Bad Mistake Using GRCS

S

sal88

Location
New York, yonkers
used GRCS for first time the other day was very impressed with the whole setup. it was rigged to tree nearby one that was being removed(about 5 feet away). was only place could have been rigged beside tree that was being cut. after doing most of tree got to the big stuff and almost got squished by a 7 foot piece that was at least 22 inches thick. had four wraps on it. when i took out of pigtail and popped rope out of black rope feed all the raps flew off in about 1 second. think my mistake was took rope out away from Good Rigger and did to fast also should have had more raps.. piece landed about 4 feet from me and tipped over away from me. have learned from my mistake and will take much care whenever rope comes out of pigtail
 
did not watch video setup was explaned to me by the boss who watched video. the boss took time to explain everything with much detail. but it was a trial by fire. but if you gonna spend the cash its a great piece of gear. will make up the cost with a couple of jobs then its working for you making money.
 
Are you saying when you took the rope out of the pigtail the problem happened?
Unless you say otherwise it sounds like just after you removed the rope from the pig tail, you then 'pulled' the tail of the rope directly at right angles or 90 degrees from the direction of the wraps.
True?

Very glad you missed getting hurt. and thank you very much for the TreeBuzz report. We all need to hear these things because it helps us to be safer in our jobs.

By the way Greg Good has just completed the new revised and updated 'Demo' video. It is worth it to contact him and get it sent it to you
frans
 
Haven't used the GRCS or seen the operating instructions but I have experience with self-tailing winches. When you're using the tailing feature you need to exercise some real respect...it's like a loaded gun with the safety off. You better have sufficient wraps and tension on the line when you remove it from the tailing mechanism. It typically doesn't take much force for the line to be extracted. Many sailors have died going up the mast because the person doing the winching "lost the tail" and they didn't have a back-up.

I'd like to see the instructions for the GRCS if they're available online.
 
Sal,

I may be wrong, but it sounds like something that I've seen before. You need to be very careful when taking wraps off to start lowering. I always tell my crews to unwrap then slowly and from about 1' away from the unit. This way you walk your hands around the drum and don't pull them off from the end. If you pull from the tip of the winch, it may start to slip a bit, which will make you pull tighter to stop the piece from moving- which will cause th wraps to pop off of the end in about 1 second! Scary. Walk the wraps around the middle of the winch!
 
Serf Life said:
Just ordered one from Bartlett and reading up, this dude got so lucky! Other folks have close calls etc?
Click to expand...
I was trying to lift some sections of a maple canopy away from 3-phase and we used the GRCS- had a few good ones and then heard a crack. I got down to the ground and we figured we should try to lift it a little bit more… the stem which was a rigging point and also my climbing tie in point partially failed. (I also had set it up the rigging as a double whip into another lead, which was really fortunate because otherwise I believe it would have been much worse).

We had a crane in place within an hour or two, which was how we should have done it in the first place.

Lesson- it is capable of a great deal of M.A.!
 
yeah, its a thing for sure! not so much under light to moderate stuff, but for switching from winching to lowering big stuff its a real danger. Pro tip is to take as few wraps as needed to winch, and have someone tail the line like a hobbs. But for big lowering use the bollard.... This goes to the heart of the GRCS vs Hobbs debate.
Saying all that, once the risks are understood its a careless mistake but a easy compliancy risk (or untrained).
Always keep the tail inward of the winch when taking wraps off, and always avoid a rigging situation when this is needed + the device under the load.
Never stand under the load.
Never stand in the path of the load.
Never stand in the bight.
Always exercise extreme caution when taking wraps off, this includes loosing fingers.
rigging 101
Serf Life said:
Just ordered one from Bartlett and reading up, this dude got so lucky! Other folks have close calls etc?
Click to expand...
 
It happened to me once too...

I will never set up a GRCS under the rigging point for this exact reason... it doesn't take much of a piece falling 50' to kill you, hard hat or not... that mistake is too easy to make. I wouldnt trust someone's life to proper training with the GRCS...

Mine stays in the garage for years at a time. I should probaby sell it. Very little use over the years... If lift is needed it's easy enough to put a proty on the bucket of the skid loader. But needing the lift is rare... usually just a good pretension is all that is needed...
 
RyanCafferky said:
I’ve seen someone lose all of the wraps in a second and drop a piece and almost hit two people. Learning to take off the wraps slowly and keeping the rope parallel to the wraps while taking them off is key. It is something that needs to be done carefully and not in haste.
Click to expand...
eventually someone is going to get killed from this inherent problem with the GRCS... IMO it should not ever be set up under the rigging point. Even using the other side of the tree is a better option, but best to put it on another tree, or use a satellite rigging point away from the trunk.
 
Daniel said:
It happened to me once too...

I will never set up a GRCS under the rigging point for this exact reason... it doesn't take much of a piece falling 50' to kill you, hard hat or not... that mistake is too easy to make. I wouldnt trust someone's life to proper training with the GRCS...

Mine stays in the garage for years at a time. I should probaby sell it. Very little use over the years... If lift is needed it's easy enough to put a proty on the bucket of the skid loader. But needing the lift is rare... usually just a good pretension is all that is needed...
Click to expand...
If you wanna sell it, I would be interested...
 
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