Rope Wrench

[treevet]

:msp_tongue: Oops my bad. Sorry formation. I wish more people that sit idle and read would post more. I love to hear other opinions even if I don't agree. I dig a new thing. The industry sat idle with the taunt line then blakes hitch for 50 years. Now its exploding. The newer mochiaco?? Whatever it is. Sucks. To sticky.

Remember I get out of the truck, throw my saddle on, grab my rope, and climb right to the top of the tree. While most guys are trying to fly a kite with the throw ball. Then they're looking for a certain do hickey. Now the their in the tree but have to tie in and get rid of the crap they drug up. My old boss was older school then me and still shamed the young guys. I do understand smarter not harder. It cuts down on the injuries as well as saves tou some energy for maintenance after work:smile2:

If you got a 120' oak or tuliptree like we have many and other species around here...you won't be "throwing your saddle on, grabbing your rope, and climbing right to the top of the tree" when you got 30 foot spans between branches with 3' trunk dia sometimes. Don't even think of saying you shimmy up there either. Sorry but just gotta call bs on that one...I likely got way more time in the tree than your old boss or any other boss you ever had.

Just sayin lol

 

[treevet]

Hey AJ, is that you? Haven't talked to ya for a while if it was you up in Hamilton Ohio for a while. If so, where ya at now? Hope all is going good for ya.

 

[arborjockey]

Ah the vet

Here's pic # 4 View attachment 228520


I was working for a guy who had his equipment in Hamiltuckey. My house was in Kettering. I went to Oregon to work for an old friend for a couple of years. I spent 2 months in Carmel Indiana cutting for a guy. The last year I've been in Hawaii. I asked in the begging of the threade if the trees were big around there. I did Dayton University and lots of historical trees in the Natti, and had some good accounts in Indian hill.
The big oh has big trees but not all over. Where's the pics of that big ash trunk in the bed of your cab over?

Here's a huge ash that grew up through a sycamore. I hiked in for an hour to get to it and climb it.

1My x girl friend

2Ol' Barttlet rig.

3. Cold day in Dayton

4. Top of 1st tree

 

[treevet]

The big oh has big trees but not all over. Where's the pics of that big ash trunk in the bed of your cab over?

Couldn't find the single pict but here is one with other trucks. That was only one of the two main stems on an ancient ash just walking distance from our lot on Wyoming Country Club that was dropping 2 ft. dia. branches right on the second shot area on 3rd hole.

 

[treevet]

View attachment 230533

gonna work out very smoothly I think.

 

[imagineero]

Not with that much distance between your pulley and your hitch me thinks.... A different hitch or a shorter I2I?

Shaun

 

[flushcut]

Over at TH Pctree (of the wraptor fame) is making something call the Hitch Hiker and that is going to be the end of the rope wrench IMO. It is a much cleaner design with easy midline attachment and is on my shopping list.

 

[treevet]

Not with that much distance between your pulley and your hitch me thinks.... A different hitch or a shorter I2I?

Shaun

haven't taken it up in the air yet but seems to work ok on my lat machine. yes the big gap will give a lag from pull gained to pull realized?

 

[treevet]

Over at TH Pctree (of the wraptor fame) is making something call the Hitch Hiker and that is going to be the end of the rope wrench IMO. It is a much cleaner design with easy midline attachment and is on my shopping list.

couldn't be any easier mid line attachmt. than this with 4.95 pin (bigger pin n/good). keep us posted on this on this thread flush as I don't like to slum over there :-}

 

[imagineero]

haven't taken it up in the air yet but seems to work ok on my lat machine. yes the big gap will give a lag from pull gained to pull realized?

Yeah, aka sitback. An inch or two is no big deal, but looks like you've got quite a lot there. That length of I2I is probably about right for a VT. With hitches that don't use as much cord you need a shorter I2I. You can just tie one and experiement until you get the length right, then order a spliced one if you like the spliced eyes. If you've tried the VT and didn't like the way it needs to be attended to then you might try the XT variant. I tried it and found it more stable than the VT but still went back to my old klemheist.

If you're not a fan of having the tender down at your harness then you can put the whole system on a leash to have it sit up where a standard hitch would normall go. That starts to get tricky with the rope wrench setup though. I've got a home made rope wrench that I've played with a few times but I need to put some more non-working hours on it to get it right. I'm not sure I'd really have a lot of use for it in the sort of trees we mostly do anyhow.

Found my camera yesterday, it was wedged under the seat of the truck. I've got the battery on charge so hopefully I'll get a few pics up today or tomorrow.

Shaun

 

[pdqdl]

... With hitches that don't use as much cord you need a shorter I2I. You can just tie one and experiement until you get the length right, then order a spliced one if you like the spliced eyes. ...
Shaun

You really can't make an i2i much shorter than 26"-28", certainly not with Bee Line. The eye splices run out of room to bury the tail. I found some for sale as short as 21", but that just doesn't seem right.

The cord gets stiffer where it is doubled for the tail-bury. A 21" i2i would be very stiff
for most all of it's length; I think this would adversely affect how it performs in a friction hitch.

You are right about getting them shorter though; that's why I splice my own.

 

[imagineero]

Here's a vid as promised of the D shackle slack tender system. If I get some spare energy and time then I'll do some vids later in the week of myself doing some ascending on the different systems with and without tender. I need to get someone to hold the camera though, makes it hard to work the rope and hitch with only one hand.

The shackle is a halyard shackle, it's stainless and only costs a few dollars from sail supply stores. Be sure to get the type with the separator pin as shown in the vid, and the 1/4 turn captive pin with the bent bar rather than the standard screw pin. The screw pins are almost impossible to open with bare hands once loaded, but the 1/4 turn ones open and close easily with one hand. They come in a few sizes, you want the one where the shackle size is just over 1/2".

This is the ronstan one which I use. The part number is RF1032 I'm pretty sure from looking at the 3 different sies available on the web. The breaking strain is a bit over 2500lbs, and the weight is 1oz. Gotta love stainless steel. It's obviously not intended for life support purposes due to how easy it is to open the pin;

and another similar one made by a different manufacturer with a 'push' style pin that would probably work ok too

stay away from this style of screw pin. You'll never get it open with your bare hands. Most boats carry a shackle key for the purpose.

It's not as smooth of a system as a finely tuned VT with a hitch climber pulley, but it only costs a few dollars and sets up easy and fast with any type of hitch. You can use it with I2I systems and not worry about getting the length of your cord right since you can just slide the slack tender to wherever it needs to be. It's great if you climb in different hitches/cords.

[video=youtube_share;Y-QFhVgWNRM]http://youtu.be/Y-QFhVgWNRM[/video]

 

[flushcut]

couldn't be any easier mid line attachmt. than this with 4.95 pin (bigger pin n/good). keep us posted on this on this thread flush as I don't like to slum over there :-}

Sure. The attachment is two steel bieners but the design is what I really like, it fits in between the saddle and hitch with no floppy eye poker on a leash.

 

[arborjockey]

Small loop of dacron, dog clip, and a mico pulley as a slack tender has worked for me. Same method as above. Been around since the tauntline.:msp_rolleyes: with the wrench where do you grab the rope with all that crap on their?

 

[treevet]

Sure. The attachment is two steel bieners but the design is what I really like, it fits in between the saddle and hitch with no floppy eye poker on a leash.

I actually meant the Rwrench attachment couldn't be any easier. Has a pin that won't fall out and get lost either.

 

[FanOFatherNash]

:msp_tongue: While most guys are trying to fly a kite with the throw ball. :smile2:

I agree there is alot of new stuff , thats just stuff. Throw bag (kite) is not one of them , how are you pruning with out spikes with out a throw line?

:msp_tongue: My old boss was older school then me :smile2:

( he was so old school he used a flint axe , and wore a loin cloth ?)

 

[arborjockey]

I actually use the throwball quite a bit. Just not as much as most. Takes to much time. The trees have to be good size. My 27' polesaw sets most my rope. My theory is "get to work in the tree I don't care how."



I'm in the tree raining down branchs while guys look through they're bag of tricks for that 1 thing that makes them a little faster. Im not against toys I got plenty. but if I blow $ now days that s.o.b better be simple and make my work easier.:msp_thumbup:

 

[pdqdl]

Small loop of dacron, dog clip, and a mico pulley as a slack tender has worked for me. Same method as above. Been around since the tauntline.:msp_rolleyes: with the wrench where do you grab the rope with all that crap on their?

I think the usual method is to be standing on a foot ascender, and using the hand ascender to hang onto the rope.

I haven't tried the rope wrench yet, but I have been thinking about it. Your point of running out of free space on the working region of the rope is worth thinking about.

 

[kevin bingham]

Over at TH Pctree (of the wraptor fame) is making something call the Hitch Hiker and that is going to be the end of the rope wrench IMO. It is a much cleaner design with easy midline attachment and is on my shopping list.

Are you currently an SRT climber?

 

[flushcut]

Are you currently an SRT climber?

I mostly use SRT for access and switch out to DRT and have used the RADS, but have played with the RW and can't get comfy with it. I don't like the "slack" with the tether I find it to be cumbersome. But that is my opinion.