Spikes and cocos nucifera

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beastmaster

beastmaster

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Once at the San Diego Zoo, in the Avery I spotted a palm in there that had lost its top and was full of decay, but a new terminal bud had started growing in the middle of it. I took a picture but can't find it right now.

when I couldn't get a throw line up in the crown of maybe a 80 ft Washingtonia Robusta that had been bid to climb spikeless, I used two ropes. each with one end a running bowline. one attached to my rope bridge the other rope a footloop. I would advance one, stand up, then advance the other. It was pretty time consuming, but could probably be refined and speeded up .

I've been impressed with that spider lift of yours Koa man every since I first read about it when you posted about it a while back. It would be great for working inside apt. complexes and what not.
 
jefflovstrom

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Once at the San Diego Zoo, in the Avery I spotted a palm in there that had lost its top and was full of decay, but a new terminal bud had started growing in the middle of it. I took a picture but can't find it right now.

when I couldn't get a throw line up in the crown of maybe a 80 ft Washingtonia Robusta that had been bid to climb spikeless, I used two ropes. each with one end a running bowline. one attached to my rope bridge the other rope a footloop. I would advance one, stand up, then advance the other. It was pretty time consuming, but could probably be refined and speeded up .

I've been impressed with that spider lift of yours Koa man every since I first read about it when you posted about it a while back. It would be great for working inside apt. complexes and what not.

Hey Beast, did you ever meet Rich?
Jeff
 
Koa Man

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I've been impressed with that spider lift of yours Koa man every since I first read about it when you posted about it a while back. It would be great for working inside apt. complexes and what not.

Yes, I really like the 23GT. It has been an awesome workhorse for me. We trimmed some royal palms and coconuts at a condo in Waikiki today. One photo shows the 23GT working on the sidewalk with plenty of room for passersby. Someone using a bucket truck would have had to go through the extra hassle of obtaining a street usage permit to park on the corner. A couple of photos shows the 39 inch gate that I took the 38.5 inch 23GT through. I had to have a spotter on each side. Another photo is of my homemade brush cart and can be disassembled into four pieces without tools, except for the wheel assembly, which has 2 bolts. It can pass through a 32 inch gate.

We will generally only spike coconut palms. I will only trim royal palms if I can use a lift. I will not climb them. Washingtonias are almost non-existant here. Only a very few. Lot of loulu fan palms, like the fronds shown on the cart.

Palm trimming accounts for about 65% of my gross income.
 
ROPECLIMBER

ROPECLIMBER

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Koa man,
really nice Photos and equipment,looks like a beatiful place to work, Ive often thought to make a brush cart for the gated comunities sure looks better than my holy tarp
David,
Yhanks for the great photos,never seen that before, all these exotic places make me wish I was 25 again,could do a working vacation a new place every year
Paul
 
david miller

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spikes can vector just like saws, to me palm are weed and should be treated so, make sure you inspect the whole trunk before spiking or SRT it might have a full green canopy and missing or weaken section of trunk. I would hate to in my life over a weed
 
Koa Man

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Unique idea, but really slow and it would work only on clean trunks. How would it go pass lights and other junk that people screw into or bolt on palm trunks? Other than an aerial lift, all other means of climbing palms spikeless run into problems when something is on the trunk.
 
David (saltas)

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attachment.php
 
david miller

david miller

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yea must of our coco here in south fl can be reach with a 32' or 40' ladder trust me i rather spike them. but most are around pool areas and they dont want them perforated. still drive me crazy they plant the enola gaye of palms around pools but i guess that the same as planting 45' trees under power lines that go on alot here
 
arborjockey

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love the machine

Spikerooony! Done before bands can get mounted on tree.
Coconut trimming - YouTube

But as I state in the video, we only spike the old spiked up ones, which are going to be removed next year and replaced by new plantings which will not be spiked.

Like it. I love da spyder. But they do have there place. 2 guys over here have them. I think I can do at least 3 cocos while he unloads and 3 more while he loads up. Plus driving from tree to tree I got 3 more done. Let's see plus a days work of 40 so say 50 a day. Oh I forgot to ad I HATE COCO's more the opuima kiawe and bogenvillia combined.
 
Koa Man

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You are really fast if you can do 40-50 in a normal 8 hour work day spikeless. Do any have lights or other stuff on the trunk? I would be hard pressed to do 40 in a day with spikes, but I am an old fart (almost 62) who has slowed down quite a bit from my young days. Most I ever did was 56 cocos in 6 hours (with spikes), but all the palms were short, 20 ft. of trunk or less and only 4 months of growth on it.
 
jefflovstrom

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You are really fast if you can do 40-50 in a normal 8 hour work day spikeless. Do any have lights or other stuff on the trunk? I would be hard pressed to do 40 in a day with spikes, but I am an old fart (almost 62) who has slowed down quite a bit from my young days. Most I ever did was 56 cocos in 6 hours (with spikes), but all the palms were short, 20 ft. of trunk or less and only 4 months of growth on it.

Do you have Canary Island Date palm's there?
Jeff
 
Koa Man

Koa Man

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We have date palms with long spikes on the fronds. I don't know if that is what you call Canary Island date palms. I trimmed 44 of them, 60-80 ft. tall at the Honolulu Zoo in 1989. Then they had them all cut down 6 months later. Three had fallen before I trimmed them and two more fell after. At that point the City felt the palms were too dangerous. I climbed all of them. Today, I won't climb a date palm or royal palm. Lift only or have another company do it.
 

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