MattyF

Maybe for access they are good but I would take an old Vermeer 252 over any of them and it can probs get in the same places but a few.. a lot safer and less hard work.

I really dislike those larger push style grinders like those Carlton’s and Raycos , usually any safety features don’t work , they are hard to use all day compared to a machine with hydraulic head sweep leaving the operator fatigued and taking risks , they have hydraulic drive forwards and backwards which is jerky and out of control at best, it always seems to be this style of grinder that is involved in these horrific accidents..

The hub is maybe a bit of an unnecessary expense as you can stick an extra leg or two on the steel figure of 8 if needed. Most of my rigging I will use the two fixed legs just as it’s quicker to set up and get sent back and keeps your eye in for balancing, if your really tight on targets and need the need to keep the limb level it’s easy enough to add a third adjustable leg on a Prussic , personally I prefer using a Kong ropeman but I do feel adjustable legs are a waste of time, if you get the balance points wrong from badly reading the limb it will still tip or drop.

Nothing wrong with what you are doing but the half hitch’s from my experience have a tendency to slip out if the bit your rigging gets unbalanced by the force of how it comes off the hinge as I’ve found with half hitches , also grounds folk who are not to clued up on knots can take an age untying when you get the lump on the deck. I have a heavy and light weight set up with a rigging hub with two 16mm lines with metal fixed eye rigging krabs as legs or a light set up of a metal figure of 8 with two 9mm rigging line legs, both can be clipped on when needed and save a lot of effort working out line lengths and 100% certain I know they won’t slip. I love them as I know I can go bigger as there is virtually no shock loading if the lots cranked up on the rigging bollard and it’s satisfying to watch but usually a tag line is needed to guide lumps in tricky situations as balanced lumps are not as easy to position in to a DZ as tip or butt rigged tree.

Don’t get where your coming from jack ,your upset about the word pikey being used and then your talking about chavs? An equally derogatory term if you want to play it like that. I have no problem with travellers , gipsy’s , hippys or what ever your upset about but I do have a big problem with thieves... in my mind set having had relationships and being brought up around many romany gipsy’s I would not call any of them pikeys or any of my hippy friends who prefer to live on the road but I can give you many examples most of which are too grim to talk about Infact fuck it I don’t really care the whole thing is far to depressing to talk about and why I moved to the other end of the country... organised rural crime in areas of the country I can assure you though is dominated by groups hiding under ethnic banners that sadly is a fact...

No I have not seen the program but I’ve seen 3 of my Chipper’s go missing and 40ks worth of My kit over the years and every one around me robbed , people murdered, raped , intimidated and threatened and some of the biggest organised crime and drug rings in that area never broken... and sorry it was definitely what I would describe as pikeys, I know exactly which ones some of them personally, the police know which ones and so do many others who have been victims I imagine. Now the term pikey ... I would describe as any one who in with that sect even the hanger on gorgers who love the money ,drugs and thrills associated with the life style that they will scout and sell or just be soldiers for them as they admire this misery inflicting life style .. let’s not get these people confused with Romany gipsies though, they have no respect for them either and they will be victims of there crimes as much as any one else they can take advantage of , most I’ve met have no Romany heritage , they just use the term traveller so they can claim human rights for harassment when they are being investigated or watched.

Hitch climber, rope wrench.. modern ropes , the bounce on 3 strand !

Hybrid pops just start falling apart at 30 years and a Scott’s pine will last for hundreds as woodland I know what I would choose . Maybe the population originally was artificially boosted the plantations as they have always been a rare bird.

That’s probably true these days j but I know they where planted for timber 30-40 years ago it was for that reason too , I did hear originally it was Bryant May who planted them for matches but every one got lighters , don’t know how much truth is in that but going back 10 years or more when they where ready for harvest no one wanted them the market had changed and folk where stuck with a load of 100ft plus trees no one wanted and where starting to decline ,I think if we got paid a few hundred for an Arctic it was good money most of the felling was done on habitat restoration from memory you could not of got the money back from the timber. I did start taking photos of all the trees I had seen fail due to hornet moth as I was told forest research said there was no link between hornet moth and stem /root decay and I had seen hole avenues and plantations blow over with moth holes and decay.

Poplar hornet moth was a big problem in some of the plantations in east anglia I’ve seen .. would not plant it on that basis really. Plus I found you could not give it away.

Thing is knives and guns have always been about but I do remember working in London at around 2000 on housing projects that where been filled with fresh out of Africa Somalis and Sierra Leone refugees ,these fellas where asking us if they could take wood off trees we where felling , sure we said expecting them naively to maybe make some thing artistic or productive but where greated the following morning with about 15-20 of them brandishing lumps of wood carved in to clubs and brandished with nails and spikes to greet us, nice guys but violence was a way of life where they came from and I don’t think for a lot it stopped when they came here ..can imagine there off springs potential grown up with that and shite housing. The other thing is there should of maybe been a stronger reaction by the government for the riots caused after Mark duggans death.

Best thing to do with London

Aye I came around the corner to face a low loader full of plant on my side of the road... the tyres where not in good nick and at 25psi which I’ve been told is well too low?

Have heard two opinions between tyre pressure some say 60psi others 30 after a disaster this week I’m interested to know what others are running there trailers at for road work.

Think the O.p is talking about using it as a climbing device on a secondary line, like I said because your using it with more loading the cam springs blow out a lot quicker than normal use .

Springs wear out too quickly from my experience, better as a work positioner as it’s designed for.

It’s bloody heavy but 2.5 or 3 “ at least you can re saw later or have some thing to play with and it’s summer apparently so it won’t distort as much

Good read mate.

Sadly though as with most things I can see rules for SRT being written in the future and as rescue plays a big part now in risk assessments on sites, maybe enforced as a suitable solution to the grey areas of SRT... I dunno but it to me is more of thing for folk who like playing with ropes who don’t actually do day in and tree work.

Don’t like others near my rope with saws and I don’t like the thought of a large falling branch hitting a taught line, I don’t like the forces envolved on an anchor or the extra rope in the system giving you more bounce .. base tying really for me is only an access thing if I can’t isolate anchor or uncertain of its suitability.

[emoji23]Which end Tommy ?

Clip the haas in to the hitch climber and not found that problem , has in the bottom , hitch middle and the tether top.

Dunno sam I hated it that much when I tried it again I went back to the neck tether.

Not what I was told by tree officers or lecturers and that’s not indicated on the governments web site unless you can show me evidence to the contrary.

Any tree can have a TPO placed on it ...also at the base of the two major primary limbs isn’t the greatest place to remove a limb,Scott’s pine like all species if an a large limb removed can be colonised by decay fungi if the final cut is poor. Seriously though you actually put advice about driving in steel nails and disallowing access to. Make some ones job un safer, harder and encourage bad pruning and bring those serious harm and damage to there equipment .. [emoji1304]