My First Video

Can't you see that high voltage line clearance bucket operators have the need to cut with one hand and catch with the other to keep brush n stuff away from energized lines?

In every state across this nation right this very minute, there are line clearance crews cutting and catching limbs to meet their quotas.

Stupid rules like these seem to invariably originate from DC, from the desks of white collared bureaucrats that haven't got a clue about life in the real world of tree industry field operations.

Implementing and enforcing this nonsense in the real world of utility line clearance operations, would quite effectively cut your production rates in half, as well as raise your accident/injury numbers to much greater levels than before.

When your very life and well being gets threatened by an idiotic rule or company policy?

Ignoring it to stay alive is quite instinctive I assure you.

jomoco
 
Every company that has any compensation coverage works with two hands being their cover OUR azz policy. If the employee decides it's safer or faster not to work within company rules they hang themselves out there and do a huge favor for the company they were already bustin their azz for. Like I say, my kind of guy. Going out and buying your own camera to document your work is just another bonus. "You'll make foreman this season for sure".
 
Try putting yourself into the shoes of the guy on call that has to deal with trees already on power lines at 2 am in the morning for 5 years running!

When a big euc blows over and takes out power during a storm at night, bending both suspension poles over to the point they have to be supported by utility pole cranes on each end?

There are two choices when the span is inaccessible to a bucket or crane at the tree's point of contact with the lines. Cut the lines including phone and cable lines to solve the problem. Which the power coany has no problem with since their lines are already ruined and have to be replaced with newly strung lines.

It's the phone and cable companies whose lines are still intact and functioning who are begging the tree expert to prettylease get that tree off the span without cutting or disconnecting their lines.

I was the one who tied down the stretched lines, got tied into a nearby tall standing tree on the opposite side of the point of contact, slowly relieved pressure on the line by cutting the tops beyond the contact point down to a single good sized trunk, then using a one handed trip cut that freed the tree to fall, and going for a small bungee ride as the tied down lines under tension quickly rose taking me with them via my climbing line still draped across them.

Lots of utility supervisors and foremen were shaking my hand and thanking me that rainswept and stormy above the harsh glare of portable floodlights.

Phone and cable services were not interrupted, new power lines were strung, and power re- established in relatively short order.

These situations are quite common, and I take my hat off to the brave souls that do this dangerous and challenging work for years on end with such admirable professionalism on a regular basis.

5 years of it sure opened my eyes to the inherent dangers of utility clearance and emergency storm work.

jomoco
 
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I stood my ground on this one, actually liked the video, because Frax and Rangerdanger were saying the safety police were enough to send them to another forum. They're both passionate about the work and I'd hate to lose contact with anyone like that.

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Its not so much the safety police, yes, I understand why its good to point out inherent dangers and wrong doings in videos. But what happens here(and this thread shows it well) is all the bantering that goes on and on about it all. The majority of videos posted to treebuzz are by guys who generally know what their doing, have a good sense of situational awareness, wearing proper ppe 90 percent of the time, etc.(This excludes Daniel Murphy of course, but thats for another thread). But when one little error is spotted, one mistake, members here rip them a new one for it.

I understand just mentioning it and then life goes on. The poster is aware of his mistake and can either choose to learn from it or keep on doing what he does. End of story, right there. No more bantering is needed. But thats generally not how it works here, you guys just hammer and hammer and hammer away, saying how unprofessional it is, or how sloppy that looks or how it reflects badly on the industry. Major safety violations, ok, I get it. But small things, like one handing from a bucket for instance, there is no need to get worked up over that.

I'd be willing to bet, partly because I know MisterTree from another forum, that he's one of, if not the top tree care company in his area. He runs a professional, top notch crew, and has excellent situational and safety awareness.

I myself have stopped posting videos here because of the fact that safety nazis run rampant here, and want to get worked up over any tiny violation they find. Ground guy not wearing hearing protection while feeding the chipper? Lets nail this poster to the wall for it. Dude makes a few one handed cuts? Holy balls batman, 4 whole pages of an argument about one handing. Hey, that climber didn't lanyard in when using his hand saw, lets all gang him about it.

I've worked with many crews through my travels of the eastern half of the US so far, and by far, the most productive, funnest, safest crews I worked with were the ones who all had great common sense and knowledge about tree work and the tools we use, and great awareness. And guess what, most of them were pretty casual about safety standards, no harping on guys for violating something here or there. Everyone on the crews wore their PPE, knew how to handle a saw or piece of equipment, etc.
 
+ 10 Adrian.

This is why I haven't bought a video camera for tree work. Besides, who really has the time to film on the job and spend countless hours editing when you are a small company with a growing family.
 
All the people arguing that the one handing in their videos is the only way to 'be productive' should leave the video cameras at home, cause as we all know, videotaping doesnt make you more productive!


That being said we have had this argument a thousand times, lets let it go.

Adrian: MrTree or MisterSir?

Jomoco, I dont consider line clearance the same as residential tree work so your argument is moot. But I agree if you want to be 'productive' in line clearance you have to one hand, and at the end of the day the people holding your job in the balance look at how many blocks are done, not how you did it.
 
Think of all the crap we talk about on these forums. These disscussions are directly work related safety and if that makes some of you uncomfortable or bored I find that odd, I've kind of been enjoying it. Glad I was taught how to handle a saw finally. I like that engage the brake, use two hands stuff. You know it could be worse. We could be picking apart ergonomics like they do in repetitive activities and how their foot position could be improved. I'd love to here about that. One handing is so blatant and often looks so akward that it's got to be mentioned. Stop filming it. Then I can move on. Or whatever I can stop thinking I'm a professional tree video critic for ther next 50 one hander videos like I had for the last 50. Rrrroll 'em. There is some footage out there of me running a saw naked but I think I have it secured where that stuff should be. Same as what I'd do with any footage of me that was incriminating.
 
Yes, a huge number of you don't understand that under certain rigging situations, the ability to cut a 6 inch head off a lateral leader one handed with a chainsaw, while using the other hand holding your lifeline to maintain your upright orientation while the branch your lanyarded does its dynamic little dance, first upwards as the branch is relieved of all that weight so suddenly, then downwards as that same weight is either caught, or directed downward via speedline, in which case you get a bit of side to side wobble action.

Now I know a few will say use two hands on the saw to make that release cut, then chuck it away onto its lanyard at the critical moment? Which is cool if you only intend to push with both hands against the bouncing leader itself alone to maintain an upright orientation?

But I've learned the hard way that unless you keep hold of that only source of stability during the ride, your lifeline and its unmoving(much) TIP above?

The chances of you losing your upright stance on that bouncing leader become more probable than not. And trust me, it feels a bit embarrassing finding yourself hanging by your lanyard actually below the leaders rigging point.

Knowing exactly what's going to happen once you make that release cut, and being already braced and ready for the ride at the moment it starts, saw in one hand, climbing line in the other, and one knee between the rigging leader and myself to maintain outward pressure on my lanyard, so I move as one with the bouncing leader until it comes to rest, while all this time using my left hand to compensate for the slackening and tightening of my climbing line to maintain an upright and far more dignified orientation during the entire process.

jomoco
 
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Jomoco, I dont consider line clearance the same as residential tree work so your argument is moot. But I agree if you want to be 'productive' in line clearance you have to one hand, and at the end of the day the people holding your job in the balance look at how many blocks are done, not how you did it.

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Or how it looks....

I've worked with MrTree and can attest to his focus on safety AND productivity. There is a balance. His biggest beef was, as a small business, their is a negative impact on fair competition when there are those that are willing to flaunt the rules at the risk of their employees lives.

So, let's understand this. In the power distribution industry there is such downward pricing pressure that we need to compromise safe work practices in order to realize a profit. Where else in the electrical industry, especially in the distribution side, is the rule productivity before safety?
 
I can see how a newbie waving a saw over his head like a flag cutting sprouts and such makes us all cringe... or even experienced strong men cutting one handed from awkward and unstable positions etc.. There is a lot to go wrong when one handing from a rope... you can cut the rope, lose your balance and move into the spinning chain, have the piece push the saw back at you etc..

I honestly do not see how those are a factor in bucket work.. so what is there left... kickback, or maybe trying to handle too big a piece and getting pulled off balance or out of the bucket or something..

Obviously the rules were established from some analysis of accidents... I just wonder how many accidents are really caused by one handing from a bucket. Does anyone know exactly what was going wrong in one handing from a bucket? Given the added control of cutting and chucking branch tips, it seems like there are situations where one handing would actually be safer.. What's that you say???? Use a hand saw.. well of course in many situations its the way to go. But depending on the size and positioning of the work, its often just a LOT faster and easier to use the saw.

Just seems like there should be a lot more latitude when one handing from the bucket, especially for well trained experienced ops.. Perhaps we could develop a better set of rules. like don't one hand and _______________________ (fill in the blank) from the bucket.. I just don't get what's so dangerous about the majority of one handing from a bucket..
 
Fair enough. I've worked with a guy that was a bucket hero and could one hand all day long. Gotta keep it in perspective. How much time is saved, I suppose a fair amount when your job is to leave stumps so high they still look like trees as quick as possible and keep those zillions of miles of wire working. For residential work I guess we're lucky and rarely do more than five trees a day and the 1.7 minutes saved over a ten hour day doesn't justify the practice.

This thread, Nora, Adrian, Jomoco and even Tom are contributing to the peer pressure that keeps one handing alive. I was so frustrated when I was getting pressure to keep two hands on the saw after years of freestyling. I was trying to use my feet to catch pieces it didn't make sense. Now it's second nature and every time I one hand I think about it and try to avoid it. I don't think I made a one handed cut in the last couple years.

Never the less I really don't care how you work if you know what you're doing. I'm saying stop promoting the practice with videos. People are tired of this debate with no winner ever being declared. I never told the old bucketeer that his cuts were dangerous because they weren't but they could have just as easily been done with two hands and 2 seconds more per cut. I have a couple seconds to spare for comfort and safety.
 
Agreed Boreality,

I dont care that people do it, or even videotape it, hell I do. I just dont like the argument that there is no better way especially in the presence of people that are still learning our trade.

It can be done with two hands, and productively, when we dont its a choice not a necessity.
 
Without greed we wouldnt have guilt.

Without guilt there would be no libraries, interstate highways, or charities of any type...
 
I vote all new videos from this time forward that display even the smallest safety infraction be labeled as NWS (Not work safe
grin.gif
) so those that don't want to see a violation can keep their blood pressure in check
boohoo.gif
 
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I vote all new videos from this time forward that display even the smallest safety infraction be labeled as NWS (Not work safe
grin.gif
) so those that don't want to see a violation can keep their blood pressure in check
boohoo.gif


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Good idea Willie!
 
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