing to try is to wax the lines w hard ski wax =)

Anyway, i would make pigtails, or adjust on the bar if possible. NO KNOTS ON THE LINE ITSELF!

Cheers

[F27Corsair]

All good suggestions, thanks. The uneven lines are the middle lines so no adjusting from the bar. I don't have an easy way to make short pigtails (unless someone has a simple suggestion) so I may have to try the line stretch method despite the chance they may shrink back. Its just something I'm going to have to keep an eye on.

[edt]

if you want to make pigtails make 4 of them, put adjustable knots on them, should be easy if you use bridle thickness line you can do without having to make splices it can take knots because it will be thick enough.

[Kamikuza]

... can't you adjust the lines on the rear pigtails, under the bar floats?

[Babel]

Pigtails are very easy to make:

http://www.cautionkites.com/vid/vid.ind ... igtail.php

[sarc]

"Consider the possibility of lines shrinking instead of stretching.."

What he said.

Try washing the lines with soap first, it worked for me before. Salt and dirt makes them fatter and shorter.

[F27Corsair]

... can't you adjust the lines on the rear pigtails, under the bar floats?

No I can't. My two center lines are different lengths. The issue has nothing to do w/ my steering lines.

I like the pigtail idea! Thanks Andkite/edt/babel.