The 550xp is a Weapon

[MikePowers321]

Brady is the man

 

[Stihlmadd]

his sure feels like a flogging

old advice from the years gone by : one tie in is nothing, two tie in's is one, three ties in's is two.
I have hammered straight through one of those fliplines with a medium saw like it wasn't even there and if not for my second tie in I do not know if I would be here to tell the tale -

Just concerned about your safety is all - no judgement I won't even begin to list the number of 'naughty' things I have done over the years but just because it worked last time is no guarantee of it ever working again.
you came here for the right reasons and I am impressed with that.
Ben.

 

[Brady Chapman]

old advice from the years gone by : one tie in is nothing, two tie in's is one, three ties in's is two.
I have hammered straight through one of those fliplines with a medium saw like it wasn't even there and if not for my second tie in I do not know if I would be here to tell the tale -

Just concerned about your safety is all - no judgement I won't even begin to list the number of 'naughty' things I have done over the years but just because it worked last time is no guarantee of it ever working again.
you came here for the right reasons and I am impressed with that.
Ben.

I didn't mean to to be cavalier about your advice Ben, I take heed to it whole-heartedly, and I appreciate your comments. Like I said, I have been building my business as well as my practices from the ground up. I think back to the way my dad used to run shit and I am aghast. He never even owned pulley/block, don't know how he did some of the shit he did. But anyway, I just bought a throw cube the other (before I wrapped my throw around a stick, and I'm sure everyone knows what THAT was like trying to get it untangled, lol), and the big shot (or APTA haven't decided, Thoughts?...) is next so I can start doing my climbs a little bit more legit. I'm hoping for a long illustrious career in this industry, and I know I'm gonna have to tidy it up a bit.

 

[Brady Chapman]

I want to try out the 550xp too. Just hard to buy one when I have a perfectly nice 346xp

Those are sweet too run her til she drops

 

[TreeLogic]

Damn Fellas, this sure feels like a flogging, lol. But thats alright, I've gotten used to it over the last couple years since I started my own outfit with my fiancee. I have had to learn through trial by fire. I do not have a strong foundation of proper/technical education in arboriculture. Never went to school for it. Growing up I was an exceptional golfer so I decided to go to school for professional golf management, until I realized that there is a big difference between playing golf and working in the industry. My dad was a logger/tree man however, and I started lugging brush for him when I was 12 or so, but I never wanted it for a career. My dad wasn't an oak man, or a euc man. He was a fucking cave man climber. He was incredible at felling trees and he was fearless. This made him very effective at what he did, but he was certainly rough around the edges. He would not have met alot of ISA safety regulations nor did he want to. He was righteous in his primitive, don't give a fuck, let's just get it done way of doing things. So needless to say I adopted some of that. So how did I end up running my own crew? I left a decent job at a private beach club in Florida in 2010 and came back to Maine to help my dad recover from a shoulder replacement surgery. My original plan was to go back down, but I ended up staying for the winter and the following summer I met my girlfriend of almost 4 years (now my fiancee). So needless to say I stuck around. I dabbled with tree work here and there helping my dad whenever I could but was still not my main focus. In 2013 my dad died and I was left with an opportunity to start something of my own. I had inherited a portion of his equipment (84' Ford one ton dump truck, 85 Bandit, saws, ropes, etc.) so my girlfriend and I bought my sister out of her shares, started an LLC (my dad's business was never a legal entity), fixed a bunch of broken down shit, and I ordered my books for the Maine Arborist License exam. Two months later I was a licensed arborist with a fully insured LLC known as Top Notch Tree Service. We have done really well thus far. I have worked my ass off to educate myself on every aspect of tree removal, rigging, climbing, proper pruning practices, and every other thing associated with arboriculture. All I can say is thank god for youtube! lol. So there is a little bit of my story. I have had to break away from alot of my dad's unsound and unsafe practices over the last couple years, and try to adopt and practice new ones. I'm sure there are still reminiscences of the way I used to do shit with my dad, some good, some bad. I am still trying to find my balance. But one thing I will say, is that my dad didn't fuck around and he got shit done. Now, I want do shit the right way, but I also like to get shit done, and my crew can run with the best of em. We are called the zero crew for a reason (zero fuckin around), and our finished jobs always look immaculately clean. So that all being said, I appreciate all the critcism, I am not trying to advocate for the some of the more unsafe practices I still use, just merely trying explain I am coming from. Thanks.

That was a great post Brady. So, I take it you enjoy being an arborist now...a little more than you did? Still playing any golf?

 

[ROYCE]

You want a long career in this!! Buy a bucket and split your time between climbing and bucket. Also, you will watch your profit margin go through the roof. However, keep your climbing skills sharp for when you need them.

Good luck with your business. I always think like this. I aim for 100%. In my climbing, rigging, proposals, equipment maintenance. That way if you fall short ( and we all fall short) your still left with something pretty good. If your best is 60 or 70% and you fall short, what are you left with? 40 or 50%. No one can operate on that. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!!

 

[Brady Chapman]

That was a great post Brady. So, I take it you enjoy being an arborist now...a little more than you did? Still playing any golf?

Thank You Tree Logic, and yes, I couldn't be happier with my new chosen profession (that I fell ass-backwards into lol). I feel strong and accomplished at the end of the day, and I get great satisfaction out of providing a great service, meeting lots of different types of people, and being in a position to improve mine and my family's life as well as being a positive influence in the lives of the people who we choose to have work for us. To be self employed, and on fire for what you do is a beautiful thing. And I love the fact that it's climbing and dismantling dangerous trees. I have always been a little bit of an adrenaline junky, so it's nice that I have found a healthy outlet to feed that need . And yes, I still make time for golf. Not nearly as much obviously, work/productivity has to come first, but I still play a few tournaments a year and men's league most every week. I'm sure I'll play more this year now that my fiance is more interested, she's my golf buddy, lol, and she's pretty good too Now THATS a beatiful thing!

 

[Stihlmadd]

Look out you are hooked now Brady, soon the gear obsession may take hold as well , do you have a account at treestuff yet?

 

[Brady Chapman]

You want a long career in this!! Buy a bucket and split your time between climbing and bucket. Also, you will watch your profit margin go through the roof. However, keep your climbing skills sharp for when you need them.

Good luck with your business. I always think like this. I aim for 100%. In my climbing, rigging, proposals, equipment maintenance. That way if you fall short ( and we all fall short) your still left with something pretty good. If your best is 60 or 70% and you fall short, what are you left with? 40 or 50%. No one can operate on that. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!!

Thank You Royce, I appreciate your 2 cents. I am slowly finding my rhythm. I would eventually like to get a bucket truck, but right now a small log loader truck is higher on the list. The amount of jobs that we need a bucket truck for is minimal (I do realize that your comment was probably pertaining to wear and tear on your body), but the amount of times we could benefit from a log truck is...like almost every job. We don't have a tractor, or skid steer (which would be nice too), but a log truck would encompass most of the areas in which we are lacking.

 

[Brady Chapman]

Look out you are hooked now Brady, soon the gear obsession may take hold as well , do you have a account at treestuff yet?

It already has to some degree, lol, if money was no issue I'd be buying shit every day . My fiance and I are careful with our new investments and so far we have not made any bad ones. There's definitely some stuff we are lacking however. And I need to ask the accomplished climbers out there. What do you think about the APTA vs. Big Shot? I'm sick as hell of spending 20 minutes trying to set my line/friction saver etc. I need an upgrade. what do you suggest?

 

[Stihlmadd]

Apta every time the boys at treestuff are on a winner with that baby and add a petzl eclipse throw cube to really make your day easier.

 

[Brady Chapman]

Apta every time the boys at treestuff are on a winner with that baby and add a petzl eclipse throw cube to really make your day easier.

Thank You, I was leaning toward the APTA, just needed it confirmed. Next invest after that will probably be the SENAs wireless headsets. Sick of yelling at my ground guys while they're feeding the chipper to send up a rope, and everyone in the neighborhood hears me screaming bloody murder but them lol.

 

[Stihlmadd]

I have become VERY good at shouting over the years, has done wonders for my voice
I am def' looking at the sena headsets with interest .

 

[TimBr]

You want a long career in this!! Buy a bucket and split your time between climbing and bucket. Also, you will watch your profit margin go through the roof. However, keep your climbing skills sharp for when you need them.

Good luck with your business. I always think like this. I aim for 100%. In my climbing, rigging, proposals, equipment maintenance. That way if you fall short ( and we all fall short) your still left with something pretty good. If your best is 60 or 70% and you fall short, what are you left with? 40 or 50%. No one can operate on that. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!!

Great post, Royce. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.

Tim

 

[TimBr]

Thank You, I was leaning toward the APTA, just needed it confirmed. Next invest after that will probably be the SENAs wireless headsets. Sick of yelling at my ground guys while they're feeding the chipper to send up a rope, and everyone in the neighborhood hears me screaming bloody murder but them lol.

Just for the record, I own the APTA, but have never owned a Big Shot. I've heard that the performance of the Big Shot varies with the temperature.

Some guys online own an earlier version of the APTA that had two extra feet of pipe length compared to the version that TreeStuff is currently offering. I don't know if they shortened it to make it more portable, or what. In using my newer version APTA, which is shorter, I found I was having to max out my bicycle pump in order to get anything close to the height of shot I was looking for. I found it to be tough to remove the pump from the fill valve without losing too much air pressure. Also, I do not know if the APTA comes assembled the same way for every customer or not, but mine came with the fill valve in a position directly within the range of the handled firing ball valve.

To me, this seemed custom made to really hurt somebody by causing a severely pinched finger. Nick Bonner said that it's possible to order an additional section of aluminum pipe. I forget the exact price, but I think it might have been around $35.00. I went to one of the big box hardware stores to see what they had available, and found 12 inch sections of black pipe of the correct diameter, relatively inexpensive. I thought about it and decided to try it, with the intention of installing the new sections below the handled firing ball valve, in order to increase the size of the air chamber below.

I also elected to flip the existing aluminum pipe section around so that the air fill valve is at the bottom of the assembly. This allows me to leave the bike tire pump attached while I'm shooting, eliminating the pressure loss that happens when you try to "pop off" the bike pump's hose connection. I also somehow managed to get the APTA set up so that the firing ball valve handle is pointing up when the valve is closed, so that to fire I pull back and down, just like you would with an electrical disconnect switch. This feels like a more natural motion to me than the way that valve came set up from TreeStuff.

I filed all of the pipe sections that were exposed upon disassembly. It might not matter, but the sections I looked at did not come reamed from TreeStuff. Also, I used pipe dope on all threads. I can't remember if I used Teflon tape on the threads or not. If I were planning to get an APTA now, I'd buy the Teflon tape in advance and use it when I did the modification.

The result for me of adding the extra two feet of pipe back in to the air chamber was much greater power with much lower air pressure required inside the chamber. Because the air chamber was much larger, it took more pumping to fill it to an adequate pressure, but I thought the trade off to be well worth it.

Also, I moved the big yellow and green plastic handle to a position just below the coupling used to connect the two new black pipe sections together, and I faced the handle so that it pointed forward towards the end of the APTA that the throw bag shoots out of. I do not use the handle as intended. Instead, I use it as a way to rest the weight of the APTA against my shoulder, and I sight down the barrel. I hit a very small target, very high up in the tree, on my very first use of the APTA in this fashion. The new, bigger air chamber gave the APTA power and authority.

Too long, I know. Thanks for reading all this, if you chose to.

Tim

P.S. I've attached a photo of my modified APTA, on May 24th, 2015, just in case anyone wants to see how it is configured.

 

[surgeon56]

the obvious question here is why r u using a rearhanded saw on such a small tree???? Possibly no top handle???

 

[TimBr]

in the current days of arboriculture, there are means to position yourself in such a way that having two hands on your saw (with your left hand thumb wrapped around the handlebar) is always possible.

Worthaug, thank you for this post, which I'd previously "liked", and just re-read again. It was a very specific statement, and that is what contains the value for me.

I most often climb and trim deadwood with a hand saw, and only go to the trouble of pulling up a chainsaw once in a great while, when the size of the wood exceeds what my Silky can cut in a reasonable amount of time. The fact that the Silky is so sharp, strong and light in weight means that there is not much of what I do that it cannot accomplish.

I did recently have a cut to make of the short stub of what used to be a long oak limb. It took awhile, but the previous two cuts of that limb were done with the hand saw. The 2nd cut, closer in to the main trunk, I was starting to wish I'd broken out the chainsaw. I knew that the cut I needed to make of the stub would absolutely require the use of a chainsaw, as it was going to be a long, diagonal cut at the fattest part of the branch.

Wanting to cut from above, where I could stand on the fat, nearby branches for comfort and support, I found myself out of position to honor the rules you just laid out. Especially, and specifically, the part about "with your left hand thumb wrapped around the handle bar". I knew at the time I was violating the basic rules outlined in the owner's manual, but like a lot of folks, I was feeling pressured by time constraints. I felt safe enough against kickback because of the lack of other branches nearby, and the fact that I have an anti-kickback plate installed on my Echo 330T top handled chainsaw.

No excuse. I made the cut, with no bad result, but I broke the rules to get there. Your post reminds me of the fact that I have all the gear I need to position myself in a way that makes it possible to cut safely. The thing I hope I learned from this incident is that I need to think beforehand, almost like planning a chess move, "Where is the ideal location to attempt to make this next cut?" As though, if you had no limitations, you were able to freely and easily place your body anywhere you wanted it to be, in order to make the next cut.

Once you figure out what the best possible position is, the job is to figure out what you need to do with your climbing systems in order to get your body into that position.

That is what I failed to do, and what I must do in the future. So thanks again for your very specific reminder.

One question I guess I have on this issue is whether or not anyone ever makes chainsaw cuts when they are hanging completely suspended in their harness, with nowhere to place one's feet? Being able to stand on a branch, or at least have your feet propped against the stem, or against the branch, provides a huge amount of stability when making a cut. It seems to protect one from the physics thing of "equal and opposite reactions". I guess I'm referring to the high speed spinning of the chain around the bar, and the reactions that induces in your body. It seems like if you were hanging suspended, your body could be sent in directions you had not planned for.

I know I'm revealing ignorance here. I just cannot recall a time yet when I've found myself attempting to make a cut with a chainsaw while swinging freely in a harness. That was quite possibly the thing that I should have been doing when I made the cut that broke the rules. I just found the comfort of cutting from a solid position on a branch too tough to resist, in spite of the fact that it did not allow proper hand position.

I'll try to do better next time. Thanks for listening.

Tim

 

[Brady Chapman]

the obvious question here is why r u using a rearhanded saw on such a small tree???? Possibly no top handle???

I had to top out and chunk down a cluster of pines due to their close proximity to a fence and septic and leach field. All the pines were accessible by tying into a central pine (meaning I didn't have to climb every one). Given the amount of wood I had to cut to get all the pines topped and chunked down, I decided to use the 550 because it made things go alot quicker. I threw caution into the wind and went for production. A recommendable practice? Probably not. But if you read my other posts you'll learn that I'm unorthodox and do things more like a logger than an arborist. Not in every situation, but when I feel comfortable enough, I don't mind breaking the rules . Truth be told, this was the first time I used my 550 aloft for such small wood. Will I make a habit out if it? Probably not. But given the nature of the job (demolition work, no cleanup), I do not regret using the methods that I chose to us.

 

[Brady Chapman]

Worthaug, thank you for this post, which I'd previously "liked", and just re-read again. It was a very specific statement, and that is what contains the value for me.

I most often climb and trim deadwood with a hand saw, and only go to the trouble of pulling up a chainsaw once in a great while, when the size of the wood exceeds what my Silky can cut in a reasonable amount of time. The fact that the Silky is so sharp, strong and light in weight means that there is not much of what I do that it cannot accomplish.

I did recently have a cut to make of the short stub of what used to be a long oak limb. It took awhile, but the previous two cuts of that limb were done with the hand saw. The 2nd cut, closer in to the main trunk, I was starting to wish I'd broken out the chainsaw. I knew that the cut I needed to make of the stub would absolutely require the use of a chainsaw, as it was going to be a long, diagonal cut at the fattest part of the branch.

Wanting to cut from above, where I could stand on the fat, nearby branches for comfort and support, I found myself out of position to honor the rules you just laid out. Especially, and specifically, the part about "with your left hand thumb wrapped around the handle bar". I knew at the time I was violating the basic rules outlined in the owner's manual, but like a lot of folks, I was feeling pressured by time constraints. I felt safe enough against kickback because of the lack of other branches nearby, and the fact that I have an anti-kickback plate installed on my Echo 330T top handled chainsaw.

No excuse. I made the cut, with no bad result, but I broke the rules to get there. Your post reminds me of the fact that I have all the gear I need to position myself in a way that makes it possible to cut safely. The thing I hope I learned from this incident is that I need to think beforehand, almost like planning a chess move, "Where is the ideal location to attempt to make this next cut?" As though, if you had no limitations, you were able to freely and easily place your body anywhere you wanted it to be, in order to make the next cut.

Once you figure out what the best possible position is, the job is to figure out what you need to do with your climbing systems in order to get your body into that position.

That is what I failed to do, and what I must do in the future. So thanks again for your very specific reminder.

One question I guess I have on this issue is whether or not anyone ever makes chainsaw cuts when they are hanging completely suspended in their harness, with nowhere to place one's feet? Being able to stand on a branch, or at least have your feet propped against the stem, or against the branch, provides a huge amount of stability when making a cut. It seems to protect one from the physics thing of "equal and opposite reactions". I guess I'm referring to the high speed spinning of the chain around the bar, and the reactions that induces in your body. It seems like if you were hanging suspended, your body could be sent in directions you had not planned for.

I know I'm revealing ignorance here. I just cannot recall a time yet when I've found myself attempting to make a cut with a chainsaw while swinging freely in a harness. That was quite possibly the thing that I should have been doing when I made the cut that broke the rules. I just found the comfort of cutting from a solid position on a branch too tough to resist, in spite of the fact that it did not allow proper hand position.

I'll try to do better next time. Thanks for listening.

Tim

P.S. The file attached at the bottom of this post, if you are seeing it, is a mistake. I was trying to attach it to a previous post, which I have since accomplished. The file attachment was not showing up for me in this post when I tried to go back and edit it out. Maybe the mods can manage to remove it. Thanks.

The other day I had to make a cut while suspended from a big Red Oak I had just pruned. It was my final cut, and it was to trim off the stub on the lowest limb back to the branch collar. Obviously, I was spikeless and there was no where to position my feet securely. I just lanyarded in, and pressed my knees firmly against the stem which acquired me as much stability as I could muster in that particular situation (it was definitely a core workout). I then made my finishing cut. I probably looked silly doing it but I felt pretty safe and I don't know what else I could have done in that situation. I'm curious to hear others' opinions.

 

[TimBr]

I had to top out and chunk down a cluster of pines due to their close proximity to a fence and septic and leach field. All the pines were accessible by tying into a central pine (meaning I didn't have to climb every one). Given the amount of wood I had to cut to get all the pines topped and chunked down, I decided to use the 550 because it made things go alot quicker. I threw caution into the wind and went for production. A recommendable practice? Probably not. But if you read my other posts you'll learn that I'm unorthodox and do things more like a logger than an arborist. Not in every situation, but when I feel comfortable enough, I don't mind breaking the rules . Truth be told, this was the first time I used my 550 aloft for such small wood. Will I make a habit out if it? Probably not. But given the nature of the job (demolition work, no cleanup), I do not regret using the methods that I chose to us.

JohnnyPro talked about using larger saws than some would think needed to have more speed and power in the cut. I think he felt that it actually improved safety.

Tim