Alone

[Eagle1]

How many of you work alone? This time of year when things get slow I tend to space out my work and work alone. If rigging job I use my semi-laid off groundie.
Just wondering how many of you do this??

 

[Stumper]

Moi.

 

[mikecross23]

I've been climbing for 2 other fella's to fill in my down time. Works nice b/c they pay me my hourly rate and my full time rope man's too. Some jobs they just pay me a flat rate instead of by the hour and that works out even better. I try to keep my rope man happy b/c he is pretty dependable and I don't think I will ever go back to doing tree work alone again. When I need extra hands I use a local labor finding agency. I pay $11.00 an hour for workers comp covered draggers on an as needed will be delivered basis. That allows my biz to stay small and legit while I try to save $$$$ to grow. This is my first slow season in business. It is slow, but I'm still bringing in the bacon.

-Mike-

 

[rumination]

When little or no rigging is required I usually work alone and then get someone to help me with the cleanup.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Eagle1
If rigging job I use my semi-laid off groundie.

If it's a hard rigging job I find someone who knows the ropes. If it's an easy rigging job the client helps, or I self-rig while in the tree. Very often work alone; not a problem.

 

[blue]

if your doing self rigging how the hell do you untie your last piece of debris?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

take three wrapsand tuck the tail in under the wraps. Cut close to the round turn and y6ou can flip it off once it is on the ground.

I would not recomend it for heavy critical rigging though

 

[Stumper]

Blue, To self rig multiple pieces all you need are some slings and a tad of ingenuity. One way(but not the only way) is to throw a sling around the piece to be lowered,tie off one end of the lowering rope to the tree up at your level,clip the sling (with 'biner) onto the rope and secure the standing portion of lowering line. In effect you have clipped into a loop of line with one end 'permanently' tied off and the other temporarily tied or routed through a fig eight or a couple of natural crotches so that you can hold it with a free hand or foot but let it run a little if need be. You lower by letting out line,expanding the loop until the piece is down. Then untie the end and you can zip it through the biner and recover an unencumbered line.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

Originally posted by blue
if your doing self rigging how the hell do you untie your last piece of debris?

The way that I have seen it done is to run the rope around a crotch of the limb being lowered. Then tie the end running thru the crotch off to another part of the tree. You lower the limb down and then untie the rope and pull it back up. Hope this helps, Rich.

 

[xander9727]

With the exception of light pruning or stump removal I don't work alone. Jobs go much faster and safer with two people. I've found that during the slow, cold months, the guys don't mind two and three hour days a few times a week. I can't justify the little added profit for taking a risk. I don't fault anyone who does otherwise this is just my justification.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

working solo

Yeah im another that works my own ropes. Another way to rope stuff down is to tie one end to an anchor point in the tree, then run the rope though a friction device (normally something small like a figure 8 or a few wraps around the tree).
Then the branch your going to rig down you put a sling and biner on it (I carry up to 10 of them with me when I know Im going to be doing this).
Between the ropes anchor point and the friction device, clip the biner onto the rope.
Limb is cut, limb is lowered, then undo one part of the rope and pull it thought the biner and start process again. Takes some time but you can get down a fair bit of a pile before you need to get down.

Timber

 

[MasterBlaster]

Originally posted by TreeCo


I hardly ever work alone.

Dan
Atlanta

Same here. I don't like it, but I'll do it if I have to.

 

[SilverBlue]

I completed several removals alone last week, close to 6000 LBS of material. I did allow one home owner to unhook the slings while my lowering device handled all the hard work. The difficult jobs have been delayed until the help returns, if the risk is there then don't do it if you can't handle it.

Funny thing, I twisted me knee a bit doing snow removal yesterday, (Butch was late showing up again

 

[blue]

Thanx for the help can't quite picture it though.personally i'd never try to do any lowering on my own it's just not worth the risk.the bloke i normally have for lowering on big jobs is a compatent climber but i think is one top rope man.he can judge exactly how much to let something run to keep me safe or reduce shock.top bloke on the ropes(u know who u r)

 

[NeTree]

i think anyone who works alone is being foolish. They're called accidents because nobody intended them to happen. When you have an accident, who's there to help?

 

[Abbershay]

working alone is allot harder but for people who dont want to go through the worry and over head of employees, it is just a part of life. Many things are dangerous but thats why you have to be more careful.

 

[Toddppm]

I'd have never thought that many of you guys would climb alone, I've done a couple times on real minor jobs a long time ago. Wouldn't even think about it now.
A guy I know was cutting up a tree he took down in a backyard and put his knee under the trunk to hold it up while he cut it and got himself trapped, started screaming and an old lady next door had to come and rescue him I'm pretty sure noone here is that stupid but I laughed my a$$ off when he told me about it.

 

[topnotchtree]

I never climb alone. I have done jobs where the customer runs the ropes for me. But that arangment was set up from the start of the job when I quoted it. Of course, it was easy work.

 

[jblimbwalker]

Simple jobs can turn into a PITA when working alone. No ground guide when backing chipper through tight spots, brush accumulation gets outta hand, and as RJ mentioned, you need a person to tend to lifeline. I've done a couple of small jobs alone and both times I wished I would've hired that extra man. Of course, the safety issue is enough reason not to work solo.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Many of us work alone at times, but I think we all know that its not the wisest thing to do. But we do it. And we all hope someday we don't regret it.

It should not be a regular work habit.