How to "Re-Eye" Your Wire Pulling Rope

Southwire’s QWIKrope wire pulling rope has a breaking strength of 32,000 pounds and is pound for pound stronger than steel, but even the sturdiest pulling ropes will wear down over time. The eye of your rope receives the most wear, and when it wears down in the field, what do you do? Can you continue to pull without another rope? With Southwire’s single-braided, 9/16” wire pulling rope, continuing your wire pull is as simple as creating an “eye splice” or “re-eyeing” your rope.

Watch the video tutorial or keep reading for a step-by-step guide on how to make an eye splice to create a new wire pulling eye.

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HOW TO MAKE AN EYE SPLICE FOR YOUR NEW WIRE PULLING EYE

• To start, get rid of any damaged ends. Tape around the pulling rope just before the damaged portion and cut on the tape, so you have a clean end to start with.
• Next, form a loop with the size of the eye you want to make, and leave about 15-18 inches of tail underneath. When you have your loop sized, make two marks across the rope for reference.
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  Figure 1: Form a Loop while Leaving 15-18" of tail
• At one of your marks, separate the rope strands with your thumbs to form a small hole. Take the taped end of your rope, pass it through the center of this hole and pull it through to form a loop
• 
  Figure 2: Where you marked, separate the strands to form a hole you will slide the end of the rope through
• Now, separate the strands at your other mark to form a hole and pass the taped end of your rope through to form another loop. These two loops will be the start of your new eye splice and your new knot.
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  Figure 3: Form two loops in your rope
• Once you have two loops, take the taped end of the rope and pass it through the lower loop. Keep pulling until your second loop passes through the first loop. You should have now formed your new pulling eye. Pinch your new eye together and pass it through the upper loop on your rope.
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  Figure 4: Pinch the eye together and feed it through the loop beneath your knot.
• Once you pull your new eye through the upper loop, roll the knot down and work it around in your hands until the knot is flat. You have now made an eye splice, and your new eye should be in place.
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  Figure 5: Your eye splice knot and new eye are formed.

REINFORCING THE TAIL OF YOUR WIRE PULLING ROPE

• Before you are ready to pull wire, you need to secure the tail of your pulling rope. To do that, you will need to back feed wire through the rope. Starting at the end of your tail opposite of your new eye, separate the strands of the rope with your thumbs enough that you can start to push your wire through the rope.
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  Figure 6: Back feed wire through the rope.
• Feed the wire through the pulling rope until you get to the top of your eye, and push it all the way out. If you squeeze the rope together (like a Chinese finger trap), the rope should start to open up inside and create more space for our next step.
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  Figure 7: Keep your rope compact as you feed it through
• Now, take the taped end of your rope and tape it to the end of the wire you fed through your pulling rope. Wrap it a few times to make sure it is secure, but do not create a hook because you will use this to pull the end of the rope back through your tail.
• Once you have the end of the rope taped to the wire, push the excess rope back through the tail of your rope just like you did the wire. Again, squeezing the rope together to bunch it up will make it easier to pull through. Keep pushing it through until the end of the rope comes out the other end of your tail.
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  Figure 8: Tape the wire to the taped end of the rope and feed it back through the tail.
• After you pull the end of your rope back through your tail, take your scissors and make stagger cuts just above the spot where the end of your rope is taped to the wire. This should make the rope slightly tapered where you made your cuts.
• Once you cut the rope off the wire, grab your eye with one hand and the tail of your rope with the other and pull it tight in each direction. The rest of your tail should disappear into the pulling rope. Congratulations, you learned how to make an eye splice, and you now have a new factory pulling eye on your wire pulling rope!
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  Figure 9: Your new pulling eye should look like this!

Being able to create a new pulling eye on your wire pulling rope allows you to get the most value out of your rope, and you won’t have to stop a wire pull to replace your pulling rope. If you are interested in other Southwire solutions or have questions, please contact your account manager, or ask to speak with one of our Southwire specialists.

QWIKrope

An innovative new high performance pulling rope that is UV resistant, lightweight and ultra low stretch for all your feeder and circuit wire solutions.
QWIKrope Cut Sheet (PDF)

QWIKrope for use in feeder conductor pulls:

QWIKrope for use in circuit wire pulls: