Our New GRCS

[John Paul Sanborn]

I had an 70 ft bur oak yesterday that we were able to take apart with two Winches, one on an adjacent ash as a driftline. Some of the laterals were 30-40 ft long, and came off whole.

Thank God the landscapers were there with a skidstear, they made a road to get the bucket right under the tree. I would not have gotten the driftline block in w/o the bucket.

Even then it was a 6.5 hours of straight work. 2 blocks in the oak, and a redirect carabiner for final rig point.

One of these days I'll get remember the camera

The entire tree went over the neighbors house (rubber roof), deck, patio. The wind was blowing small cut & toss right at the wall of French doors. I spent the first 3 hours whining to myself that I was not going to get the tree done with that bucket,.

We were able to set 3 of the long tip-ties with a throwball and pull a running bo'lin up. With that, the drift line was too short, so we had to marry a second rope to it with a sheet bend so we would not loose it running up or through the block (I had a few spaz moments where one of the green kids tossed the rope w/o a stopper knot. I'd'a had'a move the bucket to reset )

I've not enjoyed a challenge this much in ages. This was actually a last minute add-on from the landscaper that morning

 

[Mike Cantolina]

We were able to set 3 of the long tip-ties with a throwball and pull a running bo'lin up. With that, the drift line was too short, so we had to marry a second rope to it with a sheet bend so we would not loose it running up or through the block (I had a few spaz moments where one of the green kids tossed the rope w/o a stopper knot. I'd'a had'a move the bucket to reset )

I've not enjoyed a challenge this much in ages. This was actually a last minute add-on from the landscaper that morning

What size block and rope? Do you tape the tail of the sheet bend? I haven't had to run a knot through a block yet.

Mike

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

What size block and rope? Do you tape the tail of the sheet bend? I haven't had to run a knot through a block yet.

Mike

That was a 3/4 inch spring block and 1/2 inch super stretch stable Braid

The reason for marrying the ropes is that the one used was not long enough to set the bo'lin that high.

figure that you have 4 legs while tieing the knot. Two up to the load attachment, one up, and one down from the rig point, each leg was over 45 feet.

So here the second rope was bent onto the drift line to retrieve it after running bo'lin was set. If I had just tied a knot, I would have had to move the bucket to retrieve the end from the block.

 

[tree MDS]

Thanks for the PM John, I'll keep that in mind. My next question is why did I get the rope wrapped all messed up a couple of times on the winch hub, it was like all tangled and rolling over its self. We allready figured I used too many wraps but any input would be helpful. Thing is cool but it still scares me a little sometimes, mostly because I'm not too skilled with it yet I think.

 

[TreeBot]

Thanks for the PM John, I'll keep that in mind. My next question is why did I get the rope wrapped all messed up a couple of times on the winch hub, it was like all tangled and rolling over its self. We allready figured I used too many wraps but any input would be helpful. Thing is cool but it still scares me a little sometimes, mostly because I'm not too skilled with it yet I think.

Sounds like you may not have had it through the fairlead.

 

[tree MDS]

Sounds like you may not have had it through the fairlead.

I had it going through the top fairlead, I would then take a series of wraps as tight as I could get them, then around that chrome thingy and finally finally into the self tailing deal there. Then I crank the leader up with it, take it out of the self tailer thingy and then ran it through the curly Q thing on the left side of the GRCS leaving 4 or 5 wraps on the winch hub because these were tip tied and but tied leaders and I didnt need the tip to run, just hold tight until the but line was taken off its stub. The thing that scared me was a couple of times the line started crossing itself and walking back towards the line where it goes up to the tree-if you know what I mean?

 

[tree MDS]

Getting the lowering line crossed on the bollard is a major concern with these lowering devices.

Something that can happen easily is that as the load is going onto the lowering rope some slack develops in the system and that first wrap can drop a few inches and as the full load comes online it sits down on top of other wraps locking up the system.

Quite often the load in the tree is right over the lowering device so extreme caution must be taken in these scenarios because a mistake can bring the load to the ground right on top of the operator.

Exactly, its some pretty serious $#!t. I was just watching an acemaster vid on u tube where they go back through the top hook on the left side after going through the curly Q thingy there. I wonder if that would help? Yeah some serious stress a couple of times last saturday with that thing, just trying to iron out the bugs though as that thing is the next thing really, I love it. The kid that I borrowed it from (I've had it 5 or 6 months now) stopped by yesterday and I was saying that I may have to buy it off him-he's like "well I never really use it anyway", wanted no part of money for it! pretty much just keep it I know where its at! Free GRCS??

 

[Blakesmaster]

Exactly, its some pretty serious $#!t. I was just watching an acemaster vid on u tube where they go back through the top hook on the left side after going through the curly Q thingy there. I wonder if that would help? Yeah some serious stress a couple of times last saturday with that thing, just trying to iron out the bugs though as that thing is the next thing really, I love it. The kid that I borrowed it from (I've had it 5 or 6 months now) stopped by yesterday and I was saying that I may have to buy it off him-he's like "well I never really use it anyway", wanted no part of money for it! pretty much just keep it I know where its at! Free GRCS??

Wish I knew more people like that! You lucky dog.