scotspine1

yes, this split round was from about 2 ft below crown break

Cheers everyone, there are plans for replanting with various new trees, always sad to see a big tree like that go, but there was no scope for a heavy reduction, not where the tree was situated. ha ha, tyres were only there to stop it rolling onto the lawn, things aint always as they seem Benny boy lucky to have those areas to drop the branches into though there you David, hows this? some mycelial action there too I'd figured it was gonna look like this at the base, had I suspected the decay was right through the tree, it'd have been a MEWP job. Having said that, there was a method and reasoning behind the order in which the branches came down which would've also been applied if I'd used a MEWP.

Tree came down due to Ganoderma applanatum Couldn't have felled the whole tree as would've damaged hard landscaping in garden, or if felled it the other way it would've destroyed the tarmac in the carpark. This is a straight up and down cut branches off then fell stem scenario, nothing out of the ordinary, thought some folk might like to see it anyway - [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCLSAUY-DNI&feature=youtube]Ganoderma Beech - YouTube[/ame]

nice work james

Yep, order came through nice and quick, well packaged, cheers Mark, Barry. No green sweets for me next time, only yellow ones thanks

then they'll get the staff they deserve.....climbers who lack the creativity and imagination to solve problems and find inventive solutions to the countless number of treework situations. It'll show on their balance sheet as well, unenthusiastic workers who just turn up and go through the motions, happy to assimilate into the ranks of 'the workers', happy to follow company protocol, they'll never move a company forward, they'll hold it back, seeing out their bland existence waiting tragically for retirement and the pension at the end of it all. Enjoy your zig zag Dean .

If mechanical hitches become the norm it will be because the industry allowed it, in the UK that would never happen because unlike Germany we don't naturally veer toward uniformity and being boring. British people are inherently independently minded and any notion of trying to implement a Euro style blanket ban on hitches would be kicked so far into touch you'd need the Hubble telescope to see it.

Like everyone here I began treeclimbing with some kind of rope hitch. I started on 3 strand nylon with a 3 strand prussic, then moved onto a braided Prussik loop on 13mm New England, then the Blake's split tail 13mm on 13mm Yale XTC, then various VT/Distel setups until for the last 10 years I've been using a 5 wrap 10mm swabish with micro pulley on 13mm Yale XTC. In all that time I got to know these various setups inside out, the adaptability of them, the pros and cons, this on the job learning was invaluable, you can't take it for granted, you should value it very highly, it's got you through many years working at height and you're still here. I just feel when you buy and use a zig zag you're thowing all that learned experience with your hitch out the window and letting Petzl take over this part of your personal safety. They've been proven to be lacking in their understanding of treework and specifically DdRT with the catastrophic failure of the zigzag 1. They've tried to mimic the actions of a hitch, which they achieved but they failed to thoroughly test the one of the anchor points. The zig zag is a nice idea, and look's the part, but when I'm here in a tree like this I don't want to be looking at or climbing on a mechanical hitch designed and built by non treeclimbing experts, I want to see my own hitch setup that has evolved over the years to the point where I don't even think about it when climbing. I know a lot of folk here will know what I'm talking about.

handcrafted, not mass produced and you can tell from the first strike it's made by people who know axes and timber inside out. Their splitting wedges are phenomenal as well, use them to split huge pieces of timber

rayzor, nothing gets close to a gransfors maul, possibly the wetterling that's about it. don't waste your time with the x27, go straight to the best splitting maul ever made -

Jonsered cs2171, which is a 372xp only the JRed is less likely to have bits fall off. They still sell the 2171 with heated handles and carb. Chainsaw CS 2171 WH Have run a 30" bar on the 2171 when rigging down a redwood. Usually run a 20" bar on it, as all 372xp users know, it's a great workhorse, proper no nonsense 70cc chainsaw.

yes, I'll give you that Huck, a few complete weirdos do own them as some kind of collectable oddity left over from the 20th century, much like the ZigZag will be viewed in a few years The Zig Zag will make a great ornament in arb's workshops and garages across the land, sitting there sandwiched between a can of WD40 and silver gaffer tape

The Zig Zag is the worst invention in arb. It's like something they had on Tomorrow's World in the 80s when they use to show you a really crap and useless gadget and say 'in 30 years time every household in Britain will have one of these' when in actual fact - 30 years later not one person in Britain actually owns a Sinclair C5. The Petzl Zig Zag is the Sinclair C5 of the arb world =

Those 3 guys are moronic cretins, they are 100% in the wrong and would be 100% to blame if they killed that woman. It beggars belief the stupidity of them. Hopefully the FSB will see this vid, track them down and quietly eliminate them.

the guy in the red is looking in the direction the woman is walking from, as the tree goes 4 seconds later he actually tries to catch it to stop it hitting her

so lucky............ LiveLeak.com - Tree nearly crushes woman.

Quick thoughts on Korean cars, after the Korean war, the South Korean's allies - the USA said to South Korea, 'if you guys make cars will this stop you fighting against the North?' to which the South Koreans repiied, 'yes', to which the USA replied, ok, leave it with us' A few decades past as the USA was distracted by the cold war with the Soviets...... Then after the Berlin wall fell, the Koreans funded by US investment produced some of the most advanced car factories in the world, even ahead of both the Japanese and German plants. This is now why Kia and Hyundai are so successful. History lesson over

Haven't read the whole thread but noticed a bit about Japanese manufacturing etc. Remember people, if we don't buy Japanese (and German) cars and keep them busy producing they'll both want to invade other countries. So it's important we keep buying their cars etc otherwise world war 3 will probably break out. That was the deal after WW2, the Allies said to Germany and Japan, 'we'll set up a manufacturing base for you and allow you to make cars and other stuff and you guys don't get any ideas about invading other countries ok?' to which the Germans and the Japanese replied, 'ok, deal' and that's the way it's been ever since. The Chinese on the other hand (historically speaking) don't typically invade other countries unlike the Japanese who committed some of the worst atrocities in WW2 against the Chinese this for example Unit 731 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nearly always start with the MS200, but on a removal like that I want to be almost flush cutting the branches into the main stem so I'm not leaving stubs for the higher branches to get caught in when being rigged down. The top handled would not have liked some of those thicker branches, the 346xp is light enough to carry round the crown and will deal with the bigger branch collars no problem. It just means I'm not asking for a bigger saw up all the time to clean up the big stubs. Also, a lot of the branches in the vid were thicker than the camera made out. cheers. no offence taken mate. I was just explaining the rigging setup. Large Buckingham Portawrap for the friction. cheers again

Cheers folks, not sure why some folk can't view it on their phones? Yes, just a nice little habit I've got into over the years. Yeah, good job of running the rope. I know what you're saying mate, but as testcricket was saying, it's being used a re-direct not an impact block. The 3000Kgs Blue ISC block (out of frame during those sections) is taking the brunt of the load (it's sitting higher in the tree) thereby minimising the impact on the 50 KN stainless steel pulley. I find it preferable over another smaller block on a job like that as it's easy to move around to the various anchor points, swinging side plates make it easier to place the rope into than a block, stainless steel also makes it very durable over many years of use and being rated at 50KN means it can easily cope with the tops in the vid. The type of rigging being done in the vid really is low impact on the entire rigging system especially the tree itself. When it comes to heavy duty rigging I always used big arb blocks. The pulley stays in the truck then. north side mate, between Milngavie and Torrance

This footage is from a recent Beech dismantle, it shows branches being rigged away from the LV lines beneath the tree. If anyone's interested I use ISC Block/Pulley (re-direct), Buckingham Portawrap and Yale 5/8 Portland Braid rigging line in this vid. This is pretty much the rigging gear I use for all our rigging removals. Saw is a Husky 346xp. Cheers [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJtH8ijTST8]Beech Rigging Craig Tree Services - YouTube[/ame]

not joking, if we were allowed I would've, just put a tensioned pull rope in the top of the tree for a bit of direction control.....press the button, job done. from taking the kit out and setting it up to getting image - about half an hour for that one

further up the stem was better, some quality firewood came out that tree

interesting job that Mark, it's one of only two trees I've ever dismantled that I decided to put a Picus on before I went ahead with the climbing/rigging, some would say a bit over cautious or extravagant but client was happy to pay for it and I wanted to see the extent of the decay as I needed to rig off the tree itself, seeing the Picus readings helped me decide how I was gonna bring the tree down Kretzch was the cause - looks ok from the outside doesn't it?