ok, i was about to ask if anyone has some actual explanation or proof that one way of putting the rope on the hitch is better for the life of your rope than the other... but then i did a crude test with some string and a pen (smooth surface).
I think the common double loop wins... unless you have better evidence? (please share)
the pen was the hitch and the string the rope (of course) I tested 4 ways:
1. single loop
2. the double loop way (most common i think)
3. main rope through loop loop - pull a bit of the line back through the loop to make it look like this
4. tuneman's extraordinary rope shortener loop
i judged the potential wear by the vibrations i felt in my fingers holding the pen as i moved the rope back and forth to simulate the rope moving back and forth from edging from one side to the other.
methods 3 and 4 had the most rub/vibrations. i did it several times for each method, making sure i held the pen very close to the same way in each test.
Looking closer, method 2 results in 1 and 3/4 loopings of rope around the hitch. method 3 has a full 2 loopings of rope. only 1/4 looping difference. there was very little to no recognizable difference in vibration between single looping and double looping (1 vs 2) surprisingly, despite method 1 only has 3/4 loop of rope on the hitch.
I would say, from my little test; that if you CAN double than do so. If you have a really nice hitch that swivels then it probably doesn't make a difference. overall, i guess it probably won't make a huge difference anyway, despite the hitch type.
*also, an exception to consider for tuneman's rope shortening loop technique is that the same bit of rope is most likely not going to be wrapped around the hitch every time like the other methods. Thanks for sharing tune man! awesome and very usefull! "a free accurate rope shortening device"
again, if you have a better explaination, please share as mine is pretty crude