Mr. Squirrel

Hey folks, Looking at getting one of the above. Just wanted to hear of people's personal experiences and thoughts on them. I've used the GRCS loads, both from the ground and the top and really like it. Setup is a 2 man job really but straight forward enough. It's simple to use, and fits to smaller trees easily enough. Only draw back is having the separate lowering bollard. Which I've never actually used. Smart winch - seems like a good idea. I've never used one myself, but had one on a largeish multi stem red oak dismantle for a company once. I had one groundy who'd never even used a portawrap before. I had concerns that it was a little tricky to take wraps off after winching to allow lowering? Certainly it seems less straight forward than unwinding the GRCS. I winched off a big piece of stem and while taking wraps off groundy lost control, all the rope shot off the winch and the piece made a hole in the ground. LD1 - never seen one in person or used one, but it's cheaper and more compact than the other two. Looks like it could be really good, but would rather see it in person first I guess.

Cheers for the input guys. I spoke to my accountant and am putting some of it through this year as capital gains, if I remember correctly? It was such a crap year of business for me that putting much of it against my books this year would've just been shooting myself in the foot for next year. I spoke pretty in depth with the accountant last year about going LTD and being VAT registered but it didn't seem to offer many benefits to my situation to be honest. I don't have any finance etc. so there's no financial risk to my 'company'. The VAT on my van was a bastard, but given I work for a lot of private customers, and contract for a few guys who aren't VAT registered I was willing to take the hit to keep the people happy. And save myself having to do VAT returns... There's a reason I climb trees for a living, I'm bad with numbers, and I don't need extra numbers to play with...

Yeah I'm just doing my balance sheet for that year now (making sense of the bag of receipts). It's all really tidy except for this elephant in the room. AIA varies but was at about £200,000 if I remember correctly, and putting the vehicle through in a single year is perfectly legit from what I remember. It's just how to record it... I'll maybe give the chap a ring and see if he's got time to take a look. Just thought it worth asking you lot first.

Hey guys, I've searched various other forums for advice with this and think I have the answers, just thought I'd run it past arbtalk... I've been self employed for 7 years now, up until our current tax year purely subbing. So books were always dead simple, invoices minus business expenditure, booyah. In the 2017-2018 tax year though I bought a van. My mum died that year and I received £10,000 from her pension, I borrowed a few grand from a family member on top of a grand or so I had so I could get a bombproof vehicle for work. So ended up spending £14,000. As what I borrowed was a private loan with no interest etc. I just paid it back out of my drawings. Seems legit to me. As it's a transit it's undeniably a commercial vehicle. Do I put that in my balance sheets for 2017-2018, but not include it in business expenditure, and then just put it through in my annual investment allowance? It was a poor year for business, as I took the first 6 months off work caring for my mum. So putting the full £14,000 through in one year will see my profits well below the approx £11,000 figure at which you start paying tax. Can I put a portion of it through for 17-18, and spread the rest over the next 4 years or so, aye? Looking ahead I'd almost be tempted get it done with in a single tax year and take the hit on the tax front in subsequent years. It'd mean more realistic profit values and possibly really help with getting a mortgage in a few years time. From April my books will be done through a chartered accountant linked into Sage so I won't be asking tree surgeons for help haha I'd ring him up to chew this one over but I feel wide calling up a couple weeks before tax return is due having a flapper. Cheers for any advice in advance, and please guys, be kind. We aren't all accounting wizards...

I'm 68kg and find it really off and on too. No smoothness. Relegated the zz to a paper weight after a week and went back to my knot.

I ended up in a&e one evening with a bit of crap stuck to my eye ball. Just couldn't get it out myself. The doc had it out no problem, and put in some anaesthetic eye drops. "if you're getting scratched eyes from bits of saw dust then the anaesthetic drops are a lifesaver" he said "we can't even prescribe them, but they do go missing quite often. I'll go fetch you some anti biotic drops, back in 5" Placed a hand full of them on the table and left. I'm now able to buy them. They're amazing.

You'd think with all that money behind them Petzl could come up with something better. They've just ripped off the rope wrench and made it worse, right? Right.

Living in rural Scotland I have a pretty cynical view of the big estates. They aren't all bad of course, and they do do so some valuable work. But they all seem to invest so heavily in pheasant shoots, and that just gets on my tits. I've done some work for game keepers when I was contracting. Smashing big bits out of mature oaks so the birds will fly right out over where the wankers park their range rovers. And then the sheer number of pheasants they inflict on the Scottish countryside. Just nah... They might offer something to the rural economy but it's nowhere near enough to justify the extensive damage they do to the ecology. Vent over. But that's not hunting I suppose. If there's fire arms offences then I hope they get the book thrown at them. Posing with the animal you just shoot is ludicrous and they should get a slap for that regardless and recover their life choices. But otherwise, hunting is an important part of the Scottish countryside and will continue to be.

I was actually thinking about exactly the same thing recently. I don't like the 3 way snap crabs, these 2 way ones are way nicer. I half considered getting one of those wee dmm swivels with the two shackles, but I can't really be arsed with that. You can get honeys own brand fliplines, if they're made in house they might be able to do you one with your current crab on the end? Edit: Or get one of these. I think I might just get one of these... https://www.treekit.com/climbing-equipment/hardware/carabiners/screw-gate/petzl-eashook-open.html

Most manufacturers don't put a lifespan on krabs. With normal use there's nothing that will cause them to snap which wouldn't be picked up on in a loller inspection. I have ten year old krabs that are perfectly ok, and I two year old krabs that are buggered from the constant wear point on a hitch climber. It's all down to usage.

Utterly ridiculous. Where did you find the accident Tory and what company was it? Would be interested to see what they think went wrong... I saw the longer version on Facebook and aside from all the climbers cock ups, you can hear these guys trying to talk him through getting himself down. Honestly, I think I'm more shocked about that. Come on man, get up there and get him down...

Comfort and fit, then durability. For me Husky tech extremes are a perfect fit. After ten years in the industry they're the first pair of cutting trousers I've had which I don't grudge wearing. Durability is an issue, granted, but for the comfort it's worth it. Last trousers were Pfanner kevlar extremes, awful fit, but lasted for years.

It's amazing how easily impressed some people are eh? The shot of the guys harness hanging round his arse is impressive! I wonder if he's still alive?

Had really bad knee pain after a period of sustained & heavy pantin use, about 600m srt ascent per day. Could hardly walk for a fortnight, but not had any issues since. It definitely twists your ankle a bit which I'm sure must in turn twist your knee, so it all makes sense I guess...

I'd go with that. I've had similar experiences to 'white noise' with several of the UK arb suppliers. I see people singing their praises online all the time, and yet I've waited over a fortnight for a silky blade with no explanation...? As irritating as it is, these things happen, things slip through the cracks sometimes. Best bet is giving them a ring and sorting it out that way. They're usually pretty genuinely apologetic, and will see you right pronto.

I got the la sportiva boulder X mids in the summer. Inventor comfortable boots and absolutely perfect for pruning jobs. Don't seem as tough as my clip n steps but I'm banking on getting at least a year from them. Time will tell though.

Aaha, my bad then. Tbh I can't remember ever transferring a casualty onto my climbing line. Guess that'd be using a prussik just above your splice/termination knot? I do anual refresher training on rescues and practice them throughout the year and always go bridge to bridge. Fast and simple. I suppose if you were using a hitch climber pulley you could maybe put them onto a spare hole. However it could cause it to sit at an odd angle.

Never actually practised an srt rescue but I can see advances to it, being able to redirect straight onto the casualty without having to be concerned about rope drag etc. Figure of 8 below hitch and you're cooking. Simples, no?

Second that, not Massaria.

For what it's worth I'm with you on many points. I'd add that at 42 with 12 years cutting experience I'd be wanting more than 120/day to bust my arse. Say you pay a subby climber 150/day. Take off mileage, say 20. Then ppe, saws (I don't want someone else's saws up a tree), kit etc 10. Then tax, you're down to 94/day actual money. PAYE climber will get how much, 70/day after tax? Guaranteed money. Plus paid holidays, plus pension contributions. At which point you're really not that much better off subbing. Just means you can decide when you work. I charge 160/day when I'm subbing, which for a qualified and experienced climber who takes the job seriously and invests time and money in their quality of work I think is very reasonable. Running my own jobs I pay my regular groundsman 135/day minimum. When it warrants it l pay him 150. When I get climbers in I pay them 200+/day. If I could I'd match European rates, but there are limits...

As said, some static lines do have a bonded core and sheath. Courant certainly do one, as do some others (I believe someone mentioned Beal earlier) As for my pal, he was caving, and a victim of poor rigging I believe. Rope had some slight rub on rock which caused the failure.

I have a pal who had the sheath fail while ascending a static rope on a frogj setup (croll + hand jammer). As said he came to a slow and gentle stop as the sheath bunched up beneath him. Then had to go up the exposed core strands... Obviously only works if there's a knot in the end though... personally I'd rather a rope with bonded core and sheath.

I don't, but really need to sort it. I was refused a a policy three years ago as I was fresh back at work after a shoulder op, while off sick I saw a doc regarding stress, and was referred to mental health folk. That plus hobbies were too many risk factors apparently. However, when I broke my shoulder I ended up being off work for almost a year, I was near financially ruined. Statutory sick pay is worthless, and why would you knowingly put the burden of earning on your partner in the case of anything going wrong? I'm amazed anyone in this industry would say no to it.

Stiffline is a good un. I know someone who had 3 Stein throw cubes fall apart before he splashed on a Falteimer cube. Meanwhile one of my Falteimers is nearly ten years old. They're worth the extra.

You like that picture eh Stubby? I came across it numerous times when searching 661/395 haha! I spoke to a few pals and went with the 661 in the end, although that 395 makes me regret the choice slightly. It's a different beast though, if I already had a larger mid range saw, like a 372, I'd probably go for it. I kinda need something big, but practical from spikes at the same time though...