Ropetek Wraptor redesign

Ask @Roger_Barnett.

He's done many big ones over the years.



1000' on a big one (i.e. 4-5' diameter by 100' tall)???

Speedlining firs is common for me. I have to go up and down to set a bunch of slings at a time, then descend, and cut, rinse and repeat.



Hard to get away from the exhaust as much as I'd like.
My neighbor has been coughing a bunch lately...his COPD is becoming worse. Career Logger.
 
southsoundtree said:
Ask @Roger_Barnett.

He's done many big ones over the years.



1000' on a big one (i.e. 4-5' diameter by 100' tall)???

Speedlining firs is common for me. I have to go up and down to set a bunch of slings at a time, then descend, and cut, rinse and repeat.



Hard to get away from the exhaust as much as I'd like.
My neighbor has been coughing a bunch lately...his COPD is becoming worse. Career Logger.
Click to expand...
That I have, Sean!! I've bid on three good sized poplars, 6', 4' and 4' at ground level. But, as they were topped years ago, and have had a failure, we'll not be rigging the upper canopy manually. The wood needs to be craned anyhow, so it will be safer to crane rather than rig the tops.

They're street trees, so a traffic control plan is needed ( quiet side street so easy) plus wood removal, stump grind and chip removal, plus soil brought it..all SDOT requirements. Bid is over $26k...
 
I built two of Santiago's devices and they work flawlessly. I use them with an ordinary heavy-duty 1/2 inch DeWalt cordless 20v drill ($199.) and can climb repeatedly all afternoon on a couple of 4ah or 5ah batteries. The batteries are available at any big hardware store or home improvement place. The drill has three speeds, so you have three climbing speeds. The device works, without any slipping, on every single rope I have ever tried it on from 9mm up to my 11.7mm Poison Ivy. The device is very compact, is quickly mid-line attachable, and is instantly push-button reverseable at the drill handle. I don't use it for descent however; no point in running down a battery for something I can do quicker by just pulling the device off the rope in a second or two, then coming down normally on my usual multiscender which rides above the device as a safety while ascending. I take the device off the rope and hang it on a handy limb or stub when I get at height and want to move around or limb walk. I have also used it a couple times for a power traverse and to hoist up stuff to build a friend's tree house. Two cool additional things about it are that the same batteries fit all my other DeWalt collection including their nifty 20v chainsaw which is a great partner to the power ascender. The little saw is auto-oiling and requires no tools for adjusting chain tension. Secondly, I can instantly remove the 1/2 inch drill from the device and use the drill for all the other things I first bought the drill for. There is a thread on here about building them, Reliable DIY Power Ascender, from about a year ago. Also, I put up some youTubes of using mine, and the one called Part Three (link below) shows the latest mods to it that allow one-hand operation. In the video I use it while fending off small limbs in a cluttered conifer and just practice taking it on and off the rope a few times. My BDB is on a lenghtened tether above the device on the same rope, in this case Tachyon Ash, and the power ascender is never at any point life support.

 
Oh, meant to add that the original device we use, that Santiago discovered on eBay, is a Sala-Rollgliss r500 emergency descender made for getting down in a hurry off cranes, tall buildings, drilling rigs, etc. Original cost is pretty steep, several grand or more, but they turn up on eBay all the time at a fraction of that and many of them have never been used. The mods are pretty straightforward and within the scope of anyone with a vise, hacksaw, files, drill, etc. A drill press and milling machine are nice but not really necessary. Also, there are a number of possible configurations to the mods, depending on things like whether you want to use it as-is on a dedicated rope of its own, etc. I built mine to use any rope I run across and be mid-line attachable. I don't know how much of this would be useful to the idea of modifying the Wraptor design but hope it helps!
 
Burrapeg said:
Oh, meant to add that the original device we use, that Santiago discovered on eBay, is a Sala-Rollgliss r500 emergency descender made for getting down in a hurry off cranes, tall buildings, drilling rigs, etc. Original cost is pretty steep, several grand or more, but they turn up on eBay all the time at a fraction of that and many of them have never been used. The mods are pretty straightforward and within the scope of anyone with a vise, hacksaw, files, drill, etc. A drill press and milling machine are nice but not really necessary. Also, there are a number of possible configurations to the mods, depending on things like whether you want to use it as-is on a dedicated rope of its own, etc. I built mine to use any rope I run across and be mid-line attachable. I don't know how much of this would be useful to the idea of modifying the Wraptor design but hope it helps!
Click to expand...

@pctree this is the current leading edge, but I have not seen @Burrapeg or @Santiago Casanova express interest in taking it out of design and into production. Maybe that's your place in all of this, or the three of you work together, etc.

The Ronin is not midline attacheable, so you still have a clear opening...

The gas wraptor is a great tool by all accounts, but its next evolution is clearly lithium-based, unless it is for use in circumstances where charging is not an option (hurricane, remote locale, too much shade for solar, etc.). There is nothing preventing you from being a major part in that evolution and I would like to see that. Prolly need to buy one within the next two decades... ;)
 
theatertech87 said:
I keep separate cans on the truck (got a generator with lights for emergency work). Both labeled, in separate locations with the straight gas hidden under a some other stuff. Any time my non regular guy fools anything I make sure to specifically tell them which can, then ask which one they used when they send me the saw. Have yet to have someone goof in 6 years
Click to expand...
I came to the conclusion that screw ups are less likely if you go to a clear plastic can. That way you can be sure you have (1) the right can in the first place with the mix and hi test gas in it, and (2) you can see if it's dark looking in case someone forgot to throw the oil in when they filled it. Frankly I think all 50:1 mix burning engines should carry their gas this way, and there are some cans in Europe exactly like this. I got some 1 gal kerosene clear jugs at Home Depot and I hide them.
 
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Burrapeg said:
I can't speak for Santiago or the other guys who may have made one, but I am content to just share the details of our mods for whoever is interested. I am mostly retired now and the liability issues involved in selling something like this commercially are a bit daunting even if I was not retired.
Click to expand...

I have no intention of going into the climbing gear business but I would love to be a part of research and development.
 
I had a five gallon yellow diesel jug and a five gallon red straight gas jug. Mix gas was always in two gallon red jug.

My chipper started running bad so it went into the shop. They found gas in the tank. When I checked jugs sure enough...red empty...yellow full!!! Three guys on the crew and no one fessed up. Two were eliminated by Jim Rockford. No damage to the chipper engine..whew! No one said they were color blind either.

After that fiasco I made large hang tags for the five gallon jugs.
 
theatertech87 said:
I keep separate cans on the truck (got a generator with lights for emergency work). Both labeled, in separate locations with the straight gas hidden under a some other stuff. Any time my non regular guy fools anything I make sure to specifically tell them which can, then ask which one they used when they send me the saw. Have yet to have someone goof in 6 years
Click to expand...
Meanwhile, I have seen two saws get the gas and oil filled backwards.
 
Burrapeg said:
I built two of Santiago's devices and they work flawlessly. I use them with an ordinary heavy-duty 1/2 inch DeWalt cordless 20v drill ($199.) and can climb repeatedly all afternoon on a couple of 4ah or 5ah batteries. The batteries are available at any big hardware store or home improvement place. The drill has three speeds, so you have three climbing speeds. The device works, without any slipping, on every single rope I have ever tried it on from 9mm up to my 11.7mm Poison Ivy. The device is very compact, is quickly mid-line attachable, and is instantly push-button reverseable at the drill handle. I don't use it for descent however; no point in running down a battery for something I can do quicker by just pulling the device off the rope in a second or two, then coming down normally on my usual multiscender which rides above the device as a safety while ascending. I take the device off the rope and hang it on a handy limb or stub when I get at height and want to move around or limb walk. I have also used it a couple times for a power traverse and to hoist up stuff to build a friend's tree house. Two cool additional things about it are that the same batteries fit all my other DeWalt collection including their nifty 20v chainsaw which is a great partner to the power ascender. The little saw is auto-oiling and requires no tools for adjusting chain tension. Secondly, I can instantly remove the 1/2 inch drill from the device and use the drill for all the other things I first bought the drill for. There is a thread on here about building them, Reliable DIY Power Ascender, from about a year ago. Also, I put up some youTubes of using mine, and the one called Part Three (link below) shows the latest mods to it that allow one-hand operation. In the video I use it while fending off small limbs in a cluttered conifer and just practice taking it on and off the rope a few times. My BDB is on a lenghtened tether above the device on the same rope, in this case Tachyon Ash, and the power ascender is never at any point life support.

Click to expand...

That is a thoroughly impressive video. I actually watched it months ago on YouTube before I "knew" who you were. Nice mods, but I'm mostly blown away by how easy the device is on batteries. I recently bought a 12Ah Milwaukee battery for a new weed wacker. Cost as much as the damn machine. (It's amazing.) But I NEVER would have thought you could get such performance, efficiency and longevity out of a 4 or 5Ah battery. Very cool. I should have bought one a while back when the ebay guy was blowing them out.

Also very cool that the drill is potentially usable for other tasks like cable installation once aloft. Got me thinking...... Thank you.
 
Bucknut said:
. . . I should have bought one a while back when the ebay guy was blowing them out. . .
Click to expand...
Thanks for the kind words, Bucknut. Yes, that was as cheap as I have ever seen the RollGliss r500 device priced. But they do turn up all the time on eBay for three or four hundred dollars, which is a LOT less than over three grand now for a Wraptor and roughly a third of what the Ronin cost. And the Ronin is not even mid-line attachable.
 
I don't mind the derail and fwiw I may have a rolglis around somewhere if anyone is interested. I purchased it just to check it out.
 
pctree said:
I don't mind the derail and fwiw I may have a rolglis around somewhere if anyone is interested. I purchased it just to check it out.
Click to expand...

How different would it be for you to fabricate a rolglis-style device? Does it transfer your skillset over from the wraptor?
 
I have never flown a raptor and have only seen them in real life a few times.
Pleas take this constructively as I think the devise is well thought out.
The three major things which would make this have greater appeal is

Battery vrs gas m18 if given a choice on battery type.

Smaller package, seems pretty bulky

Price, and I completely understand how insane it is to make any money.
 
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