Marc

My guide all the way, less heavy lumps of metal and more consitent retrieval.

Persian Iron wood, Parrotia. A variety of Silver Birch, : nice trees not to imposing and always let through a nice amount of light. Variety of Sorbus Cornus mas Or smaller like and Acer grisiam, or Snake bark maple.

I drive a U900 probably not as plush as yours its a real relic and NO ONE like driving it except me. It has a 4 speed box and torque converter gear box, the levers in the U900 i drive are as follows: In the far right corner the air brake, in front of that forward and reverse lever, the very front the gear lever (which is obvious), in the middle just behind the gear lever is the high and low lever. The in the top left corner closest to your leg should be the PTO engage lever try not to drive with the PTO engaged, behind that the 4WD/diff locks. Fully down is I assume 2wd and the normal driving position, up one notch is 4wd/center diff lock, all the way up 4wd/full difflock. Our U900 you have to put into low range only for reverse 4 gears. Yours could be different. Its dead easy to drive once you get the hang of it.

Pikey and proud.

I use the BC100xl its a good machine it has the Deutz engine. Its not the greatest limb breaker because of the one feed roller, although we do occasionally stand on the pin that sticks out of the side of the roller to put more weight on it to pull tough brash through.

I have another way of looking at it, that tree did'nt look like an ideal fracture tree, its not over mature it does'nt already have large tears, wounds, cavities or dead and its not in old age recline. It simply looked like it had a flaw in its base and was still a young healthy Oak. A more conventional prune would of maintained this trees aesthitic appeal and retained it as a valuble ammeniety tree, after all that Oak is probably 60 years old at least, a new replacement tree would of taken another 60 years to regrow so retention is a very good thing. With constant monitoring that flaw could eventually turn into an intresting feature, i love trees with historic wounds and flaws after all nature isn't perfect. As you have pointed out natural tears can give rise to increased vigour and density which could increase the sail area more rapidly, where as a conventional prune done well would not with the added benefit of looking more natural to the untrained dog walker. Still its intresting to see other alternatives being used and i am very intrested to see how it responds.

It has to be said you take your life into your own hands when walking the dog, at any moment a killer tree could pounce and wipe you out. Thank god for us arborist prolonging the life of dog walkers everywhere.

Big chippers are highly productive but you also really need big rigs 7.5ton and bigger really, you also need a way of getting the bigger bits into the chipper like a loader of some sorts or many guys. With an 18" bandit and mini loader we would fill a 7.5t in around 20 minutes. Another benefit is less cord wood to deal with. If your talking about less than 10" say a 9" Jensen it just makes life a little easier and quicker but think of your groundie dragging brush and feeding chippers conifer allday is very hard and back breaking work, maybe the flop em over quick idea then both of you feeding the chipper is the most ergonomic and effcient way.

I think atree is refering to the new RG's which use a soft eye instead of a ring and a plastic widgit to hold the soft eye open, they look like they should retrieve easy but have not tried one.

That hitch looks quick! tried an italian hitch after seeing one climber use it looks very similar, it should of been called the suicide hitch.

Deffinetly each to his own!

Give it a good crown raise then tip in the laterals as much as possible and leave the top. That should make a big and immediatly noticable improment to light levels, plus i like the look of clean steams on Beech. I hate these kind of jobs height reduction will never give the light levels the client wants unless you butcher it.

You need to find out what type of knee pain it is, is it rheumatoid ahritis/arhtritis or your ibial tibial band which is tendonitis? I have ITB and found voltorol or deepheat gave relief, i also take supplements. I've also changed the boots i wear or had orthotics stuck in other boots/shoes

Here is my rope guide, the splice on the ring is cover dependent to lie flatter, and the 2 tenex splices together are fatter than the sides of the pulley which helps it pass through the ring. It retrieves far easier than the older web'd art rope guides, it gets stuck no more than a traditional ring'd saver. Why use thick cord Atree? I don't think it makes a difference just my personal preference, as its lighter and to me more tidy.

Being a butcher takes skill. Anyway that tree looks previously top'd the second topping could be called renovation?

For the retrieval part try some thinner cord then girth hitch it to the legs of the prussik that holds the cocoon. This helps a little when retrieving as it will be pulling directly on the cord that holds the cocoon.

See i can't help but think more along the line of YMCA, I know the big guy loves it and will often start signing along.

And readily hireable from most decent hire centers. Used to use a grapple bought from Ed to feed conifers into 18" chippers so productive and so little effort, plus they are not as expensive as you'd think.

Ditto that, Cedars are not always easy to reduce and it really looks like you got out there to those tips.

i'd say no

Nice pics arob.

Just looking through some of my old pics, come across this one of a Mog rig i used to work alongside, awesome big tree machine if a little impractical for pretty much everyything else.

You got to be carefull with Piptoporus on Birch they can often look sound rom the ground then you get up there and find because of Silver birch bark properties (they make canoes out of the stuff) it can be perfectly preserved but inside be nothing but dust.

Toprotter that VT set-up looks like it will not grab reliably try another braid or wrap, also i'm not a fan on spliced prussik waste of money in my opinion. That beeline looks to long. I had fairly bad tendonitis in my right arm a few years back, using a prussik and body thrusting used to cause me some discomfort. I found it was a lopsided way of climbing, as i would pull with both arms then hold with my right at around hip height putting pressure on my right elbow and favouring only my right side. With a tending hitch distel/knut/vt I can pull above my hitch and head in a more balanced position then hold my position with my left arm locked straight whilst i tend the slack with my right. My tendonitis no longer gives me problems..

Don't worry about it you've bought it now, its all a learning experience, what you've got works and will do its job if your not happy with it try something else when it wears out.