Gaffless Palm Climbers

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  • #51
I really hope you won't mind me fuggin about a bit more Stig?

I'm just tryin tu get a grip.......

Jomo
 
lol Jim. I once told an ol orchard owner I'd help prune his trees for letting me hunt his place. He asked if I ever pruned apple trees before. I told him no but how hard could it be once you get'em on the ground. He didn't think it was funny.
 
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  • #56
Lots n lots of wannabe climbers hair out on SoCal's most famous iconic trees.

I'll never forget peeling butt wraps off wash fans on the beach of Coronado, when a huge C135 cargo jet came in low to land on North Island, dang wash off that thing bout blew me outta the tree!
 

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  • #58
Just like a lineman, gaffs n lanyard.

The city's palm contract entails some 4.5K street trees, and the company I've subbed for the longest, had that contract for two decades.

My longtime friend Brian did them with a bucket, averaging 45 trees a day.

Taking over for him when he took vacations was not something I enjoyed, I hate buckets!

The hairy ones are up there 80-90 feet, way over a 50 bucket, and you can see the old gaff trails goin up the high side!
Lots of veterans say fug that. My trick was tyin the trunk to the bucket fully extended to add a bit more stability! Kinduva big no no, but it made me feel better gaffin up to a head forty feet further up!

The only wash fans I've seen fail were planted on bedrock with a thin layer of topsoil that went over roots n all.

There's a reason palms are one of the few trees left standing after hurricanes. They are amazingly tough.

Jomo
 
Ok right, there's some big ones on Sunset Boulevard if I remember Beverly Hills Cop rightly.

Plenty of cherry pickers here to 30 meters.
 
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  • #60
Yeah, but hundred foot bucket's are relatively new in the tree industry Mick.

I believe my brother's got one in LA at United Pacific Company.

http://www.united-pac.com/treeservice.html

Most mature wash fans get removed due to gaff trails up the highside IME.

Jomo
 
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  • #61
Where the rubber meets the trunk!

Hankook no less!
 

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The stick and rope climbing technique that Jay posted is called Burinawa. I've played with it and it works very good. No special sticks are needed as the rope squeezes the tree when weighted.
 
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  • #63
It's a somewhat bizarre feeling having both feet tethered to the trunk, I assure yu!

My first few steps upward were done wearing flipflops, and were smooth n easy enough, but destroyed the rubber grommets in fairly short order. My new old tire square grommets will have to survive testing in my Wesco's!
 

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  • #64
Looks as though I'll be testing both my Palm Stepper's and ARP7 tomorrow in real trees wearin real boots.
 

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  • #66
Well today's tests were both humiliatin bitter stingin failures!!

Palm Stepper's 3 inches short of girth to wrap all the way round a peeled wash fan!

But what really stung was the ARP7's pistol handle dislocating on the first heavy 50 lb load, swiveled back to the point I couldn't reach the trigger, so I held the load left handed, sheathed my handsaw, then used my right hand to reach down n pull the trigger, releasing the load safely over the DZ 70 feet below me.

Test two'll be different I assure you! That rubberized AK47 grip is excellent, very easy n comfortable holdin that load despite the malfunction, which has already been sorted.

The spar with my rope in it's where the head being caught dislocated the handle from proximity to the trigger.
 

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50 lbs ?
And a top ?
I know that's for testing, but you'll have some trouble to mend your wrist with such a load.
You know the human mind, if something allows you to go bigger, faster, heavier, whatever ... as easily as previously, you go straight to the maximum allowed (and often more).
Here, the limiting factor is what you can handle without too much pain.
You designed a user friendly device which allow you to reduce the pain and the tear on the wrist. Good idea. But be sure that the average load taken by somebody will increase drastically, directly to a painful and armful level.
I know very well that's what I would do in a day to day work.
Humans aren't known to be reasonable.
 
You should open a new thread, a "Pistol Grip Wrist Saving Arborist Tool 2" to continue the story about this one.
 
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  • #69
Yeah well, I was tryin to break the ARP7, and it broke. Major design flaw on my part, now fixed n sorted.

I will start a new thread Marc, on the ARP8 Aluminum model with bait casting reel n twin triggers.

Today it's getting another 3-4 inches of girth outta me palm steppin gizmos!

Didn't even get off the launchin pad yesterday!

Jomo
 
Regarding spiking palms, here in Las Vegas there are loads of palms. Some of them have been spiked for years and they are kind of scarred up. Doesn't seem to be anything the tree can't heal.
 
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  • #71
Didn't know palms could heal themselves.....

Jomo
 
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  • #73
No It's a monocot thing!

Monocots are incapable of forming callous tissue period.....

Al Shigo told me so!

Jomo
 
The vid you mentioned, Stephen. He also carries a stick with him when using climb line methods, using it for his perch when topping, etc. An ancient method. The guy has a personal policy about not using gaffs, even for removals. Nice guy super climber.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hdjCNg1QTM4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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  • #75
Lengthened and ready for launch!
 

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