Learning rigging

[Joe Newton]

39 minutes ago, MattyF said:

Another reason to take double braid over 16 strand? Regardless I would not !

Not when 50m of 12mm rigging line is £75 with a WLL 380Kg

[MattyF]

33 minutes ago, Joe Newton said:

Not when 50m of 12mm rigging line is £75 with a WLL 380Kg

Dunno I’m a snob and only use English braids Joe for my rigging 🫣

[AHPP]

From memory, English Braids isn't the strongest. I use it because I like the colour.

 

What's the £75 one, Joe?

[Mesterh]

4 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

And what is in it for the expérienced guy?

 

He gets to pilot the drone and choose the colour of the smoke flare.

 

BOOM!💪

[AHPP]

Mick, at home, wearing this, protesting too much.

 

[AHPP]

On 03/10/2025 at 20:57, AHPP said:

 

How did you try to lift it? With a/the rope and pulley up the tree (can't see from video if you crotched it or used a pulley/ring/biner)? Or just by hand on the ground?

 

@kram Not sure if you didn't see this or did see it and ignored me because you thought I was going to bray you over the head with whatever you said like the prevailing sentiment of this thread. Did in fact have something constructive to add if you're interested.

[kram]

23 minutes ago, AHPP said:

 

@kram Not sure if you didn't see this or did see it and ignored me because you thought I was going to bray you over the head with whatever you said like the prevailing sentiment of this thread. Did in fact have something constructive to add if you're interested.

Ah, I did start replying but it got lost when I replied to someone else.. I even illistrated a crude picture!

 

In the tree I estimated each small section and added up the weights. Afterwards on the ground I half arsed attempted to lift it by hand, heavier than expected by couldnt say with any accuracy whilst theres logs on it.

 

Blue are slings, yellow steel biners, red the lowering rope, and purple is the unintended path that the rope fell, reducing the swing I had intended to give it, adding a lot of friction.

 

Edited October 5 by kram

[kram]

So back onto the subject, which rope should I buy?

I am thinking a 16mm 50m.

 

I got one of the arb surplus rope end bags, it has a good sample of 5m rigging ropes. 

English braids 14, 16 and 20mm, look decent.

Stein Omega 12,  seems ok but only 12mm
Stein Omega 16 and 20mm. Very soft cover, nice on the hands as a pull rope but cant see it being very abrasion resistant.

[Joe Newton]

I give up. Buy whatever feels nicer in your hands.

 

Thank God i put my helmet on. 

[AHPP]

On weight, the fluffy bits of trees generally weigh less than tree blokes think. And you still underestimated it. Not by much but you still came down on the wrong side so get out of that habit. Be wrong the other way. This should be your main wake up call. You haven't built, "What if I'm wrong?" into your strategy. You need to or you'll break something expensive and look a twat. Worse, you'll be a twat.

 

Small pieces = small problems. I've rigged the world and in your example, I'd have still gone a few feet higher and done it in three or four piffling pieces. Those pieces could have been slung up so you cut and catch one, see how the rigging point feels, cut another, make sure it's still OK and so on. You can do things like bundle a few up and lower them in a loop, then pull the loop through and have your rope back. No-groundsman tactics.

 

If you had to to take it in one, you should have involved the main stem to strengthen the final rigging point. I generally look for a main point in strong, central wood and a redirect over the best drop zone. You'll find those points in honestly 95% of trees. You were basically only using the redirect point. Weak without the context of a main point.

 

Your current learning style reminds me of me. I got by on wit and feel and I got by well but what I didn't do was engage in the analytical and theoretical learning early enough. If I'd devoted some effort to the stuff that looks like bollocksy compliance from the get go, I'd have got better, faster. MBL, WLL etc is more than just bollocksy compliance. It's real and important. And it's also pretty easy once you decide to learn it. Now is a great time to decide to make your rigging decisions unimpeachable. 

 

If you work by yourself, you're going to have to learn some natural crotch (and other up-tree friction tricks). You should learn it anyway. It's a key skill. The rope for natural crotch is 3 strand. Get some of that first. Owning a length of 16mm double braid without the rest of the skill, people and ancillary gear to utilise it is just spending £150 to look like a billy big bollocks tree man with a heavy rope bag.

Edited October 5 by AHPP