Would you Climb this?

[Toddppm]

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Interesting point !

Actualy the pic is from a carny type contest they run at the field day they have a the rope on a quick release and the object is to get it to land on a target.

There is no "tree work in progress"

BTW Bob is showing his good side in this pic! He's the guy in the ball cap.

 

[DDM]

Hmmmmmmm Maybe i can train the Squirrels to use Small handsaws and send them up the trees!O btw that long leader is about 60+ feet tall.

 

[treeclimber165]

there must be some sort of scenario not readily obvious in your picture, cause it looks like a typical boring day at the office to me. Unless there is extensive rot in the trunk or lead, simply get off your ass and go up! Rope it off of itself and lower it down to your groundie standing on the roof. The roof has an easy low pitch so it wouldn't be difficult to work off of.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Brian,
Why lower to the roof? Why not set up a spped line to the truck, save all the traffic on the guy's roof? Then you don't need a third man on the ground to feed the chipper.

 

[Toddppm]

Mike , Whats the speedline tensioner for in your drawn picture? I've never even set a speedline up , Just wondering. Instead of sending up a running bowline up to secure the speedline then having to retrieve it do most of you go over a high branch and tie off at the butt of the tree or a nearby one?

 

[DDM]

its about 10' from the house.i didnt get a good picture that leader is about 65' i positioned the truck the best i could and even at that with a 21'
pole pruner i still lacked about 15' from the smaller branches at the top i'll have to rig it out because its directly over a new pond and the neigbors dog wood trees. The leader is only about 4" in Diameter where it forks the trunk.I'll be after it either tommorrow or sat after i finish on
the other 2.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Connecting the speedline can change from job to job. you may want to have a simple one where you just take a few wraps and secure with a biner then move it around the tree. It may be easier to fispole it down low so that yo dont need to climb back up toe retriev it.

Mike's tensioner is guy to"back up" the SL tie in spar so that the guy anchors will share the load of the rigging operation. This allows a higher TIP.

 

[Shespen]

Question to Mike or ?

I've done alot of speedlining over the years but your illistration is the first time that I've seen a Gibbs used on a tag line to adjust for different levels. I like it! My question is about weight and shock load. How much abuse can that Gibbs take? Do you replace the release pin with a grade 8 bolt or just let the speedline absorb the shock? or both I also would like to know if you use a pulley where your tag line attaches to the speed line or is a steel 'binar good enough?

20 years and still learning.

 

[rbtree]

personally, I'm not sure I see much use for a Gibbs adjustable sling for speedlining, except that it allows for less tensioning of the line during a cut. What I do is slack the line into a bight to reach a branch, then use a z pulley setup, the chipper winch, my chain saw winch, or even a truck (gingerly) to pull the bight out of the line as the branch is being cut. This technique allows for a branch to easily be swung around the tree, or, if it is low, to be lifted as high as is required. If there is too much bight, you will have to cut very slow so as not to overcome the groundie's ability to quickly tension the line. Bight control is simple by slinging the speedline to a nearby branch. With this adjustability, I will often set the speedline way up high and use bight control.

Always remember, when speedlining heavy material, to be aware of the immense forces that can be applied to the speedline anchors. Thus it is best to catch the branch with a lower line then ease it onto the speedline. Naturally, branch lifting can be totally done with the speedline, as long as one is aware of the forces being applied.

Guying the tree where the speedline is attached is a great idea. Safety first!! It can often be done within the canopy, otherwise to the ground, as MM has shown.

 

[rbtree]

DDM, that's better, now i understand. The total tree height is 65 feet, that's more like it. Piece of cake, just climb it. Tied in to the opposite leader, you should be able to climb onto 3 inch wood. Wrap your lanyard around the leader as you go up.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Another good examlpe of guying rigging TIP'S is Blair's "Big Hickory" he had in TCI magazine. I've seen his talk on it and listened to it in some bull sesions at trade shows.

they picked the entire stem up off the building by rigging it into variouse trees having 3 axis of control on it.

 

[rbtree]

I was impressed with that article, John.

Most impressive was the angles they were working with. The rigging spars weren't high enough to create an optimum lift angle, which obviously created some very high stress loads on all parts of the rigging!

I'll bet that was some valuable wood, but due to the location, they probably had to make firewood out of it.

The last two weeks here have blessed us with skads of sunny days and cold nights. Expect awesome weather come july!! ypu'll love our humidity.............

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or lack thereof........

 

[rbtree]

Oxman said he'll have a standby pair of size 14's, just in case.......

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Those shoes took a while to get back to me.

A lesson to everyone, do not where wingtips to judge a competition .

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The guy(tensioner) is manditory for speedlining. As you know speedlining creates huge loads on the one variable you don't really know, the tree. The loads are side loads, different than the loads we normally develop, in line with the trunk, straight down.

The gibbs is a way of not having to tension and loosen the line each time you lower. The climber can retrive the line, attach it to a branch, make the cut, and lower it. That leaves the groundy free to cut them up and chip them. Much faster than goofing around with tensioning the speedline each time.

If the branch needs to be raised, then you will need to go to the traditional set up, and slack the speedline, attach a balencer, cut the branch, tension the speedline(which will raise the limb), and then lower it down the speedline(slow as it sounds and requires the undivided attention of at least two men).

If you are concerned about the capacity of a gibbs, it can simply be replaced with a prussic loop, in fact that's better.

Using a caribiner is not as nice as a pulley, even if it slides down, you still have to pull it back up, and that's easier with a pulley, not to mention rope wear.

 

[rbtree]

Hi, Mike,

I might try your setup sometime. But guying may be mandatory for some situations and big wood of course, but not for 90% of the routine speedlining that we do.

For the easy stuff, I carry 15 slings, clip one to four at a time and let em fly, no pulley or control line needed. Sure the guys have to tension the line, but usually they have nothing else to do. One groundie can be Ok, but I prefer two, to speed up the process, esp if we're zipping straight to the chipper, and need to get em chipped. We use the chipper winch for quick and easy tensioning on occasion, but usually z pulley is better.
I was just called by a client in The Highlands, one of the highest "rent" districts in the world, where the average home is worth 2-4 million, I'd guess. And this one is way above average.
I will likely get the extremely technical job to remove a declining 43.5", dbh bigleaf maple. Central leader broke out at about 60 feet and has regrown about a 20 foot weakly attached new top. I plan to use it for my lifeline, but likely will guy it to the ground or the side branches. Of which there are three large, long ones, that will likely need to be guyed to each other to allow for cautious and delicate speedlining. To limit drop, I'll use a balancer, and anchor the speedline up 15-20 feet in one or both of two trees in neighbor's yards. There is a 10x12 foot drop/lower zone with a slight slope. Plantings all around. Some can be tied back, but none is small enough to move or crib to protect. Thankfully, the fanciest landscape, including flagstone patio and pool are away from the mostly one sided tree. I also plan to get an old hood at a wrecking yard for using my 036/Simpson capstan winch to skid the wood to where the boom truck can reach it. Hoping for some figured wood, and not too much rot. I hear the best figured maple can bring up to $5 a board foot. But the three resistographs taken in lower trunk show over 50% rot.

This tree, at ~$3200, presents different challenges than the 54" dbh atlas cedar we did last yr for $5700. That one was worth over $7000 as it took us some 125 manhours!!! Likely $3200 is way low, but the the bids were about the same, I think. At least i should be able to free drop a lot of wood, if I'm worried about shock loading the tree. My guess is, from the looks of the canopy health, we'll be OK. It is exhibiting fairly normal growth for an old tree.

The customer has a professional digital camera that takes my pro series Canon lenses. So I hope to have pre shots up soon, followed by job pics.

 

[DDM]

Well that Nasty Leader is gone!and nope i didnt climb it and was glad i didnt it had a nasty split in it that couldnt be seen from the ground my guess was wind damaged.This is how i rigged it down.Figure8 on the trunk Porta wrap on the top
actually went smoother than i anticipated.

 

[DDM]

Grrrrrrr Picture too large i'll try again./

 

[DDM]

Hmmmmm