Windy days

I was climbing in that saddle for a little over a year and had to retire it. (see "treeMotion Wear-n-Tear") It's a great saddle but unfortunatly I wore it out. Instead of worrying about replacement parts I got a Glide II. I'm liking it quite a bit. Mostly because it can handle larger chainsaws and there's beefier webbing on it. What I miss most about the T.M. is the customizable gear loops.
 
thanks for input but i already bought one.but i did question them about the wear. they said that there was a problem and they had fixed it.i guess it was the rings were defective.also i only paid 312.00 witch i thought was good considering i saw it from 500 to 700.im comming out of a miller saddle i also have a 4 d ring weaver thats basicly brand new i set up for a buddy. i hope they did in fact fix the problem or the assured me they would make good on it. wish me luck. once again thanks for the advice
 
Define 'windy'...

This is an accepted scale that makes it easier to decide how windy it is:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/beaufort.html

Since trees start to naturally shed branches in winds above 35 mph this HAS to be taken into consideration. If the tree is being exposed to high natural loads and then along comes a climber adding their nominal weight and maybe doing some rigging...hmmm...could wind loads and rigging loads combined be enough to cause failure?

A couple of years ago when I was supervising work near New Orleans we setup a threshold for stopping work in winds over 25 mph. Since the trees that were coming down were pines that had died from salt water flooding 16 months before no one had a clue how stable the trees were. The roots could have rotted off or the dead trunks may have increased their decay because of the salt water. To be safe the safety team set a 25 mph limit. The contractor wasn't happy with that so we had to compromise and up the windspeed to 30 mph or the crews could use their discretion. What we found was that the crews would stop work at some point that they felt uncomfortable. When the safety team audited the windspeed from various weather stations in the area we found that the crews, on their own, would stop when the wind speed reached 25 mph. After talking with all of the crews on the wind days I found that they had a good feeling for what was safe. No bravado lead to no injuries.

If you're doing a takedown, especially in the wind, leaving as much mass low on the tree will lead to more stability. Doing this can be challenging because the lower limbs can get in the way. But, it is one way to increase stability and reduce the loads on the top of the tree.
 
Contract pressures to get the job done regardless of dangers often force a compromise on safety. The unfortunate reality is that safety is about risk management not about absolute prevention,i.e., if the safety procedure is not followed I will be injured for sure. With some exceptions this is the case. Once the fines are big enough to no longer be considered a "cost of doing business" then the attitude may change to one of safety first.

We all too readily accept death and injury as part of the job.
 
[ QUOTE ]
We all too readily accept death and injury as part of the job.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh wait! It isn't part of the job?
grin.gif


Rob is right.
 
I suppose for me it depends on the job; I have driven away a few times after alot of mobilization, etc, which sucks, but you live to climb another day. Other times, I have just gotten caught off guard (already up the tree), and I just tie in lower and do a little more with the pole saw. Murphy's law of wind/tree work seems to apply about 95% of the time, too!

***The wind will be blowing the opposite direction that you need it to blow 95% of the time!***

I have also walked away/rented a bucket truck plenty of times after discovering aerial defects or hazards. I have a clause on my tree services forms that says 'prices subject to change based on aerial inspection of trees when applicable.'

-Tom
 
Wind is definitely a pain to us tree monkeys. When its blowing your way its ok but like you stated that does not happen often. I have been caught of guard in the tree stand where i had to hang on for (deer) life
grin.gif
then thought what the hell am i doing up here if a deer goes by how am i going to hit it with a bow anyway
confused.gif
came to my senses and went home.
 
I was doing line work back when I was a green horn. My foreman (now friends) and I were working up in the mountains. We had some good winds suddenly come up. We were basically finishing some clearance for pine. I was up wind having a good time throwing the pine branches down wind.

Well, the unthinkable (at the time) happened. I accidentally hung one of my limbs on the neutral line. It hooked on the wire, the wind caught it and sent it down into my friend as it it were a zip-line. (I think it hit him in the back).
bigcry.gif
Not to bad, but it made me think... If I had hung up a limb on a primary and it went down the line into my buddy, it could be a different story right now...

Principle of the story?
thinking.gif
I think unexpected things can or will happen when we mix tree work and high winds together. (As if we didn't get that already).
smirk.gif
Just another example of something I've seen.
 
If the wind forecast exceeds 25mph I try to schedule work that doesn't involve high work. If I'm on a job involving high work and the gusts surpass 35mph I generally pack it in. I've climbed in 50+mph winds. It sucketh the moose lips most hairy. There was a good reason (Hanger over a mobile home with 70mph gusts forecast forlater) but after the deed was done I decided that the reason really wasn't good enough.
 
20-30 is my threshold and prefer not to do it unless I HAVE TOO. 50 is becoming foolish, not worth dying or focking up real bad. Now with that said I did force a crane removal in high wind...say 40 ish. It was buffetting the boom a fair bit.
 
Worst wind I had while doing a crane removal was when I was taking out the top of a large pin oak and a freakish cold front blew through. It went from clear skies in a couple of minutes to dark ominous clouds with heavy snow. From 50 to 30 degrees just like that. The climber had just made the cut and figures the wind was blowing the peice away from me. The climber got out of the tree quick, and I boomed up to get the peice closer to me. I probably should had just let the peice settle into the rest of the tree but just wanted to get the weight off the boom. Not sure which one was better. Atleast it didn't go sour on us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom