JimM

The Husqvarna website gives you the information you're looking for. Simples :-)

More time with the Venom and not liking it now to be honest. Been on a good few Elm last couple of weeks and the increased friction through a high crotch seems to emphasis the stretchyness of the rope. Maybe it's just me but it's not so noticeable on smooth barked trees or with a cambium saver in. It's not something I've found with Blue Tongue.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhaRXmBCgc4[/ame] View from the top. Love this job! Topping the big 'uns is far and away my favourite job.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnz-P_-43mA[/ame] Topping your tree out.

Yeh, that was a Douglas I pruned. Pruned the top 30ft from 100 up. ;-) A few more to come out from the same location. I'll sort the video from up top and stick it on here.

Stunning up here!

Working well today with the 9010, unlike my 880 POS which refuses to start. Now will have to try a 3ft bar on the Dolmar

New beast arrived on Monday and was put straight to work yesterday. Thanks Andrew. Really pleased with it. (and the extra gizzits!) Just the one tank run through it so far. It's got a lot of Elm to work on next couple of weeks. No worries on the posting times mate. 24 hour delivery means 24 hours to get out of England, plus 24 hours to get to the north of Scotland. The bonus is that your postage rate is a third that of Jonesie etc.

I take it you're happy with it? I want something to sit in the gap between my 576 and 880. Not overly enamoured with Stihl at the moment, otherwise I would grab a 661. And as for Rob D....... Begone you foul tempter! :-)

9010 wanted PM sent Andrew

Used the distel with the Hitchclimber for a while and really enjoyed it, but it was Grand Fir or Sitka sap that killed it for me. Swapped the friction cords a few times because of gumming up the knot. It's what pushed me in the end to ZZ and Art Positioner's.

Genuinely went into my dealer today with my Stihl 131 pole saw. Great girl on the counter. "Think the problem's with my shaft" . The engineer popped out and she had to explain. Leading to his comment that it was quite an impressive one. And so it went on. She asked me to leave when I asked if it would be well lubricated when it was serviced. Still grinning. :-)

I found Blue Tongue a bit bouncy at the start of a long ascent, usually around 60ft or so. Used the Marlow Venom yesterday on a big Grand Fir and found little difference. Think I'll stick with it.

Ah, ok that makes sense. I naturally assumed that the AT2 would be newer. It'll be interesting to see how the AT2's do on my Ranger.

I'll give it a go. Tbh I've done quite a few big climbs on blue tongue and bounced a bit with that.

Spence and I have been using the Senna 10's for a while now Stevie. Couple of minor niggles but overall we really rate them. Fit well on the side of a Pfanner Protos helmet. Think the wired mic may be the more rugged option, mounted down on to the face guard, as opposed to the boom version which we think is failing due to too much twisting, although we can't be certain. Just got hold of another Protos so that an extra groundie or climber can join in.

Bum, bum, bum! Just bought Marlow Venom last week to replace a knackered Blue tongue, on the strength of it being for metal prussics. Haven't climbed on it yet.

Just swapped 60k Grabber AT's for AT2's on my Ranger, so you're not alone Steve in getting good mileage out of them. The garage had to really hunt around for the AT2's. They think that the old AT tread might be discontinued and the AT2's rebadged as AT. Not sure if that's true or not. Great tyres though.

No, they haven't. Been over my harness and kit carefully and all seems fine. Not being complacent about this event, and will prob replace the harness in the near term. Thanks to Pete McTree on here, calling me up to check how I was and talk through it. Definitely should have used a bigger saw from the get go, which Stevie mentioned above. I used my 560 further up the stem and should have started with it. Double gob (V cut), or top cut exactly above the undercut would have been better, the inboard top cut allowed tearing to take place before the (slow) cut was complete. Cheers guys. Learn the lessons and go forward (upward)! Have a good weekend.

Was nicely comfortable and didn't have to stretch Stevie. But I reckon you're right on the slow cutting.

Yes it was freezing. We wondered if the cold had a hand in it. The rest of the limbs came off fine. Going to have a thorough check of my harness etc in the cold light of day.

38" Dbh Oak 60ft to dismantle. Clear all around so could just drop everything. Up about the 25ft mark with a 14" limb off to the right. Climbing rope 15ft above and slightly to the left. 3m steel flip not long enough to allow me to run around the stem, so had that on a limb slightly above and 2 feet around the stem to the left, on the lower D,s on my Treemotion. On spikes. So I had a bias pulling me to the left. Put the lanyard around the limb to be cut in at the stem to allow me positioning for the cut, aiming to cut about 2ft out. No other limbs to use nearby. 7" deep undercut, side cuts. Chainsaw detached from my harness as the limb was long and heavy. With about an inch to go on the downward cut inboard the branch let go, and then tore as a thin wide strip, running back to the stem and about 3ft down. Instant pull in to the limb at stomach height, about 3 or 4 seconds later the lanyard burst and the limb fell free. Didn't gob the underside as I wanted the limb to fall clear of the stem. Ouch, Bugger. Threw away the lanyard and finished the job. If I'd come out the tree I think I wouldn't have gone back to it.

Think this is going to fail my next LOLER inspection. Pulled through an Art Positioner as the Fishermans knot burst. One of my 9 lives took a battering.

Nice one! Glad someone had a good result! Better than mine today. 38"dbh oak stripped and felled the last section. Massive star shake and split nearly in half to the first 4m. Gutted.

Well done Steve. Another good year for the Children's Trust donations.