Marc

Aye its nice to see proper RE-pollarding.

Ohhhhhh thats fighting talk, and being a snob i'm above that kind of thing. Your entitled to your opinion, lets not make it personal.

What tree was it Ben?

Yep tis all BS. Taken from my favourite Bosky t-shirt.

I did a climbing inspection on a mature Beech full of cable bracing, done over many years, there was all types, from bolts right through, to plain screw bolt, wire round the stem protected by hose pipe, and cobra. On some of the older systems on the big heavy laterals, which had prbably been in 15-25? years they had restricted the limbs movement so much that the cross section was oval, as in there was no up and down movement allowed in the branch only side to side so thats where the reactive growth happend. You could never remove that cable now as I doubt the limb would be able to support itself.

I hate really bouncy rope, I want less bounce, as its never the fall i'm worried about, its the swing! But rope truly is just rope, unless you have ocgd.

This is not the same hitch but it is a knot that will do the same thing. You will be shown how to tie the knot by the world expert in tying a truckers hitch. http://www.expertvillage.com/video/14327_knot-trucker.htm

The only pic I have, i'll have to look on the web for better tying instructions. I tied the the old climbing line on the top of a Beech trunk just out of shot, which was right agaisnt a fence and between shrubs and stuff, so we had to bore cut it, and its closeness to the fence made wedging/levering it over a little tricky. I've put a pulley in the system, you don't have to do that a biner will do or even feed the rope through the loop, the other part out of shot goes through another pulley attached to a tree then back through this pulley, so 2 pulleys in all for good advantage.

There is a big difference between XTC 12 and XTC. Saying that though I found XTC 12 quite soft and flexible, knots well and long lasting, its just a bit old school. I found Marlow a little hard and inflexible, which got worse with use compared to XTC, which meant it did'nt knot to well. Saying that though I always tied a bowline and never felt unsafe and the rope lasted me well. If I had a choice now i'd go for XTC for a 1/2 inch line. Really at the end of the day all climbing rope does the job, so don't get to hung up on it. If you really hate it buy another in a years time, and either use the XTC 12 for crappy tree's, as a litght lowering line, or cut it into 2 short lengths for small trees.

That would be cool! I'm getting sick of the stopper knot on my lanyard getting stuck in forks or wrapping itself round the tail of my rope or chainsaw (even though I have my saw on my right and lanyard on my left) The ditty bag is the tidiest way on having your lanyard i've seen, and the mini prussik is the tidiest way of choking your lanyard, I forgot to mention when I choke my lanyard i'll attach the other end to my bridge and use it as a secondary anchor. I'll have to post pics sometime.

What I really like but have'nt got round to setting up yet. Is to have a long 5/7m lanyard made out of some 11/10mm line, make a tiny prussik with 8/6mm line using a small plastic thimble tied with a sliding fishermans or similar, you need to tie the prussik first then slide the end of your line through it. Now tie you fishermans and stopper knot and use a basket type hitch like a compact VT. Have a ditty bag on your harness to store the excess line and stop it getting snagged or dragged about the tree. The idea with the compact prussik is you can put the end of your karabiner round a stem and clip into this so that you don't side load the biner. The rest of the time its redundant. It will then give you a 7m long secondary anchor. Obviously its used as a single line and is more for stabalising yourself in those tricky to reach places. Not a new idea I know but i'd never seen it used untill recently, and will deffinetly be using it in the future.

From the wear i've seen I would'nt say it constitutes a risk/hazard that makes the harnesses use as ppe dangerous. Its like all our kit, it can wear, I know climbers who wearout the bridge on a butter/dragonfly in less than a year, others in 5, it does'nt make the harness unsafe to use.

I was merely trying to point out that I think its still an excellent product, and I in no way think its sub-standard, i'd like to make that clear. I know there are guys climbing with a treemotion and have had no issue's. I was just voicing my opinions on the hardware, it does seem they are improving the slight fault/flaw, and they are fixing anyone's harness that is showing signs of premature wear. You can't ask more than that on such a piece of equipment.

Or a grcs it may be twice the price of a tirfor but more versatile

In that case i'd use a carters hitch which is easily set-up on a single pull line (does'nt work to well with 3 strand), Or a compact fiddle block, I have 2 small isc double pulleys one with a becket, ready set-up on some 10mm rope its light and takes up little space.

Love the snowman and snowwoman, looked like fun, no snow here just wet and cold pah!

Hmm I don't have a problem with it, it may catch occasionally but its never a worry, I did find using the middle hole better. I use an incredibly small hitch set-up the top wrap is just over an inch or so above the biner, about the same height as the whipping. I also was tieing a bowline which had the potential to foul the hitch a lot. But it would never send me plummeting, it just would'nt grab and i'd have to adjust it by hand. I would give up on looking for a longer karabiner, and maybe try a different hitch, something like a knute.

Bodgit N Leggit Tree Services "No job to small, no bill to big"

I'm still going to get a treemotion in the near future, unless something radically better comes out, its a top harness no matter what I think of the ali connecting hardware, i was just thinking out loud.

Or one of everything, I work with all manner of big kit and a little loader is still an amazing bit of kit in my eyes.

I have been loaned a pair of Kong double accendors, I just use them to footlock a doubled line into the tree. I don't back them up with a knot, I just use them as they are, with a sling larks footed to the accendors then larksfooted to a normal 3 way biner to my harness. The Kongs have a latch to hold open the cams to make installing the rope easier, when closed the latch also prevents the cams from opening far enough for the rope to drop out. Still its a good idea to use a small accesory biner in the properly postioned hole as a back up to preventing the cams open. Also i've seen others use 2 shackle between both halfs of the double accendor, this is back up in the unlikly event that the rivets should fail and cause the 2 parts of the accendor to seperate.

Absoloutly, but it still give you more usefull payload than a 7.5t with crane, but with added benefits, otherwise your looking at bigger kit. And Lee you'd be surprised how a good operator can load a 7.5t truck using an avant, you are limited by reach, but use your head and you can load on some pretty big bits of timber, plus an Avant - CSF or similar is half decent offroad so can get places a 7.5t can't to extract the timber. There are plus and minuses to any set-up. If I had my own buisness i'd go down the 7.5t route and loaders, far more versatile than Mogs, grab trucks and other 4x4 in my opinion. I'd have a 7.5t for chip and cord, 3.5t as a support vehicle to tow loader and carry kit. Last guy I worked for banned me from posting pics of his Avant in action as he was afraid others would get one and then he'd lose his edge. So tell no one o.k!!!!

Why not a 7'5t without crane? and an Avant or something to load the cord wood with, the plus side is that an Avants more versatile.

12 years:scared: I would'nt want my harness to last that long A: it would mean i'm not working hard enough, and B: I could'nt wait that long to buy that latest greatest super ergonomic harness that will make me climb so much faster and in more style than my last.

I've looked at the joining ali hardwear on 2 first run saddles, and can see no burr, i'd be shocked if there was a burr on such and item as this. What I do see is a tight radius and slightly sqaure edge (I assume this is what has been refered to as a burr). On the saddles i've seen one has had twice as much use, yet the other is less used is showing more wear, I put this down to how the sadle is adjusted for the wearer and his climbing style. Something that would be hard to pick up on in research and development. The only way I can see to prolong the life of the leg straps is to redesign the joining ali hardwear to allow a larger radius, kind of like what you see on a treemagic or butterfly, not through better polishing as that looks fine to me. I know a little about burrs and finishing as I spent nearly 2 years doing exactly that kind of job with all materials for formula one teams and scientific establishments.