Lowering/guiding rope

[John Paul Sanborn]

I use 1/2 in Stable Braid for 95% of my rigging needs; and then, for the rest I use 9/16. If I ever use 3/4 or 5/8 it is for huge wood and it is owned by my primary contracting clients.

There is no need for those big diameter ropes until you are blocking down big chunks.

 

[tree md]

There is no need for those big diameter ropes until you are blocking down big chunks.

Or tip tieing large leaders or felling large trees. If you lower or drop big wood you need one of these ropes.

Prentice110,

Wanted to get back to you on the PI rope. Mine has been a good one but one drawback is it milks. I climbed with mine today and noticed significant milking. I think I'll go with a stable braid for my next climbing line. I believe the Lava rope is stable braid if I'm not mistaken. I'll have to look into it but I am considering it for my next climbing only line.

 

[Slvrmple72]

I just bought Velocity and an Ultratech prussic for the Distel hitch. I have been on Arbormaster w/blakes and still like that but have been learning to work on the smaller diameter rope. The distel is great, I really like it. I have some Dragonfly, from Karl Kuemmerlings that I use a Beeline prussic on that I tied to make an eye to eye, 3/8's I think? Bummer when you have a line too short for what you need!

What do you guys consider big wood that warrants rigging rope bigger than, in my case, 9/16's Stablebraid? I usually take smaller chunks or if it is that close to stuff and that big it is a crane job. Or are we talking about pulling rope in this instance?

If this rope breaks.... we get in the truck and take off! LOL!

 

[tree md]

I just bought Velocity and an Ultratech prussic for the Distel hitch. I have been on Arbormaster w/blakes and still like that but have been learning to work on the smaller diameter rope. The distel is great, I really like it. I have some Dragonfly, from Karl Kuemmerlings that I use a Beeline prussic on that I tied to make an eye to eye, 3/8's I think? Bummer when you have a line too short for what you need!

What do you guys consider big wood that warrants rigging rope bigger than, in my case, 9/16's Stablebraid? I usually take smaller chunks or if it is that close to stuff and that big it is a crane job. Or are we talking about pulling rope in this instance?

If this rope breaks.... we get in the truck and take off! LOL!

I like using 3/4 for anything that is over 2000# and there is a risk of shock. Never used 9/16 as I learned on 3/4 and that is always what I bought. I also like it for felling when I use a truck to get a pull and anchor (I saw a guy snap a 3/4 bull rope doing that one time BTW). You can get a lot of leverage and one hell of a pull with a 3/4 rope. I usually take trees down in big pieces. It is how I was taught and I am pretty productive doing it that way. If I can set a line in a good solid leader in like a maple I'll set a line in a central leader, tip tie and swing whole leaders out of the tree. I also used to hang a lot of pines and you need a bull rope to do that. If I have a pine that needs to come down in a tight spot and I have a larger neighboring pine I'll run my bull rope around a couple of good limbs in the neighboring tree, cut the tree at about 5' from the ground, hang it from the neighboring tree and cut as my rope hand lowers it. Much safer and time/cost efficient than piecing it out in my opinion. I simply could not do without my bull rope. It is one of my most valuable tools.

 

[Slvrmple72]

I am taking pretty good chunks with 9/16. I use blocks and portawrap so whether tip tied or butt tied we keep the dynamics to a minimum on the rigging. Add to the fact that you don't want stuff breaking off or smacking into the gutters! I like to think of it as controlled chaos! When I get a job where I can just drop the stuff or bomb the whole tree outright it is fun but usually over too soon and leaves me with that empty disappointed feeling.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It is only when you are shock-loading that you need to use the 10:1 reduction for SWL, 5:1 is more reasonable for rigging with the GRCS or if you are swinging a limb out. I cannot remember when I shocked on a tip tie last.

for 1/2 in stable braid you are in the 2000# range, which is a lot of limb.

3/4 in SB is just over 20,000 (I will assume ) ABS, so shock loading with a 10:1 reduction still puts you at 2000#