Bear in mind, too, that the working load limit of a rope refers to the load, not the weight of the piece you're roping down. When using that WLL, a good safety factor for tops/branches is 5:1 (ie; for a 1500lb WLL, don't take pieces bigger than 300lbs) and for negative rigging blocks down 10:1 is more realistic (ie for a 1500lb WLL, blocks no heavier than 150lb). Sounds like a lot, but you'd be surprised at the forces blocks can generate. Branches are generally rigged from above, so they don't create as much of a shock load, and they also often create a lot of 'sail effect' with their foliage which slows their descent and consequently the way the rope takes up the load.
Great informative post.
Does this 5:1 also apply to blocks? If it does, I'm confused as to why the blocks for the same size of rope (example 3/4") have a much higher WLL than the rope to be used in that block.
Samson Nystron 3/4” Hanks has 23,000 lb. average breaking strength = 2,300 WLL
CMI 3/4” Stainless Steel Arborist Block MBS: 40,000 lb, 5:1 WLL: =8,000 lb WLL
I would appreciate if you could clear this up for me.
Thanks,
Rob
Bear in mind that the force at the block is doubled, so you'll have a 5:1 WLL of only 4000 lbs, and don't forget your sling, whoopie, loopie you use to rig the block to the tree, as the forces are doubled on it as well.
When selecting rigging rope length you want to think about how far you'll have to lower the highest piece.
If that first piece is 60 ft up, you'll need...
60 ft up + 60 ft down + 20 ft to rig the piece + 60 ft to lower with + at least 20 ft safety margin to keep the guy lowering the piece of out the LZ = 240 ft minimum
You'll need a bit of line on the lowering device as well, so might as well make it 250 ft of rigging line or more.