# A new thread for oldies.....Check in if you remember when.....



## l2edneck (Nov 9, 2012)

I had time to troll this site.......


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## ozzy42 (Nov 11, 2012)

l2edneck said:


> I had time to troll this site.......



I'll bite.
I remember when tree work used to be highly profitable.
Will await your reply with your 1000th. Congrats in advance.


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## RAG66 (Nov 11, 2012)

I catch the eye from customers all the time when I tell them tree service prices have not increased much in 20 years. I do remember the late 80's when the money we made was quite good!


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## beastmaster (Nov 11, 2012)

I remember when saws didn't have brakes or compression releases, and three strand rope was acceptable to use as a climbing line. You had to be a man back then to start a 064 or 084 up in a tree.


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## SquirrelMan (Nov 11, 2012)

I remember when a false crotch was something you accidentally brought home from a bar..


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## dumbarky (Nov 12, 2012)

I remember when we used old army 2.5 tons for skidders. And my dad had a side loader instead of a knuck boom. Early 80's logging. No diesel engine trucks. School bus gasoline engines were worth something back then.


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## peetar (Nov 12, 2012)

The way I was taught in the late 80's was as such:

1. Smoke a doobie pre-flight ( the bigger/ nastier the tree, the more you smoked).

2. Free climb until your a crotch below your TIP.

3. Feel free to throw dull/ hard starting saws from 50 ft.

4. Climber takes a "smoke brake" and rolls his rope before helping chip.

5. Rinse repeat.


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## RAG66 (Nov 12, 2012)

beastmaster said:


> I remember when saws didn't have brakes or compression releases, and three strand rope was acceptable to use as a climbing line. You had to be a man back then to start a 064 or 084 up in a tree.



I have an 084 with a 40" bar. I have had it in the tree two times about 20 feet up. No room for a log so I had to chunk it down. I do not take those jobs on any more I have nothing to prove....


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## beastmaster (Nov 13, 2012)

RAG66 said:


> I have an 084 with a 40" bar. I have had it in the tree two times about 20 feet up. No room for a log so I had to chunk it down. I do not take those jobs on any more I have nothing to prove....



I said I remember them, don't think I would want to start or use a 084 in a tree anymore either, But back in the day.............


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## Oldmaple (Nov 13, 2012)

Three strand manilla rope (1/2") was standard issue for climbing, 5/8" manilla for bull rope and OSHA acceptable. Three points of contact for climbing was accepted by OSHA. Homelite Super XL 925 was a mean saw (still have one in a 5 gallon bucket in the barn). You had to sweat thru the uppers on your boots before you could say it was a hot day. Spray pesticides on all trees and shrubs when you went on a property, whether they needed it or not. I'm old so I'll probably think of more.


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## RAG66 (Nov 13, 2012)

Wow some of the stuff we are getting is sounding like normal everyday for me. I just gave one of my ground guys a Yale maxi-flip and macro grab. He was using a manila wire core with a prussic. I started with a wire core manila knotted through the D ring. Not even a real knot just a slipper through the D ring... Even today I rarely tie in more than a flip line unless my old bones need the extra stability. I am awakened to the fact I am actually getting older and there are people who are better than me....:msp_mellow:


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## epicklein22 (Nov 13, 2012)

peetar said:


> The way I was taught in the late 80's was as such:
> 
> 1. Smoke a doobie pre-flight ( the bigger/ nastier the tree, the more you smoked).
> 
> ...



Haha, I think that still applies at a lot of companies today.


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## treemandan (Nov 14, 2012)

I saw a wooden pole saw once.:msp_ohmy:

I wasn't able to use it because I was afraid a splinter might tear my rubber coated gloves.


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## RandyMac (Nov 14, 2012)

you could buy 1/2" chisel off a roll at any sawshop.


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## beastmaster (Nov 17, 2012)

All they had were loud chuck and dive chippers. I applause the man who invented the self feed for chippers!


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## sgreanbeans (Nov 18, 2012)

020t and 056, course that was old for me, that might be still new to some of you elders!


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## treeclimber101 (Nov 18, 2012)

When I had a full time job , and would work weekends and make my paycheck in less then a day , and think wow I should do this full time I will be a millionaire quick , shah yea right !


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## Treetom (Nov 18, 2012)

Bailey's sold woodsman supplies out of Jackson, Tennessee.


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## squad143 (Nov 18, 2012)

Having to pump a button to get oil on the bar (we're talking chainsaw)


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## ROPECLIMBER (Nov 18, 2012)

all metal 020T with 1/4" fast chain it "walked off" probably still runs still have a brand new 14" bar for it in sleeve in garage,
Rimmington ground saw with a pump oiler with case cracked so it would burn the bar oil and fog the whole back yard,
minalla 3 strand buck strap and arborplex climb line,
I sold by chunk and dunk last spring and miss it already
and ya no raise in 25 years but cost of living and eqipment has quaddrupled,


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## beastmaster (Nov 19, 2012)

I remember when an ISA certification was impressive as hell and meant something.


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## Treepedo (Nov 19, 2012)

When MA meant 7 men.
Jane n finchers would show up in a beater, sneakers and high as kites 
to pull the tree over or rig the top off for a swing and then drag brush for awhile
then take off as fast as they came.
The B-team/suby meant all hell is gonna break loose.


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## TreeAce (Nov 19, 2012)

when...There was 3-4 guys and only one hard hat, I had a 4 point hand saw, pole saws were for bad climbers ( its what they told me!), pole pruners and pole saws were 12 ft wooden and often square...no attaching them together, A self feeding chipper was like magic and using one was like being on easy street, and my personal favorite....a new hank of white safety blue was something to get excited about.


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## saxono3 (Nov 19, 2012)

dumbarky said:


> I remember when we used old army 2.5 tons for skidders. And my dad had a side loader instead of a knuck boom. Early 80's logging. No diesel engine trucks. School bus gasoline engines were worth something back then.



I remember those. I still see a few around. In fact there is one about two miles from where Im sitting. I don't think its moved for years. We call them hoopies. First job I ever cut was skidded out behind a 10 wheel truck that once plowed the township roads. Which were and still are gravel fro the most part. Im trying to remember what the truck was. An Oshkosh maybe? Don't know if that's right or not.


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## TreeGuyHR (Nov 20, 2012)

epicklein22 said:


> Haha, I think that still applies at a lot of companies today.



Similar experience back in 1987 at an Oregon company that will go nameless. I signed on as a groundie climber/trainee for $6 an hr.

The below are not exaggerations, and I left a lot out!

Lot crew: we used busted down old skidders to transform a nice wooded lot into a wasteland with a few barked trees and a log deck at the street (helped expand urban sprawl in the Portland area). The climber was "anti-drug", but woofed Percodan for his rotting teeth. Free climbed just using the bark until he got up in the fir crown, and then free climbed to his TIP. Saw him dump a 40 ft. top on a windy day by waiting for just the right gust to push it from the back cut side. He also tossed a saw that wouldn't start onto a rock, purposely breaking a chunk out of the body, and once ran a "dull" one down the sidewalk at full bore because it wasn't sharpened to his liking. No wire core lanyards -- just a single big manilla one tied into the D ring on one side with that little tuck knot so that you could adjust it (clipped to the other side. You hugged the tree with an arm over some limbs to re-set the lanyard.

I learned climbing from this guy.

First fir I took down took me most of a day, with the boss driving up and yelling at me from the ground to hurry up several times. I just had to cut and drop everything, but I probably took a 12 ft. top after limbing up the 100 foot tree. Before then, I had climbed twice: once to cut one low limb out of maple on spurs (ugly--- must have made 50 holes in the bark of the poor tree), and another time to hang a cable from the skidder winch in an alder (spurs kicked out, and I slid 25 ft. to the bottom even though I hugged the tree for dear life, the smooth wet bark offering just enough resistance to scrape up my arms; I stabbed my ankle with one of the hooks, and was told to just go back to work).

No helmets, just caps; no chaps, and usually no eye protection (they had it, but told us to keep it in the truck so we wouldn't break it :confused2:. If we forgot to grab some disposable ear plugs at the shop, we made do with cig filters or a strip of T-shirt or TP. 

My hearing loss I have now probably mostly dates from that time -- the "big chipper" was a modified blades-in-your-face (horizontal cutting drum right at the end of the chute) run on a cadillac 450 (500?) cube engine with straight 4 ft. pipes, rolled over at the ends so the rain wouldn't run in. Standing in front of it (which wasn't the nest idea, as sometimes it would spit out the butt of a small log sharpened to a point) the noise felt like it was turning your brain into a Slurpee.

On one job, we got the skidder and chipper stuck in the mud, and then the second skidder as well -- we finally winched our way out. That job was totally illegal -- the lot was obviously a forested wetland, bottomless black organic peat soil with Oregon ash.

Driving the flat-bed back to the shop with the skidder on it (or maybe it was the loaded chip truck), the linkage to the brakes fell out on the floor approaching an intersection -- the other guy was driving, and downshifted rapidly and leaned on the horn going through the intersection without stopping, red light and all. After a bit we could pull over and find the parts and put them back together.

No safety meetings, almost no training. If you weren't gone in a week or two, you must have learned some skills, quit, or were fired. I was an old timer after a year (then quit).

Residential crew: old step van without windows (great for "smoke breaks") held the equipment. This was the "A team" that did the "detail work" if they could get there on time. I think everyone in this company was abusing one or more "substances". I was on the crew a few times, and we never seemed to get to the job on time because at least someone had to be found at home and woken up.

If I go on much more, someone here may figure out what company this was!


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## Toddppm (Nov 20, 2012)

TreeGuyHR said:


> If I go on much more, someone here may figure out what company this was!



I wouldn't worry about that, sounds like alot of companies, even now.


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## beastmaster (Nov 20, 2012)

I remember, before whoopy and loopy and eye slings we had an assortment of cable slings, we made ourselfs to hold the massive blocks we would catch wood with. Removed thousands of big beetle trees throu decks and over houses using them never had one fail. Broke a few 7/8 in. three strand bullines though. Had a pretty good brakeing system to slow down those big chunks. The rope man would take one rap around a big tree role up 10 or 20 feet of slack then take another rap around the tree, as the top or chuck came over he would time it perfectly as he tossed,the slack towards the tree with the raps, the piece would run tell it hit the second wrap then stop. first rap would slow it down as the slack was used up.
Part of out training of new climbers was the wind test. The new climber was sent up a skinny, tall pine to place a tipping line, after the line was in, rest the crew would grab the rope and start pulling that SOB. More so then not the poor terrified climber would be clutching the tree crying like a girl. God we were mean:msp_tongue:but it weeded out the faint of heart.


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## RAG66 (Nov 21, 2012)

Yeah I had a smartass ground guy start pulling the rope a few months back. I told him to just knock that off for a bit while I come down and cram this chainsaw down your throat! He said he was sorry... I didn't think he believed me. Maybe I am old enough to sound surly.


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## treemandan (Nov 21, 2012)

TreeGuyHR said:


> Similar experience back in 1987 at an Oregon company that will go nameless. I signed on as a groundie climber/trainee for $6 an hr.
> 
> The below are not exaggerations, and I left a lot out!
> 
> ...




Gee, I don't feel so bad now, in fact, I AM MODEL ####ING CITIZEN by the sound of it. I hate these pretty boy CA's that can't hold their liquor and wear coordinated Arborwear outfits like it was Prada.


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## heddneck (Dec 21, 2014)

When all I had to do was cut trees clean em up n head to the bar.....man I miss my climbing days


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## JBA (Dec 21, 2014)

This isn't my gig(union carpenter) but heard plenty of stories from my retired uncle. Had the driver pull the bucket over in town so he could run in and have a shot or two of liquid courage for breakfast at a open at 7local bar. Or a crew of guys killing a case of beer on the way to the parking lot . said the lot was 7 or 8 miles away. Not a drop left when they got there. I couldn't hang with that crew.


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## TimberMcPherson (Dec 31, 2014)

Climbing with an 090, but really that long ago!


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## mike515 (Dec 31, 2014)

Man...I remember so many things in this thread! I recently was looking at an equipment catalog and they were selling 3 strand rope and described it as "vintage"...if you want to have some "old school" rope. I was like....wth...that's what I learned with. I'm not that damn old. And I still have a drum chipper. I love 'em. I've used plenty of disc chippers but I still prefer a good drum chipper. A friend recently told me I was living in the stone age with that chipper. I told him he could stand there and wait for those wheels to grab brush and get clogged and have to spit all that stuff back out so he can chip, etc. I'll have my stuff chipped in 5 minutes and be done with it.


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## beastmaster (Jan 3, 2015)

I remember when everyone used those chuck and dives. The worse was chipping those pollarded malberry whips. They were10 ft long and would slap you several times on their way in. there might be thousands of them. Youd be coverd in welts after chipping them. Or back in the day you could take a guy out behind the truck and deal with it. solved a lot of petty arguments. The boss would act like he didnt know what was happening. I once had my rope tangled in some brantches and the ground men was off smoking a ciggeritte. I pulled those branches up 60ft or more. When I got down, well lets say it didnt happen again. Now we have to be politcolly correct.
I took a formen job a few year ago. These guys were out of control. They tryed evertthing to run me off.i could of fired them, but I sence they were good kids just a little wild. They had familys and there wasnt much work in those mountain. I one day went old school on them . Throw my helmet on the ground said whos first. Any one of them could of problably klcked my ass, it didnt come to blows but they told my old lady later at the christmas party, thats when they started likeing me. They dont teach that in managers classes. Had one of the best crews out there. Back in the day you had to earn respect. Be it by example or?


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## mike515 (Jan 3, 2015)

I've been whipped by branches plenty of times when I was a new groundman but it doesn't happen to me very often anymore. 

Funny story about that....when I was a groundman I was chipping one day and I got whipped on the ****. Like....right where the head and the shaft meet. It hurt sooo bad that I dropped to the ground immediately. After a few seconds I got up and had to get to the side box because I was sure it must have sliced into my ****. That's how bad it hurt! I didn't even bother shutting the chipper down or telling the other guys what happened. I had to check it out...right now! It was fine but...man....that's about the time I stopped getting whipped very often because I learned to move.


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## millbilly (Jan 3, 2015)

I remember cleaning paint pots in gas every Friday. You know the ones you carried on your saw scarab to paint your cuts. Then they came out with aerosol cans, that every now and then you would puncture with your hand saw while you putting it back in the scabbard. Almost forgot: putting a pin hole in the spray can and tossing it down to a ground man telling him you needed a new can. How many days did I go home looking like Howdy Duddie, if anyone remember who Howdy was. How about a boom over log truck? Yes I still use 3 strand safety blue, picked up 600 ft. role off the bay last year for 235 dollars.


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## beastmaster (Jan 3, 2015)

3strand maybe thought of as out dated by some. But that was all we used in the day and we removed some of the biggist baddist trees around. I still use it for dirty harsh situations, itll take a beating, its cheap. 1/2 in. 3 strand is still the best for lowering brantches using natrual crotches. I use to love repalling down a three strand tipping line100 feet down using an eight plate(home Made). Don't sell 3 strand short.


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## mike515 (Jan 3, 2015)

beastmaster said:


> 3strand maybe thought of as out dated by some. But that was all we used in the day and we removed some of the biggist baddist trees around. I still use it for dirty harsh situations, itll take a beating, its cheap. 1/2 in. 3 strand is still the best for lowering brantches using natrual crotches. I use to love repalling down a three strand tipping line100 feet down using an eight plate(home Made). Don't sell 3 strand short.



I still have a few 3 strand ropes but I don't use them for much weight anymore. They are old but I love them and can't bring myself to just throw them away. But they're still fine to trust for light stuff (just because of their age). They're almost symbolic to me. I have a friend who is in upper management at one of the very large companies and he was telling me one time "Guys like you are a dying breed. If all of my guys were like you....my life would be a lot easier. We have "specialists" who are very book trained and can pass all the tests but don't have the hands-on experience. We no longer have tough, trained-in-the-trenches tree guys who can just get the job done because they've done it so many times". 

That might seem a little egotistical to say but it struck me...he's right....I was trained by tough guys who had been doing this for longer than I had been alive. They smoked 2 packs of cigs a day and didn't care if it was zero degrees outside. Too bad! Everyone is cold. Deal with it or go work somewhere else. They trained me but there wasn't a lot of testing back then. Maybe a little. I definitely felt like a boy among men until I got a little older and tougher. But those old ropes take me back to that era. I remember one time...I was 18 or 19 and one of those older guys said (about me) "I know a lifer when I see one". I said "I'm not a lifer. This is just a decent job for me". I'm still doing it and it's literally the only job I've ever had for my entire adult life. So...dangit...I keep those old ropes around but rarely use them.


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## millbilly (Jan 3, 2015)

mike515 said:


> I still have a few 3 strand ropes but I don't use them for much weight anymore. They are old but I love them and can't bring myself to just throw them away. But they're still fine to trust for light stuff (just because of their age). They're almost symbolic to me. I have a friend who is in upper management at one of the very large companies and he was telling me one time "Guys like you are a dying breed. If all of my guys were like you....my life would be a lot easier. We have "specialists" who are very book trained and can pass all the tests but don't have the hands-on experience. We no longer have tough, trained-in-the-trenches tree guys who can just get the job done because they've done it so many times".
> 
> I hear ya, I keep reading these new age tree men who rant about PPE this and PPE that. He doesn't have his chaps on, he's a hack, a wannabe, call the Spanish inquisition. When I used to flush stumps with a Homelite Super Wiz 66, gear drive, 1/2" chain with a stub for a muffler, I used to stuff cigarette butts in my ears and I didn't even smoke. Believe me I am all for safety, but safety gear doesn't make the tree man. Also don't get me up on my soap box about the ISA. They are no more than a money grabbing bunch of hot air. I probably forgot more than 80% of them know.
> 
> That's right I said money grabbers


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## kz1000 (Jan 3, 2015)

mike515 said:


> . They smoked 2 packs of cigs a day and didn't care if it was zero degrees outside. Too bad! Everyone is cold. Deal with it or go work somewhere else.


 Yeah! and if you were beat up and frozen fingered they would tell you to rub them in snow to warm them up, my hands still look like Alligator skin at 61 and did at 19. I never worked the woods, but remember working in my friends dads mill that had a split block Minneapolis Moleen motor running one hell of a big saw blade. If you ever had a bark slab pass your head and go through the wall at 7 to the 10th power you've been there.


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## mike515 (Jan 3, 2015)

millbilly....right there with ya on the ISA. I have no use for them. I joined at one point and it was utterly useless to me. What I noticed is that with the rise of the ISA....our prices for everything (equipment-wise) increased dramatically and the regulations for what we do were tightened. Some of the new rules were probably ok and for the better but a lot of new ideas were just BS to make us buy over-priced gear and make us feel like we have to take over-priced courses and continuing education credits just to prove what we already knew. The ISA will say "Well...if you educate your customers they will see the value in your membership". What that means is....if you spread their propaganda-for-profit you can discredit the competition enough to get work. I don't need to do that. All they wanted to do was establish themselves as the "authority" so they can make money off of us. It might not have started that way but that's how a lot of us see it now.


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## JBA (Jan 3, 2015)

Did everyone that was a climber back in the day just free climb up the tree with no lanyard? I know my uncle and all of his buddies never used anything other than a climbing line once they got all the way to the top. He calls me all kinds of names cause I feel safer having myself tied to the tree on the way up.


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## mike515 (Jan 3, 2015)

JBA said:


> Did everyone that was a climber back in the day just free climb up the tree with no lanyard? I know my uncle and all of his buddies never used anything other than a climbing line once they got all the way to the top. He calls me all kinds of names cause I feel safer having myself tied to the tree on the way up.



Well....we might have been known to free climb some of the lower stuff (or more) but we had common sense. We knew when we needed to tie-in. I'm older now and I'm actually much safer. I've realized that my years ahead of me are less than my years behind me and I don't want to get hurt. I have nothing to prove for my own ego. My goal is to just be safe and not get hurt. I get paid by the hour.


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## beastmaster (Jan 3, 2015)

How about those old chain saws. They didn't use plastic back then they were boat anchors. You had to be strong to use a sthil 064 up in the tree. That hanging from your saddle, a one in. bull line, a pulley ,and some cables to use to fix the pulleys to the tree. Never seen a carabiner. We used steel. None of that double safety lock stuff. Chain brakes, hell no. we learn how to keep that chain a Way from our body parts. We use to switch sides by passing the saw behind our back while gaffed in the tree without missing a beat. Be it a 038 or 064. I hated chain brakes when they first came out. Use to disconnect them. We called our climbing line,"the monkey line" and the hitch ,"a monkey fist"
Saws were loud,and would start the saw dust and bark on fire. They didn't have a lot of safety equipment. You just had to learn to be safe.


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## beastmaster (Jan 3, 2015)

Sometime it was safer (for what was under you)to free climb and take out a top, branches and all, or set a tipping line and pull the whole tree over. I remember being taught how to grab a big branch with one arm, disconnect my big 1in three strand safety line with the other, and toss it over the branch. Then reconnect, being above that branch..that was on spikes. That was how they wanted you to do it. No second tie in or nothing.


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## mike515 (Jan 3, 2015)

The first saw I owned was a Poulan. The old kind with no break. I'm pretty sure it was a replica of a Russian tank with a bar and chain on it. I remember that I traded some side work trimming for it after work one day. I was so happy to actually own my first saw because back then I really didn't have the money to buy my own gear. I worked for someone else so being able to own a saw for the first time was kind of a big deal to me. It actually ran for a long time. It was a good saw with maybe a 20 or 24 inch bar.


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## beastmaster (Jan 3, 2015)

How many climbers today know how to whip up a tree. If your spiking up a 65 in pondarosa using a 21 ft lanyard you had to whip that rope so the momentom would carrie it around the tree moving it up and around. It help to able to switch arms. Now I just use the big shot and srt up.


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## beastmaster (Jan 3, 2015)

Those poulens were great saws. Some may not beleave it but those big mac colleths were great saws. You had to manully push a lever to oil the chain.


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## mike515 (Jan 4, 2015)

I have an Echo (I can't think of the model off of the top of my head) with a manual oiler. It has a 24 in. bar or so and it's actually a pretty decent saw. I mean...it obviously oils itself but the button is still there.


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## beastmaster (Jan 4, 2015)

I wish all big saws had that lever.


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## treebilly (Jan 4, 2015)

Yup had an old Mac for my first big saw that owned damn heavy awkward thing. Free climb till the lanyard would fit around the tree or to the tip. I remember when I first started the boss brought in some contract climbers to teach me the ropes. One went up this 120' oak free climbing the whole way. I yelled " shouldn't you use your lanyard, you're awfully high". To which he replied " not as high as I'll be once I get tied in". Those weren't marlboro's he was smoking


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## DLCRL (Jan 4, 2015)

I.S.A certification is B.S. just a way for the government to regulate and charge for it. It makes no sense in a removal, you wouldn't ask a funeral home to see their medical license, removalist isn't there for the tree's well being.


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## mckeetree (Jan 4, 2015)

DLCRL said:


> I.S.A certification is B.S.



Well, now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that. It is beneficial.


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## DLCRL (Jan 4, 2015)

I don't most things in this vein make business more difficult and expensive not a fan of the E.P.A. or the D.O.T. either, if they really want to do some good start regulating how many people live here. We wouldn't be concerned w/a carbon footprint if we had 3 billion as in 1960 instead of 8 billion by 2020 in a scant 60 years what does the future hold 16 billion by 2080? We more than doubled in 60 years right now.


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## mike515 (Jan 5, 2015)

The thread about the disk chipper vs. a drum chipper got me thinking earlier.....I remember when we didn't have a choice. The disk style didn't exist (as far as I know) and the Asplundh LR1 boom was very common. That was way before Altec got their hands on the patent.


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## mike515 (Jan 5, 2015)

If anyone is interested in a little boom history....this may interest you. Please correct me if I'm wrong about the finer details as I'm going from memory here. Kind of more for the younger guys because most of the older guys probably remember this.

In the 1980's and into the early 90's, Asplundh manufactured it's own equipment. They had regular auto dealerships in Pennsylvania where they sold cars and trucks but that also allowed them wholesale buying power for commercial truck chassis. They designed a boom that was simple and highly functional for line clearance. They also designed the Whisper Chipper (which is a misnomer because it was probably the loudest chipper ever invented) and had manufacturing facilities to pump out the simplest, most productive equipment (for their interests) at the cheapest wholesale cost. Keep in mind, they needed so much equipment that even a 10% savings was very substantial. They invented the LR series boom...eventually to be followed by the LR2, LR3, etc.

At the same time, they also had three re-manufacturing facilities that took in old units and refurbished them. Back then, if you didn't have an LR, you were probably flying a Hi-ranger or Aerial Lift. Those Hi-rangers were the ones with the pulley at the knuckle. Some guys might have been using other brands but those were the ones I saw the most. The advantage of the LR was the over-center upper boom. Plus, those trucks all came with Wisconsin (now Kubota) auxiliary engines. The reason for this was originally because Pennsylvania state law does not allow aerial units to be run from PTO's alone. They wanted less polluting methods of operation. The advantage to the auxiliary engine was that it was/is more fuel efficient and it's nice to have an alternate source to run your hydraulics in the event of a break-down.

This is where my memory may get a little hazy. At some point, a deal was struck between Asplundh and Altec for the rights to the LR line. Altec was to get the LR. Everything was ok until Altec learned that Asplundh was still remanufacturing LRs in those 3 plants and then selling them to the same market Altec expected to target with their new patent. In response, Altec filed a lawsuit which I believe was settled. In the settlement, Asplundh agreed to either close the plants or just use them "in house" but also agreed to give up the Whisper Chipper.

So today, there is an Altec line that be traced all the way back to the original Asplundh LR and there is such a thing as the Altec Whisper Chipper.

No idea why I just typed all of that out but it might be interesting to some guys. If I'm mistaken about any of the details, please feel free to correct the facts. That is my best recollection of how all of that happened.


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## millbilly (Jan 5, 2015)

mike515 said:


> The thread about the disk chipper vs. a drum chipper got me thinking earlier.....I remember when we didn't have a choice. The disk style didn't exist (as far as I know) and the Asplundh LR1 boom was very common. That was way before Altec got their hands on the patent.


I don't remember LR1, but the first aerial I ever used only had a 270* rotation. That was achieved by a 2 way, hydraulic piston, that laid horizontal. On each end of the piston a 5/8" cable was attached. The cable then wrapped around the base of the boom, kind of like primitive fire starting, with a bow a string and a piece of wood. 

Now that I think about it, a 120' climbing line you could do 85% of tree without an extension. Now day 150' only does half of them. Trees have gotten so much bigger in my 45 years.


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## RVALUE (Jan 5, 2015)

JBA said:


> This isn't my gig(union carpenter) but heard plenty of stories from my retired uncle. Had the driver pull the bucket over in town so he could run in and have a shot or two of liquid courage for breakfast at a open at 7local bar. Or a crew of guys killing a case of beer on the way to the parking lot . said the lot was 7 or 8 miles away. Not a drop left when they got there. I couldn't hang with that crew.



Me either. Dehydration is a serious condition.


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## pro94lt (Jan 6, 2015)

Man I bet those old lifts and climbing techniques were fun. The bad thing is those trucks and ways of climbing are probably actually the majority of the tree care industry. ..


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## BC WetCoast (Jan 7, 2015)

I found these pictures on the TCIA website under historic photos. I'm not sure of the dates, but they were in the 1938-1949 section. The chipper was post war as the truck was purchased from War Surplus


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## BC WetCoast (Jan 7, 2015)

From the TCIA website photos are pre 1938


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