Blocking down a stem

[bob]

seriously though tony....as fantastic a piece of kit as it is, for £1700??? how often does it actually come out? i mean my porty only comes out a handful of times a year!

 

i agree a lot of money for how often we use it but paid for its self after first 2 jobs and the biggest bonus is it gives you another set of options and usually has been SAFER which in my book maters more than money

[tockmal]

Dirty little offcut from a scaffolding pole.

 

Shady little cambium abuser.

 

 

On this little tree, if I had a GRCS I could have lifted this section up nice and easy away from the pond, instead it had to be swung round and down with gravity using the Porty...the attachment rope point on the log should have been lower down so that it was free to swing down...just another method of Blocking down a stem.

[bob]

that just proves my last comments

[Mr Ed]

Shame on you Tony, you porty abuser you! I love my porty, from the early one we made from a piece of scaffold pole, to the latest from ISC (made about 3 miles from here)

In my very humble opinion, the GRCS is a vastly overpriced piece of kit.

What makes it so is the harken yachting winch - and anything that comes from that niche market is overpriced.

I can supply a hydraulc 4 tonne winch with remote for a third of the price of a grcs.

[Jamie]

We have a nice big winch. just the pully to accomodate it is a bit heavy. sorry i dont have a picture of the winch but here is the engine end

 

 

as for blocking down never snatched back, always manage to push and freefall with surprising accuracy.

Jamie

[Amelanchier]

What makes it so is the harken yachting winch - and anything that comes from that niche market is overpriced.

I can supply a hydraulc 4 tonne winch with remote for a third of the price of a grcs.

 

I totally agree about the price and the breakdown of the most expensive cost, tis a great shame. I'm assuming the hydraulic winch must be mounted though, to a vehicle? I've carried the GRCS through houses. Point taken about cost-to-power ratio though!

 

The other thing to watch out for is, in-experienced operators putting too much tension in systems. So easy to do, I've had people tension up speedlines til the host tree started bending and cracking! Its hard for them to make the mental leap that rope and GRCS can be like steel cable and tractor winch when the systems right.

 

Oh and ropes glazed on the drum because people have tried to crane up section that haven't been cut through correctly.

[Amelanchier]

On this little tree, if I had a GRCS I could have lifted this section up nice and easy away from the pond, instead it had to be swung round and down with gravity using the Porty...

 

Also the load would be transferred to the line with little or no peak loading, esp. if you had a tagline to control the swing. Better for your "cycles to failure" and all that guff. Its just a nice way to work.

[RC0]

Here's couple from the archives.

 

The first was straight forward enough, just winched off in 10ft sections, although the top was tricky as I recall.

 

The second was a real sh-t. It had to be first sliced and then diced into 3 again while it was up there, such was the shortage of space on the floor. I think that stem took us the entire day to finish.

[RC0]

thankfully we dont block down many large stems mainly due to a hiab and bad backs so we lower big lumps with grcs or supprising how high hiab will reach to snap lumps off had a bit of justifying to buy grcs but will maybe look at a block driver for the next big grave job but if you get a big block off youve still to cut it up so why not do it up the tree

 

Sorry Ron, I missed your post. The incentive is to get the thing on the floor as safely and effortlessly as possible. Cutting-up on the floor is far easier and less dangerous, I think you have to agree.

[tockmal]

Ok, lets try this again. Keeping it civil.

 

Do you guys have any thoughts on this pic?

 

Is it safe? Good work positioning? What about the attachment points for rigging? Correct Notch?

 

There is a decorative pond beneath the timber being removed