Tips for walking back to the cutting point?

[rope-a-dope]

Yes, we typically will ride the ball anytime we can, including out over the limbs to be rigged. This will usually get you as far out on those limbs as you want for tying slings. We use a bunch of rope "spider legs" for anything brushy or limb like, even leaning wood chucks.
Multiple rope slings help balance the pick by applying even tension thru the whole shape. You put in a little extra work ahead of time so when you cut, there is no flailing, no lifting, no breaking a snap cut, no twisting, rolling or pinching. Most crane picks I do are cut straight thru, with a slow down at the end to see if I need to finish from a specific side to avoid compression. Dynamic crane picks give me the willies, so I rig things very carefully.

 

[Jemco]

I find synthetic chokers more conducive to picks bouncing about than good ole steel chokers myself.

But there again, production crews like to move right along......

Jemco

 

[Jemco]

Hey Rope!

Next time you're cuttin a fat vertical trunk pick?

Try my technique.

Say your pick's 3 feet in diameter, and you're cuttin with a 20 inch bar.

Imagine a clock face atop the trunk, the crane's centerpin directly behind you at the six o'clock position on the trunk, where you start cutting at three o'clock, then cutting clockwise to 4, 5 and 6, then 7, 8 and 9 o'clock at the half way point, then up 12 o'clock and at the 2 o'clock point, you should be facing the crane when you hit the release point at 3 o'clock.

All in one smooth walk around cut that'll never bind, providing your saw's cuttin straight.

All the pressure's exerted at six o'clock, which has already been cut.

Try it, you'll like it.

Jemco

 

[allmark]

Another option is to tie into the Head(boom tip) of the crane. I will try to get a picture later. with this method the crane operator can boom up and hoist down and rotate to provide you with a better boom angle. I hope this makes sense. Ill try to get some pictures later.

 

[Alexander]

Tried this the first time Thursday, still was using my main tie in and traversed back with a Blake’s on the tail in of my line from the crane ball.

 

[allmark]

Tried this the first time Thursday, still was using my main tie in and traversed back with a Blake’s on the tail in of my line from the crane ball.

Do you have a better pic of your attachment to the load line? It appears it is rope tied directly to it. Also the tail of the load line needs to be addressed it is frayed bad

 

[Alexander]

Do you have a better pic of your attachment to the load line? It appears it is rope tied directly to it. Also the tail of the load line needs to be addressed it is frayed bad

I do not have a better picture but it is a piece of rope with a ring clove hitch on and locked off. Tied above the ball. We’re working on getting some better at the moment. The cable being frayed was told it was fine by Alltec, they put a new cable on probably a year ago and left the fray. Don’t think anyone at our shop feels comfortable doing anything with it unfortunately.

 

[Skye401]

Thank you everyone for your replies! Definitely going to be implementing some of this moving forward. Love this forum

 

[allmark]

I do not have a better picture but it is a piece of rope with a ring clove hitch on and locked off. Tied above the ball. We’re working on getting some better at the moment. The cable being frayed was told it was fine by Alltec, they put a new cable on probably a year ago and left the fray. Don’t think anyone at our shop feels comfortable doing anything with it unfortunately.

You should definitely get another tie in point it is not good to have fiber rope attached directly to load line
The fray also needs to be addressed it is not good and should have been taken care of.

 

[drewxsmith]

Trunksprout, contact your Altec account manager or call 1-877-Go-Altec and they can walk you through the process of addressing the cable issue. Or if you feel more comfortable, message them on Facebook. They are pretty responsive. Full Disclosure, I work for Altec and was notified of this issue and we just want to make sure you are completely satisfied. Thanks.

 

[Skye401]

Trunksprout, contact your Altec account manager or call 1-877-Go-Altec and they can walk you through the process of addressing the cable issue. Or if you feel more comfortable, message them on Facebook. They are pretty responsive. Full Disclosure, I work for Altec and was notified of this issue and we just want to make sure you are completely satisfied. Thanks.

That's some awesome customer service tbh

 

[Talon Tree Service]

Along with what others have said, TIP back in the tree, multiple climbing systems, etc, Hasn’t been mentioned that I have seen, but a super simple thing that helps is after you have your sling attached and are ready, have your crane operator tighten the sling up so the ball isn’t swaying so badly on your walk back in. Also makes your limb less springy.
I struggled a bit when I first started, I had about a year of pretty technical climbing and rigging experience but 0 crane experience when I started subbing for the company I sub for now. After climbing for the crane for 3 months solid it got a lot easier. Biggest thing I’ve found is using one hand to descend with my zigzag and using the other to help myself balance. I have pretty good balance though. I’ve never climbed with a second climber, always just me wherever I’ve gone.
Another thing you can try is get yourself a slack line and practice balancing at home. It’s good fun, exercise and my nieces absolutely love playing on it as well. Win, win, win to me!

 

[Skye401]

Along with what others have said, TIP back in the tree, multiple climbing systems, etc, Hasn’t been mentioned that I have seen, but a super simple thing that helps is after you have your sling attached and are ready, have your crane operator tighten the sling up so the ball isn’t swaying so badly on your walk back in. Also makes your limb less springy.
I struggled a bit when I first started, I had about a year of pretty technical climbing and rigging experience but 0 crane experience when I started subbing for the company I sub for now. After climbing for the crane for 3 months solid it got a lot easier. Biggest thing I’ve found is using one hand to descend with my zigzag and using the other to help myself balance. I have pretty good balance though. I’ve never climbed with a second climber, always just me wherever I’ve gone.
Another thing you can try is get yourself a slack line and practice balancing at home. It’s good fun, exercise and my nieces absolutely love playing on it as well. Win, win, win to me!

Thanks for this, it sounds like you guys do crane rigging in a similar way to us.
I just switched to a pair of pole spikes on my geckos and they made me feel way more stable too.

 

[Talon Tree Service]

Thanks for this, it sounds like you guys do crane rigging in a similar way to us.
I just switched to a pair of pole spikes on my geckos and they made me feel way more stable too.

Can’t say enough about pole spurs. I learned to climb on aluminum geckos with tree spurs. Climbed in a set of carbon fiber pole spurs when I forgot my spurs in my backup truck. I ordered my own set of carbon geckos with pole spurs that night.

 

[dbl612]

Hey Rope!

Next time you're cuttin a fat vertical trunk pick?

Try my technique.

Say your pick's 3 feet in diameter, and you're cuttin with a 20 inch bar.

Imagine a clock face atop the trunk, the crane's centerpin directly behind you at the six o'clock position on the trunk, where you start cutting at three o'clock, then cutting clockwise to 4, 5 and 6, then 7, 8 and 9 o'clock at the half way point, then up 12 o'clock and at the 2 o'clock point, you should be facing the crane when you hit the release point at 3 o'clock.

All in one smooth walk around cut that'll never bind, providing your saw's cuttin straight.

All the pressure's exerted at six o'clock, which has already been cut.

Try it, you'll like it.

Jemco

simple way to describe thesis make your final cut are directly under the bight point. thecranecan then lift the piece off your barif it pinches

 

[dbl612]

all this discussion about limb walking, etc. why cant you rig with say a 20' nylon. have the op fly you out to the tie-in point, attach your sling then fly you back to the truck for your cut. op moves the ball back over your pick point after you dismount to tree. operator stands up the piece as you make the cut up from the bottom. no shock load, and the piece is in control and verticle ready to be fed into the hopper of the chipper.

 

[Skye401]

all this discussion about limb walking, etc. why cant you rig with say a 20' nylon. have the op fly you out to the tie-in point, attach your sling then fly you back to the truck for your cut. op moves the ball back over your pick point after you dismount to tree. operator stands up the piece as you make the cut up from the bottom. no shock load, and the piece is in control and verticle ready to be fed into the hopper of the chipper.

This is what we do a lot of the time, but you want a back up hitch. So we girth hitch the limb on some really safe solid wood, then put a half hitch further out towards the tip. We have 2 12 foot nylon loops and 2 20 foot nylon loops.

Sometimes the issue is that once you put the girth and half hitch onto a limb, you're not always left with a ton of slack. So on a long horizontal limb you need to get back to the trunk to hinge the piece up.

 

[Deadwood]

First off how are you doing it now? Second never feel like you need to speed up on a crane job. And never use only timber hitches, maybe one is ok in a system of 4 slings. A lot of times you will not have an overhead tie in while cutting, for me at least I am usually cutting off of a choked off TIP right by my lanyard height. This keeps my rope clear off the piece we are picking and also clear of my saw. I would just set slings off the ball then climb back in and get to where you need to be and retie in then cut, have the crane pick you up in the tree and repeat.

 

[Skye401]

First off how are you doing it now? Second never feel like you need to speed up on a crane job. And never use only timber hitches, maybe one is ok in a system of 4 slings. A lot of times you will not have an overhead tie in while cutting, for me at least I am usually cutting off of a choked off TIP right by my lanyard height. This keeps my rope clear off the piece we are picking and also clear of my saw. I would just set slings off the ball then climb back in and get to where you need to be and retie in then cut, have the crane pick you up in the tree and repeat.

Standard procedure right now is to go up on the pill, set a 20ft loop sling girth hitched around the limb on really good meat and then half hitch further out toward the tip. once that's clipped back onto the hook, I have the operator cable up then I limb walk back to the cutting point. I tie in with my lanyard, retrieve my climbing line from the sling on the pill, and then tie that into the tree in front of me around lanyard height as well.

I make the cut then communicate with the operator about how to navigate it through the canopy, other trees, etc. Then I let the LZ know what length sling I want back and wait for the pill to come pick me up and do it all over again.

Just to be clear, I'm not looking for ways to speed up by cutting corners, I'm looking for ways to be more efficient limb walking at bad angles, or for tricks to shave time off of the in-between moments to eliminate dead air time.

 

[Deadwood]

Standard procedure right now is to go up on the pill, set a 20ft loop sling girth hitched around the limb on really good meat and then half hitch further out toward the tip. once that's clipped back onto the hook, I have the operator cable up then I limb walk back to the cutting point. I tie in with my lanyard, retrieve my climbing line from the sling on the pill, and then tie that into the tree in front of me around lanyard height as well.

I make the cut then communicate with the operator about how to navigate it through the canopy, other trees, etc. Then I let the LZ know what length sling I want back and wait for the pill to come pick me up and do it all over again.

Just to be clear, I'm not looking for ways to speed up by cutting corners, I'm looking for ways to be more efficient limb walking at bad angles, or for tricks to shave time off of the in-between moments to eliminate dead air time.

Keep it simple repetition will make is more effiecient.