kram

Yes I was tempted to weld the Stihl maul. I have this old 7.5kg sledge. It has done a lot of work, smashed up a lot of concrete.

Not a Stihl. The grain goes the wrong way.. Grain should go along the length of the head, not across the width of it.

Last year I removed 5 trees for a friend and she has asked if I can level the end of the garden. I'll add some pictures.. theres only a slight overall slope left to right but its far from flat, possibly a foot variation but mostly less. Behind the log pile is a concrete pad from an old shed and a raised area on sleepers, that can stay as is. How would you do it? Cant fit any bigger machines through the garden gate. Or past the pegola at the other end. Wondering if a push engined tiller would do it. Much of the variation is around the old leylandii roots and the holly next to it. So may be a stump grinder? I have an engine auger so tempted to use that to make shallow holes in the high spots. Or do it by hand with a spade?

Replacing parts with equal or better rated parts, perhaps of a different brand. I would say it can be safe if done by a competent person, but is it allowable? Would a loler inspector be forced to fail it even if they agree it is safe? My old harness had fraying and the new unused one has the same part with rough edges, which caused the fraying. If I replace that part, it should last a very long time, rather than months. The old one is due for loler. I want to replace the bridge metal attachment with a petzl openable ring, as used on older Sequoia harnesses. This will allow me to replace the barrel knot bridge rope - a stupid design, far too long, annoying tail, with sewn eye bridge rope (also on older sequoia or treemotions). The bridge has webbing that threads around the waist through the side rings, but is not permenently connected/sewn to the waist. As the old one is frayed, I could replace it with a DMM 30kn nylon 26mm sling which is far stronger than the original webbing. What are your thoughts? The old harness I may do anyway and only use it for only for recreational climbing practise if it cant be passed - loler does not apply to recreational use.

An ascender is just a rope grab, it essentially does the same as a prussik. With moving rope, theres another advantage that you can hold the slack end of rope up by your tit and stand on the loop - it works well. Good in a short tough overhanging spot where you cant get a foot on the tree and its not worth fitting ascender. For the purpose of an ascender it does not form part of your PPE, in that, if it let go, it would not affect your safety. For that reason I use a cheap £10 amazon offering and a short sling as a foot loop. It has a near smooth cam so works but wont bite in or damage rope. The "proper" boot mounted ascenders often have sharp teeth to bite into the rope, which I dislike - good for alpine use on icy ropes but unnessasary in tree work. Generally you only need one ascender on DRT and if acending may be better of swapping to SRT to reduce rope wear. Now to swap to SRT you dont need any extra fancy gear. If you already have your rope up high tie a running bowline to make an anchor. Use a prusik as normal and an ascender to move up - but you wont be moving up on a single prusik alone.

Hello, I am quite new to climbing and got one of these to practise with while I do training. It was one of the cheaper options as it is on clearance, and in the shop preferred it to the TreeMotion. I have used Skylotec, Petzl Sequioa, and Treehog harnesses before. Got it in Aug last year so 7 months old. I noticed quite soon - within a month, there was slight fraying on the main webbing attachment. Around November I gave it closer inspection and found there are two edges/burrs on the main connection that I would suggest should have been polished smooth during manufacture. I have viewed these harnesses in shops and all of them on the shelf have the same flaw. Now the fraying has started to become excessive and I may need to return it. As they dont have any more, I was hoping to avoid that. Anyway with this in mind, I bought another one of these harnesses on clearance from a different shop (original out of stock). I plan to polish the burrs smooth before first use, which will void any warranty on the new one, but should then give a reasonable life. Has anyone else noticed fraying? Anyway to add to the review its a good harness, I have a few dislikes - how thin and small the engagement of the buckles, and also how thin the bridge rope attachement points are. However I guess thats personal preference that they look weak.. it must have passed testing. For comparison this is a photo of the new one. You can see the burrs catch the light.