Balancing limbs

[Mark01987]

I know that the spider leg rig or slings are what people use a lot to balance limbs but have been using just the rigging rope quite a bit recently and find it really nice to adjust the balance between the tips butt etc without it being too much of a faff as you can just pull the rope through the half hitches. Would just like to know other people’s views? Pros cons etc? Picture for an example!
 
Cheers!

[Darrin Turnbull]

Here’s something from tree stuff and Mark Bridge 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1256263037862044&id=39451900981&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FrwyIQ2ZdAx&_rdr

[Treerover]

I know that the spider leg rig or slings are what people use a lot to balance limbs but have been using just the rigging rope quite a bit recently and find it really nice to adjust the balance between the tips butt etc without it being too much of a faff as you can just pull the rope through the half hitches. Would just like to know other people’s views? Pros cons etc? Picture for an example!
 
Cheers!

Are you running the rigging line through the 2 x slingsand krabs on the limb and then back onto the rigging rope ?

[Mark01987]

It’s just one price of rigging rope. I half hitched the line at the tips, ran the rope down the branch, half hitched the rope at the butt end and then clipped the biner back to the rope using a midline knot. It does use a lot of rope but I’ve found it’s quite nice to adjust the balance once it’s tied as it’s just a continuous triangle of rope.

 

 

[Dan Maynard]

I just did my rigging course a few weeks ago, the approved method was clove hitch each end and then back up to a Blake's hitch so as to be able to adjust the triangle on the second side.

Doing clove hitches is a bit of a faff to be honest, lot of rope to pull through, but I guess more secure especially at the butt end. I left the course thinking ok for one but if you had a few then worth getting extra gear out.

[Mick Dempsey]

I find that by the time you’ve done all that roping, adjusting, in/out shake it all about stuff it’s quicker to use conventional rigging and take it in smaller pieces.

[MattyF]

Nothing wrong with what you are doing but the half hitch’s from my experience have a tendency to slip out if the bit your rigging gets unbalanced by the force of how it comes off the hinge as I’ve found with half hitches , also grounds folk who are not to clued up on knots can take an age untying when you get the lump on the deck.

I have a heavy and light weight set up with a rigging hub with two 16mm lines with metal fixed eye rigging krabs as legs or a light set up of a metal figure of 8 with two 9mm rigging line legs, both can be clipped on when needed and save a lot of effort working out line lengths and 100% certain I know they won’t slip.

I love them as I know I can go bigger as there is virtually no shock loading if the lots cranked up on the rigging bollard and it’s satisfying to watch but usually a tag line is needed to guide lumps in tricky situations as balanced lumps are not as easy to position in to a DZ as tip or butt rigged tree.

 

[Treerover]

It’s just one price of rigging rope. I half hitched the line at the tips, ran the rope down the branch, half hitched the rope at the butt end and then clipped the biner back to the rope using a midline knot. It does use a lot of rope but I’ve found it’s quite nice to adjust the balance once it’s tied as it’s just a continuous triangle of rope.
 
 

Ah I get it now. Does it not mean a lot of long tail length tying those half hitched whereas the spider sling you’re just whipping the krab end around one end of your limb and choking it and the doing a quick knot of choice around t’other with the spider leg sling already prussiked on your rigging rope?

You’ve got 1 x no knot (krab end) and 1 times short tail quick knot (spider leg) , and you’re not having to re-tie your Prussik each time (spider leg already prussiked) ? Seems quicker by some margin unless I’ve misinterpreted your method for which I apologise if I have done [emoji1303][emoji2]

[Mark01987]

Ah I get it now. Does it not mean a lot of long tail length tying those half hitched whereas the spider sling you’re just whipping the krab end around one end of your limb and choking it and the doing a quick knot of choice around t’other with the spider leg sling already prussiked on your rigging rope?

You’ve got 1 x no knot (krab end) and 1 times short tail quick knot (spider leg) , and you’re not having to re-tie your Prussik each time (spider leg already prussiked) ? Seems quicker by some margin unless I’ve misinterpreted your method for which I apologise if I have done [emoji1303][emoji2]

It is a lot of tail to work with (obviously you need a long bit of line), bit fiddly when you’ve attached the rope at the tips and are bringing it down to the butt end. I did find though that when you come to doing the minor adjustments between the tips and the butt that it was really idiot proof as you can adjust the half hitches from where your going to make the cut by pulling the line one way or the other. I have used the spider leg set up before and found it a little bit fiddly if I hadn’t got the balance right first time... asking for slack, adjusting the spider leg, tightening up, adjusting the spider leg again etc. Just to add I would normally go for the spider leg set up because that’s what I have been shown. Had to do a bit of improvising this time as I didn’t have anything to use as a spider leg and it worked really well!

[Mark01987]

Nothing wrong with what you are doing but the half hitch’s from my experience have a tendency to slip out if the bit your rigging gets unbalanced by the force of how it comes off the hinge as I’ve found with half hitches , also grounds folk who are not to clued up on knots can take an age untying when you get the lump on the deck.
I have a heavy and light weight set up with a rigging hub with two 16mm lines with metal fixed eye rigging krabs as legs or a light set up of a metal figure of 8 with two 9mm rigging line legs, both can be clipped on when needed and save a lot of effort working out line lengths and 100% certain I know they won’t slip.
I love them as I know I can go bigger as there is virtually no shock loading if the lots cranked up on the rigging bollard and it’s satisfying to watch but usually a tag line is needed to guide lumps in tricky situations as balanced lumps are not as easy to position in to a DZ as tip or butt rigged tree.
 

Yeah I can certainly see that being an issue on smoother branches with few laterals! I did try to tie the hitches in places that had a lateral to stop that.

I’ve never used the hubs before. Have wondered what they are like to use. What are they like in terms of adjusting? With the spider leg you can obviously slide the hitch up and down the rope.