MattyF

Where do you start!

If you have worked your arse off all week and are good at your job and probably booked up in advance for months and on a Sunday some Gollum looking cunt on a Vespa wanted to take your time up for a job not even worth your teams money for the day, I would of made my excuses too... at least he had the decency to tell you , In fact I can think of so many reasons why but at least he told you the evening before he was not going to be there... here is my take on what happened, you went out , got plastered , ignored your phone when it rang for him to cancel. Got up and went to the place you had agreed and waited ... waited a bit more ,feeling like a french man had done a shit in your head and wishing you had never gone out whilst looking at your phone after about an hour of waiting realised you had a message and listened to it ....after forcing yourself with a raging hang over to drive or ride out on the Vespa you cracked and had a rant on a arb forum about how lame people are. He could of had football with the kids. His misses could of said I haven’t seen you all week and if you go and look on work on Sunday I’ll be pissed off. He could of heard about how hard you are from all the time you have done that you keep going on about that he was too scared to meet you..... my bet is on any of those..... Just saying whilst hiding behind my dreadlocks.

Too many gaps for sawdust pete

I think for the money it would be a great start to using pretensioned lines ... you can rig with out but it does open up a lot more possibilities. I’ve only looked at the 3001 when reg was doing demos at the APF years back and it looked a capable bit of kit.

There is that but once you start using one you won’t go back.. opens up a whole new dimension to rigging , I haven’t used a crane in years as a result so although the initial thing investment is expensive all money going back to you instead of the crane company or speeding up a job makes it worthwhile.

Depends on the tree don , more often I do but I just don’t understand why it’s an issue. I’d rather not though carry more than necessary.... that includes spare krabs nd the like.

I’ve gotta go back to this ! Is this really a thing that bothers people ? I will take a 150-2511 up on most trees but I’m phucked if I’m gonna drag anything bigger around whilst setting up a big tree for working... never have and never will. What does pish me off is ground guys who have no organisation skills, leave ropes in awkward places that snag rigging, or can’t be bothered to move my climbing ropes and cut up stuff over the top of it and stand there in there phones when you send a saw down for refuelling ... useless little shits , these deserve getting yelled at so that every one in a mile radius can hear what I think of them, it does help maintain that image of a prima Donna climber ... the screams then continue in to just a tirade of abuse as the day continues and I can blame the bastards for all my errors of judgement made whilst climbing... gotta love some team work.

£1200 for a days work on Kew green finished at 3 thanks to a cheeky stunt fell and some large snatches ... one of those jobs I’d priced by photos and the tree was over a 3 story house , driving over Kew bridge I saw it in the flesh for the first time and thought wtf have I done! Went all smooth though. .. there next quote was 3k ! G man on the stick, happy days ! Think the most profitable job I ever did was days stump grinding , mate had rigged his big Vermeer with a kubota engine out of a chipper after the original had blown, 70 stumps at £30 stump did the lot in one pass then dropped the dozer blade and back filled in the second pass , done and machine returned by 4.

Another good way of making things easy is if you know any lads in to forestry or firewood and the site allows is leave the trees in lengths and get them to pick it up with a tractor forwarder based unit.. I would always give a friend a call if the trees allowed and there was one or two trailer loads , always gives you an edge pricing and if your bunging that’s a drink was worth while every time.

Sorry I didn’t read that you had to ring and stack , I still take the avant to jobs if there is a lot of rings to move a distance but it would probably not worth the hassle if there is a couple of you with barrows .. just remember to include the time it takes to rake up the saw dust ... better if you can put sheets out but there will still probably be a truck load of saw dust and rakings up to take away. I do like using the avant if there is only three of us as if there is only three of you the avant can drag whole limbs to the chipper and move a Stack of cord once processed.

I think no two people will quote the same or more to the point do the job the same , personally I would go in with a minimum of a 4 man crew and expect to be out by day one. My ideal crew would be 5 and consist of a decent lead climber , a decent second climber on the rigging, a well greased up saw operator to handle what’s been rigged out and guide tag lines another who can drive the avant or skid steer and share the tasks of general chipping and tea making duties... that’s in an ideal world and I would expect to be raking up at 4pm and the customer writing the cheque... alternately you could drag it out with three of you on site for a few days and that’s usually how it ends up being done for me.... then you end up with the monsters that’s take 5 of you 2 days. Enjoyed climbing that tree mark .... well maybe finishing it as it was the stuff nightmares are made from but you and Shaun where absolutely spot on with the rigging keeping it smooth on a tree that was not easy, along with the grumpy Northumbrian on the JCB.

Yeah get where your coming from , if it was my sole business I would maybe look for some thing similar but Ive never found them too limiting ,not needing brakes I feel more controlled in grinding situations ..last three serious grinder accidents that have appeared on the forum are from the same style machine , that would indicate they are either more popular and used more resulting in the inevitable or easier to over ride which Most of us would of seen done ...personally I just don’t like them.

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 !

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.