I have now pulled down eleven trees in my project and seven of them were leaning
in the wrong direction where I had to pull back past vertical to make sure of falling in
the right direction.... The largest tree so far was about 18 inch diameter at the base.
I am using the Wythe More Power Puller and 3/4" shackle for mid line connect between winch and the pull line. see pics attached. Here is shown
my 1/2" Stable Braid by Sampson at full tension using 2 to 1 mechanical advantage
pulley on the Wythe Puller. Full max tension being my full strength on the winch handle. ( the Wythe people advertise 3 ton lift and 6 ton drag capacity for the device but I really dont know how that translates into real world tension )
The shackle pics show the reduced diameter of the rope under tension (input) compared to loose. ( dangling end) I spent a lot of money ( for me ) for this rope and I intend to take good care of it and will try to minimize tying any knots in the rope so as to not introduce weak points in the rope.
It turns out that back up knots have not been needed with the shackles as the rope seems jammed pretty well in the shackle when tensioned, but it is very easy to unscrew the pin and the whole knot assembly falls right apart. It is possible to thread the rope loop through the hoop a second time ..... ie there is plenty of space in the hoop but there is sufficient grab with just one pass through the hoop.
Regarding backup knots in this application, if there ever was any slippage, the connection would only slide down the rope. Never could there be a chance of coming undone. One of the reasons I want to avoid the use of knots in my rope is I now realize a lot of guys are using much bigger ropes than this 1/2 inch rope to pull trees down with so I will likely exceed the working load limits of the rope since it is smaller and I dont want to weaken the rope unnecessarily by tying and untying knots in it.
The rigging of the shackle is simple and quick as there are not too many different ways you can thread a loop of rope into it before you attach metal hook to it.
