RC0

Comments ! Thanks boys. Was beginning to feel really unpopular : ) Paddy. Dont really shut down altogether mate, but get very few enquiries. Tim, maybe a bit more at a guess. Perhaps the cuts were a round the 200 mark. 200ft rope was just off the ground i believe. Hard work yes, very intense....but still better than messing around in back gardens.

A few clips from Monday. Not the most imaginative vid, but a sense of scale at least

Old Douglas firs develop this horrible thick crumbly bark. Sometimes 10 inches deep. When your saw hits it, it gives of this very fine dust. Different tree but you can see the cloud it creates. Not nice in the lungs

Thanks. I usually carry a protein bar or something. I did come down at 1pm for a drink on this occasion

No mate, 3 of us. And no, I sold the last BD years ago. The rounds were getting hard to push at the end, but still manageable.

The brace looked maybe 5 years old or less, maybe. Yes I went back on my own the next day to saw and clean up. Took a truck load if sawdust out

This one was tall for the location, 150 - 160 approximate. Id postponed it a couple times now due to bad weather and being a man short. Eventually we got it organized.

Probably worth a mention is a guy line on the back side as an extra measure you could add....for a heavy top on a whippy or suspect stem.

I wouldn't bother with the tie off at the bottom of the tree unless your intending to catch the log with a seperate system, then winch up the zip line so you can send each load out to the maximum distance away, controlled zipline in otherwords. Putting the redirect from the top to bottom is better for the rope, but not so good on the stem, as others have said. Breaking the stem by side loading is a bigger concern than breaking the rope, if you had to choose one over the other. Re: Side loading depends on the line angle. For an uncotrolled zipline, If you start as a vertical, the forces are nonexistent until the log hits the ground at which point it will jolt the line, depending on how it bounces. At 45 degrees, you'll perhaps still only get a slight wobble on the tree because its still basically free falling with a little bit of guidance from the zip line. At 90 degrees youre obviously starting to side load the stem a little, but the rope will stretch, as will the stem bend, so it wont really be 90 degrees even if you set it up that way. Beyond that angle, cut smaller. The lad who mentioned the rigging device as the tie-off at the landing has the right idea. Its actually way faster than conventional negative rigging, so long as you have somewhere to land the logs. Start small so you can gauge the deflection in the stem and stretch in the line. Rigging rings are good for this because they can't get misaligned. Good luck

Yeah its with the guy now. Hes a retired mechanic of 40 years. I told him Im not in a rush for it, but I should have it back within a couple of weeks.

Couldn't actually tell you right now, as I dont have it here. Ive insured it for 7000kg GCVW including chipper. Should be enough.

More than likely Its a can of worms mate. For that reason I wouldn't sell it you

Its about 20-21 feet at a guess. Has the small flip-up seat at the back so not quite as long as the full size cab. Dually style pickups (6 wheels) are generally Transit size, comparably.

The Ford has a few imminent jobs required over the next year or so. Not cheap either, so, I dont really want to put any more money into it at this stage. Cummins engines can go for 500K miles or more, and have a tone of power. May as well bite the bullet before the end of the tax year.

New (old) Truck. 99 Ram 4x4. 5.9 cummins diesel. Will put an 8x9ft tipper on. Show you when its done in a couple weeks.

One rigging line set high up in my tree. One pull line running through a redirect at 30 ft up the adjacent tree. When the limb reaches the redirect and clear from the wires, both lines sort of share the load to let the limb down somewhere in the middle. I think you've got it.

The limbs were hanging right where the wire meets the pole....so no scope to pull the wires away at that point, and the pole was totally rotten too. The problem with the tag line was you couldn't physically position yourself in the right spot or distance to pull the limbs clear, because the ground just dropped away down to the beach. But setting a pull line at 30 ft in the adjacent tree gave us both the right direction and line angle. Hope thats clear

Thanks. About 120, Steve. No intercoms Darrin. I do have radios, but maybe once a year they come out

Tricky one due to the wind and wires, and the house underneath obviously. Had to set the tag line part way up a neighbouring tree to steer the limbs clear of the wires. Beautiful location. Saw a pod of Orcas....but the wind was very cold believe it or not.

Thanks all. I heard it estimated at 400 years, then elsewhere upto 700. So its anyones guess really. Its a big thumping tree thats for sure. But im sure theres taller that ive walked past within the area. My friend Scott had a little climb, but didont get far before we ran out of time. But its a good scale pic at least

Its just short of 4 hours drive and 3 hours hike from where I live. Pretty cool place when you get there. If you're on a phone make sure your youtube quality is set to 1080. Thanks

When I first started rigging all we used was heavy duty thimbles for negative rigging. Inferior to x rings, I should add....but never had issue with them nonetheless. I think the recommended bend ration is 4.5:1, or something like that I cant remember exactly.....so the further/outer part of the line isnt doing all the work. But we also know when a rope is pulled hard against a surface it actually gains in strength. When a line runs through an x ring or thimble it rotates too. Does that help the situation ? I don't know. What i do know is that ive ruined enough bushings on expensive, branded, heavy duty blocks within an unacceptable time frame or cycles to failure. If I never ran into issue with thimbles, I doubt Ill have any with rigging rings. And, you can add as many rings as you like, but it wont change the curvature where the line enters and exits. No doubt it lessens the wear on the rings over time. This is not advice....its just how I feel about the situation. I really dont anticipate running into any problems but will let you know if they occur.

Let me get back to Joe, just leaving town for a couple days mate. About to lose signal

Thanks. And no, I haven't noticed any. The knot at at the end sort of holds it away some, particularly a cows hitch which is quite bulky. That and the momentum of the log which is projected out as well as down. Watch the closeups again near the end.

Big job. Good vid