After a couple climbs.. Looking for tips.

[046]

I use a DEDA lanyard too. it's also about 18 ft, comes in real handy

 

[CoreyTMorine]

whatsa DEDA lanyard?

 

[JonnyHart]

I use a DEDA lanyard too. it's also about 18 ft, comes in real handy

Somebody here at AS introduced me to it a while back, and it is the only thing I have used since.
DEDA stands for "double ended double adjustable" (or something like that). I think Tom Dunlap designed it.

Take a really long flipline like fifteen or twenty feet (mine's 20), and put one end on each hip. Then use your ascender or prusik or distel or whatever on each hip also. So, you got two lanyards from one big piece of rope, and when you are at an obstacle branch, instead of un-clipping and tossing the lanyard over that branch you tie in with your other side before you un-clip. Does that sound confusing?

lemme find some pics.

 

[JonnyHart]

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=11958&highlight=DEDA
This is without a doubt the safest lanyard system in the world, and I recommend it to anybody, from seasoned veteran to rookie cherry.
Don't confuse it with the two in one floating prusik lanyard, with this, BOTH ends are adjustable.
Put one together for yourself, and you probably won't use any other system for the rest of your career.

 

[JimL]

Well after talking the the boss at work I need to learn the tautline hitch, thats al they are supposed to use. not something I care to use but oh well.

 

[Tree Machine]

I always enjoy seeing all the different perspectives, techniques, gear and choices. Cat-skinning 101.

Soon we'll move on to the art and practice of 'tying in twice', what that means and what that looks like.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

DEDA rules!

 

[Tree Machine]

Simplification is good.

Dunlap rules!

 

[xtremetrees]

I use a steel core flipline.
My Gibbs accender spring broke this past month. (after 5 years daily use).
I kept climbing on it! I liked the fact that the cam wasnt loaded onto the flipline to a point. I got tired of constantly rechecking it so went and got a new one. I'll use the broken gibbs for my foot.

A utility workers pole strap is the single most unsafe piece of gear that tree climbers have absorbed from utility workers. I've seen loaded ropes cut them right into.

While the Gibbs was broken, I let it slide down to the end of my flip line.
In place of the Gibbs I started using a quick-draw. A thin loop runner basically. Used it to tye a prussic to the steel core and kept on climbing for a while. I liked the adjustability with it but the wire core was kinda far away from my waist and kinda hung a little lower than I liked. Plus sometimes I'll rest a running saw on my steel core. That werent so good either.

 

[Tree Machine]

The Quick-draw would go from your left-side D to the Gibbs, and could give you a bit of extra extension from what you had before.

I have done exactly that, except in place of the quickdraw, I will use a sling. This allows me to turn an 8-foot flipline into a 10 foot (or 12). It's a good trick when you're blocking down a massive trunk. The lower you go, the bigger the diameter becomes and soon your light, swift 8-foot flipline won't make it around the tree anymore. Even if you're standing on a ladder at that point, you still need to be tied in. This trick allows you to be always that.

The one drawback to the quickdraw is they come with non-locking biners, and there are two of them. This is rock-climbing gear, remember, and is not idealized to our situation, and I really appreciate your adaption of it. You should really have lockers, though.

Using the sling method of extension, you clip the flipline's steel (or aluminum) snap to the non-biner'd end of the sling and then the biner'd end to your left-side D for full extention (flipline length + sling length). OR you do two locking biners on the sling and go direct from your left side D right to the Gibbs for full, complete adjustability. Or from the flipline snap, sling goes THROUGH the D ring and the other end to the Gibbs for use of half the length of the sling + full adjustability.

 

[CoreyTMorine]

Well after talking the the boss at work I need to learn the tautline hitch, thats al they are supposed to use. not something I care to use but oh well.

Jim, who is it that you work for that they require you to use a tautline hitch? its not a bad knot, but the blakes sure does behave a whole lot better.

What were you climbing on?

the MT is great if your doing a whole lot of up and down climbing, but it is far less "positive". I would hesitate to set a new climber up with an MT. But maybe if a person started out with an MT they would become completely comforatable with it. I never have been, when you grab hold of that knot and pull, its like the bottom just falls out, yeehaw! I keep my blakes pretty loose and it slack tends just fine.

Back to the tautline, your choice of splittail makes all the difference. a good knubby 12 strand works well. the thing with the tautline is that 90% of the friction (personal guesstimate)is generated at the first turn, this causes the rope to jerk and bind.

 

[JimL]

I was using a prusik or the blakes, liked both of them well. The climbing was fun while it lasted, moved me over as the Jarraff opperator.

 

[CoreyTMorine]

youve got a jarraff dude thats awesom. i always see them advertised and think 'wow, thats cool' is it fun? can you get the limbs to spit off of the blade? does it have a radio? will it fit thru the takeout window at the local diner? i guess it probably wont, but the other questions are still pertinant.

 

[JimL]

Co I work for has one, going tuesday or wed next week to look at another new one. Checking them out at some show.
We put a radio in it, its kinda boring work. We have the 4wd model. we were looking at maybe a tracked one but we do spend alot of time on the road using it.