GRCS and our new Spectra line--made for each other!!!

[rbtree]

Boy, am I tired..but still up and amped from the day. We did four jobs before this biggie, which we didnt start till 3:45...a 85-90 foot 2 foot dbh hemlock, fallen into a 155-175 foot huge fir. Hemlock below, on a slope leading up to a fence, then a second story deck with railing,through which the fir was growing.

Ian set a line at 55 feet, and footlocked the tail, then worked up and set the 7/8 sling and big block, through which we ran the new D/S Compsite double braid line with Spectra core. 18,800 lb minimum tensile, and 2% stretch at 40% of load.

Travis and I attached the GRCS to the fir. Ian set his lifeline at 85-90 or so feet. (There was still a good 70-90 feet of fir above him!) Then he set a lifeline for me and tossed it down, tieing it off, so I set my Vt in single line mode. I started up the base of the ivy covered hemlock, while Ian worked it from the top, with a handsaw. He even topped it at 4 inches leaving it barely lodged in the fir. We now had it tied off with the GRCS.

 

[rbtree]

We both rappeled out and helped Travis finish cleaning up and chipping. Then we set a portawrap around the base of the hemlock, and ran a line to the trunk, up a few feet. Next we attached a tag line. Then I cut the tree off at the base, and let it touch down. Next cut was up about 4-5 feet, and now the tag line came into play. We had to keep the butt away from the fence and deck. So I notched each butt piece, so that we could pull the butt sideways as the piece fell off. The process was tedious but it worked. The chain saw winch might have been better, but it was at home...

 

[rbtree]

I'd estimate the max suspended weight at 4000 lb, which was well within the limits of the line and rigging.

When we got the log down to 30 feet, we were able to pull, and swing it out and lay it down....

But then, we weren't done, as we had to retrieve the block and choked lifeline. So we winched Travis up...phew...I shoulda gone up, I'm lighter!! Time for a drill chuck and a gas drill!!!

It was not an insurance job, so we only got $1200, for some 10-11 manhours of challenging work....I shoulda charged more..but no worries...we made $2400 on the day!

We got the job as a result of the big firs we recently craned out next door...see the "craning some biggies today" thread. And two neighbors want estimates.....

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Wow, any part of that is a tough, daunting act to follow for sure!

Including getting anyone started on anything at 3:45 down here!

Awesome RB!

 

[SilverBlue]

Another fine job and that GRCS is probably already paid for itself ++ I sure could use it this weekend as we do in that split ash.

 

[rbtree]

Yep, we've billed $6600 on the 4 jobs so far where it was either mandatory or just helpful, as in the elm, when we had a crane coming....so it saved an hour of crane time...we could have done the whole tree with it, but it would have taken a lot longer.....

 

[NickfromWI]

rb-wan- I love using the high-modulus lines with the winch. It was wierd at first, but I got used to it real quick! On the polyester lines (Double Esterlon or Stable Braid) as you are cranking on the winch, each turn of the handle gets progressively harder and harder to turn as you pull the stretch out of the line. WIth the high-mod lines that have practically no stretch, you crank fast to get the slack out, then all of a sudden you get mega-resistance! It's nice to know that your effort is going directly toward moving the wood, rather than getting the stretch out!

love
nick

 

[TreeJunkie]

Nice work Rb? What caused the hemlock to fail. Getting hung up trees out safely is always a daunting task. Glad to hear it went safely. With the amount of tech removals you seem to be doing, i need to get out to seattle and do some work w/ you. Here in K.C. we just don't have that many challenging situations. Once again a job well done.

 

[rbtree]

Main cause: Neighbor cut 12 trees....nuf said...protection gone!


Plus hemlock are shallow rooted, prone to root rots..and this one had some ivy....

Three strikes, you're down!

 

[rbtree]

What a job!!! The last two days, we have been removing dead or dying maples and alder, on a slope, with primaries below...

Yesterday was too busy to get pics, but we did a very dead 80 foot red alder, with a 20 degree lean toward the primaries. We managed to set a line at about 60 feet, around about 5 inch wood. This we ran to a pickup truck up the hill. It was to keep the top from going the wrong way if it broke. We also debated trying to break the top out, but didn't. Then we set a primary pull line at about 35 feet, and ran it to the GRCS. We had a narrow break in the canopies of two wide maples, right where we needed to pull the tree. I made the cuts, the guys pulled, using cell phones for communication, and over she went, pulling a 5 inch hinge of some strongish wood fibers....But up just a few feet, as I bucked it up, it was falling apart.....

Here's pics from today's tree, on which we did the prelim work yesterday. A multi stemmed big leaf maple, with two primary leaders, one vertical and stone dead, the other declining, with all of its canopy either over the primaries or trending towards them.

I gingerly climbed the dead trunk, and laced its three leaders to each other, then guyed it back. Set a lowering block and line in 9 inch wood, not wanting to go higher. Then I moved to the leader over the primaries, and swung several branches away from the wires. As we didn't have enough height to handle the top, I decided to go with Plan B, which was to fell it. (Plan C was to stop, swallow pride and call the pwr company.) Coincidentally, the local City Light rep was in the area, and stopped to talk. He offered to clear the lines for us, but not immediately of course. I thanked him, and told him I felt we were going to be cautious, and safe. He warned me of the consequences of failure, which of course I was well aware of....more than just broken wires, what with pedestrian and auto traffic below, and houses across the street.

As I had exited the tree for lunch, after we succeeded with the leaning alder, and also had done a bunch of easier maples, Ian went up and dropped the dead stem into the woods.

That was all yesterday.

 

[rbtree]

What a view... Alki Point in the distance, and the Olympics...

oh and some buzzing primaries...

 

[rbtree]

Here, I've laced the three leaders together with the main pull line( GRCS), the 9/16 DS Composite, 19K tensile; and 9/16 db backup, (portawrap)

Due to the slope, we had the optimum line angle of 90 degrees!

Regardless, I was darned nervous, and took a lot of time to plan it all out, both the rigging points at each end, and the stump cut, and procedure required.

I faced the 30 inch butt directly against the lean, taking forever to get it perfect. After just starting the backcut, I had the guys tension it a bit more..as they already had the winch close to maxed out at 44-1. After that, the Portawrap was pretty much just for a fail safe, as it couldn't easily be tensioned more. Then I cut in till the hinge wood was at 7 inches, and saw a tiny bit of kerf opening. Phew!! Slowly cut to 6, stopped, they winched a bit, cut to 4.5 to 5 inches, ran to get the camera, and let them crank her over...like a dream!! The video file is big, give me time, I'll figure out compression eventually.

I know that this tree was not a monster, not was the lean excessive, as was one tree I watched a friend do once (He used his 40 foot boom truck to quickly winch it over) But with the objective hazards, it was certainly one of the highest risk maneuvers we've done.

I also must add a comment about this near zero stretch line when used for pulling a tree over. Many here seem to think that stretch in a line can work in your favor, as the tree comes off its lean, then the stored energy in line stretch can help to bring it over. That may be true, but I disagree that it is the only way to go, much preferring the bombproof feel of no stretch line...this feeling is backed up by wiley_p, and a host of loggers and wire rope riggers.

 

[rbtree]

Anybody think Botox is in order here? Uggh.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Rock and roll there, RB!

Nothing like buzzing primaries to keep you on your toes!

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Great pictures RB (and work, as always).
I like the idea of putting two ropes in a tree to pull with, when you're in those critical situations.
We don't mess around with trees around power lines very often. The ROW guys do it for free, and we can't beat that price. Sometimes we'll do a preemptive prune so when the ROW guys come through they don't hack a valuable tree, but for removals, they can have 'em.

 

[Stumper]

Rb, I have a question. With all due respect. Weren't you concerned about a barber-chair or sudden breakage when pulling over aginst such thick hinges? It seems from this distance and without seeing anything that a bored backcut down to 2-3 inches of hinge and then popping the strap would have been safer.??


:angel: Curious in Canon aka Justin

 

[Dadatwins]

Pretty work RB glad to see you got your crew hopping again. Scary around those buzzin lines, be careful.

 

[rbtree]

Stumper,

I've never used the bore cut technique on a back leaner. I know many do, including maybe Tim Ard and the Arbormaster guys. But, in this case, I wanted everything to progress slowly. Keep in mind that with a back leaner, there is no tension wood in the back, only compression. By tensioning the tree, you are simply balancing it. Anyhow, the hinge size we pulled ended up being perfect at 4-4.5 inches.

What if, when plunging, and cutting the back strap after setting a 2-3 inch hinge (too small for this tree to be safe) you find that you didn't have enough pretension on the line?.....That is surely not a good thing! That procedure also requires setting wedges at the sides, and there is no way to put them in effectively as you can't open the kerf till the strap is cut. Sorry, but I just dont see any reason for doing the cuts that way.

Here's a pic that I posted a while back, when looking at the jobsite. Phase 2 in a few months is clearing much of this nice wooded lot with great trees, inclding some big madrone and this 6.5 foot dbh 103 foot wide maple... What a shame, puting up 9 homes they are, the bums....well, anyhow, I hope to find some figured maple and other valuable wood.

 

[rbtree]

Here's a frame capture from the video. I had made a deep face, wanting to have full width hinge wood.

Also, I could have safely cut another 1-1.5 inches of hinge wood out, but wanted to run and shoot video, so I let the guys pull it over. It was coming up and over nicely anyhow.

 

[rbtree]

Another frame capture, just as it came to rest.