Steal Bracing help,

[Si the tree]

I did an inspection climb on a 300+yr old chestnut today that has been steel braced in several places, a couple of them are very taught would it be better to leave as is?   My thoughts would be if we try and remove and replace bracing the shift could do more damage than good! I’m interested to know what you guys would suggest. 
 

[Mick Dempsey]

You mean cabling?

[pleasant]

Nicking it you mean?

[Steve Bullman]

Good question and something I’ve come up against several times in the past. Is any work being carried out to the tree? A reduction can often have the result of lessening the tension.

 

 

[Si the tree]

25 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Good question and something I’ve come up against several times in the past. Is any work being carried out to the tree? A reduction can often have the result of lessening the tension.

 

 

Client does not want tree touching if possible, 

 

2 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

You mean cabling?

Yes mate steal cabling 

[Steve Bullman]

Without seeing the tree first hand (gut instinct goes a long way with these things) I’d probably be inclined to leave well along by this point. 

[Dan Maynard]

I don't think I'd touch it either, in my mind though you have to assess whether you think there is a risk of the steel cables or U bolts failing? Especially the U bolts as they look to be corroding.

 

If a cable breaks then you have a very sudden change in load on the wood, might happen in a storm and then I'd guess much more likely to have a limb failure. Maybe in that case you'd need to set some new cables or put some backup ones in.

[daltontrees]

There's the basic problem with cabling. Cabled trees almost certainly come to depend on the cables, and don't put on adequate new wood to support their own loads any more. In my view cabling or other forms of bracing shouldn't be used unless failure will happen without it. So once it's put in place there's no chance of branch survival without it. Less than before it was added.

You could replace the cable with COBRA, if and when the cleats look like they're too corroded. Best done in winter when leaf load is off, and you may have to winch the limb back a tad to loosen the cable and add the COBRA. I've only replaced smallish bracing but it seemed the right thing to do to get the new cable exactly the same length as the old. This has got to be much much easier with cobra than with cable.

[MattyF]

As long as you have the eye bolts visible you can readjust the cable be slackening the U bolts or even replace it if you can’t. 
ideally it wants to be done in leaf and the cable not too taught , a little bit of slack is good and gives the tree a chance to strengthen on its own , it will obviously slacken more when not in leaf and act more as a storm anchor. 
Do not remove it though altogether as the tree will have grown to depend on it and not built the layers it needs for strength in the wood if it’s been on for a long time.

To be honest it must of been well installed , straight screw eye bolts  on chestnut have a habit of pulling and they look we’ll compartmentalised.