Roger_Barnett
Participating member
- Location
- Seattle, in the PNWet
Just got home from craning a 155 foot tall Douglas-fir over a house from 50 feet away. The last crane pick of the butt log weighed 8100 lb, exceeding the 38 ton crane's load chart at that radius. But he got it--up and over the roof. It just nudged the gutter on the way up. I knew it would be heavy and had told the operator that if it was too heavy, I could cut a few feet off the bottom to lighten it. But he got it. The load, appx 2600 board feet, filled the log truck, who had to come back to another site to pick up a large cedar which we had craned out 10 days ago. That tree, was 50 inches at the last cut, which was made 3 feet above the deck that it was growing out of....with two sections of a roof, with that flimsy plastic material on it. So, we had to crane branches as well, and start from the top working our way down. Took forever, and it was raining that day. I underbid that job, as the extra crane fees ate into my portion of the quote. I hope the very knotty and low grade logs bring me $200-300 over what the self loading log trucker charged me..which was $250....I said that was OK when he asked me....but coupled with the $350 for the other load, he made good $ today..as the mill was close by the 2nd job. Of course, diesel at $4.20 gal does eat into his bottom line.
With the fir, we set up a zip line and sent all the branches and top flying over the roof. For that, we use our spectra which is 24,000 tensile strength at 1/2", with near zero stretch at break. It's largely replaced steel for pulling applications like towing barges....it floats and if it breaks it just drops. Steel, on the other hand, stretches first, and has been known to go through the wheelhouse and kill the tug pilot. Plasma line, is one step above spectra, and is rated at 1.5 million lb tensile in its largest 2.5" diameter. Prolly costs $100 a foot? As 0.5" plasma retails at 3.50 a foot!
We got some great images and videos today, as the weather was perfect..getting rare here in the Pacific North "Wet"!!!!
With the fir, we set up a zip line and sent all the branches and top flying over the roof. For that, we use our spectra which is 24,000 tensile strength at 1/2", with near zero stretch at break. It's largely replaced steel for pulling applications like towing barges....it floats and if it breaks it just drops. Steel, on the other hand, stretches first, and has been known to go through the wheelhouse and kill the tug pilot. Plasma line, is one step above spectra, and is rated at 1.5 million lb tensile in its largest 2.5" diameter. Prolly costs $100 a foot? As 0.5" plasma retails at 3.50 a foot!
We got some great images and videos today, as the weather was perfect..getting rare here in the Pacific North "Wet"!!!!
