Smart Winch in Japan

[SoftBankHawks]

Hello -
Our local arb retailor bought in a SmartWinch and we made a short video for their customers - video shows an Oak removal next to railway and high voltage lines - nothing demanding here but the video came out pretty sweet....check out the hang drum (sp.) such a beautiful sound.

Thanks.

 

[monkeylove]

Wow that was like a "Who's who" of all the latest equipment. Rope wrenches, Spurs wth ascenders....the list goes on. Nice vid.

 

[matdand]

What makes it better/different than a GRCS?

 

[Adkpk]

Nice vid, Banks. Good looking tool. Good looking rigging. Thanks.

 

[AmericanArborist]

i liked that they can fasten the device to the tree with the winch crank. Much better than the steel bar you need to tighten the GRCS.

 

[SoftBankHawks]

Feeding all the strap through is a little bit tiresome but having no additional strap wrapped on the fulcrum gives a huge MA for tightening. I think we had to do 1 more 'click' and the SW was good to use, the catch is spring loaded too. The outer bollard gets a lot of use, surprising how little you need the winch and it keeps shock loading away from the expensive harken winch. Its compact in comparison to the GRCS, and this means a lot out here as we often have a fair trek to site and up steep inclines. My aluminium GRCS bollard will be saved for big jobs but the stainless steel SW bollard can tackle most everyday rigging without too much heat build up, the radius on the thing is huge, much like the Treeworker 'friction tube'.
Maybe you can get fancy with 2 ropes but I haven't used it enough yet.
The backplate doesn't articulate, sometimes the articulation on the GRCS works for and some times against in getting a solid grasp on the trunk. We tried the SW on thinner trees and couldn't get it too move, I'll post a photo of the backside at some point.

 

[matdand]

i liked that they can fasten the device to the tree with the winch crank. Much better than the steel bar you need to tighten the GRCS.

The outer bollard gets a lot of use, surprising how little you don't need the winch and it keeps shock loading away from the expensive harken winch.

Huh, very nice! Those do seem like nice improvements. Pretty slick!

 

[SoftBankHawks]

I meant 'surprising how little you need the winch' .

 

[Worthaug]

The T540 is a little ripper, isn't it? Where's the SM available from?

 

[SoftBankHawks]

SM? The Smart Winch came from freeworker in Germany. http://shop.freeworker.com/smartwinch.html
yes, the new Husky top handle is a ripper all right.

 

[Worthaug]

W is an upside down M (but I meant SW
)