what happens when a chipper feed wheel grabs a half inch rope?

[rebelman]

I was watching an old video of a coworker swinging around, and realized the chipper is idling, with the intake wheel turning, and his climbing rope was flipping around very near the chute. I was wondering what happens when the hydraulic feed wheel grabs a rope. I'm sure this has happened somewhere, and stories might save me some experiments.

 

[jmack]

I was watching an old video of a coworker swinging around, and realized the chipper is idling, with the intake wheel turning, and his climbing rope was flipping around very near the chute. I was wondering what happens when the hydraulic feed wheel grabs a rope. I'm sure this has happened somewhere, and stories might save me some experiments.

its even better when you watch in horror cuz its your line and da groundie dont see it going in. However, I also wondered what would happen, seeing as how I would be directly effected .. short tug , and when the rope hit the blades it cut and released the line, the line was still swinging, but at this point it was too short to go in again, i must admit the useless yelling or attempted yelling above the chipper drone was refreshing. I got one about the whisper chipper but its off topic, not mention gory. j

 

[PTS]

What happens is I get really pissed and someone gets fired after they buy me a new rope.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I was working a job one day when an old classmate came buy and said hi.
He told me had was doing tree work until an accident had scared him out of the business.
He had just come out of the tree and the groundmen were dragging the last of the brush to the chipper and he went black.
One of the limbs hooked his rope and took it into the feed chute. It instantly pulled the rope completely through the chipper. A loop was around his ankle, which pulled him off his feet and knocked him out.
It then dragged him about 20 feet before it pulled free and left him laying there.
Had it held on, it may have pulled him into the chute, who knows, maybe ripped his leg off.
In a tree, a climber might be pulled hard enough to break off the tie in point.
Half inch rope is very strong. Cutters on the chipper drum, both auto feed and drum chippers, have enough clearance to pull the rope through with out cutting it, and at a very high speed.
Also, consider the inertia of the flywheel, the RPM of the drum, and the power of the motor. My guess is it would take about 2 seconds to eat up a 120' rope.

 

[arboralliance]

Well...

As a sub-contract Arborist I was called in to climb and dismantle a 150 + year old Oak that had split in half in a storm and was perched very precariously on a few heritage listed buildings which we wanted to avoid damaging further...

I set a very high safety line in the remaining standing half and proceeded to move around the tree setting up 5 or 6 rigging lines to pre-tension the half lying on the roofs...

When all the lines were set I proceeded to dismantle the half tree on the roofs using friction drums and multiple rigging points to lift and slew pieces of log and limb from off the roofs...

Approximately 2 or so hours into the dismantling I was way out on one of the limbs over the roofs and felt something jerking at me and the limb, when i looked back at the chipper running flat chat (a 14" Auschip, disc, twin in-feed roller model) I noticed an unusual pile of debris forming from debris being shot from the chipper shoot, I then realised one of the rigging lines had been fed into the chipper and this line was attached near me in the tree, one of the groundies quickly reversed the in feed rollers when i whistled and informed them but a large pile of nylon fluff was sitting on the ground atop a pile of Oak chips and one of the companies rigging ropes was considerably shorter...

I thanked God it wasn't my life line or MY rigging rope, and am sure they did also...:hmm3grin2orange:

(There was allot more than a simple whistle and a yoo-hoo going on to get them to wake up and realise what they were doing...)

 

[treebogan]

I've had my rope fed into a chipper

Years ago i was working in the Uk doing mostly street Tree Pruning at the time.I was climbing on three strand rope and had finnished the required pruning and was decending the tree,unable to desend all the way to the ground due to the height of the tree I had stopped half way and was desending off a large branch when I saw my groundie marching to the chipper with a bundle of brush including my rope!Screaming at him to stop he didn't hear me and into the chipper went my rope, it pulled me out from the stem and pulled the climbing rope "twanging tight" before the chipper (Vermeer 625) stalled.Unwilling to cut the rope at my end less it zip through my friction hitch one of the boys cut it at the chipper and quite a ride resulted!Needless to say that was the groundies last day!

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Wow, you are really lucky they weren't running a bigger chipper!

 

[l2edneck]

Bad Things

Way back when i was a newb groundie(way way back)I almost did it.In a hurry try to just crank out the work to keep up with my climber.Scared the hell outta me.Needless to say,when im climbing around a chipper i make sure they know before it gets fired up.

 

[Canyon Angler]

Sounds like another good reason to use brightly colored ropes. Yikes!

 

[CRN Tree]

Just last week I was in a very large pine. I felt something pulling on me I looked down and saw one of my ground-men pulling a large limb towards the chipper with my climbing line wrapped around the end of it. And yes all the yelling and the whistling won't help a bit. Lucky my dad noticed it and stopped him before feeding it into the chipper.

 

[daveyclimber]

Sounds like one more good reason to wear a hard hat. I have thrown mine at ground guys numerous times to grab there attention when I see the ropes getting tangled in the brush about to be fed. Chunks of wood work well to grab attention as well

 

[minny]

Sounds like one more good reason to wear a hard hat. I have thrown mine at ground guys numerous times to grab there attention when I see the ropes getting tangled in the brush about to be fed. Chunks of wood work well to grab attention as well

THE most important part of a groundman job is don't kill the climber.
THE most important part of a climbers job is don't kill the groundmen.
SAFETY FIRST.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

When I'm working close enough to the chipper that ropes could go into the chipper, I carry the tail of my rope in the bag, clipped to my saddle. Then I stay tied into a different branch than my lowering rope, so if it does go through, I'm not tied to the limb that gets torn off.
I also have a strategy to cut my rope before it goes into the chipper. When I see it about to happen, I draw my handsaw, step on the rope and prepare to cut.
I tell my guys, if my rope is touching a branch that is touching the chipper, I go home for the day, paid. And if it's after noon, the next day is a paid day off too.

 

[CRN Tree]

I hope that means they get the day off with out pay

 

[lawmart]

this happened to me with my drop line. 1/2 inch double braid. 150' . I was in the tree about 50 feet up over the garage . roped down a piece, ground guy drags it to the chipper but the brush grabs it and it got pulled in.
I use a morbark #13. all you hear is a swoosh and and the rope is in the chip box. it happens so fast that you cant even see it go through. The rope was never cut in to pieces it had marks ever 2 or so feet from the knifes.
there was a bit of yelling after that. Scared the living s**t out of me .

play safe
lawmart

 

[jmack]

I was working a job one day when an old classmate came buy and said hi.
He told me had was doing tree work until an accident had scared him out of the business.
He had just come out of the tree and the groundmen were dragging the last of the brush to the chipper and he went black.
One of the limbs hooked his rope and took it into the feed chute. It instantly pulled the rope completely through the chipper. A loop was around his ankle, which pulled him off his feet and knocked him out.
It then dragged him about 20 feet before it pulled free and left him laying there.
Had it held on, it may have pulled him into the chute, who knows, maybe ripped his leg off.
In a tree, a climber might be pulled hard enough to break off the tie in point.
Half inch rope is very strong. Cutters on the chipper drum, both auto feed and drum chippers, have enough clearance to pull the rope through with out cutting it, and at a very high speed.
Also, consider the inertia of the flywheel, the RPM of the drum, and the power of the motor. My guess is it would take about 2 seconds to eat up a 120' rope.

sounds like i got off lucky!

 

[Sprig]

Holy carp!!!! This sort of thing makes my hair stand on end and creates bad images, scares the pants off me. Not just the fact of what'd happen getting sucked into a chipper (death or worse), but just getting yanked around, or tangled, or in the bite of a snapping rope,or, or, or, bloody ghastly! I have several friends who use these machines day-to-day and have pointed this out to them since reading this thread (and a couple of the fatality ones too), lights of awareness dawn. It seems to me such a simple mistake to make if you're in a hurry and not paying real close attention to the climber's lines, and though it might save a few steps I think having a chipper running close to the drop zone seems a foolish practice if someone is out on a limb up top. Just my thoughts, the whole thing creeps me out as did the report of the stumper fatality posted the other day, that poor soul. Spinning wheels and ropes of any sort, a very bad combo.
That said and off my chest (didn't feel better tho), work safe gentlemen, be aware of potential accidents before they happen your family and friends will thank you everyday.
My early evening blathering opine.

 

[frashdog]

My buddy had a groundie throw his line in a chipper, while he was in a tree. Quick action with handsaw saved that day.

 

[treebogan]

Rope eaten in bag

I once heard and saw the after effects of a 100' bull rope after it went through a 18" Vermmer.I had dropped a top out and after the groundies had dragged it around the house to the chipper heard a funny clanging sound,like it had dropped a blade.I rapped down and saw the boys with a funny look on their faces and the chipper was running fine,they had caught the bagged rope with the top and it went through the machine!At worse a loop could have caught one of their legs and at best a novel way to clean the inside of the chipper chute.The rope was all chopped to bits and it took some explaining to the boss.Lessonut all the gear back in the truck or out of the drag path.

 

[Pollock777]

Chuck and Duck

I hadthis happen about 10yrs. ago new guy was feeding the chipper. Ground guy had to go to the bathroom new guy tring to show he's doing a good job he was working at a fast pace. Through the branch in with the rope. A V-8 ford with a 16in. wide wheel 200ft. of rope GOOOOONNNNNEEEEE!!!!!!! It took 3hours to cut all the rope out I honestly though we were going to have to pull the wheel out. Know one got hurt the rope can be replaced. It was a good day everyone went home safe. And the new guy is now my right hand man. Live and learn. The main thing is no body gets hurt and evrryone goes home to thier loved ones. TONY