scotspine1

Humbling stuff lads, just as well we've got you here to keep us right eh. If you watch the video and read through the thread you'll see the majority of posts are reasonable and fair minded comments based on observations people made whilst watching the video. There's a lot going on in there that's worth commenting on from a safety perspective. The video was posted with the intention of being educational. .

Think it's safe to assume no one from the company or the AA (re Arb Association Approved Contractor Scheme) will want to make an appearance. AA Teccie? Any thoughts Paul? On the fell itself - aside from the crosswind issue - there's no issue with the truck being used to pull the tree over into the direction of fall. With a good hinge it should work fine. However, the position of their truck in the vid - it's clear from during the cutting and particularly at the end of the video there are far too many people moving to and from the area directly in front of the truck. As someone said it's a main path through to the local train station. So he was never going to get a good strong pull without also stopping pedestrian traffic on that side (as well as the opposite pavement where the guy was nearly killed). The corner position of the truck looks problematic as well - limited space to drive forward. Also, no barrier tape or warning signs, as been said before - very poor site management for that scale of felling operations. If you look at the pull line, there's not enough pre-tension - and although they set the rope high for leverage it would've been better to have the rope set lower as it makes for a shorter distance the truck has to travel to get the tree over. .

Not sure if this had been posted before but worth a look from a felling point of view. Lombardy is a brittle species when it comes to the hinge, it's known to snap quick as soon as the tree starts to go over towards the felling direction - meaning you can lose directional control especially if it's windy or has a heavy side lean. Not 100% sure of what went wrong with the felling cuts in this case but it looks like the hinge snapped early then the wind took over sending the tree over the street onto parked cars, thankfully no one hurt. There was a pull line attached to the truck but from what it seems it was just too windy to fell the tree at that moment. Any other suggestions? [ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edjc2Vcf_5Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edjc2Vcf_5Y[/ame]

Excellent work and vid, nice one. Really liked the drone footage.

eggs, in this video you're the person on right (in red) and Barton is on the left (in blue), in short, accept you cannot win. [ame= ] [/ame]

Yeah David, mono will be monitored, not within falling distance of road. Two guys on the ground Kevin, yeah they kept up with the chipping no problem.

cheers folks iana - the tree took a day and a half to bring down, the first day was a chilled out half day - just setting up a decent central anchor point for the climbing line, checking the top crown for bigger dead branches and loose stubs/hangers etc then knocking out some bigger lower branches which aren't seen in the vid. 2nd day was the main work. Rich - I just like the familiarity of DdRT on a job like that, could've easily done it with a SRT top tie which I like but just opted for old faithful, IMO there's not a huge advantage using SRT (top tie) on a tree like that, have noticed it can feel less cluttered if there's rigging involved though and can help with long branch walks re-directs etc. There was no major long branch walks on this tree. On the 560xp, the last few cuts were done by a 70cc Jonsered with a 30" bar and a Stihl 660 with a 36" bar but the 560xp with the 20" .325 full chisel did the bulk of the main crown branchwork. All the timber stayed on site, logged up into manageable sizes. We moved some of it with a 10x6 tipping trailer to keep things clear. This was the final height.

2nd attempt at posting this vid, not sure if it can be viewed on I phone? anyway.....good sized beech being removed due to Kretzch at base and recent large limb failures, was a real pity to see it go as it's been a significant tree in the local landscape for a long time, crown reduction not an option, left as 30ft mono. No rigging, 560xp used, as I said before great saw for this type of work IMO. [ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=127Hy15mmmk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=127Hy15mmmk[/ame]

cheers Rich, will do another version with no music and post it up at some point later. Jomo - day and a half, could've been done in a day with enough people on the ground. Cheers.

Recent job, tree had Kretzch at base and recent history of dropping very large limbs (one was a 50ft long main scaffold) - crown reduction ruled out - left as 30ft mono. For anyone interested in the saw - was using a Husky 560xp with 20" bar .325" full chisel, can't praise this saw enough. A bigger Jonsered with 30" bar appears near the end and a Stihl 660 (not in vid) was used for the last couple cuts. [ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGq7ny0AgUU&feature=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGq7ny0AgUU&feature=youtube[/ame] .

Have lived and worked in America, great experience...some of the most decent people I've met. On the subject of America or Germany it's probably worth remembering that for the entire period of the Cold War it was an American led NATO that defended Germany from the Soviet Union. .

It's this kind of Portawrap (Buckingham Port A Wrap 3) you want. It'll do most things then for bigger stuff the big Stein Bollard or Hobbs etc.

D.P.M. Distraction Pruning Method On completion of the crown reduction you leave an obvious branch sticking out the lower crown so when you get the client out to view the tree their eye is drawn to the 'sticky out branch' (technical term). This is the Distraction. They then say, "Looks great! but what about that branch sticking out the side there?" You then say, "Oh yes, I'll take that off no worries" You remove said branch and the client is 100% happy with the job. This method comes from years of trying to explain to clients that we actually removed a lot of the crown you just don't notice it because it's a proper crown reduction. The Distraction Pruning Method aka S.O.B. (sticky out branch) makes them feel involved and shows how much foliage/branchwork has been taken off all around the crown. It also makes them think they're clever that they spotted the problem, it puts the power back in their hands .

At the end of a big reduction. Always leave a slightly longer odd looking branch sticking out in the lower crown, one that can be reached and easily cut with pole pruner or polesaw or a very easy short climb. I'll leave you to work it out for yourself why you would do this. I call it the D.P.M. for short. Worked it out years ago, works every time.

the growth/leaf coverage in the 2nd pic looks dense even for an HC, has the tree been previously pollarded (cut back/topped) in recent years? Do you have a picture of this tree when not in leaf? Reason I ask is that if it's been pruned before then why are the council so resistant to trimming back a few branches, branches which are possibly weakly attached at the main trunk.

extra points for correct ID? Leylandii castlewellan gold

Why is he offering advice to strangers? He spent the first few minutes telling us how stupid it was to offer vaguely useless advice to strangers then spends the rest of the video offering vaguely useless advice to strangers. No one will remember anything from that video 5 minutes after watching it other than his ridiculous face and baseball hat. He looked like that Canadian comedian who used to always be on whose line is it anyway? It's classic treehouse fodder right enough. They lap that kind of inane trash right up. . .

Buy a Xmas tree netter (with net) from eBay, ram bundles of brash through it, net the brash, cut net on other side.

Very cruel, and to think that German lad had a framed pic of you on his workshop bench to use as inspiration when he was designing that thing. Anyway, back to cabling, would you attach lightning protection to a steel cable? If so? Why? .

Jon, this is off topic but did you see this? any thoughts? I think it's a nice bit of innovation, he's taken your leather cambium saver idea and updated it, did you look at steel/metal back when you came up with the idea? - skip to 0.25 [ame= ] [/ame]

pity you never got that patent on "the cambium saver" name. Nice one for trying though, although it must've been a costly venture. Funny thing is, there must be more climbers today using some kind of cambium saver than those who use none. But the manufacturers market them as a hybrid of a cambium saver/rope saver ie ART - Ropeguide, Treemagineer/DMM - Multi Saver etc. If no one's ever said it before - Cheers for coming up with the idea, it was probably long overdue when you thought it up.

Everyone should use Cobra from now on, but only if we also install lightning protection at the same time, that way the carefully installed copper wires can guide the lightning away from the cobra braced limbs saving the synthetic fibres from catching fire. Jomoco, see the leather cambium saver? is it true you came up with the name "cambium saver" but couldn't get it patented due to the similar hoses used to protect newly planted trees? I seem to remember you talking about this years ago on another forum. Also, is that why when Buckingham patented the ring to ring friction saver they called it a "friction saver" and didn't use your "cambium saver" term?

The argument about steel cabling being invasive is overstated. Crown reducing a mature tree is far more 'invasive' than drilling a couple of small diameter bolts into large trunks/stems especially when you can almost guarantee CODIT will limit any decay (if cable is installed correctly) I have put steel cable into the lower part of a structurally weak co dom stem and cobra higher up in the same stem. This means both systems do the job they were made for. The fire issue in the UK is laughable. .

trailer was absolutely fine, they used a VW Transporter to get it back to the yard. Here's a pic.

Happened to a few 130s in 2009 which were built for Fountains and fitted with MEWPs. This pic is an extended cab version of the 130 but the regular single cabs failed as well.