MEWP or Climbing?

[treequip]

I say lets go and smash some spinning wheels and looms while we're at it.

 

Nice one, up the luddites:laugh1:

[Gray git]

Not saying there is a right or wrong answer to this as personal preference is a big part of it unless the tree is unsafe to climb but in my opinion what puts a lot of people of mewps is bad experience with them where whoever they are/were working for have specked the wrong machine for the job so it was a bigger struggle than it should have been.

Another problem is people are taught how to climb a tree, how to dismantle a tree from ropes, how to rig a tree while tied to it as part of formal training or on the job progression of skills where's formal training in a mewp is setup and drive it round a carpark congratulations your a qualifibopetater or on site is hears the keys crack on!

If people received more training or there was actually the training available to help people get the most out of the machine within treework then you may find them more popular.

There will always be a time for climbing be it cost or access but I can do 5 days solid dismantling from a mewp and still have energy to take my children swimming om saterday where I'd be lucky to be able to walk properly if I'd tried to climb that much work, all the newer lads who say climb for me it's more macho just wate till you've had a few injuries then see how you feel.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Most sensible post so far Gray Git.

 

I spent 3 days in the High court in London listening to the rights and wrongs of using a mewp in tree work, even the high court judge dismissed the arguments against and more or less said the same as you.

 

Somebody who climbs a tree for the first time may find it difficult and awkward and dismiss it as hard work. Just in the same vain people who are inexperienced using a mewp will sometimes dismiss it as hard work.

 

Unless you have used a mewp in most scenarios, you are not really qualified to dismiss them as useless and not suitable for tree work.

 

Like it or not a mewp is definitely a tool for the armoury

[Philip Anderson]

Climbing in most situations is far easier for a dismantle in my opinion.

I hate being up in those things, there far more likely to fail than your kit or anchor.

There great for reductions and target limbs/ branches.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

 

Really !! I'll give you a race any day.

Seriously what's your experience of mewps ,you have have to use them day in day out ,and a good mewp opperator is just as valuable as a good climber ,just less fatigued.

Your comment about mewp failure is not backed up by the statistics as there are many anchour point / kit failures in the arb industry where as mewp failures are recorded as industry wide including construction and farming.

[Philip Anderson]

You are looking for an out but as long as the HSE says that part of assessing a task should consider ALL methods, your HSE man is going to want you to consider the use of a mewp wherever its practical.

 

Not comfortable with the mewp? experience is the solution to that, leave the macho climber in the bag with your rope and regard felling the tree as the job rather than climbing the tree as the job.

 

Good post.

[skyhuck]

Really !! I'll give you a race any day.

Seriously what's your experience of mewps ,you have have to use them day in day out ,and a good mewp opperator is just as valuable as a good climber ,just less fatigued.

Your comment about mewp failure is not backed up by the statistics as there are many anchour point / kit failures in the arb industry where as mewp failures are recorded as industry wide including construction and farming.

 

Bring on the race!!!!!!!!!

 

A good climber would wipe the floor with even the best MEWP operator, IME. Many MEWP operators are faster in the cage than the tree, but thats because are not very quick in the tree.

 

With anchor failure thats down to poor choices, which YOU as a climber chose. IMO when climbing your in far more control.

 

I hate MEWP's and don't use them, but thats just me

[treequip]

Bring on the race!!!!!!!!!

 

A good climber would wipe the floor with even the best MEWP operator, IME. Many MEWP operators are faster in the cage than the tree, but thats because are not very quick in the tree.

 

With anchor failure thats down to poor choices, which YOU as a climber chose. IMO when climbing your in far more control.

 

I hate MEWP's and don't use them, but thats just me

 

See now there is the big balls attitude that has no place in this discussion.

 

Its not about faster, its about the powers that be requiring us to at least consider an alternative method that may be more appropriate, and when they say more appropriate they mean safer.

 

A lot of climbers in tree work do it because they like the climbing, they like to tell people they are a climber. As we have seen in this thread they consider anything else a dilution of their craft. Lets perspective that, it is a craft, all of it. Climbing and mewp tickets alike, little more than a driving licence for a chainsaw.

 

There are some jobs where rope access is the best solution and there are some where a mewp is the best solution, the difference is the mewp man will know the difference and the macho climber will want to climb it because if he doesn't climb it he becomes ORDINARY, and that would never do.

 

He cant see that the objective is to accomplish the work rather than accomplish it by climbing

[Dean Lofthouse]

Its kind of like using the stairs to go up 30 floors when there,s a lift

[David Humphries]

..........I hate MEWP's and don't use them, but thats just me

 

You're nothing if not consitent Dave

 

Your system obviously works for you and has done over the 7 years that I've being reading your thoughts on the discussion.

 

 

Over the years I've found that (as Dean mentioned earlier) that flexibility with different systems and set ups is a useful place to be to giving different options depending on a trees situation and structure.

 

For us that means we look at canopy access and work as either climbing or mewp...........and sometimes even both on the same job.

 

.

[treequip]

Its kind of like using the stairs to go up 30 floors when there,s a lift

 

Well if you needed a bit of cardio, the stairs would be an option, BUT I can ride a lift all day, the stairs maybe till noon:laugh1: