[Jon Stratis]

Better than rope, you might want to try some "plumbers tape", or metal strapping. You can wrap it around the cylinder and a supporting member pretty easily, and screw it in. Last year, we used it for one of our cylinders (not on an arm) and it passed inspection just fine *although there's no guarantee this will be the same*. We haven't used string, but we have used stranded metal cable to secure things. This year it's being used to move our elevator, and last year it was used as a secure and release mechanism for our ramp (it attached to the top of the ramp and ran down to the aforementioned cylinder, which would release the cable when we wanted to lower the ramp).