Evolution of an Invention 2 Counterweighted Power

[jomoco]

How much does a gas powered air compressor, hose reel with 100 feet of 3/4 inch high pressure hose weigh?

Less than 200 lbs?

How much do you weigh in harness with all your sharp tools?

If that compressor/reel combo were used to counterweight you from a pulley at the top of your tree, how much would you then weigh moving about in the tree trimming with pneumatic push button tools powered by your counterweight?

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

Interesting.
Jeff

 

[BC WetCoast]

It might be easier to leave the compressor on the ground and pull the hose up through the tree. Use several sections of hose with quick connect couplings to ease moving the hose through the tree.

 

[jomoco]

Field test number one, borrow brother's 100 lb body bag, weight with an additional 50 lbs, hoist it all into the top of the tree on a pulley, tie off to it on the ground, and leap upwards to the first lateral?

How far up could you jump weighing only 35-40 lbs? 10 feet, 20?

Sounds kinda sorta dangerous don't it?

Perfect, I'll get on it tomorrow!

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

It might be easier to leave the compressor on the ground and pull the hose up through the tree. Use several sections of hose with quick connect couplings to ease moving the hose through the tree.

Seems far fetched and heavy.
Jeff

 

[jomoco]

Well you got it half right Jeff, it is heavy, with me clipped in about 400 lbs.

But after a few trial runs at 100, and now 125 lbs in smaller decurrent trees to get the feel of it, I quit messing around and tried it in a medium euc today with my counterweight pulley at 60 feet up, and the counterweight at 140 lbs. Once you clip in at the ground with the weight at the pulley 60 feet up, ascending up the tree is incredibly quick and easy.

I was alone today so I tried not to get too radical leaping around from lateral limbs above and below me, but I did jump from a lower lateral about 15-20 feet up just to see how hard I'd hit the ground, and it was a very cush landing as expected.

The hardest part is hoisting that heavy counterweight up to the pulley so you can clip into it on the ground. Tomorrow I'm definitely bringing my Hobbs along with my brother to take vids. A grcs would be the cat's meow for hoisting that weight.

I can tell that this setup will be fantastic for medium, large and very large excurrent trees, particularly getting out to the very tips of the lateral limbs like a ballerina. The counterweight upward pressure is constant and takes a little practice to get used to. I found myself lanyarding in once in a while to achieve a neutral resting position when at the tips of the lateral limbs.

I'm going to bump up the counterweight to 155 lbs tomorrow and vid the results. So far the heavier the weight the better, but I intend to keep atleast 20 lbs heavier on my side of the pulley, because the ratio changes slightly depending on which side has more rope, making me heavier on the ground and lighter at the pulley.

This little experiment is both interesting and dangerous, and I'm not recommending anyone try it themselves until I get a little more time in testing it. I can say that it most certainly works, and if that counterweight was a gas powered air compressor, so could I, with my pneumatic loppers and chainsaw.

Should have more tomorrow on this Archimedes Arborist Elevating System.

jomoco

 

[treeslayer]

if your posting on it, I wanna see it.. pics somewhere?

 

[tree md]

I'm still waiting on you to develop a hovercraft Jomoco...

 

[jomoco]

Don't get pushy, this experimental stuff is dangerous, and it aint exactly ISA approved either.

I want the optimum and safest configuration I can get before posting it on youtube for newbies to get hurt with trying to copy.

It obviously requires a very strong and stable TIP.

But there's lots and lots of big tall trees to be pruned out there.

A big shot and GRCS are complimentary to this system being setup by one man from the ground.

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

Sounds like you are on it, Jon,
Jeff
Tomorrow is Saturday, can I watch?

 

[jomoco]

Yesterday's field test of my counterweighted climbing system was both good and bad, but thankfully not ugly.

I got my counterweight hoisted up to 60 feet, clipped into the line and ascended to the pulley gaffless of course, and was placing my second line at the pulley before going back down to test how fast I could ascend back up using the second line, when some lady in a BMW pulled up and yelled at me that I was on her property, and she wanted me off it pronto! I was in the county, on what I thought was a county median strip far too narrow for anything but highway widening.

So I turned off my helmetcam and went down to assure her I would be gone as soon as I got my stuff out of her tree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIf4ZzQngsc

But ascending back up to the pulley the second time with the aid of the second line only took about 5-6 seconds! Very cool.

Now to find a real big county euc to test in with no interruptions.

This CW'd system has huge potential in tall tree pruning in my opinionj.

My next vid should set a record for 0 to 60 in X number of seconds?

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

I am 140 acres, Jon, I got gig eucs here, private property and you are welcome. San Marcos is not far, right.
Jeff

 

[tree MDS]

I am 140 acres, Jon, I got gig eucs here, private property and you are welcome. San Marcos is not far, right.
Jeff

Ya, maybe you can film this action, and spare us the

Lol.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Ya, maybe you can film this action, and spare us the

Lol.

Well, I think a narrator and a ground view would help instead of just a helmet cam with no explanation of what we are viewing.
Jeff

 

[tree MDS]

Well, I think a narrator and a ground view would help instead of just a helmet cam with no explanation of what we are viewing.
Jeff

Sounds like a plan.

 

[Metals406]

Jomoco. . . That's a neat idea.

Playing off of it, wouldn't a reel (think winch) with a free-fall braking system, and spring tensioner be safer and work better?

The reel could have a spring setup through the center that could be preloaded to a certain weight. . . Something similar to the springs used over a garage door.

Set said spring at your 150 pounds (for the sake of argument), and start your climb. A guy would have to figure out how many lineal feet of rope could be wound or unwound before the spring tension was reduced too far. It's very plausible that you could get 100' of working rope under tension to move about a tree.

In case of spring failure, a centrifugal clutch (like on a chainsaw or snowmobile) could be set to engage if descending was over a certain rpm. So, the spring fails, the clutch spins and locks up. . . Something similar to a seat-belt setup I guess would be more accurate.

With this type of setup, you don't have a free-weight dangling in the breeze, which adds too many variables to be calculated for.

A system like I describe could truly be a "zero-weight" system, where the operator could make himself "weigh" ten pound if he wished.

 

[Metals406]

Upon further though, perhaps a series of spring tensioner's could be used in order to maintain a better constant on tension?

After the first reached a certain load point, the next would engage, and so on and so forth.

 

[jomoco]

This system would only have a limited application, and in this embodiment, would only be used as a pruning system, a truly class 1 pruning system for large trees that's pneumaticly powered via the counterweight/compressor.

The same principle can be applied to a telescoping sign crane truck with an incline adjustable counterweight.

Another plus for this system is the ability to power an air compressor with LNG, making the system very eco-friendly in that configuration. Much better than two-stroke emmissions so frowned on today. Even a 4 stroke compressor would be an improvement, say an extra quiet honda like on the generators?

I want this system to deliver a two-fold improvement, both a radical reduction of your weight as a climber in the tree, and a source of power for your trimsaw and loppers. I think my pneumatic chainsaw weighs like 3.5 lbs, and it has push button starting!

It will still be a double rope system, one to support your weight and power your tools, the other to control ascending and descending, both at the same TIP above. The control line can be used as a single rope technique with the appropriate hardware.

Is it the 21st century yet?

jomoco

 

[Metals406]

This system would only have a limited application, and in this embodiment, would only be used as a pruning system, a truly class 1 pruning system for large trees that's pneumaticly powered via the counterweight/compressor.

The same principle can be applied to a telescoping sign crane truck with an incline adjustable counterweight.

Another plus for this system is the ability to power an air compressor with LNG, making the system very eco-friendly in that configuration. Much better than two-stroke emmissions so frowned on today. Even a 4 stroke compressor would be an improvement, say an extra quiet honda like on the generators?

I want this system to deliver a two-fold improvement, both a radical reduction of your weight as a climber in the tree, and a source of power for your trimsaw and loppers. I think my pneumatic chainsaw weighs like 3.5 lbs, and it has push button starting!

It will still be a double rope system, one to support your weight and power your tools, the other to control ascending and descending, both at the same TIP above. The control line can be used as a single rope technique with the appropriate hardware.

Is it the 21st century yet?

jomoco

 

[jefflovstrom]

But Jon. If we are doing class 1 pruning, wouldn't all we need is a hand saw?
Jeff