Treetom15

On 28/12/2019 at 10:36, Bsco85 said:

make sure your Site Specific Risky has some extra boxes. Actually mabye start filling them out! 

 

 

Spot on. The amount of guys I’ve worked with that have never signed or filled out a RA before starting work is mad. Also when you see the state of some of the kit people are happy to climb on it is truly worrying, there are SO many things the AA could be concentrating on to make our industry safer, rather than adding complications to an area that doesn’t need it ?‍♂️ Hopefully 2020 will bring some better understanding of how to create a safer work environment for everyone

Does it seem daft to anyone else that we have to run 2 separate climbing lines from the same bridge? My treemotion harness (like many others) has a 10mm rope bridge, so surely it’s fairly irrelevant how many rope systems you have if the point they are attached to is the same?! Obviously you get round this with the TM evo but not everyone uses them.  

Saw this the other day and it was a timely reminder just how vulnerable you are on a Basel anchor-

There is too many factors that can cause a base anchor to fail- falling branches, sharp items on the anchor point, increased risk of the anchor point in the canopy failing, inexperienced ground staff damaging the base anchor....... 

As said above-a foot ascender is a good investment for either srt or ddrt ? I would offer a suggestion re the rope wrench-i would say it’s definitely worth buying the proper thing, however if you decide srt isn’t your thing, you can always use the rope wrench coupled with a dmm pinto rigging pull to make a rig’n’wrench, amazing for lite rigging ? 

I’ve got Drenaline and it’s good for both, although no one seems to have any at the moment! Yale kernmaster is my fave but it’s 11mm so “technically” too small for a zigzag

Good point RE insurance claims, although now they’ve brought in climbing on 2 ropes at all times I don’t know how any of us would fair in an incident involving srt/ddrt if we weren’t compliant with that ? 

From what I’ve seen, other devices (rope runner, Akimbo etc) seem much more popular in the USA and as they don’t have to be ce marked for over there I can see why they wouldn’t be in any rush to make them available to a much smaller market ? zz & chicane is ce marked, do you need it to be ce marked for your employer? 

My breathflex trousers now look like a patchwork blanket, and are about as much use! Pfanner all the way, on my 2nd pair of the arborist trousers (think they are what people are referring to as the gladiators?) and they’re mint. They come up quite big though so I’d try some on before you buy, I went for medium as that’s what I always wear and I’m closer to a small! 

I looked at that setup before, but I’ve always just managed to squeeze my ascender around the shank on the spikes-no luck this time though! Looks like that might be worth investing in, any idea if that plate fits other ascenders or just the Arbpro?

Having moved from the alloy Distel spikes to the Edelrid talons due to changing company, I’m finding it pretty awkward to fit a foot ascender with the spikes. It fitted great with the Distels, just wondering if anyone else has come up with a solution to this? Cheers!

I think for efficiency you cannot beat the ZZ/chicane combo...however personally I prefer the “feel” of using a vt/wrench, rope on rope feels more familiar I guess? Go for whichever you have the most bits for already, they’re both good in their own right ?

+1 for the CT foot ascender, replaced my Stein django (same as petzl, numerous others I think) ascender with one about 3 months ago and it’s much better. Needs less weight for it to self tend, better quality, all round good quality and it’s the same price ?

15 minutes ago, Khriss said:

@Treetom15 just poor industry mentoring n staff development, bet Billy Bigbollox is as not as good 'as he thinks he is' and sadly all too common in tree industry. K

Anyone who has to tell you just how good they are, is usually never that good ? I’ve always been very lucky and had good boss’s and team leaders, but I’ve worked with lots of young lads who haven’t and it’s killed the enjoyment of the job for them-hence you start getting all the “I can’t come in today the dog ate my lunchbox” phone calls at 8am ?

I think part of the issue is everything people see on social media re being an “Arborist”. It’s very easy to make the job look like you spend your day swinging around from a crane hook or deadwooding lovely big Oak trees, and a lot of people new to the industry don’t seem to realise the graft and hard work involved before it’s too late! 

Having said that, there’s plenty of willing hard working younger people who get stuck behind a chipper all day every day because their gang leader/boss wants to be mr big bollocks and do all the climbing...... I’m 27 and I had to push to break out of that and get chances, but technically I’m a “millennial snowflake” so maybe it’s my fault ? 

18 minutes ago, Duncan. said:

The p500 doesn't have spikes on the back it has 4 rubber pads. I've had it for a few years now and well happy with it.

My bad, I was looking at the P3000 ? 

Are you going self employed as as climber? My 2001 has earned me fuckall extra as a subby so I wouldn't say it's worth it.  

11 minutes ago, Joe Newton said:

In the near future yes, I would agree that whilst it’s not vital to have a rigging kit as a subby climber, with the companies I would be looking to work for it would make you more appealing, plus I get a decent amount of my own work so I hope once it’s paid for itself it would be a good asset to have!

Very good point. I would say 60%+ of my work is dismantles/removals, however at the moment I am in full time employment so my kit would only be getting use on weekends until I go on my own. I would rather buy the best I can afford.

1 hour ago, Dan Maynard said:

More of a budget option I suppose but for self employed type jobs I went for Tree Runner P500, save £100 over the rc2001, it's lighter and easier to set up by one person. Really happy with it and worth the extra over a portawrap.

Seems to be only Honey Bros that stock them for some reason.

I looked at that, it seems decent but I was slightly put off by the large spikes/teeth cut into the backing plate, which would mean there’s absolutely no chance of using it on a tree that wasn’t being removed? 

GRCS is well out of my budget unfortunately ? hence looking at the rc3001-has anyone used this setup compared to a GRCS? 

6 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

 Anything requiring something like would typically end up being a crane job anyway.

That was my thought, the likelihood of needing the winching capabilities are fairly low I guess 

I’m looking at getting myself a decent rigging setup, the place I work at has their own but as I’m looking further into going self employed I decided it’s the next logical thing I need. Just looking for pros/cons to what bollards people here have used- I’ve used the Stein rc2001 and a couple of other very similar fixed bollards (no interest in portawraps, hate the things!). Slightly torn between buying the RC 2001 or the RCW 3001, as I don’t want to buy twice and I like the idea of having the option to use the winch with the 3001? Cheers!

It isn’t always quicker (well, it mostly is) but the main benefit I feel is the lack of fatigue over a long days/weeks climbing. You can keep climbing without being knackered meaning you’re able to concentrate more on what you’re actually doing, meaning less of those “that’ll do” sort of cuts ? definitely worth persevering with, massively beneficial in the long run! 

I was made aware of issues with base anchoring for a rescue a little while ago (by someone who knows a lot more than me!) 

The main point made, was that unfortunately if you need rescuing and you are completely unable to self rescue, then there’s a high chance you’ve been working and you’re stropped in-meaning even if you can lower someone down they won’t move far at all. 

Also, if your anchor is on fairly small stuff, having it base tied puts more force on your anchor as you’ve essentially put a 2:1 over it, making it more likely to fail. 

Personally I think if the tree or work requires it the safest thing to do is tie a rescue line in, takes seconds and means someone can be with you instantly. Plus a base anchor with people working around it or lumps of wood coming down makes me feel very uneasy!

4 hours ago, Sambo said:

I need to try the Zig zag again - used to have one at a place I worked at a few years ago but we ran them on 1/2" rope which didn't really work too well. Then they got taken off us as it was around the time they were having problems with the links breaking!

Luckily I got to try them side by side- I’ve got the “older” ZZ and I run that with a rope wrench with an alloy tether, so it was good to compare that to the new ZZ/chicane combo. As much as it didn’t want to like it (ripping off Kevin Bingham and all) it was a bloody good setup, less friction ascending and very smooth and controlled on decent. Will definitely be investing myself

I’m sorry if this has been covered before- basically I’m looking for info regarding insurance to cover me for weekend work. I’m employed full time by a company but I need my own cover for doing my own jobs on the weekend, I had my own cover when I was self employed about 3 years ago but I’m unsure whether you can get insurance that’s more specific to just working 2 days a week (sat/Sunday) and if you can who do people recommend?

Any help much appreciated! 

Tried a friends chicane & ZZ yesterday, by far the smoothest and most controlled setup I’ve used