Marc

I feel we could forever go round in circles on this, my personal take is exactly what you say pass or fail it's as clear cut as that. Occasionally I am presented with kit that is hard to determine its trail, tags missing no proof of purchase presented etc, most modern kit is easy, there are unique codes imprinted which can give you the year and month of manufacture so can be used as a guide which in my opinion is good enough with no proof of purchase. At the end of the day I am not going to fail the rope that is in good condition and ffp that someone has taken the tag of because it would fit through his retrieval clip or wore off in use. I merely have a word make a note and we will continue from there.

Proof of purchase for the bit if kit bought with cash at the trade show 3 or was it 4 years ago:confused1: can't remember which Tesco's carrier bag it was stored away in mate. I really need my kit lolered because I'm on that construction site next week. Do I be particularly strict? Forever putting said climber off loler inspectors, or try to take a moderate approach and educate hoping to build a relationship ?

Sorry poor wording on my part, the point is should I fail kit that is fit for purpose but not uniquely identifiable or traceable? Or should I work with the owner of the equipment and make it identifiable/traceable from now on? Replacement cost is never a factor in determining if kit is safe!

Indeed, I've only done a very small amount of loler work, in that small amount I have seen a large amount of kit that is untraceable, as in spliced ropes without unique I'd even harnesses with damaged unreadable data tags. Should I fail this kit burdening the climber or company with a fairly large cost? Or make my own judgement as a person fit to do so, is it so black and white? A rope in good condition with a splice that looks and feels correct when compared to other splices of known quality is surely just that or is it:001_smile: I have touched, felt and used a lot of kit over the years to consider myself fairly confident about making a decision. No I,d or traceability before inspection then let's make it traceable from now on, maybe I am just renegade. But then I've only ever seen one failed splice and that was a bit or New England HiVee with a manufacturers splice sold by Fujikura fully traceable and certified.

Indeed do not be afraid to move the anchor point as often as you need to.

At the end of the day it surely is upon us as professionals to inspect our kit daily and keep in the loop so to speak if we use this type of equipment. For me Petzl have done a good job at keeping us informed. How many are still using the Kong rings, or treeflex shackles etc without being aware of possible circumstances where these items of kit may fail. And @Jomoco I understand exactly what your getting at, in this instance though I do not feel the piece of kit needs to be designed to flex in all directions, just look at other items of kit like the Uni or lock jack all are possible of being side loaded against their axis so to speak, it's upon us to climb safe when using these bits of kit and keep them properly orientated. All the failures in the field that I am aware of have failed on the non critical link with the lowest off axis leverage point, the one in the Petzl statement is an example of a failure done during extreme test conditions and was cut by Petzl to present the worst case scenario, they so far have not been able to replicate what is happening to a small percentage in the field, and as it's not in a critical place which would lead to life threatening failure so no recall has yet been made. Still not good and leads me to think its a manufacturing defect/design flaw, oh well here is hoping for an improved mk3 with no swivel rounded fair lead edges and a 3rd attachment hole a la Hitchclimber. Swivels are great, just on your harness I fail to see an advantage but hey it's super cool. And I'm not the Petzl ambassador that'll be Silky Fox

It appears to be failing at the lowest leverage point, and yeah I stand by my comment swivels on bridge connectors are pointless for the most part as we do not swivel on doubled rope systems.

A cam a year:sneaky2: most climbers I know are going through 3-4 a year. And swivels are fairly pointless. The Zig Zag is a fairly simple fit and forget device that is easy to get to grips with for climbers already used to the hitchclimber style of climbing. I know a few guys still on the mk1 ZZ that is showing only a little wear, so no reason why they cannot last 4-5 years maintenance free which makes it a good investment. For me though I find the zig zag to limiting and prefer the hitchclimber and the little tricks and good design that allow me to climb efficiently.

Like Mark I would think if your creating enough force to bend a spring putting a solid post through will cause that to lever in the tank thread and if you damage that thread future repairs could be difficult. Stubby's repair seems the best soloution.

I'd love a tree like that in my front garden, we recently felled a 250 year old one in someone's rear garden on a property of similar age and style, they bought the house especially because of the tree Kreutzmaria and a failed union was its eventual demise but they got 30years of enjoyment out of it. I'm all for huge trees in the Urban environment not some poxy flowering cherry. I've had to reduce a few hundred footers (and I mean genuine needed a 60m climbing line 100ft!) growing meters away from properties with the crown extending vast distances over fragile roofs what fun that is rigging it off. But alas we cannot all share that view, and if you do not want the tree the get rid if it's not protected, it's your potential purchase and your space who am I to judge you.

From my understanding, and having seen and tried the prototypes with buckles this was the whole idea, I do it understand why they changed the buckles and called it the light. They should of called it the tree motion Flow.

We have been beasting our 661 since it's release, having had the 880 stolen we have been using the 661 more and more occasionally with the 36" bar for the bigger stuff and 20 or 25" for everyday use, great saw easy much nicer to handle than the 660. As for porting modding whatever i have no clue we buy the saws stock and run them, wanting good reliable saws with minimum maintenance. We only ever had one issue, where it would cut out and not restart until it called down, this only happened a couple of times.

The new saw is a different machine, starts so much easier and is running well, fingers crossed this one will last, it's really gutsy on a 12" but I have only ever run 12" on my toppers as I'd rather switch to a bigger saw sooner.

Got my saw back, only took 5 weeks to replace the impulse pipe! Decent sized Sycamore take down to get stuck in, first tank all going well, second tank after first few cuts it stalls take a bit to get going, make a few more cuts stall and won't start without full throttle and dies on idle. To put it politely I was jolly well not impressed! Get onto the dealer and ordered a new saw it arrived at lunch nice friendly call back to say it's waiting for me, so after work I go in ask for the new saw I order and promptly shoved the mine on the table. I'm not waiting another 5 weeks! Let's hope this one does not let me down, the 2 201t's I have even using in the last 5 weeks have been absolutely stellar powerful quick to rev up easy to start and reliable, if this one goes on me I'm going back to Stihl!

What side of the tree is the damage, is it south towards the sun? Looks like it's been lifted heavily and possibly had shading removed so potentially sun scorch. I would not go with fire damage on that one. I would not say that the tree is compromised although the potential for colonisation has now increased I would not say it needs felling on safety grounds yet, easy for me to say from the comfort of my sofa.

From a fun sort let's play around with kit and ideas some cool stuff going on there. From a commercial this is what I do everyday perspective to fussy and kit intensive, the solutions I would use to negotiate that crown I could do with half the kit and effort. Still looks like fun and some nice toys you have there.

As a commercial climber I really think you cannot go wrong with a Hitch Climber, it is so versatile and tuneable with a few unique tricks up its sleeve. Lock/spider jacks, zig zags and a host of SRT devices are also all very good tools. Hell even a humble Prussik can be a simple efficient system.

I can confirm, that the impulse line was replaced on my saw. I am still waiting for my saw to come back! Hopefully it'll be back to normal.

Going back to Paul's original post, I understand where your coming from, and do think the handle assembly on the 201 has not been designed with the real world arborist in mind which is a shame. Although should they really design it to be bashed into things? I used the 201 for several months before that to got stolen, and myself and 6 others in that time never had an issue with running or durability, although we always clip it short and never drop our saws. As for the new 461 and 661 our initial impressions are that these saws are equal in build and ruggedness of previous models, although it's still early days to see if they will last several years hard labour like our previous 460's and 660's did before they got stolen. My t540 has already been a pain and had problems with reliability already, although when it runs I put it slightly above the 201.

with this and Mr Bingham refering to 2 static lines as DRT I'm sure confusion has jumped up a notch and is yet again another topic all by itself. The thing is with refering to static rope technique is I can imagine some getting confused with the type of rope used, as many believe we climb on dynamic ropes. Kevin sounds interesting, and I can get a picture in my mind that 2 single lines could make working from 2 separate ropes/anchors easier/efficient/safer than 2 ropes doubled which from my experiences was a pain in the ass and did not improve safety or efficiency in anything but the right scenario. I often used to climb with a 10m lanyard with the tail stuffed into a hip bag, using the full 10m to good effect in a single line config and I could easily make and additional lanyard using the spliced eye end of my climbing line with the hitch climber system mean I'd have 3 points of tie in and still have good movement to position.

Does this not make working a 3D tree difficult? I have used 2 anchor points in the past and will again I personally found it made working the crown more difficult and no safer than just using a single line and supplementary lanyard for positioning.

Yes my understanding is the same and just because you cannot find acops for single fixed line instead of a single line doubled does not mean its illegal or not approved. Fill in your RAMS as best you can with the information available to you and get on with it. Like you say most sites are now getting very hot on ensuring you meet industry good practice and as long as your package ticks the boxes I doubt very much they would be able to tell their schwabisch from their valdotain tress so crack on.

Umm what qualifications? There currently is none, just some extremely basic courses over a few days to teach you the very basics, after that it's down to you to improve and move on. It takes years and self motivation to improve otherwise we would all be climbing on prussiks and both ends of our line.

Quoted from another source ""Got mine back today. I'm surprised none of the gurus know about my problem. Apparently there's a bulletin out. The story I got is three weeks worth of production have intake issues with the 'impulse?' Line not being mounted properly on the throat/plate of the intake. Thus fuel supply lacks and it doesn't really run. Anyhow it's back and on the truck for tomorrow. Full warranty repair."" It was a pipe replaced on my saw, should get it back this week with more info on the repairs carried out that's 4 weeks I have been without my saw!

I,be heard reference of small batch of t540's having a faulty vent? Apparently dealers have been made aware of serial numbers of affected saws, I have no idea if this is true or just internet rumour. My 540 is in for repairs after leaking heavily around the carb area and having erratic running problems, to the stage where it would not start some days.