About to buy a GRCS...

[treevet]

i agree and no doubt they are worth the money as anything of great usefulness the sticker shock fades quickly over time used and years.

My biggest worry is I would smash it when free dropping stuff. I don't have the patience to take it off or the humbleness to think I can't miss it.

 

[tree MDS]

i agree and no doubt they are worth the money as anything of great usefulness the sticker shock fades quickly over time used and years.

My biggest worry is I would smash it when free dropping stuff. I don't have the patience to take it off or the humbleness to think I can't miss it.

Good point. I bent the top fairlead on mine trying to lower a piece into the chipper with the winch. I was watching the chipper and not the tips. Still gotta straighten that out, no biggie though. I guess you could run it off another tree or put it on the side or whatever...I'm sort of coming to the way of thinking that it can get needlessly complicated pretty quick with that thing, after all we never needed it before. But then it is nice to have lying around for the odd occasion too.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

My biggest worry is I would smash it when free dropping stuff. I don't have the patience to take it off or the humbleness to think I can't miss it.

They are pretty rugged. I have hit mine pretty hard a few times. FWIW, it is real easy to take the spindle off.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Good point. I bent the top fairlead on mine trying to lower a piece into the chipper with the winch. I was watching the chipper and not the tips. Still gotta straighten that out, no biggie though. I guess you could run it off another tree or put it on the side or whatever...I'm sort of coming to the way of thinking that it can get needlessly complicated pretty quick with that thing, after all we never needed it before. But then it is nice to have lying around for the odd occasion too.

Redirect pulley or carabiner over the fairlead will keep that from happening. Yeah, another PITA piece of gear, but it makes things go so much smoother.

I will often strap it on "just in case", or when with a crew that can put it on, have it near the tree. The GRCS is so much better to use then a porty. Though I have been known to still use friction in the tree on easy trees that require only a rig or three.

It is on those small trees that you have to rig every little branch over a roof where low friction rigging really shows its advantages.

 

[treevet]

you could run it off another tree or put it on the side or whatever....

You probably want to consider liability before torquing it down on another tree that isn't being removed even if you mat it.

 

[tree MDS]

You probably want to consider liability before torquing it down on another tree that isn't being removed even if you mat it.

Thats an interesting point. Honestly I think it would be fine for the most part with the preservation mount, but I'm really not very expierienced with the think so I really cant say for sure.

I like johns idea of having the thing handy on the jobsite (I do find cuts where it would be nice). The problem for me with that is I dont have any toolboxes on my trucks, so its just one more thing to drag in and out of the shop at the end of the day. Man I get sick of that after so many years of it...its actually to the point where I hide at the end of the day - oh, gotta take the dog out, got a new message I have to listen too three times, take a very long leak etc. I'm learning. lol.

 

[Grace Tree]

We did some damage to a beech a few years ago. Now we carry some rubber matting with cordage and tie it to the trunk before we mount the GRCS on thin barked trees.
Phil

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It has been many years since i did any bark damage on an anchor tree. As long as the tree is sufficient diameter, and you use the GRCS right there will be no problems. When i first started using it I had some problems when side-loading or trying to rig big on thin trunks.