educated arborist

i only do it if the copper has a bad attitude, I've been pulled alot and you certainly get good cops & bad cops sometimes one of each in the same car. I spent 3 days in a court room 200miles away from my house thanks to some incompetant pr**k of a traffic cop, the magistrates apologised an all but it wasted days of my time so i figure iv'e got 2 waste alot of their time to catch up. so if your a traffic cop & u make some stupid remark/start chatting bull**** when u pull me over prepair to have your time wasted!!!be civil & curtious and we'll probably have a laugh or 2:thumbup1:

bt split into 2 companies bt retail & bt openreach openreach own the lines, all of their work is invoiceable and need booking weeks in advance however you clients telephone provider posibly bt retail but could be virgin etc can place orders for emergency works & fault repairs etc that way they fit the bill. The way i've got round it in the past is to ring up provider & yellthem the tree is litrully falling down/apart & they need to take the lines down so we can remove the tree before it knocks them down 1 & 1/2 hours later an openreach engineer arrives & takes them down then puts them back up when i'm done and i'm not charged any money. Fk knows what'd happen if they ever realise i'm jst blagging free removals

if u see him again give him some **** it dont matter where your speedo reads from & if it read from the fly wheel it would be the most inacurate ever, every time u dipped or dipresed the clutch the speedo would read 200mph or whatever + when the clutch is engaged it would need a second sensor on the gear shift to know what gear youre in, what a nob If he pulls u again & your sober, when he asks you " have u had a drink 2nite sir?) say yes but i'm fine to drive i've only had about 2 pints and a couple of shots in the last couple of hours & anyway those breath detectors don't work on me he'll be there for ages getting more & more pissed off as you blow numerous readings of 0 saying "see i told u they don't work on me" This is my fav party tric lol:w00t:

the portwrap wont as it can't be used as ppe

a good friend of mine works at speed procesing centre bristol (ex-friend once he took the job) It depends on the method by which you are caught, if the method relies on a calibrated speedo eg a cop following you with a camera or car mounted laser then it can be argued in court that his speedo calibration is as much as 10% out hence you often find, as i have, that a coper will do you for 90/99 on a motorway unless he manages to clock you at 110+. (different charge over 100) where as certian cameras are far more acurate, best friend just done for 43 in a 40. HOWEVER in a thirty zone you cannot be prosecuted for any less than 36 dont ask me y but u cant. also if your between 36 & 40 you'll usually get the option (if its 1st speeding offence) to go on a speed choice workshop but over 40 u don't get the option. as for over sized tyres, it depends on the OD of your tyre (overall diamiter) the best system of tyre sizing is american: 29/9.25x15 meaning 29"overall diamiter 9.25" wide on a 15" wheel those pr**ks in europe decided that 235/75 r15 was better though but this means a tyre that is 235mm wide with a sidewall height that is 75% of the width on a 15" wheel they really do over complicate things:mad1: the above sizes are for the exact same tyre so with a european sizing you have to multiply 235mm by 75% then by 2 then add the wheel size to get the OD. now work out the od of the standard/previous tyres with wich the speedo was corect then the new ones then find the %increase in OD then you know what % your speedo will overread by. most speedos (not all) over read by 3-10% so you could actually correct an under reading speedo if not you can add a specially designed resistor of the correct rating between the reader & dial to correct it or on certian veicles you can simply change the cog which the sensor reads off for one with the relevent number of teeth. i really should start a pib quiz team but know sweet fa about sport and tv:laugh1:

Amen brother:thumbup1: just had a client who had to sever that soft link and by god he was glad he'd added it in 2-weeks previous:scared1: I find that a micro sling is best as it adds in minimal extra length keeping your work nice and close.

Ha! are you new to this industry? only joking, prob best not 2 get into that

certainly would i do it every week (over 350 loler inspections each year) believe me the stakes are far far higher

just to take up this point dean, A group of people from our industry inluding myself are in discussions over creating exactly this, a corgi type system for tree work, PM me your tel no & prehaps you could lend us some input, any meetings are currently held at trust insurances h q board room (thanks geoff) I can feel a new thread comming on. as for loler inspections i feel i could discuss this issue till i'm blue in the face, increasing numbers of firms are having their inspections done & it will certianly be a criteria for arbs equivilent of corgi, watch this space..

i've come acsross it quite a few times in arb the best example & advocate of anti panic devices is now out of his spinal brace & recovered his driving licence. The ID gre gre is ment as a belay device and is not designed to support/hold a load un-assisted & will often slip if you hang on it, thats my oversion to it being used in this way & the anti panic lever is just a bonus really, where u based mark?

What a fantistic attitude, prooves how little you know, so up for that wager yourself then? pm me your phone no & address & we'll set it up? I am in very close contact with crane & MEWP inspectors & am qualified to inspect MEWPS myslelf & every one of them is baffled by the complexity of ropes & harnesses in arb. I in-fact have run training courses for mewp inspectors interested in inspecting our equipment, five dats in not one candidate felt they could learn & retain the practical & theoretical knowlege & experiance to responsibly inspect our equipment.

what rope were u on buddy? was there a krab through the hollow rivit behind the cam? There have been a number of cases whithin europe where ropes have come out of an engaged kong cam despite being backed up by the krab through the hollow rivit, these have however been with 8-10 mm ropes which the ascenders state they are compatable with but UK guidence suggests a minimum of 10mm diamiter for PPE lines & 8mm for friction cord. Would be great if u could take some time to e-mail me some details about the incedent, at loleruk we like to compile records of lots of near-miss acidents etc to help all of the manafuturors with R&D, all information is strictly confidential, u shall only be known as mr X Y or Z from PR/GL etc. would really appriciate it. thanks you can PM me for my phone no if u prefer and talk about it verbaly.

Who pays these muppets? oh yea me & u in theory???? my wife works for the NHS some chap was (allegedly) paid 40k to decide what the trust should re-name itself to. this wasn't to include any of the costs of sign manufacture etc etc jst for him to come up with a new name!!!!! We truly are in the wrong game lol

hmmmmmm good time 2 but out me thinks. (didn't originally have glow handles) good point about backing up though, from memory you prefer the alpine butterfly method discarding the need for back up knots on both lines + creating a semi captive grip on say.... a welly branch, v.usefull aswell as ur groundy being able 2 retreive the ascenders once your done etc. I prefer to back up ascenders with knots over extra assenders to be safe, and in the case of SRT or the above alpine butterfly method (efectivly srt) it has been noted (by rupe & others) that the potential for a fall with a factor >1 which is created when footlocking on twin handler's etc. can be prevented by a chest ascender, which i consider esential for SRT.

caun't spel, gilty as chargedd dysslXia excuse or reason? (lets not start a new thread)

So you consider your self to be a competent person? Do you beleive that if i were to place 20 items of kit in front of you that you could cary out a thorough examination? Are you a betting man? if you were to pass one item with a significant\defect or fail an item which has no significant defects then i'll levy £200 and vice versa? And why is it that your 10 year old rope & harness fail? what defects have you identified on them? Loler inspecting is an incredibly complex job with stakes far higher than a £200 wager, I have numerous clients, many on this site, which are some of the most responsible, experianced & safety consious within our industry & when i return them a harness which has failed/had its inspection period significantly reduced they are concerned that they did not identify the defect them-selves in their daily inspections or weekly log. They are not however expected to learn whipping patterns, splicing tecniques, stitching patterns & configerations etc, etc, etc, etc. and that is why they have a thorough examination every six months (PPE) (12 months rigging) One of the most commen things people say to me is Oh and that didn't fail? or are we alowed to use these/arnt these banned in arb? So many people cliam to be experts but are often not. a competent person is (Someone with the practical & theoretical knowledge and experience) so a cs38 certified tree surgeon well practiced without a prolonged break from the industry is arguably a competant person to preform a daily inspection & was tested on this during their cs 38 exam. As an employer copying his/her nptc card/certificates, referencing their employment history & ensuring they carry out their daily inspection before climbimbing are all pretty standard measures. Commen sence?, not hard is it? So what is it you can do to ensure your loler inspector is competent? no more than copy his nptc, varify it's no. & ask for references & ensure his T&C state that he will carry out a thorough examination as a copetent person, commmen sence????????? you have then taken all reasonable measures in a courts eyes no?

i take it you havent looked at the price of them? a friend of mine uses them in the construction industry £500 + Vat per chain allthough i don't know what length that'll b. the saws they use have been specially modified but, as he understands it this is extra air filtration due to the concrete/stone dust etc, it also has a mist sprayer thinger to help keep the dust down. Cut around it then get them trusty spliting wedges out is my best advice

oh.........who at kong told you this???? do you speak with them often??????? it is often wise to take some statements as opinion presented as fact and not facts. there are alot of rumours in our industry surounding this subject, where r u based buddy? and when & where is your presentation due?

unfortunately not, that part of the law is clear, it is also just that: LAW. do you by chance know what standards your chainsaw you use must comply with by law? chain brake? anti vib mounts? chain catcher? nope, none of those it must have a hand guard, a clearly marked on off switch & ppe stickers. the rest is best practice. So, according to your 'half decent' lawyer you'd be fine in court if your employee/subbie cuts himself with a saw which has no chain brake?? To put it in simple terms in court loler has even more weight & you and your lawyer would be obliterated in either of the cases. And if an event unfortunately turns out to be fatal you'd be looking at a jail term since corprate manslaughter was introduced a few years ago. Good luck buddy (PS the term 'compitent person' is a legal term which refers to 'what that person should know or what standards they should be trained to.' moreover the legislation needs not to expand on such terms)

failure within how many years, is the defect on south side etc? I think that most people would want to see such a tree & assess it's whole situation but yep it'l be in between 0-100 lol The last bad winds we had came from the NW (due SW) but, genrally speaking, our prevailing wind direction is SW (due NE) and trees in open surroundings, a 'woodland pasture' type setting tend to develop more and/more substantial roots on the SW side rather sensibly. So when we have strong NE winds trees are more suseptable to failure. Or are they? if only there was real investment in such arboricultural research, i can dream

good question, short answer, there isn't one the law surounding this is a minefield, one thing is certain though, in court i'd hate to be on the losing side. It realy relies on inspectors being responsable, there is no harm in admiting that you don't know and when i did my loler exam at treevo liam & richard realy stressed that point & quite rightly so. There are loler inspectors out there who have gone to great lengths speaking to manufacture's, training companies, expert whitnesses, rigger & splicers, reading legislation etc etc and do a great job of inspecting equipment, there are also those who arn't quite so responsable or knowlegable, many people have proposed the NPTC be toughened up this, however, seems 'impractical' ..........what have i been writing? the short answer was visit my web site loleruk.com and have me inspect your equipment safe in the knowlege u r getting some1 truly competent & fully insured (PI, EL & PL)

only jst seen this thread, all of this talk of locking off gri gri's etc. If you feel like splashing out the petzl ID (or ID'S' for smaller diamiter ropes) is what we use and is what treevolution allmost certainly showed the previous post'ee. It is desiged un-like the gri gri to be failsafe and has a handy stop feature which prevents 'captin panic' from absailing/lowering some1 faster and faster as if you pull to hard on its lever which operates the device it returns to the locked position & you have to return the handle and re-apply gentle, controlled presure. These ground resque systems do mean that a type C or D resque is much quicker to execute, or as rupe said the texbook wasp resque???

Treevolution is best bet what cost were you expecting? what experience do you have? have you been to college/uni etc it's a great help if you have, as Liam will tell u the pass rate for the exam is around 50%. You'll also learn on the course that the NPTC doesn't mean that you are 'a competent person to carry out a thorough examination' of all arboricultural equipment, the course teaches & assesses candidates on the basics & does not go into depth on splice inspection, static ropes, kermantle ropes certain ascenders etc etc, it is then YOUR responsibility to ensure you are competent to inspect the equipment presented to you, you can of course defer decisions on items of equipment which you are uncertain. If you'd like any more information on loler inspecting send me a pm with your phone no & I’ll be more than happy to help. Yours, Mike Popham of loleruk

1.3 petrol, & u know what they say about men who have big v8's lol, could do with a deisel engine in it to save the clutch though, its on the 2 do list but i aquired some air lockers last week, fkn A!

landis are great & ive had a few but i like off roading & nothing beats a zook!