Future Tree Systems

[jomoco]

How well I remember getting into my first big hardwood tree prune. Making a beeline for the optimum tie in point, tying in, making my way down, then wondering which branches to prune off, which branches to leave? So of course I just copied what the top dog pruners did, cut every branch off except a few well spaced sets of three, usually the innermost healthy branches, reduction pruning, commercial buzz jobs. No chin scratching or wondering what the end result looks like, or how vigorously that tree will react to such hard pruning in terms of sucker growth.

 

Chainsaw pruning, production pruning, both climbers and bucket flyers, city street tree contracts, county road clearance contracts, military housing community contracts, buzz em all with a chainsaw.

 

Bucket trucks have improved, gotten taller, remote narrow access manlifts have improved as well, more versatile, better reach.

 

But none of them, whether articulating or telescoping, are capable of pruning a truly large spreading decurrent tree, without multiple repositioning and setup of their lifts.

 

Now I have been fortunate enough to spend many years performing tree removals for a large tree company with their own in house crane, removing many thousands of trees with crane assistance. Essentially spoiling me rotten floating around, getting where I wanted in the trees by pointing to whichever spot or crotch I desired.

 

It was inevitable that I'd take advantage of my crane availability to prune a few trees as well, despite the bloody 150 lb crane ball n hook!

 

Leading me to imagine hanging from a swiveling hook assembly without a friggin ball, maybe even a T bar with two points of attachment?

 

So a crane truck, built specifically to hoist personnel only, with a long reach jib, would be capable of pruning even the largest hardwood trees from one single position. Reach over houses etc. it would never see loads exceeding 1000 Lbs.

 

Then of course these advantages being insufficient to satisfy a spoiled rotten climber like me, I decide hanging from a wire rope sucks too! Conducts electricity, weighs too much, and can't power my tools etc, wah wah wah.

 

Nope I want a synthetic compound hose assembly, that swivels, and delivers everything a spoiled rotten brat could dream up. Compressed air, cold air, hot air, filtered and oxygen enriched breathing air!

 

I wanted it all, and I wanted it then, twenty years ago.

 

Who'll succeed where I failed, the Germans, Swiss, Japanese, English.

 

I'm fairly certain it won't be America leading the way.

 

Forty years from now? Climbers won't need to leave home to perform their jobs in the trees. They'll just get into harness in a control room across the hall, and log on in real time!

 

Ideally a tree pruning anthropoidal robot need not weigh much over 100 lbs, particularly if powered by an overhead umbilical.

 

Jomoco

[silky fox]

Interesting thread Jo.....Drones for inspections,and Steampunk type robotic crawling platforms but made of carbon fibre....until then check this Giant out...At 90 metres its the highest reaching working platform!

[jomoco]

I'm sick of hanging from stinkin saddles that crowd my manhood, and cut off the blood flow to my legs!

 

I wanna stand up dang it!

 

Like a man!

[Arctostaphylos uva-ursi]

Wow. Are those Mexican wrestlers self levitating boots?

[jomoco]

Yeah see!

 

Belly up to the bar boys!

[jomoco]

With both my sons involved in Sony's VR headset's public release this month, the more convinced I am that VR technology just a bit more advanced than this, will soon be used for job training courses, including the tree biz.

 

The more advanced VR tech firms are already using empty rooms and high speed computer interfaces, coupled to more elaborate control harnesses and motion sensors, to create a world realistic enough to distinguish a pro from an amateur in a variety of professions IMO.

 

Ironically my having steered all my children as far away from this bloody biz as possible, may go full circle on me and enmesh my boys in the long run.

 

As long as their involvement's from a remotely controlled robot in the field reality?

 

Otherwise forget it!

 

I distinctly remember that gut feeling realization I had at the top of my game doing big dead conifer removals for the celebrities with beach front properties on the Lake Arrowhead shoreline, catching bigwood with a Hobbs, making real good money.

 

That if I continued onward at that level of difficulty long enough? It was simply a matter of time before some unseen trunk or underground rooting defect, put me in an early grave.

 

Kinda the better you get in this biz, the more likely you are to be involved in the most dangerous aspects of it. That's why they'll pay five bills a day. So they can live long enough to enjoy their retirement!

 

Logger's got replaced by feller bunchers lads!

 

We're next in line.

 

Jomoco

[jomoco]

Ever bought a 600 ft spool of rope?

 

They're not that big or heavy. Even Samson 1/2 inch True Blue.

 

The system I'm putting together simply transfers that entire spool of rope onto an electrically powered reel, a portable one, integrated to a handtruck, reel at the bottom, generator powering it on top.

 

It'll look much like half an aluminum canoe, with 18 inch wheels at the base, making it towable behind my tooltruck.

 

So essentially you'll pull up onsite, disconnect the canoe, push or pull it to the tree, and strap it to it like a Hobbs, prow pointing upwards to shield the reel n generator from falling branches. The reel of course is remotely controlled by the climber, at the T bar, suspended by my new stand up saddle n boots harness.

 

I figure it'll cost about 15K to slap together. I want the canoe to weigh about 5 hundred pounds, and the wheels n axles adjustable to a skinny width on site, then back to a broad width on the road.

 

Hopefully it'll be ready to rock at the seminars here around August next year.

 

What to name the system, a forest fishermen?

 

Jomoco

[easy-lift guy]

You pretty probably given enough for some engineers to get to work. Maybe see about filing a provisional patent PDQ, otherwise anything that you decide to show at any show will be old news. Remember first to file makes all the difference.

easy-lift guy

[jomoco]

Google Ingersoll Rand MR 150 Man Rider Winch Ted.

 

Jomoco

[easy-lift guy]

Just looked at the item you mentioned. I believe what you were describing in detail was more specific to this industry. I have seen to many people bring products to shows over the years without any sort of IP protection so I wish you all the best with what ever you decide to come out with or show wherever.

easy-lift guy