Scary crane operator

treesap said:
woah, lots of stuff I see wrong with this lol

not being tied in while switching from SRT to Ddrt, rushing, and using his ropewrench as an anchor (While side loading the biner connecting his wrench to the zigzag)

not the sharpest tool in the shed
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If you've not seen Travor's videos before, he does many things not taught as best practices. Ranging from not always tied in, climbing leads without a lanyard and without tending slack in his climb system until he gets where he wants to be and many more in his work videos. When he has time to play around he'll jump into big swings and do backflips out of the tree.

One thing I've seen from him online is that he won't apologize for how he climbs but doesn't suggest that new climbers do it either. It's just his style. If you want to see the safest way and the industry standard his videos may not be the best. If you want to see a climber who can smoothly move through a canopy and is extremely comfortable at height and getting into good work positioning, his videos are pretty good.
 
Jehinten said:
If you've not seen Travor's videos before, he does many things not taught as best practices. Ranging from not always tied in, climbing leads without a lanyard and without tending slack in his climb system until he gets where he wants to be and many more in his work videos. When he has time to play around he'll jump into big swings and do backflips out of the tree.

One thing I've seen from him online is that he won't apologize for how he climbs but doesn't suggest that new climbers do it either. It's just his style. If you want to see the safest way and the industry standard his videos may not be the best. If you want to see a climber who can smoothly move through a canopy and is extremely comfortable at height and getting into good work positioning, his videos are pretty good.
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Only a matter of time til the cowboy BS catches up to him
 
deevo said:
Yep he’s an idiot don’t do what he does
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I don’t know. If you watch his videos you’d see he’s usually always tied in twice when cutting, very rarely have I ever seen him untied at all (that video was a unique situation). He’s improved a lot since he first started, become much more safety focused, etc.

And let’s be honest here, how many guy’s put on a show for the camera and make themselves look like a model for what is industry standard but in actuality they’re doing things that may not be totally acceptable by what’s considered standard practice, etc. but they don’t want to trigger the social media safety police and arm chair arborists.

Now I’m not saying it’s right or that I agree with it, and there’s certainly things I wouldn’t do, but still.

It takes humility to show raw footage, and he even has a disclaimer that he does things his way and that he is not recommending people copy what he does etc.
 
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We’ve reached a disconnect in society when we broadcast something but try to say it’s not meant to influence others, or we think that it won’t if we tell people not to do what we do. Good ole social media.

Influence is natural. We cannot escape it. We cannot dismiss it. Why else did Ryan start this thread? Why else do any of us comment? Someone will be exposed to our expression and be influenced. Some accept this truth and try to do good. Some accept it and try to do harm. Others try to deny it and either withhold good or do harm, but try to absolve themselves with the argument of intent.
 
Since this has become a discussion on this particular video, I watched and have to share some armchair criticisms.

I would definitely have walked away after the groundie failed to grasp the basics of a portawrap. Zooming out, you need to be very intentional about who you choose to work with. I’ve taught homeowners and untrained workers how to use a portawrap successfully dozens of times. This groundie is just plainly too daft to trust your life to.

As he is untying the rig line from the chainsaw, in my head I’m thinking, hmm where’s the stopper knot? Don’t you want to put that on your harness? It comes loose, and surprise, he blames it on the other guy. A sign of poor character.

The most crucial thing which @treesap nailed on the head- he untied his climbing system without having a lanyard on. I expected, based on the comments, for his bailing out to be one where time was of the essence. This was not the case. He just opened up the rest of his day to go home and garden or whack off or whatever. He had all the time in the world. He has time to put on a fucking lanyard. No excuse for that one.
 
And sometimes your emotions especially when frustrated can interfere with your judgement and decision making process. This doesn’t just apply to tree work, but anything you do.

I once witnessed a guy throw a backpack blower out of a bucket from a roof because it wouldn’t start. Doesn’t mean he’s not a safe tree worker, it means his emotions got the better of him this one time.

And yes, all it takes is one time for something catastrophic to happen.

But...

Not saying it’s right by any means and certainly not safe and I’m not defending it, but that’s also a factor to consider.

I actually recently had a talk with my employee about this as part of our discussions on jobsite safety etc. I encourage him and I also try to be aware of it in myself that if emotions start coming into play for whatever reason, then sometimes taking a break to reset and get re-focused is in order.


@Stumpsprouts I was just curious, did you mean you have homeowners sometimes help you rig down pieces with the porta wrap if you’re by yourself, etc.?
 
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climbingmonkey24 said:
And sometimes your emotions especially when frustrated can interfere with your judgement and decision making process. This doesn’t just apply to tree work, but anything you do.

I once witnessed a guy throw a backpack blower out of a bucket from a roof because it wouldn’t start. Doesn’t mean he’s not a safe tree worker, it means his emotions got the better of him this one time.

And yes, all it takes is one time for something catastrophic to happen.

But...

Not saying it’s right by any means and certainly not safe and I’m not defending it, but that’s also a factor to consider.

I actually recently had a talk with my employee about this as part of our discussions on jobsite safety etc. I encourage him and I also try to be aware of it in myself that if emotions start coming into play for whatever reason, then sometimes taking a break to reset and get re-focused is in order.


@Stumpsprouts I was just curious, did you mean you have homeowners sometimes help you rig down pieces with the porta wrap if you’re by yourself, etc.?
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I haven’t in a long while. But I used to do this often for very simple work. There were many cases where I could tell they had a good head on their shoulders and could handle it. It helped me become a better and more patient teacher... you’d be surprised what the average person can do with a portawrap. A lot sharper than some of the drifter strung out types with anger management issues that end up working on trees.
 
Stumpsprouts said:
I haven’t in a long while. But I used to do this often for very simple work. There were many cases where I could tell they had a good head on their shoulders and could handle it. It helped me become a better and more patient teacher... you’d be surprised what the average person can do with a portawrap. A lot sharper than some of the drifter strung out types with anger management issues that end up working on trees.
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Coincidentally that’s sort of how I hired my ground worker. Was doing work mainly solo at the time and did a job for his neighbor, and then he ended up hiring me to do some work for him and he helped me rig down some pieces, I liked the way he worked and now he works for me.
 
Stumpsprouts said:
Since this has become a discussion on this particular video, I watched and have to share some armchair criticisms.

I would definitely have walked away after the groundie failed to grasp the basics of a portawrap. Zooming out, you need to be very intentional about who you choose to work with. I’ve taught homeowners and untrained workers how to use a portawrap successfully dozens of times. This groundie is just plainly too daft to trust your life to.

As he is untying the rig line from the chainsaw, in my head I’m thinking, hmm where’s the stopper knot? Don’t you want to put that on your harness? It comes loose, and surprise, he blames it on the other guy. A sign of poor character.

The most crucial thing which @treesap nailed on the head- he untied his climbing system without having a lanyard on. I expected, based on the comments, for his bailing out to be one where time was of the essence. This was not the case. He just opened up the rest of his day to go home and garden or whack off or whatever. He had all the time in the world. He has time to put on a fucking lanyard. No excuse for that one.
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If your gonna question a man's character you might want to have your facts straight...

A brain dead groundie can't tie a knot and Travor's saw takes a dive and bounces off the concrete...When he does get his saw he is focused on whether or not his saw is fucked up, and he lets his lowering line go through the block.. Travor then acknowledges that he was too focused on his saw, and that he inadvertently let the lowering line go...At no time did he blame the fools below for the lowering line coming out of the tree. He then asks the brain dead fools on the ground to tie the lowering line onto his climbing line so he can pull it up and reset it... When the fucking clown show on the ground couldn't tie a knot that would make it to Travor he decides he has had enough and calls it a day....Seems the ground crew got about as much respect from Trevor as they deserved. Very fucking little.
 
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rico said:
If your gonna question a man's character you might want to have your facts straight...

A brain dead groundie can't tie a knot and Travor's saw takes a dive and bounces off the concrete...When he does get his saw he is focused on whether or not his saw is fucked up, and he lets his lowering line go through the block.. Travor then acknowledges that he was too focused on his saw, and that he inadvertently let the lowering line go...At no time did he blame the fools below for the lowering line coming out of the tree. He then asks the brain dead fools on the ground to tie the lowering line onto his climbing line so he can pull it up and reset it... When the fucking clown show on the ground couldn't tie a knot that would make it to Travor he decides he has had enough and calls it a day....Seems the ground crew got about as much respect from Trevor as they deserved. Very fucking little
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Ok. It isn’t quite clear if he’s blaming them or not for that error, I admit. Curious, what do you think about the lack of attachment when switching to DRT?
 
Stumpsprouts said:
Curious, what do you think about the lack of attachment when switching to DRT?
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Obviously not by the book, but I personally don't have a big issue with his lack of attachment when crossing over. What does trip me out is how he pulled his canopy anchor and went DdRT by tying into the slic pin on his Wrench. He did it so quickly and confidently that I'm guessing he has done it before.
 
rico said:
Obviously not by the book, but I personally don't have a big issue with his lack of attachment when crossing over. What does trip me out is how he pulled his canopy anchor and went DdRT by tying into the slic pin on his Wrench. He did it so quickly and confidently that I'm guessing he has done it before.
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I actually just read the other day on IG that KB said (in a comment on someone else's post doing the exact same) that the RW has tested to be plenty strong enough end-to-end for life support and the only real issue with doing so is you'd need to use a double locking SLIC pin (which Travor wasn't) to be OSHA compliant.

I'm considering getting a double SLIC and doing so myself now. Seems to be a more convenient way to transition from SRT->MRT when on a wrench setup.
 
rico said:
If your gonna question a man's character you might want to have your facts straight...

A brain dead groundie can't tie a knot and Travor's saw takes a dive and bounces off the concrete...When he does get his saw he is focused on whether or not his saw is fucked up, and he lets his lowering line go through the block.. Travor then acknowledges that he was too focused on his saw, and that he inadvertently let the lowering line go...At no time did he blame the fools below for the lowering line coming out of the tree. He then asks the brain dead fools on the ground to tie the lowering line onto his climbing line so he can pull it up and reset it... When the fucking clown show on the ground couldn't tie a knot that would make it to Travor he decides he has had enough and calls it a day....Seems the ground crew got about as much respect from Trevor as they deserved. Very fucking little.
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The meth head circus carries on there in FL as usual :baaa:
 
Cereal_Killer said:
I actually just read the other day on IG that KB said (in a comment on someone else's post doing the exact same) that the RW has tested to be plenty strong enough end-to-end for life support and the only real issue with doing so is you'd need to use a double locking SLIC pin (which Travor wasn't) to be OSHA compliant.

I'm considering getting a double SLIC and doing so myself now. Seems to be a more convenient way to transition from SRT->MRT when on a wrench setup.
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Wow. The Wrench is now Ok for life support..What about the gear downstream such as your tether? Do I trust my ISC tether with my life? Not something I'm gonna be doing anytime too soon...As appealing as having a Wrench/tether dangling off the top of my MRS system sounds, I think I will continue to take the few seconds needed to pull my Wrench/tether and set up a proper MRS system..
 
deevo said:
The meth head circus carries on there in FL as usual :baaa:
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Is meth a legit issue in the tree industry in Florida?

Dealing with hung over co-workers is bad enough, and I can't imagine working with real live genuine tweakers. Hell no...
 
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