Crane questions

[dhuffnmu]

I see in some pictures and posts that the climber is tied in to the ball of the crane? How does he not get yanked out of the tree when the crane moves a cut piece??? Sorry if that is stupid I have nto done any crane removals and I just can't seem to get the though of how that works out of my head. Can someone better explain the process that they go through?? Like how the climber gets in the tree and is tied in and that sort of stuff.

 

[Pete_in_Tassie]

Just a few thoughts from me on the way I understand it.....

Crane work always has the potential for lots of different and dangerous things to go wrong.

using 1 hook for climber's high point (there's a thread somewhere recently about ways of doing this) while lifting with another is NEVER allowed.

using 1 hook for climber while attaching the load to another hook (then swapping back to tree for tie in point) may soon be allowed in California and one of the companies I use routinely here in Australia suggested just recently that it would be ok for us as they are routinely hired to provide high point support for roofing workers. I am looking forward to using this method to access very high weak / difficult limbs set at an angle for instance. Getting a good high tip point to lift from is often vital. From my experience many people, crane drivers included severely underestimate the strength of sound live green wood. They will often think a greater diameter of wood is required than is the case, which tempts us to load things too far down with potentially dangerous lively lift-offs the result.

It is essantial with crane work to set things to lift off without requiring anything but the very slightest ( ideally no) angle pull from the crane. Cranes are for lifting, booms are designed for this and can collapse with angle loading.

Pete

 

[Norm_Hall]

We use that system for putting the climber in the tree. It beats the heck out of climbing it. Most of our crane jobs are big trees.
If the climber can easily set the rigging, he does. If the climber gets to a point where the limb walk is too much (bad rope angle), we send someone up on the ball rig to set and hook the rigging and descend to the ground, remove the climbing rope and then the climber cuts it. We also use it on trees where we use a balancer. The climber on the ball rig sets the tip rigging and the climber in the tree sets the butt rigging. This system also works well on high risk trees. The climber is not at risk setting the rigging. We don't use on every cut, but it's very handy on some jobs. Other uses are if it out of reach of the bucket or the climber gets fatigued climbing, rigging and cutting all day. Setting the rigging for the climber can give him/her a rest.