Day in the life. Madrone - Crane - Removal

If the rope attached to the porty was attatched to the but of the pick then it would be loaded if the pick was too heavy. If this was the situation it would take weight off the crane and help...if the issue was with the overload being a verticle load issue. If the issue was because of a top heavy pic or a side load it might not.
 
Thanks for the replies. Here's a picture of the scene I am describing. We wanted to put the porty on a far tree to control the drift, but had to handline the tag.
I am using the Redwood (Coastal) for board and bat siding on a cabin, so we needed longer pieces to mill (14+') and heavier weights.

So, what I am getting is that this is very a subjective call by the crane operator on the use of the porty to control drift, no rules or regs in regards to this. Is that right?
Redwood Crane.webp
 
Necessity and choice are two different things. We used to use a 50t that would deflect by up to 3 meters. Limbs were easy enough, but plucking the big logs at the end of a job needed more care. When there's nobody available to hold a tag line then its a good option, if there's any doubt. That s the first time I've done it on a job.
 
Iv used the porty a bunch of times. Usually for the last picks near a house or whatever. Maybe not always necessary, but would hate to bust something up at the end of the day. I remember the last pick out of an elm at the governors mansion here in Denver. It was a couple feet away from a huge Tiffany glass window. Would have used 7 or 8 portys if I had them.:D
 
That deflection--elasticity in the steel of the crane--upon release of the last piece (the butt log) had 3 guys hauling on the tagline for all they were worth to prevent the piece from drifting into the deck on the bounce. Luckily no damage, but I sure would have preferred to have it on the porty and I will try to reason with the crane operator a little more about it if we do it again. In most of these lower butt log arrangements, it is not going to cause the piece to pull over the crane, although I could see how problems might arise where the load of the piece is reaching the load limit of the chart on the crane. I hope this bit of discussion helped illuminate an area of work not often considered.
 
We've used a porty several times to control the swing, and the crane ops have always been cool with it. They don't want to bingo the house/shed/window any more than we do. Never took much explaining to get them on board either "We'll take some wraps to stop the swing, cut it, pay out the rope until she's completely hanging from you, take the rope off the porty and you fly it away." "Sounds good!"
 
I can't quite understand the reason any operator would be too worried about a drift line? The piece is on the ground to start. If they start hoisting and the weight starts to climb for any reason (rope is tight) they can stop and drop it back down a few clicks.
There's plenty of times when we do something that has us on edge, but this isn't one of those in my eyes.
 
I didn't tell you the other side of it which is that the crane operator--a bald snake of a man in the cab with a pair of wrap around Oakley's--had pulled me aside at the end of the job and hissed at me from the cab that he'd have accepted the use of an RC-1000 but not a port-a-wrap as such. Go figure!

Thanks for the helpful clarifications on this.
 
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MARK_CHISHOLM said:
I can't quite understand the reason any operator would be too worried about a drift line? The piece is on the ground to start. If they start hoisting and the weight starts to climb for any reason (rope is tight) they can stop and drop it back down a few clicks.
There's plenty of times when we do something that has us on edge, but this isn't one of those in my eyes.
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Mark its probably just unfamiliarity.... Doesn't always have to be logical, but feels wrong. I see climbers ascending with the use of some kind of sling around their neck to adjust/tend their cam. Have yet to hear of a person getting hurt doing this, but to me it just feels wrong, putting hardware around your neck that is.
 
ward said:
Thanks for the replies. Here's a picture of the scene I am describing. We wanted to put the porty on a far tree to control the drift, but had to handline the tag.
I am using the Redwood (Coastal) for board and bat siding on a cabin, so we needed longer pieces to mill (14+') and heavier weights.

So, what I am getting is that this is very a subjective call by the crane operator on the use of the porty to control drift, no rules or regs in regards to this. Is that right?
View attachment 28464
Click to expand...

Looks like that tag line will easily slide off the piece once airborn and it inevitably gets a little slack.
 
True, Vet. Here we are just holding the line out as a small face is being cut. We snugged it up at the end for the release, and it worked. I guess we could've used a clove hitch which might have been better--what do you use for a tagline knot on pieces?
 
I found that very cool Reg. Usually my adult-onset ADHD prevents me from watching tree vids that long, but I found that entertaining the whole way through. Having worked in NZ myself and having hung out with Dan a few times I found what you had to say there pretty funny and spot on. They do have a lot to smile about.
 
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