scotspine1

good to know, cheers.

I've decided to switch to Aspen in all my saws from this week on. Finally got sick of breathing in the thick blue acrid smoke when making the last cut on a stump on a calm day - or cross cutting logs in a confined space. dont care about the cost, the customer will be paying for it anyway, also dont care about any long term effects on any of the saws either (thats if there is any, but I can't imagine what there would be, if anything it should be better for your saws than regular unleaded) So thats it. Cheers Aspen.

Despite the towing issue you'd be mad to move that Hilux on.

....nothing to do with storm damage, just a cool vid - [ame= ] [/ame]

Is it now generally accepted that when people refer to the Hitchclimber setup there referring to the good old fashioned split tail system of climbing with a slack tender/fair lead micro pulley? be it with a VT, Knut, Distel, Swabish or whatever? Its seems people are mistakenly assuming this method of climbing particularly when used with a VT is called the Hitchclimber system or method. People were climbing trees using micro pulleys for slack tender, fair lead and tailing well over 10 years before the Hitchclimber appeared on the scene. A Hitchclimber is nothing more than an adapted micro pulley. Without the micro pulley there would be no Hitchclimber Think someone brought this up sometime before. People need reminded of it every now and then otherwise it's gonna be assumed that advancing friction hitches with a pulley and having a fair lead never existed before the Hitchclimber. Personally I dislike the Hitchclimber pulley. But I respect the designers for trying to come up with a pulley specifically designed for treeclimbers. For me the more simple a setup you have the less you have to worry about. This has worked for me for the past 15 years. I can understand if people dont like the single carabiner but you go with what you've become accustomed to.

Excellent Stuart, nice editing as well......the perfect antidote to Dadio's videos. Look forward to the next one.

current books - Moral Combat, Michael Burleigh - this book is hard going, book describes chilling details of atrocities carried out by the Nazis, Japanese, Russians, French Resistance, Americans and British amongst others. Probably wont finish it, bloody depressing. Introducing Islam, Ziauddin Sardar - who they are, where they came from, their history, what they stand for, their place in the world etc. Some stuff from the book, Spain was ruled by Islam for 800 years. The Mongols under Genghis Khan's grandson ransacked Baghdad in 1258 killing somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000. Its an interesting read. Training for Rock Climbing - Steve Bollen, bit old fashioned these days, but good sections on stretching, climbing (rock) and training in general.

rubbish and by the way, this comment isn't open for debate, you can attempt to challenge my assertion the video is rubbish but I wont respond. So the vid will always be rubbish. All you videos and techniques are rubbish.

Been using the MS201T for a few months now along side my MS200T mostly on medium/ large removals. The MS200 is a better saw.

was recently thinking about trading in my 54 reg D22 Kingcab for a new NP300 crewcab after reading some reviews - same as the old D22 Navara, revised engine, excellent value for money etc.....still has the 3 ton towing capacity. Anyway so I asked my local Nissan dealer about it and they denied the vehicle even existed telling me what I wanted was a D40. Which I didn't as the D40 looks like an oversized motorway boat designed for yuppies and frustrated accountants who do 'extreme sports' at the weekends. If anyone ever does find out what happened to the NP300, let me know.

I was kidding. The point was obviously lost on you. People earlier in the thread were implying you should do nothing, do nothing at all and just let someone else deal with it. How do you think the first rescues were ever carried out? long before we had emergency services people used their imagination and whatever was at hand, the trouble with people these days is that they've lost the ability to think on their feet and adapt to a situation. Instead they choose to do nothing for fear of doing something wrong.

Why do you think I specifically reversed the pickup up to the entrance of the mineshaft? it wasn't just to attach the climbing rope to......think about it..... a pickup tailgate makes for a perfect stretcher, that's the trouble with most folk these days.....no imagination.

The woman in this case died of a heart attack on the way up whilst being rescued by mountain rescue specialists. There's very little time to think about possible outcomes in a real life rescue situation, she needed medical help urgently. Anyone going down that hole would have some basic knowledge regarding movement of victim and possible spinal injuries. You'd assess the situation as it happened. In the case in Ayrshire the woman didn't have a broken neck.

Try? here's an idea straight off the top of my head 1 - reversed 4x4 right up near the hole 2 - attached a pulley to your towbar with a choked sling 3 - with climbing rope now through pulley - lower yourself down on regular doubled rope system (swabisch slack tender micro pulley system or VT Hitchclimber or similar 4 - put harness on victim make quick shoulder support with flipline. 5 - attached victim to rope 6 - pull victim up by pulling trailing end of line getting bystanders at top to help with the pulling, friction hitch self tends. 7 - victim at hole entrance pulled out by bystanders Its rough, but it'd work. .

I've seen the site. Its bloody obvious anyone with half a brain could've got that woman out with a little bit of quick thinking and a reasonable amount of grit. Mind you, what with you working for a local authority and being totally institutionalised you've have stood there with the firemen pondering rescue techniques whilst making meaningless notes, cup of coffee in hand acting all dramatic like you knew what to do but alas....'your hands were tied' by 'red tape' 18 firemen and 6 hours to get that woman out - massive fail. These firemen are responsible for that woman's death.

To add insult to injury Strathclyde Fire Service have refused to apologise to the woman's family. One good tree surgeon with a climbing rope and a couple of sensible bystanders could've rescued that woman

This incident is well known in Scotland, the 'firefighters' (as they pathically liked to be known now, because 'firemen' isn't cool enough) were weak minded idiots who lacked the strength of conviction to make the right decision. It wasn't exactly rocket science either, put rope down with fireman on it attach woman, pull rope up. Everyone of them should jailed for 5 years. This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened with UK firemen.

Dadio's videos are turgid turgid - definition of turgid by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Here's some proper tunes [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QubByFr9DZA]Deer Tick - Let's All Go To The Bar - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLpDOx52hM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLpDOx52hM[/ame]

cheers for the info folks

Looking for opinions on the Landcruiser, not the Am@zon, but the LC range from 2002 to 2009, Colorado and Prado as well. Anyone got/had/used one? specifically for work? towing trailers/chippers? Any issues/maintenance problems/spare costs etc. Any info appreciated. Looks like this -

That guy on the saw was totally unprepared and obviously hasn't worked on a lot of storm damaged/windblown trees. He failed on two fronts. Not only did he nearly kill himself but if the roving reporter had been standing a few feet back towards the rootplate he'd be a dead man also. we always have someone standing on the otherside of the rootplate before making the final cut that'll drop the rootplate back down into its hole, just to make sure no kids, dogs or trainee arborists jump into the crater.

This 7 minute film was made as part of the UN International Year of the Forests 2011. You've no doubt all seen and heard this type of film before but I reckon it's good to be reminded of these things now and again. Be interested to hear what people think of the film and the words - there's some spectacular shots in there. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSaAlPRN-c]Of Forests and Men [uS - Edward Norton] - YouTube[/ame]

This post is for trainee arborists/climbers, just a few thoughts for you to consider...... It could be argued that none of the people in these videos should be involved in treework. Why did none of the trainees have the mental strength to stand up to the instructors? Some of those trainees knew instinctively that what they were doing was wrong, were they too mentally weak to say anything? As a climber you have to go with your instincts, if you feel something is morbidly unsafe it's probably just 100,000 years of human evolution trying to tell you something very important, it's how your ancestors survived and how you got here today. From my experience in the industry you can't always trust instructors, bosses or crew leaders to tell you what they think is going to happen, you have to learn to think for yourself and have the strength of mind to go with your own instinct. If you think something is wrong on the job, then stop before you kill yourself or someone else. If you think something is inherently unsafe despite being told by a boss or co-worker 'it's fine, just go with it' then stop and find another safer way to do it, even if it takes a bit longer. I've worked with so called experts, bosses and instructors, assessors (NPTC/LANTRA/FASTco etc) who have been found out on the jobsite for their lack of experience/skills/knowledge in certain areas. Some of them have a lack of common sense. These guys dont know everything and the most humble of them will readily admit that. None of us know everything in treework and if someone acts like they do, don't trust them, there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. When you become a climber, you need to have the right mental state. If you dont think you can stand up to people when its your life on the line, then maybe you should consider finding another job. Roughly speaking climbing and working in trees is 20% instruction/book knowledge, 40% experience and 40% mental. You get the basics from instructors, thats it. You dont get experience from instructors. Their experience is not transferrable to your mind, you make your own experience and this relies on your natural attributes - both physical and most importantly...mental. Assess the level of risk in your mind, regardless of what an 'instructor' or 'boss' might say. By all means ask for other people's thoughts or opinions - but you have to learn to be responsible for your decisions in the tree. Look at what's happening, look at the bigger picture, think of the outcome of your actions.....understand timber, weights, forces, tension and distances because when it comes to rigging trees down these are some of the most important factors. Most bosses/instructors in treework respect strong minded trainees or apprentices, just remember in most cases you have to work with them not against them. Tree work can be a dangerous job at times, it's impossible to remove the risk of death or injury but sometimes by not speaking up you increase the risk.

Latest - Snoz has left the tree, but has been replaced - BBC News - Protester Mark Snow climbs down from tree but is replaced