RC0

Ok so I thought I'd try the geckos one last time this morning, but with a more traditional style of boot. The difference was quite amazing....I felt none of the discomfort described earlier. Think I'd better withdraw that offer.

Steve & Steven, I have a size 9 boot and the medium size geckos FWIW. I know many people swear by them, and I dont like being critical of other peoples products, but I suffered them for 2 weeks and will never wear them again....in fact, I'll take the first £50 of anyone willing to drive to Macclesfield to pick them up - dont ask me to post them because its just not worth it to me.

The heal strap on the gecko sits so low and is in a fixed position, while the heal of the boot is curved so the the strap wont sit on it and constantly works its way under your foot (really anoying). Also, the gecko only has room for a relatively narrow sole (heaven knows why), which this particular boot isn't, so extremely uncomfortable. However, I appreciate the thinking that went into the boot design a whole lot more than that of the spikes, so I went back to buckingham after a week or so.

Not compatible with Geckos'

Burrel, you'll have to ask him. I think it was it was on the cards but I haven't spoken to Nod in a while. There's so much work involved with that sort of thing Tom, if you want to make a good job of it that is. I wouldn't completely dismiss the idea but its ceratainly not in my immediate plans.

Dont over look Don Blairs book: Arborist Equipment Book , excellent....but try and get the updated version. Best of all, for cutting and rigging is:Bailey's - Jerry Beranek Working Climber - Series Two available at treeworker, although not obvious on the website. Plenty to go at Tom

I narrowly avoided had a head-on with a drunken,landrover-driver farmer on a blind bend late one night. We were only in a Subaru estate, my wife and a child in the car. Upon approaching the bend, at the last second I noticed his lights were aligned on my side of the road....I hit the breaks, the high beam and the horn all at once. It must have woke him up, he swerved and missed us....had he not I dont reckon our chances were good. I got paranoid after that when driving at night, whenever under similar such driving condtions. So I decided I needed better protection and visability to others. I had a Ram for about a year and then downsized to the Dakota when I got my confidence back.

Comparatively speaking, it’s a baby compared to some but still has plenty of guts. There's a new hilux also in view at the end of the video....thats Andrews. He was attempting to pull a back-leaning tree on the same site some months earlier when he started spinning and sinking at the critical moment, all the builders were stood watching. Not only did i have to tow him out but pull the tree over at the same time, I'll never let him forget!

No its standard, and a 5.2 so you do have to keep an eye on the revs. I probably get about 22 mpg when I'm going steady.

There was both good and bad things about the model I tried. Not sure what has happened since I returned it.

Thanks again. Liam, I found some photos on an SD card. Some cosmetics to do here and there this month though. Rupe, the two sites were about 50 miles plus a week apart, and for two different contractors. The actual treework time didn’t take much more than a few hours on each, but there was much messing around before hand. Andrews job, (the taller tree) was at a building site where there was problems with access, parking, ongoing deliveries, and generally lots of people already in each others way who weren’t even told we were coming that morning. It was a real mucky site too, and with hail coming sideways before a saw had even been started, when it reached 9:30 (been there since 7:30) and no further forward, I was about ready to clear off. However, eventually things got sorted and the job went ok apart from the weather. The smaller tree had just expired an enforcement notice by a day and I was asked at quite short notice to help out. The location was quite a drive from my house so I requested a crane (budget allowing) to guarantee completion on the Saturday morning, which suited everyone involved also. We had a little trouble getting a car moved first thing, but eventually the owners dragged themselves out of bed and helped us out. The justification of the crane on both jobs was more to do with getting in and out within a specified time, and not so much the cost.

Thankyou. The vid was an easy one to edit only taking an hour late last night. Liam, Stephen, the pickup is a Dodge Dakota, had it for about 5 years now and its been very handy through numerous tree-related applications. SBTC, Dave D, I did hang from the crane to access the last, horizontal on the smaller tree. Really, it was the only practical way to put the slings where I needed them.

Here’s some headcam footage of 2 separate Horse Chestnut removals from earlier in the month. Watcheble but nothing new. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE1FotoApoU]YouTube - 2 Horse Chestnut / Crane Removals[/ame] Thanks

Spectacular work and video Ace:thumbup1:

Zimmerman, in person, is a very warm and funny guy Tim. He came over and introduced himself, but then proceeded to quiz me about a character called Grover on TB. Personally I didn’t get to see any of the Talks or Demos but I did manage to talk to many fine people over the 3 day duration. The exhibition centre was large, comfortable and jam-packed with goodies….and plenty of recognizable names and faces present. Obviously there was lots of super-sized machinery around, and while probably impractical for most of our domestic work, was still interesting to observe and examine up close. Baltimore is a City like most others around the world, large, loud and busy. Food on the whole was just awful….everything caked with salt. I wish I’d taken more photos but obviously the purpose of our attendance was work, so it just didn’t happen. I’d highly recommend the TCI expo to anyone who can afford to take the time out….I’m not suggesting that the displays are going to blow your mind or anything like that, but the characters, the personalities, the warmth that you’ll come across will win you over….at least it did for me. The two guys with me in the photo are actually Don Blair and Ken Johnson (Hobbs Lowering Device)....for two hours they listened to my waffle, talk about patience!

Apparently the attendance at the ISA was comparatively very poor this year Colin. Were you there?

Always double....more for security and stability rather than strength. Thanks

Well, I'll just have to be quick then. Al: Safer, faster and much easier all round. Same company Martyn but not always the same operator. Dave, the tree belonged to a school, who were obliging the neighbours request to remove it. The tree had been topped years ago which consequently led to the multiple stemmed form at about half way up. There was decay around the old cuts and a little at the base but not that bad. We measured the height against the crane to be around 110. The LA officer had no objections to its removal. Had it never been topped so severely in the past it would have been quite magnificent for its kind, by this stage in its life. Who's SWB ? Craig: The grass area was actually the School football pitch and falling the tree would have caused an unacceptible amount of damage. Also, we would have had to land it straight across the tarmac drive, so it was never an option. Thanks

Here’s a Lombardy Poplar we took down earlier this week. The lower half was full of dead ivy of which I had to cut my way through to get to the TIP. Many climbers might have opted to hitch a lift with the crane, but an access route needed cutting out sooner or later so I got that messy job out of the way first thing. Other than that, pretty straight forward, 50t crane, nice day for it etc. You’ll have to pardon me for not participating further in this thread, only I’m going to be busy for a few days. Thanks: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iwY-lrSmWU]YouTube - Lombardy poplar tree, crane removal[/ame]

SStree, I dont worry about cross loading no, not if its set correctly....although I stopped sing Karabiners in videos for fear of the technique being misunderstood. Morten, the rope was positioned to guide the rope off the stump, and as you can see it popped off nicely. I used the ground footage (and not the headcam) for that clip to add a little drama, because in truth the log was nowhere near me, so just an optical illusion really. Steve actually initiated the collision with the other spars because he didn't want the log to wrap itself around the trunk had he let it run.

Interesting job Reg, thanks for posting the vid. Just a few questions/observations...and seriously, dont bother answering if they seem pointless. 1. On the first cut, why do you make the back-cut left handed with the pull-chain? why not make the back-cut right-handed with the pushing chain? My body position was facing the log Tim, so I was more comfortable that way 2. Throughout the dismantle (seen at 2.24 and 6.04) you have both your lifeline and flipine totally above the block sling, why is that? It is difficult to pull the stretch out of those 1in slings when you’re tying them, so they’re are always going to be pulled down the spar somewhat upon taking the weight of the log….so if a person had his climb line positioned underneath the sling, it would inevitably get trapped and possibly damaged. 3. At 2.50 about 6/7 feet below your feet are those guide pulleys necessary? If you mean the Dshackles, then yes they are to make room so the falling logs can hit the spar and not the ropes. 4. When you start your climb back up the stem at 3.20 why not have one of the groundies pull the slack out of the system as you ascend? They were too busy talking. 5. See 3.48, when climbing, I've never placed a false crotch or anchor point above a notch on a single stem even on very wide diameters, and even if it meant i'd have a better work position for making the notch I still wont do it, are you 100% happy with the technique, if so why? On short logs like those then yes I’m 100% happy, but it had nothing to do with the cutting, just made it easier to position and tie the ropes. At the end of the vid it would've been interesting to see where the stem finished up, did it jump forward onto the pile of wood? Trust me it wouldn’t, because what you see is exactly where it ended up. cheers you're welcome

Sometimes I'll insist if its something tricky, dangerous or crane work for a company who are not too hot on that kind of stuff. The second log on the vid was the heavy one....and even though Gavin let it run a little, there was probably still 2500kgf on those slings just for a moment. Dont ask me to break that figure down. Marc they were heavy duty Dshackles. Thanks

Glad you enjoyed it guys:thumbup1: ShreksWB, probably a little less than it would take to rig the sections in two, although those 1inch dead eye’s are awkward to work with. YPudding, that’s Steve’s dog which I’ve asked him many times to leave in the truck. Buzz, it just sat there, I didn’t mean to end the vid so abruptly. TomD, its windows movie maker. Indeed Martyn, and for extra security. Losing one of those logs would have been a disaster, such was the steep bank down to the house. We had to be so careful even walking on top of the wall for fear of dislodging the stones and sending them rolling down the hill and through the lower windows of the house. Rowan, I am a freelance climber, have been for many years now….so it goes without saying that I’ve always had lots of rigging tackle, goes with the territory and comes along when you hire me. Needless to say, I rarely get hired to undertake ornamental pruning. I didn’t buy all that gear the day before just to do that one job….and seems as I already own it, I’m certainly not going to discard it if it’ll make my job easier and safer. I can well appreciate that video footage whether web or high quality doesn’t always give the viewer a true perspective and appreciation of scale, dimension and distance etc, so I personally try not to be so quick judge people and their chosen methodology as you have done here. So without judging you or your suggestions, what I will say is that if I’d asked another climber to go look at that job for real, with a view to fill in and finish it for me, and he favoured a similar method to that you suggested….I’d tell him he wouldn’t now be needed and good luck with the rest of his career. Are you saying I am stupid for lowering big bits of wood or the wood is stupid just for being big? And there were only 2 guys on the ground and not 3 as you implied. They cut up each stupid log while I was setting up for the next one…..surely it is more ergonomic (your term) to have 2 guys cutting up the wood on the ground as opposed to one guy doing it strapped to a tree stood on a pair of spurs?

Nothing big or exciting, but still had to be done right to stop any of the logs escaping and rolling down the hill into the house. Steve has a 1.5 ton Tirfor Winch set on the hill for pulling the logs. I didn’t think footage would be worthy of a video but upon playing it back it actually looked passable. Thanks. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60kSkXlglQA]YouTube - Rigging a spar[/ame]

Since our engineer is currently moving premises it has caused another delay, not a big one but I’d hoped the LDs would be available to the end user by now. Hey all 3 devices are excellent, only ours is cheaper and I’d say will take a bigger load, but does not have the lifting capabilities of the other 2. I just gotta get that Hobbs out from under my feet!