Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists

This should save your backs from excessive rod use.

Can cut higher than the lines.

Easier to operate than a helicopter.



Will do an undercut ........... and leave a stub...... or a bark scuff...... or a tear......... or whatever you like

Jarraff Industries, Inc.: Tree Trimmer, All-Terrain Tree Trimmers, Tree Pruning & Trimming, Arborist Equipment, Right-of-Way (ROW) Maintenance, Tree Saw for Tree Cutting

I guess if you haven't been told that you can't use it, it's ok to use it! yeah?


Look after yourselves out there :-)

Pretty sure Asplundh had something like this. They also had them built to go on railway lines so they could clear power lines along the rail corridors.

We can use them alright. Have seen them before. Savage bit of kit. 75ft reach. My boss has looked into getting one.

Unfortunately the ESB class them as a hedge cutter and as such must be fitted with a limiter. You MUST measure the height of the line at its lowest point at each location and set the limiter to 3m below the height of the conductor at its lowest point. Then you have to cordon of an area 3m away from all structures and stay wires. Then you can start cutting so long as your dedicated observer deems it ok to cut.

Damn! thwarted again.

Whats the reason for ESB going so out of their way to make your life impossable?

We recently got G55/ version 2 over here, which, although a bit of a drag to impose, has made things a little easier rather than harder (or maybe its made it a little bit easier to work in a compliant fashion)

I wonder if there is some common cause (the EU being a possible candidate) because G55/2 specifies having observers for certain trees as well.

Have to say I agree that a dedicated observer is a good idea. But the rest of the rules are truly stupid. They are a reaction to a drubbing the ESB got last summer from the HSE after a climber was killed when he stuck a polesaw up into the 20kv. Shouldn't have had the thing up there in the first place. The rules are total overkill dreamt up by a guy in an office somewhere who has probably never even seen a tree.

I could understand if the lad had been following the rules that were there and were working perfectly well at keeping us all safe. But instead they scrubbed everything and decided to start from scratch. Basically the new rules are designed so that it is impossible for us to contact a live conductor or drop a branch on a live conductor. They are trying to take all element of judgement out of the job regardless of whether the job can be done for the price they are willing to pay or not. The real kicker is, they didn't introduce these new rules until after all this year's tenders had gone in.

The problem is they will back themselves into a corner. It will end up having battle lines drawn whereby the utility arbs will just tell the utilities to shut the network down so that they can clear trees. Either that or a proper corridor will be given around the conductors and the utilities will have to maintain that corridor properly and to spec. No excuses. If they allow trees back into the growth limit zone then they get heavily fined.

so is pretty much everything done under shutdown then? Sounds like a nightmare.

Or is it that it just isn't getting done.

I guess they have someone well paid there to consider the fallout following a kid killed climbing an uncut tree, or a region off supply for days following a storm. It must be driving you all mad.

How about MEWPs then. You allowed to use them? When I was in WPD (southwest England and southwest Wales) and Scottish power (mid Wales), MEWPs where a total no-no on anything above LV.

Where I am now, MEWPs are in, upto and including 33Kv.

Now I am a climber at heart but........ Mogs as far as the eye can see

I can't understand that non use of MEWPS or EPVs whatever you want to call them. I worked in Wales for a couple of years and couldn't believe that none of the utilities would allow them on the network. Something to do with some guy sticking himself up between two phases of an 11KV. They are used in huge numbers in Canada and the US as well as here in NZ and OZ. If used correctly they are efficient and safe. Asplundh has them on tracks, 4WDs, rail carriages etc and has some that are 110 feet with a two man bucket. Surely these are safer and quicker, allowing more network to be cleared more efficiently and better than having climbers in trees? Yes, you have stuff that you can't get a MEWP to but surely the utilities are just short sighted?

I think most utility companies that are in it for the long haul would be made up with the idea of clearing a corridor properly once, and then being given free reign to maintain it.

The ball breakers for the electric companies would be in firstly stumping up the cash to get that proper clearance in the first place.

and secondly being able then to stand back and leave the clearance companies to get on and manage it.

Its always going to be short term, how can we get the most cut for the least - lets slash a budget here and there - lets change our mind part way through the cutting cycle - lets get a different contractor in once the hard graft is done - mentality.