Tom D

Just watched it again with the laptop on its side, you're right, I hadn't looked closely enough, the groundie does let it go before the butt is clear, enough that when the butt drops off it causes the piece to swing. The top appears to move towards the camera thus meaning that when the butt comes free it is whipped right round the back of the stem, hitting the climber. In that situation where the rigging point is low in relation to the top of the lump, I would have either put a shallow gob aimed towards the pulley and used the hobbs to pull the tip in till it was up against the other stem. Then sever the hinge and it swings away from yours the groundie lets it run. Or done the same with a step cut, with a shallow cut on the side of the pulley and the main cut coming all the way through the back.

I think the problem is, without adequate pretensioning if the groundie allows it to run before the butt is cleared of the stump the top will drop till the piece is horizontal. Then the butt falls off the stub and swings down causing a big shock load. Shock loading with big lumps is not good. With that in mind the groundie was right not to let it run until the butt was clear. On conclusion I'd say the fault lies in using the wrong method for the equipment being used.

Nothing wrong with taking off a lump that size, you just need to get the rigging right. A peice half the size could still have come back at him if it was not allowed to run, and a piece half the size would still have been big enough to hurt him.

I have seen it done, though not with a tree leaning like that, totally stupid.

Another mistake is being tied in twice, (tree police alert) I do a lot of tip roping of timber on multi stemmed trees, and I will undo my lanyard as I make the final cut. This allows you to get out of the way if necessary. Having the limb correctly pretensioned is the most important thing though. Nothing wrong with tip roping if its done properly, far less shock load on your gear and the rigging point.

So will it be windy this week or not?

I just got a positioned, I love it, very smooth, and releases under load really nicely, I'd go for the one with the swivel as it holds its position really well and allows you to feel the rope going into the device with 3 fingers while your trigger finger pulls the release lever. Great bit of kit.

I think the refresher courses are aimed at occasional users who do chainsaw work as part of a broader remit, say a parks department at a council.

They do, they feather the props, according to wind speed, to get a constant speed on the dyno. If the wind speed is too high they feather them completely and they stop turning. This mechanism must have failed on this one. There was a private one on a farm up the road from me, on the day before the storm it also had the same problem and was turning at a crazy speed, they shut the road as a precaution, in the storm the whole thing blew over.

Getting trapped between a big lump and the stem could easily be fatal. That was a lucky escape. Having a well pretensioned line would have helped, stopping the top from dropping while the butt was still resting on the stub. Things like the hobbs and grcs are well worth the money IMO.

I was expecting to see some rosy red men powdering their cheeks.... Did you mean "rogue" traders??? Sorry to be pedantic:001_smile:

I' not sure what you mean by the "city" The financial services sector is spread across the whole country... Personally I think the euro is doomed, at least in its current form, imagine if people in the south west could retire at 55 and those in yorkshire had to work to 68, that is the situation in europe. If it it going to work benefits, retirement ages etc will have to be standardised across the whole eurozone, if it is not seen to be fair then the germans, dutch etc will not accept paying for the greeks and italians to carry on as they are. And if the southern states are expected to adopt the regimes seen in the north of europe then the people won't wear that either. The eurozone will be dogged by political unrest and strikes for years and will probably collapse anyway. We are better off out of it.

Its not just the banking sector, its the whole financial sector, this is where most of Britain's money comes from. We are net importers of goods and we need to export in order to stay solvent. We export financial services on a massive scale, anything that threatens that could be disastrous for the whole country. Its like trying to get the germans to vote for a windfall tax on manufacturing. The good thing about financial services is that they still continue in a recession, businesses may stop buying new equipment but its unlikely that they will stop buying insurance.

I received a letter from this company claiming to be representing Lloyds bank, regarding a balance of £144, (they don't say if its a negative balance). They ask you to contact them.... I haven't banked with lloyds for 10years and have a good credit rating so I guessed that it is a mistake. But something about the letter just isn't quite right, its badly written and makes no reference to any account number (lloyds). It has its own reference number, and if you go to the website and key it in they still don't give you any info on the supposed debt, if it is a debt.... There's a lot of stuff on the net from people claiming that they are a scam, and also a lot of people who claim they are a genuine debt collector, do you think it is possible to create a fake on line reputation by going on forums and the like? One thing's for sure they won't be getting any information out of me until I know they are legit. anyone had any dealings with them?

The eurozone has been eyeing up the city for a while now, it would be disastrous for britain if they get their hands on it. At the end of the day we buy more goods from europe than we sell to them, they need us to keep buying french cars and stihl saws, DC did the right thing. That is his job after all, to look after our best interests.

we did some tall trees today, mostly storm damage, but i also did a 10% reduction on a tall ash, ran out of rope on the decent, and needed ladders to reach my ropes on the wellie.

is that a picture from today?

Hadn't noticed that Will, very sad.

you can clip into the same crab, just don't get an oval one, get one with a wide top.

This storm has had disastrous consequences for me. The high winds have increased the draw on the chimney causing the oven to get hotter and burnt my chips. And the mobile network seems to be down, if I loose the landline I won't be getting any work out of it. At least I'll get a good nights sleep!

Its hard to say, thicker cord makes a bigger knot and therefore uses up more length. Best to tie 1 fisherman's then your hitch, get the length where you want it, then tie the other fisherman's, then trim off the excess. After that undo it all and measure the cord and make a note of it. Then you will always know for next time. As a guide I'd start with 1.5m:001_smile:

Hard thing to find, I was looking for a while ended up getting this... 5.5k

Remember with a closed hitch you can use thinner cord so its less bulky.

one final thing, that is a closed hitch i.e. both legs must be attached to your krab, unlike your blakes which is only attached on one leg.

That isn't a knut, is a howard hitch with a knut finish, it will tend easier than a blames for sure. A straight forward knut would be another choice.