Pulling Trees/Tops With Pulleys: Questions!

[Ghillie]

I see more than that.

LOL!! Like brothers from different mothers, we grew up together on opposite sides of the tracks.

 

[southsoundtree]

Wondering about using a Tree Pulling Kit versus Fiddle Blocks in conjuction with the POW, or without.

Anybody able to compare and contrast?

How about in use with a speedline. I heard that the fiddle blocks works sweet for that. They seem comparable in price.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Rope, only resists inline forces(and onlyi n the tension direction) for this use; therefore, for max potetnial; pull line should be inline with pulley lines. This only changes when rope is tight enough to resist sidewards pressure, then can be leveraged; notice this takes 3 opposing points, not 2; jsut like in non-flexables.

On pulling tops especially, i like coming over the top, and then tying off abouve the cut, for more rotation, elastic length of line involved,a nd a 2;1 potential on flexing/preloading (and of curse all quanities are by the goldilox rule; you can have too little, too much or just right). The added forces can give more hop over fence (like if dutched), flex over on hinge- for stronger hinge and less shock to rigging/catch line (of curse too heavy a limb flexxed over like this can give problems too) or jsut surer detatchmeant when climber slices thru immediately. In all these things, the outcome of the added forces is partially dependant on the orchestration of ground and climbing forces.

 

[Ghillie]

Wondering about using a Tree Pulling Kit versus Fiddle Blocks in conjuction with the POW, or without.

Anybody able to compare and contrast?

How about in use with a speedline. I heard that the fiddle blocks works sweet for that. They seem comparable in price.

I have no experience with the fiddle blocks and have only handled a set once, but here are my thoughts.

I like the versatility of the pulling kit with the prusik minding pulleys. You do not need to use it in the 5:1 configuration if you don't need that much MA. you can use it in 2:1 or 3:1 with just one of the pulleys in the set. And if you have the appropriate size cordage, you can set it up so that one person can tension and capture a load easily.

The fiddleblocks appear to need to be used together as a set. The mechanical line capture built into them looks nice, but has a disadvantage I don't like. It needs the load taken off the line before the capture can be released.

That means you have to tension the fiddleblocks again and if the blocks are too close together, you may not get enough travel to accomplish the task.

With the tree puller set, depending on the configuration of your speedline and manpower on the ground, you can eliminate the need for a porty in your system and additional rope in your system.

The only limits are your imagination (and physics).

 

[southsoundtree]

With the tree puller set, depending on the configuration of your speedline and manpower on the ground, you can eliminate the need for a porty in your system and additional rope in your system.

The only limits are your imagination (and physics).

Ghillie,

I agree with your points.


I was thinking about using the tree puller with a porty for lifting limbs then lowering, a la a GRCS/ Hobbs, in addition to the speedlining application.

 

[Slvrmple72]

I have no experience with the fiddle blocks and have only handled a set once, but here are my thoughts.

I like the versatility of the pulling kit with the prusik minding pulleys. You do not need to use it in the 5:1 configuration if you don't need that much MA. you can use it in 2:1 or 3:1 with just one of the pulleys in the set. And if you have the appropriate size cordage, you can set it up so that one person can tension and capture a load easily.

The fiddleblocks appear to need to be used together as a set. The mechanical line capture built into them looks nice, but has a disadvantage I don't like. It needs the load taken off the line before the capture can be released.

That means you have to tension the fiddleblocks again and if the blocks are too close together, you may not get enough travel to accomplish the task.

With the tree puller set, depending on the configuration of your speedline and manpower on the ground, you can eliminate the need for a porty in your system and additional rope in your system.

The only limits are your imagination (and physics).

Ghilie, The fiddleblocks work ideally with the portawrap. Say you hafta lift a horizontal branch up to vertical against the trunk so you can lower the whole thing down along the side of the house. Like what you did with lifting that large section of Silver instead of wrapping the rope around the trunk and leaving you with the potential of losing your grip and it dropping b4 the other guy set the portawrap, the prussic or mechropegrab holds tight. You obviously do not want to bring the blocks too close together but once you lock the load on the porty you reset the blocks to take another bite. You never run out of rope this way. With the pulleys you are using you can set up some prussic cord to hold the load but you will be at a little bit of a disadvantage since they don't have any cheeks like the prusik minding type in the tree puller set. Yes, you can use the fiddleblocks by themselves but I usually find that if I am only going to use one block it is a single one. I wouldn't recommend only using one half of a double pulley setup because the forces wouldn't be inline on it. Single blocks are good for when you tie off to an adjacent tree, run the rope up through the block connected to the leaner with a girth hitched sling, and the rope comes back down to be tied to the pintle hitch on the truck. Vroom and boom! Bring that leaner down! Clean the block off and look it over good! I have only killed one this way when it came down on the concrete driveway and the tree made sure to hit it with all of its force! Pull me down will you! Bye, bye, $100 dollar block!

 

[Slvrmple72]

Ghillie,

I agree with your points.


I was thinking about using the tree puller with a porty for lifting limbs then lowering, a la a GRCS/ Hobbs, in addition to the speedlining application.

Southsoundtree, If I had not bought the fiddleblock kit from Wesspur b4 seeing the tree puller setup in Sherrilltree I would have gotten them and used them with the porty just like you are thinking! They will work perfectly for that application!

I have to wonder how many owners of GRCS's even use their porty/block setups anymore, if at all?

 

[Ghillie]

Ghilie, The fiddleblocks work ideally with the portawrap. Say you hafta lift a horizontal branch up to vertical against the trunk so you can lower the whole thing down along the side of the house. Like what you did with lifting that large section of Silver instead of wrapping the rope around the trunk and leaving you with the potential of losing your grip and it dropping b4 the other guy set the portawrap, the prussic or mechropegrab holds tight. You obviously do not want to bring the blocks too close together but once you lock the load on the porty you reset the blocks to take another bite. You never run out of rope this way. With the pulleys you are using you can set up some prussic cord to hold the load but you will be at a little bit of a disadvantage since they don't have any cheeks like the prusik minding type in the tree puller set. Yes, you can use the fiddleblocks by themselves but I usually find that if I am only going to use one block it is a single one. I wouldn't recommend only using one half of a double pulley setup because the forces wouldn't be inline on it. Single blocks are good for when you tie off to an adjacent tree, run the rope up through the block connected to the leaner with a girth hitched sling, and the rope comes back down to be tied to the pintle hitch on the truck. Vroom and boom! Bring that leaner down! Clean the block off and look it over good! I have only killed one this way when it came down on the concrete driveway and the tree made sure to hit it with all of its force! Pull me down will you! Bye, bye, $100 dollar block!

Thank you for pointing out my oversights, I was a little distracted yesterday. I should have pointed out that running a single line through a double sheave pulley is not ideal. I would only use it that way to tension, not to hold a load. And even then, it is less than ideal maybe even more of a pain than taking the time to reave in the second pulley.

When I ordered the double pulleys, I weighed the cost of the prusik minding pulleys with the plain cheeked steel ones. I chose the plain pulleys because of cost (I saved enough to get a stainless steel trolley for speedlining) and I have worked a lot with plain pulleys in high angle system I have rigged in the past. "Go with what you know" won out (along with the gear whoring nature in me, I really wanted a trolley to play with).

 

[southsoundtree]

Southsoundtree, If I had not bought the fiddleblock kit from Wesspur b4 seeing the tree puller setup in Sherrilltree I would have gotten them and used them with the porty just like you are thinking! They will work perfectly for that application!

I have to wonder how many owners of GRCS's even use their porty/block setups anymore, if at all?

Thanks for chiming in.

I don't figure that people with grcs's will use their porty/block combo very often for more than one or two lifts. A set of fiddle blocks, added to my PoW will bring me closer until I get the dollars for a grcs.