Video: Vertical speed line plus extras

Eric,

Thanks for putting the video up.

Here are some observations from an arm chair arborist 8,003 miles/12,880 km away. You're in shirtsleeves and we've got 2 inches of snow on the ground.

-I see that you used three-strand rope for the VSL. There’s probably a reason. 3 strand has so much surface friction and it stretches more than double braids. In the short distance that you have it probably doesn't make a big difference though.
-It looked like you used a timber hitch to anchor the VSL. My preference it to do two round turns and tie off with a running bowline. The TH can slip down or unroll a bit when the VSL is loaded and unloaded. Another way to rig the anchor is to tie a clock hitch and use a master link, http://catalog.thecrosbygroup.com/maininterface.htm, for the anchor. Then the VSL is tied to the ML. If a chunk hits the ML it is very unlikely that it will be damaged. The ML can be slid around the trunk on the clock hitch to have it in the best position.
-It isn't unusual to have at least one 'butt pucker' drop when rigging in tight places. You couldn't have been luckier with your wild drop :) Here are some ways to reduce the bad jumps.
***Tighten the VSL.
----A Munter on the anchor allows you to capture the slack. Add a piggy back handy billy or come-along and then snub off the VSL.
----Tie a butterfly hitch at about head height. Use this to pull the VSL off to one side if you have a solid anchor. Sometimes a groundie can just put tension on the butterfly. The butterfly can be pulled off in any direction to direct the drop.
***Use as short a sling for the chunk as possible. Depending on where you put the choker, the length of the chunk and the height you can get the chunk to flip and come down flat or on it's butt. Jerry B. has a good description in 'The Fundamentals of General Tree Work."
***Even if you don't tension the VSL with a side pull, a butterfly can be used as a stopper. Biners, snaps and shackles can all be used for the slider on the sling. Adjusting the butterfly up or down can account for a long sling. If you have five feet of lateral space put the butterfly at about five feet or so and the chunk won't jump so far.
***I have NEVER cut a palm so I have no clue about the fiber. Is there a reason that you didn't use a more open face?
***The butt can be leashed if there's a chance that the butt may roll. After the face is cut, choke off a sling above the face and at the butt. The shorter the distance between the two chokes, the better.
***There were a few pieces of trunk wood set on the side above the stairs. We call those a corduroy or backstop. Putting them perpendicular to the log keeps them from rolling or moving if the trunk hits them. They can also act as a bridge to absorb some of the impact too. Laying out corduroy can be quite creative too. I've used longer, smaller diameter pieces on the bottom for bridging and then big pieces as a backstop to cage the trunk. Putting a sloped face on the backstop chunks can help slide the trunk back onto the corduroy.

All in all, it was a fun vid to watch! Too bad about the two topped trees. Are you going to start to reconstruct the top of your client's tree? It looked like there could be hope. The neighbor's could use a ring of cables to add some support along possibly trimming.
 
Nice job Eric. Thanks for putting that video together. It is always good to see how other people do different tree jobs, especially when they know what they're doing.

Having just gotten back from Florida (Marco Island down near Naples) and seeing all the palms with spike holes in them as well as many trees that have been topped around multi-million dollar houses, I could not believe it. And everbody thinks it is ok! The owners don't have a clue. Sorry, I do not want talk start raving about bad tree practices.

Tom has some very good points in his above response. I may have taken one or two more chunks off the top, and then cut my open face (70-90 degree) notch closer to the ground and try to get the stub to stay on the hinge longer, but the holding wood on dead trees is never good. I, like Tom, have never cut palms before so I really have no idea what the wood characteristics are like.

Always tough working in those tight back yards, but you did a great job!

Chris
 
Tom

You have lost me a little, and I just spent a few minutes on Google trying to find a "clock hitch" but I didn't.

Also you wrote, "Add a piggy back handy billy or come-along and then snub off the VSL." /forum/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I need an interpreter for that one, I have no idea what this is, perhaps pics would be good.

I can say that bombing onto foams is way easier. I used 3 strand coz I figured it could get hacked and I wouldn't care.

What happened was the first few came off and went splat, no worries, but as I came down the trunk the dia was getting fatter and firmer. When I pushed the last one off it didn't land flat and landed on it's corner sending it tumbling. Now as the first few did nothing on the last on I got lazy and didn't shorten and snug up the sling ... but all worked out OK with a great video moment you couldn't have got more bang for ya buck. /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif But really, we measured and calculated to leave a few inches spare to get everyone talking. /forum/images/graemlins/smirk.gif The first 2 were duds and didn't do anything so we had to heat it up a little. /forum/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Then after theat one I had the groundy set up a barrier and I just bombed off a few more. That palm is really smooth and the dia started to taper in, I went to move the VSL down and it fell to the ground and I have had enough by now on that POS so I bombed a few off to get it short enough to fell in the gap.

From experience you have to be careful cutting a notch and hinging on that semi rotted fibrous palm up top, it's way easier and safer to just cut a big block and push it off.

As for the narrower face cut when I felled the barrel, I should have made it even narrower so the butt flys off the stump and it would have cleared the corduroy ... I think it was a bit too wide from fiddling with it ... the palm fibres snap easy, but I didn't want the butt sitting on top of the stump or stairs.

VSL, it has it's place, a lot of mucking around and time consuming, also, make sure you have a line for retrieving your rope/sling that you tied the block with! Luckily the groundy could throw mine up to me.

And I think the poinciana in his yard is stuffed, now an ugly decaying tree.

Thanks for your help, some pics would be good Tom.
 
Riggs is the one who taught me the 'clock hitch' Let's see if he'll describe how to tie it :)

'piggy back handy billy' what's so hard about that? :)

Last things first...handy billy is a come along of some sort, I use the term when I mean a small block and tackle.

When you rigged the pullover I think that you said that you used a Z-rig. This uses the pull rope and some gear to apply a pull to the trunk. In a 'piggy back' you anchor the pull rope to some sort of friction device. This could be a bollard or even a Munter. Then the HB is anchored as close to parallel as you can rig it to the pull line. My preference for attaching the HB to the rope is a Tenex eye on eye sling and a friction hitch. As the HB is compressed and the rope tensioned, slack is pulled through and belayed. When the pull line is tight or the HB is chock a block, pulleys kissing, the Munter is tied off securely. Then the HB is taken off the system or stretched out for another pull.

The reason that I like using a PB HB is that the pull rope is always snubbed off. If the HB slips the load won't jump. If a Z-rig is built with too much mechanical advantage and too much load, from all of the crew pulling on the rope, it could be a disaster if the rope broke. The friction hitch attachment will slip-grab and not damage the pull rope.

You'll see some people using mechanical rope grabs like the Gibbs instead of a friction hitch. This is all well and good if you know how the ascender is going to react to the appled load. Too often, most of the time, no one does any kind of calculations about applied loads. It would be too easy to put a HUGE load on the ascender and have it jump and bight the pull line. That could be another disaster. From all of the tests that I've seen from search and rescue haul systems the safest anchor is two friction hitches, one above the other as a back up.

Is that clear of am I still speaking Tom-bonic :)
 
Tom

I think you need to get your video camera out coz there's some terminology differences here.

I believe what you are saying is you back up the z rig with something that doesn't allow the tension to be released in the event of failure.

We tied a butterfly knot. Prior to meeting Spydie we called the Z rig a 3-way.

So in effect if we had a prussik between the tree and the butterfly knot secured to somewhere that in the event of failure we still had the tree you would be happier? Hmmm, I've done that and have a vid of it, it was even self advancing with a pulley. I did that when loading with a kanga and needed multiple grabs as we were felling a bunch of stuff and had to clamp it up.

So, now it just the clock hitch we need to see.
 
Good video as usual Ekka, even i'm strugling with the terminology though, the bollard you mention Tom is that the same as a rope brake, or flying capstan?
All good stuff though, more info to add to my mental tool box.

Ekka you using a MS250 to block down?

I'm also curious about this clock hitch!
 
Sometimes I use generic terms for pieces of equipment. A bollard to me is any piece of gear that provides friction.

This is the device that I use. It's called an FOS or Friction on Site. ISC makes them but they use a different name.
 

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Geez Tom, we'd lose Spydie for a week in that site, animated pulleys ... he'd love it. Lots of info on MA etc.

I see what you are on about now, yeah.

Now just the clock hitch.

I used a MS250 coz I knew I'd have to go round that fat sucka, I have tried a 44 with big bar but you feel like an ape with arms down to your ankles by the end. The 250 is light and does the job plus easier to start when up there.
 
O.k Tom thats cleared things up, just wanted to make sure is all.

As for the 250 I thought it was, just sounds different to mine. I like using my 250 for blocking down also, theres no need to go over board when a smaller saw will do.
 
Oh,

So a clock hitch is sort of a timber hitch finish to a cow hitch ... rather than finish the cow hitch with a half hitch you tuck the tail like a timber hitch.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I think he calls it a clock hitch because you can spin the porta wrap around the tree anytime you want. /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought he called it a clock hitch because it went around and around the tree and ate up the clock. /forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I like the knot and have used it quite a bit. I did read where Knude Noggin wrote where it put the wrong directional forces on the eye. I can't see where that is true though. It does take more that twice the trees diameter in rope to tie.

It's not finished off like a timber hitch like Ekka is thinking. It's multi half hitches if I have it right.
 
Yeah, I went right thru that old thread and you're right, it's mutilple half hitches arounf the whole lot of ropes.

I suppose the idea is that the shackle can be moved around the tree but the hitch stays in place.

But I am a little suss on the clock hitch.

Let me explain, on a timber hitch or cow hitch there is some type of grabbing motion when loaded ... like a girth hitch or one wrap prussik. But with the clock hitch I'm not sure what would happen on a slippery surface like palms have and also when the dia is tapered. The clock hitch might just take off up the palm!

Of course this is if you were attaching a porty etc for lowering but not for VSL as there is no upward force only outward... so Dan, do you use the clock hitch for attaching the porty to trees for lowering? How does it perform? And you just move the proty around without havening to try to slide the whole lot (rope and device) around?

Be alright on trees I reckon, but just conf my suss on the smooth tapers and it running up the trunk.
 
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