Lowering techniques help

[Ste1993]

Can anyone tell me how to lower branches so that they fall flat as opposed to butt/tip end up. I have seen it done before but cant for life of me figure out how to do it

[Will Heal]

You have to cradle it. Put 2 slings on the branch to lower away from each other so it will balance when it is cut and clip them both to the end of the rigging line.

I'm sure some one will have some pics or drawings of it and explain it better than i

[silky fox]

Cradle the limb Using slings to balance.

[Mick Dempsey]

In the mid 90s they taught us to us a single rope, clove hitch nearest the trunk, then a half hitch further out reconnecting back to the line with a munters ( I think) tbh it didn't work well. Two slings sounds a lot better.

Out of curiosity why do you want it to come down flat?

[swinny]

In the mid 90s they taught us to us a single rope, clove hitch nearest the trunk, then a half hitch further out reconnecting back to the line with a munters ( I think) tbh it didn't work well. Two slings sounds a lot better.

Out of curiosity why do you want it to come down flat?

 

I was taught with just the rigging rope, no slings slings are easier at times though

[Mick Dempsey]

In hindsight I think the half hitch was meant to slip to balance the limb, in those days we only used big three strand bull rope, which didn't slip. I never had much success with it. Much easier to rope it down in a few pieces.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Mick Dempsey

[MattyF]

This is my cradle system , quick and easy to set and it's far easier than tip roping if your using a Hobbs /grcs type device for getting limbs off roofs or targets and you can take huge limbs out in one go rather than 2-3 bits you would of had to do tip or butt roping.

Interestingly We have been playing with this system lots on defective trees and it puts a lot less shock load than tip or butt tied ropes one example is after dismantling a whole tree on the cradle I butt roped one limb and it tore out the rigging anchor despite been about third the size of the average limb we had been taking out cradling.

[Ste1993]

In the mid 90s they taught us to us a single rope, clove hitch nearest the trunk, then a half hitch further out reconnecting back to the line with a munters ( I think) tbh it didn't work well. Two slings sounds a lot better.

Out of curiosity why do you want it to come down flat?

Cheers for the help.

As mentioned before I have seen it been done and the branch seem to come down very under very good control instead of the end of the branch taking a nose dive

[Gray git]

Far easier to have a 2-3 metre length of rope with 1 end tied round your lowering line with a Blakes hitch which makes it very adjustable, problem with slings is if there too short they can effectively 3 way load your crab on the lowering line as the angle can be steep but with a longer rope section there is no crab and the angle can be shallower.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Gray git

[Roylance1988]

Yeah I did my 41 earlier on in the year and they still teach you to just to use the rope. 2 clove hitches spaced out along the branch , then back up to the rope and tie a bowline which forms a triangle.

In my ISA art & science rigging book it has a method of using a separate peace of rigging rope(say 7meters) running bowlines at each end on to the branch, the use a prussic loop in the middle of that peace of rope. Then you can find the perfect balancing point.