Rupe

Just slag off every other company in your area for half an hour!! I think the age of trees and the height will be of some interest?? Maybe you could do something to teach them that cuttign down trees in our line of work is not the same as cuttign down rainforests, there seems to be some confusion on that point from children.

My original plan for my truck was to make my own sides using sheets of ally riveted on to old ladders as a frame. I think the way I did it in the end looked a lot better, but if you have any old broken ladders around (or know of any) they can be used to make the up rights, then all you need is a sheet on the inside, simples!!

Treevolution do courses in Scotland.

Oh, about 400 quid for a week I think.

I did a standard setting course with treevolution. It covered CS 30,31,32, 38,39, 40 + 41. I pull that certificate out of the bag only when someone tells me my original units are a bit old and I need refresher.

True, once is enough! I'll probably go and dent mine tomorrow after calling you a numptY!! My old truck had a huge dent in the passenger door frame/roof area that I did when it belonged to its previous owner, my old boss! After that I never dented it again when it was mine, but never removed the dent either. My guys dented the tailgate a tiny bit the other day, not happy, but not the end of the world.

Numpty!! Do you ever drive other peoples trucks? Not anymore you won't!! I'd say bad luck and chin up and all that but I'm not that soft!! You knacker!

If you set you existing block as the top anchor, and then carry those pulleys round the tree with you, attaching them wherever you need a lowering point, that will give you a good set up.

Well done for posting! It must be awful, and a day that I dread coming, I'm glad he had a good life with a friend instead of just an "owner".

Not quite. Using two block and the line spread out reduces the force on the anchors of each block. You could in theory then lower a larger load as the force is distributed bettween the two blocks. So your sort of right, but you can't magicilly increase the SWL load of either block, but in theory you could now lower a 672kg (your maths, not mine!!) piece instead of the 450kgs you had previosly. Word of caution though. These are pulleys and not blocks. 450 kgs will knacker them pretty quick, and you don't want to go anywhere near that amount of force. The cheeks will close up at the top and the pulley will fail loler inspection fairly quickly. Blocks cope with higher forces much better.

Combined is a con! They don't re-insure injuries which is technically illegal!! Same as what tesco pet insurance does, but its not illegal for pets!! They pay out on enough claims to give them enough positive feedback, but one look at their salesmen should be enough to tell you that you are looking at pikie insurance!

My final thought is this......... Its surely no coincidence that neither honey brothers nor treeworker stock the 13mm version of the small ISC block, and that I've never seen one!?? It does exist, but for regular use a 16mm pulley with a 13mm rope is fine!!

Yes it does your right!! Petzl ones say >13mm etc and some say 13>diam<16 for example. The smaller rope is much nicer to use for small stuff but I wouldn't want 4 13mm blocks as well, I've got too much as it is. Have you seen in one of my vids that I change the rope from 13mm to 16mm using throwline to join them so it runs through the blocks? I can rig off 13mm then get the groundie to change the line, rig the larger stuff, then switch back again with out changing or going back to the blocks.

I think your original plan is fine (but with a 16mm block). If you go to 16mm rope then you will need more than a figure 8 to lower off, so you are entering a different area altogether. Stay well with the SWL of the rope that you get and you will be fine. But I also agree that you could wait till the course and learn more about it properly then. Arbtalk is for good for oppinions and ideas but you need to listen to what the instructors say to pass the course, after that you can work more things out for yourself.

Cool, not seen that one before! I still think it makes negligable difference. Theres no way I'd buy 4x 13mm blocks for the initial phase of a job then switch to 16m rope and 2x 16mm bocks, for medium weight wood then switch to 19mm rope and a 20mm block for heavy wood, especially as you might want to switch back and forth during the job anyway.

Block only come in 16mm and 20mm, so for 13mm rope your stuffed then!! You can still use a 13mm rigging line in that system. Lets say the 13mm has 4000Kg BS, your sytem now has an overlall workign load limit of 400kgs. No worries that your pulleys etc are bigger. Flattening of the rope would only occur in very heavy loads where your increasign the cycles to failure anyway. You might feasably speed up those cycles to failure but regular inspection should detect that. Your not wrong, and if that is how you were taught then thats fine. I personally set up with the biggest pulley I'm going to need for the job, but use a much smaller rope to start with and increase size when required without going back to replace pulleys. I can increase the size of the rope well before I get anywhere near the SWL for the rope. I think if you have one rigging line then you would want to get pulleys that fit it, but if you have three rigging lines and (like me) you use 2-3 or even 4 blocks at a time that would mean you would need a lot of blocks! Thats not really feasable, but they only come in 16 and 20mm anyway so for 13mm rope you don't have much choice.

My advice would be this! If going for any type of insurance, please don't tell them you nickname is "dangerous" brian

Good reply! I was hoping the poster might forward the question to the AA section, you shouldn't have to trawl the whole forum looking for possible questions to answer, but you did so no worries

Self employment is the best insurance against sickness!!

dose the 16mm pulley not need 16mm rope and vice versa The vice versa bit is correct, a 16mm rope need a 16mm (or larger pulley) but not the other way round. 13mm rope in 16mm pulley is fine, bend ratio would be greater than required of you use a bigger pulley, not smaller than required, so no worries. You can put a 13mm rope through a 19mm pulley, no problems. Buying a 16mm pulley now makes sense as it means its there for the future, plus as far I know there isn't a 13mm block available??

Oh yes!! I was looking at the title of the pdf, it says march 10

Thats wednesday, not tomorrow. Interesting that Lister wilder are doing a timberwolf/stihl demo day the same day in cirencester.

Your right, whoopies have an eye at each end, one of which is adjustable makeignthe overall lenght adjustable.

I lost 5 tons of Poplar in a weekend! I was delighted!

I think you should have CS41 for that. And use of saw from a MEWP as well. CLimbing with saw ticket covers using one from a mewp. (top handles that is, if they are using larger saws that may be ok) Good question for AA tec.