Lacing a new trampoline - tips ?

[Boardshorts]

I am looking for help / tips / information / videos / links etc on the best ways to lace a new trampoline ... and the newbie pitfalls we should try and avoid .... before we begin the task on our Lagoon 440.

Murphy's Law means I can no longer find the tutorial style video that I had previously seen online ..... and it seems that there are many websites with nice pictures but little advice on the best ways to get the proper tension.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[2Hulls]

Here you go:

First, get a couple of these >> Maui Hookup: The Easy to Use Windsurfing Sail Rigging Tool

Then get a nice set of vise grips and pad the jaws with duct tape.

Lay out the new tramp on top of the old tramp and stretch it out to its corners using your winches. See pictures. I can't remember if the 440 has a single or double tramp, but it doesn't matter. Rig up lines and blocks to each corner and winch it in - in two halves if you need to. When the corners are set, start lacing, cutting away the old tramp as you go.

As you lace up the tramp, tighten at each grommet with the Maui Hookup and clamp with the vise grips as shown in the picture below. It works best with one person pulling on the Hookup and a second person clamping with the vise grips. Move to the next grommet. Plan ahead for a couple beers....

Good luck!

2 Hulls Dave

[arsenelupiga]

hum, single weak spot in rope can get whole trampoline down. or am i missing something ?

[2Hulls]

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

hum, single weak spot in rope can get whole trampoline down. or am i missing something ?

That's a reasonable suspicion.

For my installation, each side is a separate line, so let's go with a single break and one whole side comes undone. I considered this and originally set out to install separate, single lines distributed along each side as backups. OK, OK, so I put this off for a year.

When I finally got around to it, it was time to re-tension all sides due to tramp creep. It had sagged a little. In the act of re-tightening we first loosened each side and became aware of how stable it was. The lines had "settled in" and it was quite difficult to "move" the line along a side as we re-tightened. I concluded that a theoretical break would not result in a whole side coming undone like a house of cards. It took a lot of effort to over come the friction in the grommets and boat attachment rings. In the end I did not add the extra "safety" lines. After that one tightening, no further tightening has been necessary. The tramp has been on for almost 7 years with no issues, including line breaks. I inspect them often while lounging on the tramp with a rum....

2 Hulls Dave

[mike d.]

Don't fall in ? If you had a mono hull you wouldn't have to worry about it. Oohhhh what!

[2Hulls]

Originally Posted by mike d.

Don't fall in ? If you had a mono hull you wouldn't have to worry about it.

Yes I would. If I had a mono hull I'd be worried about falling over the side off a perpetually wet, slick, slanted deck. Probably tripping over rigging.....

2 Hulls Dave

[clownfishsydney]

When I redid ours I did three separate lines along each side. The cord is thinner, I am using it as the weak link so that if something breaks, it is one of the cords rather than the trampoline or the connections on the boat.

[Palarran]

Those are good pictures Dave has. My attachment points on two sides are round knob's instead of stainless hoop's. If you have any of these, make the line go all the way around the knob or after the rope/tramp stretch it will come off. Depending on what fabric the tramp is made from you may want to leave some slack to the ropes. If you have the vinyl tramps with small holes leave it loose as any major weather will tear it off.

[2Hulls]

I did not describe what I was replacing and maybe I should have.

You can see in the pictures the original tramp and the method it was attached - individually tied lines at every point. Horror stories abounded among other Catana owners of replicating this attachment method. And to tighten a loose tramp you had to go through the entire process again, one point at a time. For this reason I chose a new tramp with grommets and applied the single line (on a side) lacing method. Tightening it the one time it has been needed took a couple hours and did not involve any line cutting or replacement.

I was initially concerned about the one-break-and-you-fall-through scenario, which is why I went with a single line on each side. But as I described above I convinced myself that this fall through scenario is not likely. Try cutting your shoelace at one point half way down and see how long it takes for your shoe to fall off. There is a much greater chance, I believe, in the tramp itself failing. Of course, this does not mean you can ignore the lacing and assume it will not rot and multiple points fail at once, even on multiple sides.

2 Hulls Dave

[DRS]

we have the around the button and through the grommet design on our 380. We used a separate line for each side and tied a knot in every 4th grommet. it meant we only had to pull tight a smaller amount of line and the thought of losing a whole side to single line break was at least in part reduced as it could only unravel to the next knot.
Was it right? I have no idea but it worked
Derick

[jaybird1111]

Here is a link to Sunrise Yacht Products, probably the biggest trampoline and net fabricator in the US. A professional opinion, that is to say:

SYP on installation

[TOT]

Great link jaybird1111 😃

TOT

[Roy M]

Great timing, folks! I am almost ready to lash my new Sunrise bow nets into place. I will probably use the zig-zag/perpendicular style with 1/4" Spectra. My last set used 1/4" polyester, zig-zag, and it was drawn up pretty tightly. Worked for many years and only needed readjustment about a year into its original install. This should be a good test of the Spectra for both chafe and UV.

[gspeak]

Here's a photo of our blue Sunrise tramp that I installed with blue dyneema/spectra on our Lagoon 380 some 12 months ago. This photo was taken immediately after I finished the initial install. I have re-tensioned it since & the gaps are no where near as large & it fits perfectly.

After 12 months the dyneema is showing no signs of abrasion & the colour has just faded a little. As you can see I used separate lengths for each side. I doubt that the dyneema is going to be an issue at all as the rated breaking strain is so far above what's ever going to be loaded on it

I too installed over the old rotting tramp, just cutting the old one away as I worked my way round. The initial install took no longer than a couple of hours, working on my own.

The quality of the Sunrise tramp & their service was awesome. Richard Leng emailed a very detailed drawing of the tramp dimensions for the L380 for us to check before construction. There were slight differences & they then altered & made it to measure. Very comforting considering we are in North Queensland, Oz ...... a very long way away from them.

Dave

[BayCoastal]

How long did it take to install the tramps?