Masdam Shenanigans

Phil

Phil

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Oak Lawn, IL
Had a pretty fun tree to pull over today. Large 40"ish dead cotton wood leaning over two fences and a blandings turtle breeding pond at a zoo. We prepped the area on a previous day by clearing trees and vegetation to make room for the cotton wood to land and to make setting up easier. We used 3 ropes to pull. one acted a guy line to counter the lean. Another was the main pull line. The third was an assist for the main and a fail safe incase the main pull line broke or something failed. All three pulling lines were setup the same way. 9/16 stable braid (red rope) with a 3/4" arborist block attached midline via prusik, basket 1" webbing and steel rigging crab. 1/2" 3 strand through the block and Masdam for 2:1 on each line. Red line was anchored a portawrap to capture progress and lock off incase of a masdam failing. Lean on the tree was towards the fences, as was all the limb weight. The limb sticking out the back was like 30' long. There was side lean to the side with all the brancheds No bark on the tree and the root flair was punking out. Internal wood quality was unknown so we opted to have 3 lines on it. Everyone was on com systems so we could coordinate pulling and cutting. Two of the red lines were isolated at the top, the third was basal tied. Only issue we had was twisitng in the 3 strand line once they were heavily tensioned. Wasn't enough to shut the show down but if I had top do it all again I would definitly try to mitigate the twisting out of the system. oh yeah....no cleanup!

Walkthrough Vid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15WjfdlqpmQ0NoUOHx82YBfkvSuvUfd8U/view?usp=share_link
Fall Vid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S_SEMc4mJKoq3OuibQmDQpolzwR_Cykj/view?usp=share_link
 

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Muggs said:
Yeah, 3 strand twists like crazy under tension. Nice setup you had there.
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That's the rope that gets sold with the masdam when you buy it as a kit. I don't have experience with running a different strand count through it. I wonder how 16 or even 12 strand would fare.
 
Phil said:
That's the rope that gets sold with the masdam when you buy it as a kit. I don't have experience with running a different strand count through it. I wonder how 16 or even 12 strand would fare.
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It doesn't work reliably with anything else. Soft-lay half inch 3-strand is the only option. Twisting under tension is just the way she goes...
 
Does Teufelberger Multi-line work well with the Maasdam? I have a chance to get 100ft. of it pretty cheap.
 
Pull overs are one of my favorite operations. The big ones with back leans. It's the adrenaline rush of satisfying achievement ...... victory. Puts a shit eatin grin across my face every time.

Nice job, Phil.
 
Phil said:
I bought hard lay on accident not too long ago. Stuff was like lasso rope. I could barely flake it into the rope bag. Ended up giving it to a buddy of mine to use for some backyard swing setups for his kid.
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I've never had a good experience with hard lay. It slips under heavy tension on my Maasdam, can barely tie knots, just miserable to use. Don't know how long it takes to break in because I've never been able to wait it out...
 
Muggs said:
I've never had a good experience with hard lay. It slips under heavy tension on my Maasdam, can barely tie knots, just miserable to use. Don't know how long it takes to break in because I've never been able to wait it out...
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I had 150' of it. After attempting to use it several times I finally coiled it up and placed it out on the township road to see who was desperate enough to pick it up and take it home. The guy who just can't let anything go, no matter how crappy it is, grabbed it. He didn't tell me, but I saw it hanging in his garage. He will never use it, but to him it was a like new rope that he just couldn't resist bringing home. What I thought was funny was he never asked me if I lost a rope off my truck. I'm the only person who uses that road who would have a rope like that.
 
The hard lay is stronger and tougher wearing than the soft lay, but terrible to work with, and it doesn't hold in a Maasdam, when it is new at least. For crotch rigging it has its place, but trying to tie a knot in it is also terrible.
There may be some people out there who like using it. It sells, so I guessing there are quite a few, but you won't find any in my rope shack.
 
That Samson Treemaster takes a HEAVY beating and BEGS for more. It does take a bit to break in. Knotting for me isn't an issue, honestly. They take a bit more to dress before the break in. I have, a 150' of 1/2'', a 200' of 5/8'', and 200' of 3/4''

All my rigging ropes are 200'. The 1/2'' Treemaster is one of my climbing ropes. Believe it, or not. I use it natural crotch in ugly, DIRTY, removals, where I don't have a lot of repeated lateral movement. Blake's holds well, and the rope wears semi quick over crotch use. Sometimes it's nice in black locust where most crotches are already tight. Good when I'm doing some light trimming, and I want my rope to come out easy peasy. Nice in pitched trees. I don't care how dirty it gets. The 2 rigging lengths I have don't get used often but are a blessing when needed.

Sorry to hijack ...... carry on.
 
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flushcut said:
I guess I’m the oddity but I like a nice hard lay 3 strand. Wears like iron and laughs at natty crotch rigging. I haven’t noticed slipping in the Masdam.
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You may like Sampson's Pro master too. Little bit of a softer lay, and still a tough rope for natural rigging.
I lied. Not all my riggers are 200' I have this one at 150'
 
When new, you need a bunch of tension on the hard lay to get it to bite in the Rope-puller drum.



I've glazed True Blue, NC, on something that Treemaster would laugh at, at a guess.


True Blue feels good from the start.



I wonder if washing Treemaster would help out break it in, or anything else.


A biner or snap hook on the end means tying one knot.
 
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