Cobra bracing

[Wood-be]

Fair enough, but cobra is designed to allow the tree to move so won't winching the stems in at the top will just put unorthodox stress on the Union that they aren't used to.

That's really interesting I've never seen failed steel bracing. What size bar was used? Was there plates and bolts too ?

Cobra is designed to do both to a degree. You can buy a static bracing system which is used for this exact reason. If you have a broken union you pull the two stems back together and bit more then install the brace and slacken off the stems. The bracing will take the weight of the stems. The only thing is nobody stocks that bracing system so using the normally bracing system without the black dong thing works just as well. The cables were something like 10-12mm thick cable. One was screwed in with big coach bolts and the other was bolted through.

 

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[Andymacp]

Yeah cable isn't the strongest. I would alway use threaded bar. Drill straight through and some large square washer. Never seen that fail and doesn't do as much harm to the tree as you'd think.

[Wood-be]

I have seen it done before but always thought it more damaging to the tree than cobra. At least with cobra you can inspect the whole sytem. How would you drill a hole about 6 ft up the truck and about 5ft long hole? This picture is of the first yew which has the most bracing. This is the one with the static brace in it. The damaged union goes from just above ground level to about 5-7 ft up (can't quite remember) you can see the leading stem and the damaged stem is behind that. how would you drill a hole 5ft deep in a yew?

 

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[Island Lescure]

With a rod welded onto the back of a drill bit

[Andymacp]

Lovely tree, glad your doing your best to retain it.

You climb up with a big petrol drill and a 5 ft drill bit. I did it to a big beech 5 years ago and the union hasn't budged since.

[Wood-be]

Lovely tree, glad your doing your best to retain it.

You climb up with a big petrol drill and a 5 ft drill bit. I did it to a big beech 5 years ago and the union hasn't budged since.

They had so much dead wood in it was a bit tedious but well worth doing. Don't you have to use 316 stainless steel or can you get away with hot dipped galvanised steel for the bar and bolts? It would be a bit of a shitter if the drill snaps half way through!

 

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Edited February 8, 2016 by Wood-be