Continuing Adventures

[rockettree]

Got some good use out of the rig n wrench on this tree. I kind of pussy footed it with some light loads at first but once we dialed in the load size it worked great in the larger branches.

Had a little accident at around three minutes. I made a plan with the rope man to stop the log above the hand rail but that didn't happen. We talked through how I wanted the piece to be handled, he looked it over, expressed understanding and agreement then walked over and put 1 wrap on the porti, should've been closer to 3 wraps I think. I didn't ask specifically how many wraps, we've worked together a fair bit and I've gotten a bit complacent in that regard. I'm not trying to shirk responsibility, I should have it all under my control.

Do you all communicate that specifically with every piece? I do it with people I'm unfamiliar with, definitely with inexperienced people. Once I get comfortable I tend to work more generally with feedback like "this piece is about %30 larger than the last" for example.

Anyway the result was the piece cratered into the ground and then kind of leaned on the hand rail. The top of the rail got dented and split down the middle. It could've been much worse, we got super lucky.

I've had this funky little piece of high density plastic, called the DK slider, knocking around in my jeep for awhile. It came in really handy on this job, the rounds were super easy to heave off of the stick with almost no friction between the pieces.

 

[Steve Connally]

I almost always throw some fingers to the newish rope man. For example 1 2 3 wraps or like a time out with my hands. Until I get really comfortable with them I feel like I need to take a look every time a change in weight comes. You did change to a block with the porty wraps rite?

 

[rockettree]

Yes sir I did change the rigging for the big stuff.

That sounds a lot like the way I work. I've successfully lowered many many pieces of wood with this guy. I'll be trying to be more involved in the entire rigging setup going forward.

 

[John Uselding]

There's a wonderful non verbal communication with my best rope man, which is awesome... like turning a double play. Then there's everyone else, with whom I discuss the details of each piece .

The vid demonstrates some really solid rigging skills! Sometimes shit happens anyway. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks!

 

[rockettree]

There's a wonderful non verbal communication with my best rope man, which is awesome... like turning a double play. Then there's everyone else, with whom I discuss the details of each piece .

The vid demonstrates some really solid rigging skills! Sometimes shit happens anyway. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks!

Thanks for the positive feedback. That was my first big tree in deck situation, I really wanted to ace it so that little blemish really sticks out.

 

[BenDraper]

Only when doing crazy stuff will the communication happen. Usually its just fluid. But thats years of work together. Nice vid man.

 

[CanadianStan]

With a combination of hand signals, we get by pretty well. Depending on Port-A-Wrap or GRCS it's a slightly different vocabulary.

Number of fingers represents wraps (1-5), and then "running" motion with index/middle versus flat hand "stop" indicates "let it run" or catch it static.

On GRCS, number of fingers plus index tracing finger indicates wraps, then index up or down indicates Lo/High gear pre-tension. Fist (rock) indicates hand tight, just pulling on rope.


If you can't tell, I haven't convinced my bosses to get a comm system yet. That being said, the above system works 100% of the time for us. If there's ever any change of plans, or more complicated details, we'll let each other know via yelling.