Rich Rule

I used to charge for a standard day's climbing, me, Loler'd climbing kit, ms200t and 150t and a 441. If they wanted me to bring 700+ quids worth of rigging kit for no extra cost then I wouldnt be doing it. If rigging was required I charged extra. I wasn't cheap in the first place. When I say riggin kit I don't mean an old climbing rope. I used to provide 16mm polydine, slings, krabs, impact blocks, redirect pulleys and other bits and pieces. They all cost and needed to be Loler'd so I charged for it. Look at the specs for that kit and it can handle some fairly substantial heavy rigging. Any more than that and it was a crane job. I also used to charge extra if they wanted me to bring a 660. I always found as long as you explain all this before hand and don't spring it on them at invoice time. I never had a problem. It worked for me. Also I would suggest dropping the term subbie. It implies you are a bonafide sub contractor and therefore require your own PL insurance. I used the term freelance or contract climber.

Also the working climber DVD box set by Gerry Beranek. An outstanding piece of work. Again, very American, but the principles are the same .

Here is a link to a thread on the treehouse. It explains how the digital edition came about and the process of producing it. There is also a link at the bottom of the first post. http://masterblasterhome.com/showthread.php?20759-Fundamentals-The-Backstory!&highlight=fundamentals

Check out the Digital edition of Gerry Beraneks Fundamentals of general tree work. It is in American with regards to forces and units for measuring but the principles are the same.

Matty it is how the VT is tied that creates the hockle, not the swivel. The swivel however does accentuate the hockling instead of sorting it out. I had that problem DDrt and tried the swivel. A guy on the treehouse said to ditch the swivel and tie the hitch a bit differently. Hey presto it worked. never used one since, SRT or DDrt.

If you are working as freelance labour for other tree firms... don't get sucked into the "I need Public Liability Insurance". Don't call yourself a subbie. You will be freelance. You don't need it and should be covered but the company you are working for policies. It is a good idea though, to have some form of accident insurance/income protection policy.

Why not open up the muffler. Then if there is a problem get a new muffler. Swap it out and send it back to the shop. i got a 150t over here in Norway and it had a totally different muffler than others I had seen. It was from HB in the uk and had the Yank style exhaust with spark arrested.

Rob I tried to open an account with coinfloor but received an email saying that they couldn't proceed with the application. any ideas?

Well, I went all the way through that and then received an email saying thank you but we cannot proceed with your application. Wonder why?

I do believe it was a Fir, but I could be wrong and it was cold... whatever it was, it isn't one of them any more.

I just wear some gripper gloves in the cold. i find the ones with padding don't have as much grip. i don't really follow you though, I felled the Fir tree tree so their wasn't much left to leave it looking natural.

I thought that was the name of the BFG AT's. The KO2's have more tread on the top of the side walls. https://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/tire/bf-goodrich/all-terrain-t-a-ko2

A friend was done over in Essex last night.

Pretty nipply round these parts. Bit of stump grinding on Monday. Large for tree to rig down on Tuesday. A maple to weight reduce and brace on Wednesday. Today was a RJ of a stand of 9 willows that had been left. Took around 2-3 metres of the top. Job was at a kindergarden in Oslo.

Nice little vids Reg. That second must have been a phatty if it was a 30" bar where you topped her.

Mick, are they the KO2's? I had trouble getting hold of them on my last Hilux. Found a set of KO's though, they were great and after 18k miles they still looked good as new. I had to go white writing on the inside as I am not a boy racer.

Political correctness gone mad. I have fond childhood memories of Daisy Duke. Those cut off jeans were killer!

Studs are great in Scandinavia. They give a little bit of road noise but still handle really well on wet roads. I opted for no studs and my Hilux as the tolls going into Oslo are higher and can run up the costs of you are in and out everyday.

I have Nokians on my Hilux without studs and Nokians with studs on the family car. Steve, the difference you will notice if you get some decent winters will be amazing. the Hilux has 18's on but the winters are are 17's and slightly narrower. Look at the old school rally drivers. Remember the Mk2 escort RS 2000's, Lancias etc... when they did their winter stages the wheels didn't even make it half way towards the flared arches.

+1 on the mini digger plus attachments. Good luck and make sure it doesn't get knicked mate. Likewise, with the chipper and truck options.

There is a reason rigging lines are spliced big as opposed to climb lines. Rigging lines are more often than not subject to some form of shock loading. The additional length of the rope forming the eye helps to absorb some of the force generated in rigging. Whereas a climb line, not so much. Use the rigging line as it is with a splice and either use a cable tie to cinch a crab or use one of those rubber things arb supplier sell the keep a bina captive, or even a bit of bicycle inner tube cut off and wrapped around the eye.

There is only one place to get it from. You have to buy it from the inventor and sign a disclaimer. I didn't mean that the manufacturers sold them. there are plenty of people who have, or have had them. I think though, they had already made the step to working SRT and were interested. There was a big fuss about the BDB when it was launched on the treebuz, arbtalk and the treehouse forums. But unless you were looking you wouldnt have seen it. They have been freely available. I guess some people in the UK would be be excluded from using, such as yourself, due to employment status and emplees having to use CE marked equipment. The BDB has no CE mark but it is and looks bombproof. The early zig zags for that matter, had a CE mark and looked like it was made of kit Kat wrappers.

Not that difficult though mate and the same principle apply if you used a rope wrench or a.n.other device.. I got a BDB delivered in January 2015.

That was a BDB

Some good skills on show. Check out the video by Oceans. For 2xSRT systems.