Dilz

The majority of my work right now is as a subby / climber. A friend showed me his set up of a LWB transit van with a sherpa mini skid steer in the back - he likes it that way as he can take it to every job when subcontracting as you never know exactly what to expect, but it usually gets used and parking in town isnt a hassle as no trailer, and he rarely has to drag brash. To me, not dragging brash by hand seems like a very good thing, and to be able to do it at any job i turn up to seems also a very good thing. Was wondering if anyone is using any other types of mini loaders? Are there ones that are both narrow and low impact? Have thought about the micro arb truck type set ups - though technically not a loader its looks good for tight access - but a machine that can do the lifting is going to be better. Any thoughts or feedback much appreciated as I never bought owned a loader before (infact i only own saws and and my van machines wise) but figure its time to start working a bit smarter...

The client is rather keen on keeping this tree in some sort of form. So one option put forward was to hammer off the top down to the first or second brace point and leave the lower canopy intact. Talks about bringing the stem height down below the old braces made me bit concerned about exciting things happening at the included union when they are taken off. THe client understands that the level of pruning involved in that kind of operation is in no way good for the tree however by retaining the lower branches it would hopefully allow the tree to stay standing in some form for many years as well as providing habitat.

Thats what i have heard about such banding - that the tree snaps at that point. There was talk about removing the banding and rebracing with a dynamic system but im pretty much against that for this situation.

Had a little clamber around this old pine today to check out a couple of things. I have not had to deal too much with metal bracing and never of this sort. The pine has dropped a few branches, and the owners are a bit concerned. Resistance drilling and core samples have not shown there to be any extensive decay in the base of the tree. Some decay - small bird nesting holes higher up, but nothing looking too bad. The included union of the two stems seems to me to be quite sound. No one knows how old the banding/bracing is and its clearly been there for a while. The initial thoughts were to fell the tree but the wish to retain it. I have given them a few options based on what i have seen. My main concern is the tree snapping at the points of bracing. Interested to see what other people think. Got a few photos for folk to look at.

yup - in over 8 years of using just aspen I have never had that problem - not met anyone who has personally

Had a 346 sat around for a while. It worked ok but some times would bog down on high revs and needed feathering to get back up to speed - eventually just refused to do much at all, but often would start fine and idle nicely only to die shortly after putting on some revs. I've cleaned and adjusted the carb, and still had problems, a bit better but still useless (checked the cylinder and all looks fine - no scoring) then i noticed that what i think ( ) is the impulse line not sitting right. Got this sat on better - so now the saw runs great - but only when the saw is at a 45 degree angle to the side. Revs drop off on idle and it bogs down a bit when on full throttle when its in a normal position - had to leave it for now as got other things to do. Now wondering if it could be an issue with the fuel filter or something else... Wont have time until next weekend to look at it. Thanks in advance for any tips.

one reason i use apsen - your saw doesn't get wrecked when someone cocks up the mix.

Just a wondering about the life expectancy of drive sprockets. When i was first taught about using saws a rough rule for replacements was 3 chains to a bar - 3 bars to a sprocket. Based on chains and bars getting worn through use rather than abuse. Had look at 261 at a company, its about 18months old - the sprokect was really worn - my guess is the chain has been run at the wrong tension too much, a 550 has a worn sprocket as well but that saw had the misfortune of being handed to a very special kind of worker to use as his own saw as everyone got annoyed with him wrecking all the saws and just leaving them back on the shelf. A 440 thats been with the company a good few years and seen a lot of use, hasn't had a sprocket replaced on it and the one that was original is in good condition. Now is this a case of user causing the wear or are some sprockets just lasting longer? maybe built of things other than oriental tin?

i use the austria shoulder straps - the chest strap works great - run it through a karabiner on the D shackle on the ZZ and it has nice quick release feature - work mate pinched my chester as soon as i started to use the shoulder straps, - he likes not getting smacked in the teeth by mini karabiners now.

this is also nice to read - as torsional stress on the ZZ does make me twitch a bit - https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Professional/Torsion-on-the-ZIGZAG-and-ZILLON-chain

Look at the instructions for the Zillon https://www.petzl.com/US/en/Professional/Using-the-ZILLON-lanyard-in-single-mode it advises holding the tail of the rope when disengaging the zigzag in single line use, this works well when using the regular zig zag in SRT with the RW as it you can ease everything into moving alot easier. A while back i climbed SRT on the Zig zag and totally forgot to attach the rope wrench - didnt notice any problems really. Branch walking take a bit of time getting use to on SRT but one day it just clicks - lots of useful vids on You tube about different redirects - but my advice is keep it simple to start - use slings and natural crotches.

its easier to fit in the kit bag. (also find the wrench disengages a bit easier )

looking at getting some Calipers to speed up measuring on some surveys - are the Mantax blue calipers really worth the extra cost?

when i was in the uk we ended up having to have a sharps kits and box in the van on council jobs. Was much less of a problem in areas where they had free needle exchanges

Now i get what you mean!! - yeah done this kind of thing loads , often though i'll use a couple of slings and tie it off inside the cut then just grab it and chuck it. or then lower it with the tail of my climbing line, maybe even run it through a figure of 8 or a krab for better control - have been know to use the end of my climbing line . Do a similar thing with small tops as well - bit like using the old topping down stop method. - Its a method that works well in the right situation thats for sure - not handy when you need stuff to swing right over to the other side of the tree.

that would be much appreciated - i hate trying to describe stuff much better to show than tell.

now this i can appreciate - big old hollow halfway up or some such damage can make things a bit twitchy if it needs stuff snatching. It makes sense - a 100kg piece needs 100kg opposing force to hold it - yet with the added top friction the opposing force for sake of example is reduced to 25kg- thus the force at the anchor would be 125kg or am i missing the (basic) principle? No one local to me I know uses a safebloc and at 150 quid its not something I'd like to buy to just see if it might be useful, though i can see how it would be - especially with stuff were defects or roots are suspect.

Yeh i understand that - i used to rig everything with crotches and trunk wraps using nothing but good old thick as your wrist polyprop rope - i still have a decent length hanging in the garage for old times sake. its still doesnt make it any clearer what you mean by adding the friction to where the climber is cutting, but just because you cant describe it doesn't mean it doesn't work right?

so - the climber - using both hands on the saw - lobs of a big old bit of oak over hanging a roof and then grabs the lowering rope to skilfully lower the piece down as it swings away in to the open arms of the groundy? thats some magic right there I really have to see.

aah so the meaning is the climber takes over control of the lowering line once the piece has been cut and the groundy has held it, and maybe i've had to climb back in from where im cutting to the point where the lowering line is - like i said in an earlier comment was an advantage when i was using the RW for rigging. Also dont chip (often) - no sir stopped that foolishness years ago. I used a chipper maybe 10 times last year - cut and stack (hopefully with a loader) and a guy with a grab truck will turn up and cart it off to the recycling when i'm done and gone.

The friction where i'm cutting? and thats where i'm controlling it? so if im cutting and controlling? wtf is my groundy doing apart from pinching the coffee from my flask? Also cant see how this works well when you need stuff to swing well away to the other side of the tree for example? As in my mind you are saying that i put the friction of the system at the point or near the point im cutting. Jokes and that aside... when its the odd branch i'll sling a rope over a crotch rigging - I have an old climbing rope for this. i dont use my rigging line for crotch rigging. A full dismantle or anything with lots of rigging - i'll set up with a block at the top and a bollard at the base. My original question was meant to be regarding using devices that apply the controlling friction at the top rigging point instead of the base - and this is with doing lots of rigging / full take downs,, blocking down etc. in mind not the odd branch.

I bothced a set of the aurstria duo shoulder straps onto my Tree motion - It is great on take downs with bigger saws and carrying extra gear on. Has helped with some lower back problems as well. I also use it to work with my SRT set up. The biggest draw back has been a restriction of movement when twisting to reach out at the tips on reductions - but I can shrug the shoulder straps off easy enough and have them hanging, and they didnt really get in the way.

I use a couple of old thorwbags (they split and are held together with gaffer tape) on a loop of old throwline - affectionately known as 'the knackers' Just girth hitch them on to the bottom of the line, works a treat.

in case anyone else needs this info - word is from euroline that you must have the additional attachment straps for connecting the front part of the harness to the front shackles - makes me wonder why they don't include them with the shoulder straps :/

tried a few different setups but none feel quite right with it, best one is attaching the front points of the harness to the two webbing straps that run over the waist belt at the front,