Overhead working line

[frans]

I'm not too thrilled 'bout the idea of a hot air balloon. Here in the Sonoma Valley they got these rides you can go on.
Every morning you see these great colorfull balloons cruising around.
On one job site I was watch one trying to land,the wind picked up, the basket bumped along the ground and got cought up in a barbed wire fence. some of the people were hurt but the 'capitan' had jumped out at the first bump! I gave the guy a hard time afterwards for leaving the ship before the passengers.
Long story short these balloons have a hard time holding still and react to each and every wind/breeze gust. You would have a hard time trying to rig something out with one
Frans

 

[davespencer]

I have used this type of system for both work and play.
As long as you use some decent wood to tie into the system finds a nice ballance. The tighter the line, the more deflection in the trees, but the more deflection that occurs, the less tension in the rope. I would certainly not pre tension the line and in fact leave as much slack as I can afford.

If deflection is a problem you could guy the trees back on an angle instead of straight down the trunk.

Dave

 

[Mark Chisholm]

This is an invaluable idea. I would like to see it being circulated a lot more. There are times when this would be the safest idea out there for a given scenario.

Here's a shot of me doing this a lil over 15 years ago.

 

[Mark Chisholm]

The Beech was uprooted and lodged in an Oak that had it's top knocked off. Even though I was on 30'-35' up, I didn't feel good about tying into either.


Like Tom said, I would do things a lil differently now, but the concept has merit.

 

[treemann]

nice pictures Mark that looks very similar to what I did

 

[Mark Chisholm]

If I remeber accurately, I used an in-line bowline (maybe alpine bfly) and clipped a pulley in. Then adjusted right to left and tied it off. Nothing too fancy but it was a long time ago ;o)

 

[klimbinfool]

The way I have set up a high line is with a side by side pulley or (inline )whatever you want to call it.these have a hole for a biner on top, which I run a short prussik to the high line. A throwline with a micro to fare lead the prussik when needed.The prussik never tightens up to much. I've also use a micro ascender for holding my position off the Side by side with a micro to fare lead. It It unloads much easier.

Greg

 

[tophopper]

Heres a job I sold this morning...

A severly rotten and hollowed Basswood with good lean towards the house.

Pictured here, it is the tree in the middle with large Red Oak to the left and a smaller boxelder behind it. My plan is to set a line in the Oak to rig the Basswood down from. I may be able to Rig it all from the ground, but I may end up having to ascend the Basswood to secure rigging and maybe make one cut.

 

[tophopper]

Heres a view from the back side...
you can see it is not safe to climb, my plan is to rig an overhead line from the oak over to the boxelder, but because of the size difference it will have quite the pitch (like a zip line). I will zip out from the oak and descend down onto the basswood once over top of it. Then rig out the top in one cut, resecure the lowering line and descend down to the ground to cut the butt log.... hopefully /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Kevin]

A couple of cinch straps on that would be a huge benefit if you wanted to climb it.

 

[tophopper]

Its pretty bad, I usually have 4" ratcheting straps available. This particular tree I fear I would crush because it so hollow. I hope to not have to climb at all, but if I do I will keep my weight off it, cause its just a toothpick away from falling now.
When the tree is rigged up, i will probably run a series of marls along the stem to evenly distribute the load, otherwise secured in only one place and I'll pull it apart.

Should be an interesting one. Ill post pics when I get it done. Maybe this week.

 

[Kevin]

You can't beat guying also, once the tree is strapped you can guy it at several locations if need be.