Crane removals....

[randyg]

There is no snapping in crane work. I have seen it done, one big rip all the way down.
As far as tops flipping? Well if the strap is in the middle and it flips its still the same distance right? worst is getting whipped by the tips but you can drop down. sometimes you have to let it flip, crane ain't tall enough or the end of the limb isn't strong enough. It usually flips while its being moved away anyway.
I can't say I ever had a problem with the angle cut, a notch, or just going right through using a crane. Now when I cut right through I use bark to keep the saw from pinching... so should you. I think the 20's with an 18 inch bar are good for doing the tops then the 44.
I have tried to talk some operators into just using the hook to lower from. Nothing crazy but the jibs were not long enough to pick with really flipping. How about using the hook for the other side of a speedline? Keep in mind The Dan ain't gonna wreck no crane and shocking em ain't in the bargin either... anymore that is.

Why are you putting strap in the middle?


You talk like this happens often???? I will pray for you Dan. Nothing good can come from this behavior.

Dan, that kerf is trying to tell you what is about to happen when that pick comes free, don't put a sock in her mouth.


Let me guess, you like "livin on the edge", right?

 

[randyg]

If you have a good CO Dan, there's a little trick I've used many times to get out of reach crane picks to within the crane's reach fairly quickly.

Just pick a point well within the cranes reach, then tie off completely onto the pill at that point, butt tie the tree together with appropriately sized steel or nylon chokers, make your cuts between the two chokers with absolutely no attachment between you and the tree, and signal the CO to boom you up as the cut lets go and all the bullride action we're all too familiar with starts in earnest with you calmly watching it from safe above on your pill.

It works great, and after everything settles down in the tree, simply reattach yourself to it and butt choke the leader now hanging straight down, and gently lift it way from your sneaky tricky self.

Works for me anyway!

jomoco

I pick a lot of 10 to 12 inch stuff in this fashion with my bucket truck (material handling boom). I like to place notch or undercut on bottom first. Then I use 18-20 foot piece of bull rope with eye spliced in one end. The limb that is going to swing gets choked, and other end gets "timberhitched" back to the tree. When swinging stops, I hook just under point where eye splice is choking, and when I lift up on limb, noose comes loose and lift right over the end of butt. Then timber hitch comes off in a flash.

I wonder how many would admit to using a "non-material handling boom" bucket truck to do crane work with. THAT should be another thread I spose.:greenchainsaw:

 

[custom8726]

If you have a good CO Dan, there's a little trick I've used many times to get out of reach crane picks to within the crane's reach fairly quickly.

Just pick a point well within the cranes reach, then tie off completely onto the pill at that point, butt tie the tree together with appropriately sized steel or nylon chokers, make your cuts between the two chokers with absolutely no attachment between you and the tree, and signal the CO to boom you up as the cut lets go and all the bullride action we're all too familiar with starts in earnest with you calmly watching it from safe above on your pill.

It works great, and after everything settles down in the tree, simply reattach yourself to it and butt choke the leader now hanging straight down, and gently lift it way from your sneaky tricky self.

Works for me anyway!

jomoco

Agreed, although if the crane can't reach it safely without the jib 9 out of 10 times it just gets done the old school way. When I started doing crane work though we had a small sign crane (ARLO) 100', While it did the job, it was out of its league to say the least, The method you described above was an essential trick to have in the bag when working beyond a safe reach or when working with a smaller crane. your other comment abought the steel chokers surprises me a little, I mean they are stroger no question but I find them bulky and hard to use as you are always trying to weave them without the cable poping out and smacking you. I have 3 various length sets of nylons specifically for crane use only. Most of the picks we make are at less then 1/3 there rated capacity. Now if I had the luxury of a 100 + toner to make some whole tree picks I believe I would opt for the steel but then again that will never happen, Even if I could pick the whole tree there would probably be no place to put it down 9 out of t 10 times anyhow.

 

[oldirty]

i said box cut.

i didnt know it was a felling cut.


box cut was explained to me but ive forgotten exactly how to describe it. i'll have an answer for you tomw.

and we did a sweet ass crane job today. full stick on all the picks over a store and between house in medford today.

i did bring my cell phone into the tree but i couldnt saw and take pics at the same time. ( i tried. lol)

i had to use just about every cut i know too. i feel like an ass though because i couldnt take any pics. sorry fellas.

hey ghillie. moe was there too. he said "too technical". lol. but i did tell the foreman that he is up next on an easier set of trees. so i will have pics for that.

i need a helmet cam. any one know where i can find one?

 

[custom8726]

i said box cut.

i didnt know it was a felling cut.


box cut was explained to me but ive forgotten exactly how to describe it. i'll have an answer for you tomw.

and we did a sweet ass crane job today. full stick on all the picks over a store and between house in medford today.

i did bring my cell phone into the tree but i couldnt saw and take pics at the same time. ( i tried. lol)

i had to use just about every cut i know too. i feel like an ass though because i couldnt take any pics. sorry fellas.

hey ghillie. moe was there too. he said "too technical". lol. but i did tell the foreman that he is up next on an easier set of trees. so i will have pics for that.

i need a helmet cam. any one know where i can find one?

Ebay's got a bunch of them.

 

[oldirty]

[/U][/B]

Ebay's got a bunch of them.

thanks.

 

[tree MDS]

[/U][/B]

Ebay's got a bunch of them.

Yeah! oldirty helmet cam!!!, lol.

 

[Ghillie]

i said box cut.

i didnt know it was a felling cut.


box cut was explained to me but ive forgotten exactly how to describe it. i'll have an answer for you tomw.

and we did a sweet ass crane job today. full stick on all the picks over a store and between house in medford today.

i did bring my cell phone into the tree but i couldnt saw and take pics at the same time. ( i tried. lol)

i had to use just about every cut i know too. i feel like an ass though because i couldnt take any pics. sorry fellas.

hey ghillie. moe was there too. he said "too technical". lol. but i did tell the foreman that he is up next on an easier set of trees. so i will have pics for that.

i need a helmet cam. any one know where i can find one?

Keep on him. I'll be waiting on the pictures...... And the helmet cam vids!!

Sounds like if you talk him through it a couple of times he will get the feel of it.

 

[treemandan]

Dan, I disagree (if I understand what you mean). If you need something in the kerf (bark or wedge) then something is wrong and you need to look and see what it is before you get a face full of wood.

If tensioning a little more or a little less doesn't fix the pinch, you're going to have a problem when it comes free.

I guess it I was plaaning on a straight shot all the way through and to leave a little holding peel the crane would rip off when I got the saw out. If I can get my saw out with out moving the crane its a little easier.

 

[toddstreeservic]

could have used a crane today

A crane would have been handy today. We had a 115ft white pine take down where we had to lower everything. Took all day on a tree that could have been done with 3 picks from a crane. :monkey:

 

[treemandan]

Why are you putting strap in the middle?


You talk like this happens often???? I will pray for you Dan. Nothing good can come from this behavior.

Dan, that kerf is trying to tell you what is about to happen when that pick comes free, don't put a sock in her mouth.


Let me guess, you like "livin on the edge", right?

well yellow does not seem to be a good color for the screen.
Sometimes either the wood is not strong enough to put the strap higher or the crane is to short to reach.
Sorry to mislead but I try real hard not to let anything come off when I am cutting or not ready for it to. Just doing a full through backcut you leave something to rip and peel.
I usually stick with Hoadley's angle cut. It'll stay in the cradle real good. A lot of times I like to have a groundy ready with a tag line for the butt that he can run through an 8 and control himself. That's for twisted wierd stuff.
Thing about the angle cut I also find cool is that if you try to pick it and for some reason it don't want to go and you have to cut a little more is the the CO can put it back in its cradle. Usually with the angle cut you get it on the first shot and what is left holds enough for control and is easily broken off.

 

[randyg]

well yellow does not seem to be a good color for the screen. Sometimes either the wood is not strong enough to put the strap higher or the crane is to short to reach.
Sorry to mislead but I try real hard not to let anything come off when I am cutting or not ready for it to. Just doing a full through backcut you leave something to rip and peel.
I usually stick with Hoadley's angle cut. It'll stay in the cradle real good. A lot of times I like to have a groundy ready with a tag line for the butt that he can run through an 8 and control himself. That's for twisted wierd stuff.
Thing about the angle cut I also find cool is that if you try to pick it and for some reason it don't want to go and you have to cut a little more is the the CO can put it back in its cradle. Usually with the angle cut you get it on the first shot and what is left holds enough for control and is easily broken off.

Sorry bout using the yellow, was tryin to be clever by color coding. . .

My response to your post saying when cutting all the way through, you put a piece of bark in the kerf to keep from getting pinched and we should too????

Was


That kerf is tryin to tell you somethin about what the pick is goin to do when the cut is finished, don't put a sock in her mouth.

 

[treemandan]

Sorry bout using the yellow, was tryin to be clever by color coding. . .

My response to your post saying when cutting all the way through, you put a piece of bark in the kerf to keep from getting pinched and we should too????

Was


That kerf is tryin to tell you somethin about what the pick is goin to do when the cut is finished, don't put a sock in her mouth.

Yeah, warn me next time you are gonna do that so I can close my eyes, it went all super nova in here last time and I am out of visine.
That bark is like plasti- gauge, you can see it squish and the limb move, its just enough to get your saw out ... sometimes. Plasti-gauge is what is used to check crank and bearing clearance in engines. I was aplling the same principle. You have to be able to read the plasti- gauge before you hit the starter.

 

[randyg]

Yeah, warn me next time you are gonna do that so I can close my eyes, it went all super nova in here last time and I am out of visine.
That bark is like plasti- gauge, you can see it squish and the limb move, its just enough to get your saw out ... sometimes. Plasti-gauge is what is used to check crank and bearing clearance in engines. I was aplling the same principle. You have to be able to read the plasti- gauge before you hit the starter.

SO . . . Your saw is your plasti-guage then????? If it gets pinched, the CO opens the kerf. If the kerf opens, the CO closes it back up. This is how to fine-tune the pick so it barely moves as you finish the cut.

You make every pick just float away from the tree and I GUARANTEE the crane opeator will say SOMETHING that will make your day.

 

[treemandan]

SO . . . Your saw is your plasti-guage then????? If it gets pinched, the CO opens the kerf. If the kerf opens, the CO closes it back up. This is how to fine-tune the pick so it barely moves as you finish the cut.

You make every pick just float away from the tree and I GUARANTEE the crane opeator will say SOMETHING that will make your day.

NO.... the bark is. I understand what went wrong. In the sentence you highlighted in red ,last time, the "...sometimes" is used in a way to mean " It is sometimes good to put some bark in there, sometimes not". I did say it was useful to omit the step you desribe above but with many things the situation gets what the situation warrants.
So far I had 2 limbs flip on me. Didn't mean the first one and the second I just couldn't put the strap up on the bad wood plus I was afraid if the crane extened anymore it would break. It was Eddies crane. I knew that whatever I was cutting was going to be sucked away quick by this guy, he even thought his crane would break, infact it did break, was broke and still is. I hope there is never an accident.
Now while flipping this top I used the angle cut and cut it the way it was going to be sucked. By the time the top flip down it was 20 feet way. I noticed that the highest I could get the strap was right in the middle and the tips didn't fall below where the butt had been. It went over slow and really didn't budge the crane at all. I have the video.
One time I lowered a piece that was higher than the crane onto the crane hook then they took it.

 

[randyg]

NO.... the bark is. I understand what went wrong. In the sentence you highlighted in red ,last time, the "...sometimes" is used in a way to mean " It is sometimes good to put some bark in there, sometimes not". I did say it was useful to omit the step you desribe above but with many things the situation gets what the situation warrants.
So far I had 2 limbs flip on me. Didn't mean the first one and the second I just couldn't put the strap up on the bad wood plus I was afraid if the crane extened anymore it would break. It was Eddies crane. I knew that whatever I was cutting was going to be sucked away quick by this guy, he even thought his crane would break, infact it did break, was broke and still is. I hope there is never an accident.
Now while flipping this top I used the angle cut and cut it the way it was going to be sucked. By the time the top flip down it was 20 feet way. I noticed that the highest I could get the strap was right in the middle and the tips didn't fall below where the butt had been. It went over slow and really didn't budge the crane at all. I have the video.
One time I lowered a piece that was higher than the crane onto the crane hook then they took it.

You BROKE Eddies crane???

 

[treemandan]

You BROKE Eddies crane???

Naw man! It showed up like that. Its like 40 years old and in real bad shape. Someone should shut it down I am sorry to say.

 

[oldirty]

moe's first AC crane removal.

guess who had himself a good day today. moe!

first it was running the rope for me over a pool and he did great. then came his shot on "the pill". again he did good.

his victim was a sugar maple that developed a rather nasty case of rot about 1/2 way up the stem. no need for this tree to be saved, as it was too close for comfort to the house.

great effort today moe!

 

[oldirty]

one proud moe!


and unbeknownst to bennyboy......

 

[Moestavrn]

Thanks for the "good job." Luckily the pics weren't better to show my horrible first cut....The second was way better though...