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Nope I bought a pulley for this but never got around to it. However its still more bulk in the way and wouldnt help much with the short prusik situation. I did see a video showing a blakes hitch, can have the tail tied high on the other line to make it tending. Theres no reason the same cant be done without a pulley with a prussik just with an extra cord and accessory biner around the body of the hitch. I found a pic that shows my normal setup. Ignore the cheap white bridge rope, I have swapped it to the proper one.

Perhaps, I also had a new sharp full chisel chain and we were cutting a rotten ganoderma ash so perhaps neither were really under much load. The specs claim 4kW vs 5kW... Either way power is not everything and I prefered the g372xp. I'll be fixing the issues and not wanting to use the 500i again. My wrist is still sore! I would expect the bore, stroke etc to be to the published spec but perhaps the compression may be set lower. It would explain the much easier sstarting Anyway the china bashing is no interest to me. For £159 delivered its a great saw that does what I need/want. Can anyone give me advice on the big bore kit (china or otherwise) and any other tuning options I should do while Im in there? Thanks Mark

I bought this saw in Jan and so far I like it. There are a couple of minor issues but the power is great, to me it feels as powerfull as my buddys Stihl 500i and nicer to use/start. Im using a 20" bar but may get a 28" for the bigger stuff. Im thinking of buying a 52mm big bore kit which will take it from 71cc to 77cc and give slightly more power. Parts are cheap if it goes wrong, and I'd then have the original cylinder as a spare. Good idea? Anything to consider when swapping a big bore kit? Will it need any futher tuning or just a quick carb adjustment? Thanks

What do you use? For me there are two situations, ascending a tree I want a long loop to make quicker progress in each movement, I use the treehog 120cm eye to eye and tie a 4 wrap knut hitch. its about the same length as a standard 60/70cm loop. I am very happy with this, always good friction and easily moves, reliable. Treehog TH1153 Eye To Eye Sling - Radmore & Tucker WWW.RADMORETUCKER.CO.UK The Treehog eye to eye sling is a 10mm diamter hitch which is both grippy and heat resistant which are ideal for prussik cords and friction hitches... That puts me a way from the anchor when I'm working at the top or when blocking down a trunk, is the only annoyance, but I often swap to a 70cm eye to eye for that. Its not ideal, its length means I can just about tie a 2 or 3 wrap knut. Its awful to ascend using it as the throw is tiny. It tends to either lock up tight or slip, rarely giving an ideal amount of friction. Other climber uses Zigzags but I find them bulky in the way, also far from anchor and I havent got used to them, still I am tempted to get one, just a pain that its not attachable and has to be fed through. I also hate rope graps for a flip line, I use a knut hitch for that, and happy with it.

This oak is at a local park. I am interested to know what has caused the decline. Surrounding trees appear healthy. Branch tips all dead but lots of new epicormic growth, very slow to start growth this year compared to the surrounding oaks.

Looks like Pseudoinonotus dryadeus growing at the base which means it has root crown rot, likely from the stones keeping it wet.

The card states roller bearings, it should be smooth. Not got a ziptie or other rubbish stuck in the side of wheel? Dmm are pretty good, suggest you call them, I have found them helpful in the past. https://dmmwales.com/pages/contact-us

It appears many employers on PAYE do it as a day rate, Im unsure the legalities of that and I had a bit of dispute over hours because certain team leaders stated that hours began when we got to site, which meant meeting the team at 6:30am for the long van drive upto London or Kent, and then not allowed to leave site until after 4pm. With traffic I wasnt getting home until 7pm. It really took the piss when they were expecting me to drive the van, too! Even the short days were working out less than minimum wage. I didn't stay there long.

I havent had any success to close up the previous splice, tried again with ratchet strap. Left it in a tub of water for a day and may try again later. I imagine I will need to cut it off and start again. I got some Samson Ice Tail to try, studied the Samson docs and decided on an adjustable 52cm - 1m whoopie with a tuck bury for the fixed eye.

Used Liros Reef. I thought it was going well but I cant close it up, the throat of the splice has gone hard, so I cant milk any slack into it. I briefely tried a ratchet strap between trees, which closed it 1/2" but theres still an inch to go. I used Samsons normal instructions. I see they have another page about used rope, says to soak it in water before splicing. I am guessing that would not help now. 10mm Ocean, much easier than the 8mm, however the result is much stiffer that Idont understand.

3rd is an oak, leaves look similar to a pin oak thats opposite my house, but the Plantnet app on my phone says black oak from your picture, I've not seen enough to know the difference.

I tried some 8mm Ocean. Its a lot nicer to work with than Sirius. I found a better option for pulling the core through, expandable nylon cable sleeving. It took only seconds. Its cheap stuff, I stole a length from my old computer. The top eye done, lower one still to be pulled tight.

I have a few double braid splices I need to lock stich/whip. My first question is what size/diameter whipping twine should I buy for use on 8-13mm cord and climbing rope? HB list 1.5mm waxed twine. Its fairly expensive for 20 meters. 1.5mm seems a bit thick? Seen a few instructions and videos, I am not too convinced by the lock stitch method, the whipped stitching seems like it would be more secure. What do you use?

Technique I think. Today did the other end and it was a complete arsehole. I couldnt get the core into my paracord soft fid, so took the core out of some 7mm cord. I end up unbraiding two inches of the core, dividing it into four and using the wire fid on each quarter to get it into the soft fid cover. I had to cut some strands of the soft fid cover to loosen it up too. The core neded a bit of smoothing out before inserting but it worked.

Have you used Sirius cord? The cover is very rough and stiff, not nice to work with. Theres no way of pulling 2x core diameters past another core through it. I imagine it will work better with other covers. I have a long wire, it was not any better. Im happy with my measurements, all exact, its not a difficult process.

Had an attempt at splicing an eye on Sirius 8mm cord. Couldnt find any specific instructions, so used Samson's class 1 double braid pdf and YT video. It was a proper pain to get the core back into the cover, seems a wire fid is no good on a tight cover (as the core needs to be founded and too thick) so I made a soft fid from some cheap paracord with the core removed. When I get to lathe I will turn some hollow fids out of brass. I am a bit unsure about one thing which is the core bury length. The instructions have you insert the core at the cover crossover point and then come out a short fid (7* diameter) from the eye, which on 8mm cord is only 56mm !

Tried some cheap cord first. Then a ring out of Mamut 9.5mm dynamic climbing rope. Tapered the core of the female but not the cover, and tapered both the core and cover of the male and pulled it inside. I used one fid length for the tapers. The last inch of cover has frayed but it lines up with the mark.

I would like to learn splicing and I have some spare static industrial 10mm, can I practise on this? It is 10mm, kernmantle with 14 parallel twisted core strands. What is the best splicing method for parallel strand cores? I have done a test with the Drenaline Splife method on some accessory cord and seems to work, but that had much looser braid over the core. The 10mm is very tight and I doubt I can pull the cover in by hand. Interesting I looked up the specs of Drenaline, 35kn rope. With Splife method its rated 20kn, a normal splice 16.5kn - under half, and a fig8 gets 18kn, about half. Unusual that a splice beats a fig8. I have some liros reef/ ignite I can try with double braid methods.

No issue provided the rope grab has the correct markings... I hate the things. I much prefer using a knut prusik for lanyards, doesnt get in the way and adjusts just as easily.

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.