rbtree

This double trunked 105 footer was over a native Indian retreat house in Medina, Wa., just a mile or so from that retiree Billy Gates' "modest" (see footnote) spread.....Zero drop zone. A fence and a row of cypress under as well. Then a driveway area leading to two more good customer's homes, lined with some nice trees. That drop zone was 20-25 feet wide. Meant everything but a few twigs had to be speedlined. Lower limbs had to be swung and lifted, utilizing a high speedline tie off, the limbs tied out a ways, and a bight in the line, which allows the load to be lifted and/or swung around. GRCS was used on a few limbs to assist, if I recall. Mostly the portawrap was all that was needed for the control/lowering line. We tensioned the zipline with the chipper winch, after the upper limbs were cut, and during for those that needing swinging/lifting. We had our old PW 1 as the interface. On some zips, you can see that the PW was too far away from the chipper, which meant the slung limbs came up against it, which threw a minor monkey wrench in our fluidity. (Our 9/16th double braid full static no stretch line is the cat's meow for these applications) I got no photos the second day, when we finished brushing the trees and craned the logs. [ame] [/ame] *Actually, Billy's spread was prolly approaching a value of a cool $200 million, before the RE shakeout.....

Hmm...reckon you missed my many related posts on the Yank forums. My woods ported 192T will cut darned near as fast as a stock 200T,and faster than some stock older 335/338's........had mine for over two years...prefer not using it for removals---not same build quality as 200T. The light weight is its best feature. Like it so much, I picked up another one....it will only get a muffler mod.

That's you....some drink and drive....I drive and shoot....but do try to limit my phone activities whilst pursuing life-on-the-wild-side..my fav spot to do this is on the Sea to Sky Highway on the way home from Whistler Mt, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. A side note is this: That highway, which has been undergoing improvements to the tune of over $1 billion for years and years now, recently suffered a huge rockslide. I don't know how long the road was closed, but it meant that all traffic had to detour a very very long way around. Disclaimer, no live ammo used...what once was Fujichrome is now just a funny lookin' square plastic chip. but what is used is common cents..errr, verrrry little of that, eh?!

Hilarious.....You guys are makin' me sides ache.....

Here's a link to an ongoing thread at Treebuzz. Quite an influx of work lately, hard for me to find time to even copy the posts and pics over....Reckon I could, if ya'll twist my arm. http://www.treebuzz.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=136984&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1 A teaser or two.... There's 131 more pics here: Stand by for the video....there's one up at the Buzz that Mike Oxman shot...and a teaser that ya'll will love.....tandem ball riders in the sky....

Aw, that lil sapling was barely out of diapers.... here's a real sitka... http://www.guidesign.com/olympic/rfsitka.htm nice work though! and an impressive tree for an import.

You're a funny guy.....

That is debatable. Tell it to the hordes of rock climbers. They use them. I know they are not code for an arborist's life support, but, in the hands of a competent person who pays attention to detail, they are safer than autolocks, which can be opened accidentally.

Got the job...The story is at treebuzz and the Treehouse....Craning the sticks Monday. Slide show here...video upcoming..

I've done a heck of a lot of speedlining over the years, using many different techniques. You MUST be aware of the forces generated on anchors with a tight or tensioned speedline. They can be many times the load, and go up exponentially as the line bend angle approaches zero. We do use equipment to tension sometimes, but are aware of the sideloading...If a high tie point on a small stem is required, then consider guying back the speedline if at all possible. This can be to another tree in its canopy, or to the ground.

nylon??? I started on manila..... I think I did a little climbing years ago on that early dynamic rock rope,Goldline....very stretchy nylon...aarrghh. no good for tree work!

Right, Steve. If the tree is healthy, they're no problem. Just be aware of the wood strength issue. Tip tying limbs and lowering butt first makes tight quarters work a breeze with poplar. Need a tag line/winch line to yard out the long limbs when they're butt heavy. There's a yahoo here in town that bid $12000 on 3 of 'em....no drop zone.....148 feet tall, 5-7 feet on the butt. possiby 120 tons of weight! Some out of town crane service thinks they can do the job....don't know how--only 20-24 feet between the two houses--is this enough for the counterweight to swing? If he sets the 90 ton up further from the trees, (they brought a 50 ton, but it wouldn't work, don't know how the 90 will be any different) then the boom will be closer to the primaries behind him. At least two crane companies in town said they couldn't do the job...well the brush anyhow. It will take 2-3 days at least to do the job with a crane, plus well over $2000 in disposal costs to have the junk wood trucked. That's $6000-8000 in expenses. aarrggh... I didn't get a chance to bid on the job. A friend guessed at $20k, but didn't finalize his bid when he couldn't line up a crane. He was thinking brushing the trees out, as I was, after inspecting the site..them bringing in a 23-30 ton truck mount crane for the lower big wood, as the radius would be only 20-30 feet. This would require a crane which has back outriggers that stay in relatively close, as some boom trucks do. I'm hoping they can't do the job, as I'd like the challenge, as would some associates.

Dang...is there even 50% live canopy left? What's the tree gonna think? at least it ain't fracture pruned.

Nice thread! Not sure I'd seen it before. I'll weigh in with my thoughts. I've had a Hobbs for 10 years or so, a GRCS for 4-5. My Hobbs is the older version with a larger drum, but no fairlead for the rope to tail on after it leaves the drum. I could and should retrofit one. The Hobbs is a great unit but only better than the GRCS for one thing, and that is butt hitching heavy loads. The capstan on the GRCS is not designed for lines over 5/8th, in fact is only optimal for lines up to 9/16th. Therefore, you can only fit 3 wraps if using 3/4 inch line, which is best if butt hitching loads over 1000 pound or so. And 3 wraps may not be enough. So, you say switch to the fixed bollard? Sure, but then you lose a key feature of both the GRCS and Hobbs--rapid slack removal. When butt hitching, it is key to limit shock loading, and the ability to quickly pull slack while the piece is tipping over is needed to reduce the freedrop before braking action is applied. That said, if I can avoid butt hitching, I do--there's usually an alternative----making a bed out of tires, brush, etc, or a vertical speed line if the only reason for lowering is due to there being a hill and wanting to keep the log from bounding away.... So, for all other procedures and tasks that arise in tree work, the GRCS is the better tool. Note to the above, there's a lot of people that do a lot more butt hitching than we do....maybe they feel comfortable lowering 1000-1500 pounds with 9/16th rope (13k tensile), or 5/8th (15,500) . I guess I do, since a good rope man should be able to keep the shock loading in check, and that's well within 10-1 SWL's.....but I guess I get a little nervous with smaller lines and butt hitching. Anyhow, the GRCS drum will accomodate 4 wraps with 5/8th rope, and that should be enough for pretty heavy rigging.

I don't understand the reasoning behind that "dogtooth" cut. Why not, after boring the backcut, just cut straight out the back. simple as can be, works like a charm....unless you have placed wedges, then you have to cut above them. Or, leave a triangle of holding wood, with the apex directly behind the desired felling direction, and the corners just cut out. Then finish with a fast straight backcut. Works about as well as bore cutting. Or cut slower if you're righting a back leaner...this is prolly a better method for that scenario than bore cutting, which results in a fast release when the strap is finally cut. Then, there's the Coos bay cut for heavy head leaners....no face cut at all......wow, never done or seen one done, but want to. Just two deep kerf cuts on either side of the tree, and 90 degrees off the direction of lean...then cut the back.. and fast!

Hey Pete, we meet again! I'm now ordering my rigging lines with eye splices which will pretty much preclude use of a termination knot on the spliced end. A shackle will of course be the choice for heavy loads or butt hitching. And, I stopped by Ben's today. He'll have new 1/2 inch line for me in pronto!! I've been putting that order off for quite some time!

Not sure I like the LineBoss, but I saw one of the fellas involved with it at the Portland TCC a month ago. He's retired from treework.....I hung from a saddle and tried it at the Hawaii conference. The website was down for months. He said they were tweaking the design. $425 is about what Thane told me they'd cost. My guess is, they'll not sell very many....

Oh, I know, guys. Good eyes, too! That line is overdue for replacement. But that nick isn't super bad. Prolly no more than 10-20% strength loss. I don't think we picked anything over 800 pounds on that job (picked, not butt hitched), so we were within 10-1 SWL factor. And, I'd stupidly left the static line at the shop.....

or more....75%? We're all wondering why this needed to be done....

Oh yeah, I see that Brian was wearing sneakers.....He owns Wescos (lineman boots), and likes them. In fact, he had them on the truck. Me personally, I won't wear mine on the ground...they're not comfy for ground work, and offer only minimally more protection.

Yup, I fingered that out, big fella! some folks at the Treehouse had some criticism as well, including Pete McTree... I welcome that. I've been climbing for 35 years, but in all reality, I didn't know squat till I joined the ISA in 1989 and started reading. Then, starting with the old ISA message board, and now visiting 4 main ones regularly, Arbtalk the newest, I'd say I've learned a whole heck of a lot more. The sharing of knowledge, jobs, tips, tricks amongst working arborists as happens online is a fantastic resource to have. Pete and a couple other's commented on using biners for rigging....I agree that this use is sketchy, but here's what I said in response: " sure, Pete, maybe 15-25% of the load is lateral....that is, the portion of the load that is actually transferred to the biner, which is very minimal when rigged the way I teach my crew. I didn't see what Mickey was doing or would have insructed him to do it the better way. The way Mickey rigged it, and on smaller diameter wood, the side load would be higher. I know that a few times, I've rigged stuff a bit too heavy.....but also have checked the tension on the biner after the lowering...and it is minimal compared to the load...even considering what the dynamic loading could have been. In my non-scientific (or backed up with dynamometer evidence) I'd venture to say that the peak force on a biner of a properly tied setup would never go beyond 1/4 of the total load, as it is spread out, starting at the marl. So, say a 500 pound load is butt hitched, and let run a fair bit, applying 3500 pounds on the rigging point, and 1750 pounds on the load. That is about 450 pounds on the carabiner. Now no more than 1/2 of that would be a side load force, I'd say. Now tell me, do you really think that would break a 50K rated biner? And that is worst case (well, besides a snafu such as snubbed load which could apply 10x the force on the rigged load), I think. As well, i've never butt hitched a 50 pound load with a biner termination, and won't. Part of my reasoning is to offer, that hard and fast rules, such as one handed chain saw use, and this new OSHA bs ruling, while they may have merit, aren't necessarily the end all." Anyhow, the way I teach biner use is to terminate it the way a running bowline is terminated...looped around the rope and clipped back to itself. This not only further reduces the load on the biner by a fair bit, but reduces possible sideloading as well..which WILL be present when a biner is used to tie off a small diameter stem.

what're trainers? Hiking boots? Sure, that's what a lot of us wear, if we're not gonna be on gaffs a long time. Then I break out my Wesco's---no steel toe or chain saw protection...no, it's not required. chaps are required, on the ground, not aloft...and a lot of us frontier type westerners, myself included, don't wear em....which ain't the best, sure..... Eventually, I'm gonna get some of those fancy chain saw pants....I do put on the chaps now and then.... old habits are hard to break. Of course, then there's the one handed saw "issue" ummm, I recall two handing a climb saw once or twice... ... ... ...back in '82....

Lowering the top Butt hitched one log... Next, we tip tied, picked and lowered two or three sections aloft, then did the same with the butt. (Last, we free dropped single or double rounds of the jin pole spar.) I'd left our static line at home, but the 1/2 inch old double braid did the job with nary a whimper---woulda been nice to have had the no stretch (and stronger) line..but hey....somebody get me a reminder electric prodder, eh!? Had three craiglist firewood folks show up and take all the wood, which was great. I'd had to lower my bid to meet a low-baller...but no big deal. The jopb was $1500----and I mostly took pics, I did rig out the last two picks then chunked down the spar. Job was about 14 manhours plus a bit of my time on the "real" job. No dump time, as someone showed up and took the chips-- two blocks away, gotta love it! Then I ground some stumps with my little Alpine Magnum, and the guys did another job, which I helped finish....A $3000 day will never cause me to develop tummy pains!!! and the other job was low bid as well....

We had some fun rigging out this easy 4 trunked dead pine last week. Mickey has only worked with us a bit...he's a top notch arborist...has worked a lot with my pal Eli, and Dan Kraus.....he excells at pruning, but does well with removals---and he slutted and posed a bunch for the camera, I'd say: Here's a slide show... and a coupla teasers... After felling the first of 4 trunks Zipped some limbs... Winched this lead up and out whole, gotta love the GRCS

Caddies fit Kliens and B'hams....I think i had to file my Bashlin alu's to fit....and/or file the innards of the Caddy pads...but that was 30 plus years ago.... I've never worn anything else that came close..and that includes the B'ham cushion wraps--but I did try a worker's Gecko's--noiceeeeeeeeeeeee!!