Sundays Solo river birch removal - SRT

[SingleJack]

 

[Steve Connally]

Feeling a little slow motion today. Tell me again how you set up the MT for retrieval?

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

If you watch the video at the begining of the thread the whole set up is between 3:20 and just before 5:00. I have been playing with another set up, with a revolver and a figure 8. It worked out, but as with anything new I wasnt 100% comfortable with it so I backed it up twice. It was really great when it came to moving the TIP to another location for chunking down multipal spars. I will try to get a picture of it in the next couple days. I want to play around with a pinto as well. But that will have to wait until the tooth ferry brings me some cash.

SingleJack, I like the way that set up looks. If I were to climb on it I would want to wrench the link closed each time but its and interesting take. Simple and cheap. What more could an arborist want?

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

[ QUOTE ]
I want to play around with a pinto as well. But that will have to wait until the tooth ferry brings me some cash.

[/ QUOTE ]

I played around with a fixie pulley today and it worked out well. When setting it up I thought it was going to side load the pulley, but it didnt seem to. I think Im seeing a Pinto in my future to replace the fixie.

Any Thoughts?

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

And the pulley tightened up against the stem.

 

[opposablethumb]

That's a cool idea. I wonder if the reduced friction of the pulley might solve the question I've been thinking about below...

As I've been pondering your setup, I've been thinking that the main drawback is that, in order to pull your line out from the ground, you showed me how you have to drag the "non-working end" of your line (Not sure what the proper term would be in this setting - running end?) around with you so that it follows the same path through the tree as the working end.

This seems to me to take a small bite out of one of the advantages of SRT over DdRT, just because you now have more line to fuss with.

Maybe it's just that this setup works best on certain crown shapes, i.e. excurrents like Metasequoia or your river birch in the video.

Or just maybe, I'm a knucklehead and am missing a simple solution...

Thanks for sharing ideas...keep 'em coming...

EDIT: Also, if you went for the PINTO in this setup, I wonder if the spacer that is made for it might add a little extra beef against possible side loading??

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

[ QUOTE ]
That's a cool idea. I wonder if the reduced friction of the pulley might solve the question I've been thinking about below...

As I've been pondering your setup, I've been thinking that the main drawback is that, in order to pull your line out from the ground, you showed me how you have to drag the "non-working end" of your line (Not sure what the proper term would be in this setting - running end?) around with you so that it follows the same path through the tree as the working end.

This seems to me to take a small bite out of one of the advantages of SRT over DdRT, just because you now have more line to fuss with.

Maybe it's just that this setup works best on certain crown shapes, i.e. excurrents like Metasequoia or your river birch in the video.

[/ QUOTE ]


I didnt try it today to see if it solved some of that friction but I would think it would help with some of it. What I normally do when working a prune (such as a maple or oak) is set it up and work away from the pull down side to about 180 deg from it cross over and work the rest of the tree back to it and down. Also using a base tie in certian situations helps with all that. Its just another wrench in the tool box that allows us to do our job easier.


[ QUOTE ]
EDIT: Also, if you went for the PINTO in this setup, I wonder if the spacer that is made for it might add a little extra beef against possible side loading??

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats a good point.

 

[Ethan_Wall]

Hello,

flying squirrel, when you tied into the tree using your MT, why did you put the rope around the smaller diameter branch? Wouldn't it have been better to tie into the larger crotch right above that? The MT idea was also an eye opener. Do you think you could make a video explaining how you did this in more detail? I didn't know there were any other options for working from a single line besides trunk tying at the base of the tree or chocking off a limb or crotch using a running bowline. Very interesting.

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

[ QUOTE ]

when you tied into the tree using your MT, why did you put the rope around the smaller diameter branch?

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks. I will work on that video. I have gotten a bit away from the MT now, as seen in the picture later in the thread. In regard to my TIP, I figured that most of my weight would be on main stem being cinched off to it. Even if the smaller branch had broken I still would be secured. Also I bet that I had seen something in that crotch (i.e. inclusion or retrieval issue) that I didn't like so erred on the side of larger stem.

There are many different variations climbing SRT, the methods I have pictured/shown here happen to be working for me when I cannot hit my final TIP from the ground. Thats the fun of playing with SRT right now, is most of its all new, and you can let your imagination and your toys rule. As always set up and check all systems in a non life threatening situation first. There is not one system that is going to work for every climber in every situation, you could call it Arboricultural licence.