chipper winch speedline

[WoodCutr]

Any thoughts on using my chipper winch as a speedline straight to the chipper? choke winch rope around tree, pull slack out with the winch, I figure as long as its tight it cant physically get pulled into the chipper
or am I stupid? it seems to me like an ideal setup as there would be no rope on the ground to tangle like you have with a port a wrap, it cant pull more slack into the line since it has an 8 thousand pound anchor, and you can tension as much as you want (10K in my case, custom build)
also at some point I want to mount a bollard to my chipper as yet another lowering device, anyone do something like this?

open to input, going to try and do better accepting the fact its probably dumb as can be

 

[WoodCutr]

I should note, I have room for about 200-250ft of half inch line on my winch, currently have about 50ft on it, I will be putting a 200ft line on (probably stablebraid) to fill the drum so I have more layers/line speed
its rated at 38FPM with a full drum at 18GPM if I remember, not sure I have the right motor on mine tho, my chipper is supposed to be like 14GPM, if its the right motor im getting about 26-30 FPM I think, more like 10 right now with less line, not a fast winch by any means but rated at 10K so its enough to move literally anything on one of my jobs

 

[Marc-Antoine]

but rated at 10K so its enough to move literally anything on one of my jobs

Yes, like the top of the tree where it would be anchored for a zipline.
I know that you can adjust the tension but be carefull, with 10 klbs, the guy in the tree might not appreciate a slight error in the adjustment.
Though, I appreciate the idea to avoid the concern of the rope on the ground and near the chipper.
An other concern is the high risk to smack the chipper with the limb's butt. An other related one is the lack of possibility to quickly drop the load on the ground at the end of the slide (then smack the chipper).
It's just some thoughts, not experience. If I plan to tension a line with my chipper, that will surely flip it butt over head.

 

[WoodCutr]

Yes, like the top of the tree where it would be anchored for a zipline.
I know that you can adjust the tension but be carefull, with 10 klbs, the guy in the tree might not appreciate a slight error in the adjustment.
Though, I appreciate the idea to avoid the concern of the rope on the ground and near the chipper.
An other concern is the high risk to smack the chipper with the limb's butt. An other related one is the lack of possibility to quickly drop the load on the ground at the end of the slide (then smack the chipper).
It's just some thoughts, not experience. If I plan to tension a line with my chipper, that will surely flip it butt over head.

a few things to note
1: the rope isnt good for 10K (and the know weakens it allot more down to like 4K or so, broke this line once before, hence it being retired to winching duties)
2: with how slow the winch is, I think it would be extremely hard to break a tree, especially since you would have about 1-2 minutes of pull before its an issue
3: mine has a dog clutch, if its under a few hundred pounds I do believe it can be kicked into freespool rather easily if needed to drop a line but further testing needed
and im not worried about hitting the chipper, I dont speedline stuff very big normally, although its probably not a great idea to hit it in general
thanks for the input

 

[Altissimus]

I wouldn't do it , a guy here constantly used the winch (from his miniature log wagon) as a speed line , swore by it ....
Until a horrible accident , somehow the winch was drawn in which broke out the entire top it was fixed to also same top he was tied into. He hit the ground first and looked up to see the top landing on him .... woke up in the hospital later , lost weeks and weeks of work in Summer season plus eyesight on one side ...

 

[WoodCutr]

I wouldn't do it , a guy here constantly used the winch (from his miniature log wagon) as a speed line , swore by it ....
Until a horrible accident , somehow the winch was drawn in which broke out the entire top it was fixed to also same top he was tied into. He hit the ground first and looked up to see the top landing on him .... woke up in the hospital later , lost weeks and weeks of work in Summer season plus eyesight on one side ...

mmm ouch

 

[flushcut]

I would not use the winch as a speedline for the same situation posted above. It would eliminate any feel for the system getting to tight or being able to drop the load if need be.

 

[greengreer]

I won't use the winch for a speed line. Too hard to control tension and too slow to dump the piece when it gets into the dz.

If I can go right to the chipper I tie a small porty to the frame or a redirect if it requires mechanical advantage.

If I absolutely was going to use the winch to tension I would put a portawrap on the end of the winch line so the speed line could be released normally

zipped 3 white pines right to the chipper yesterday. No need for much tension on this one.

 

[WoodCutr]

If I absolutely was going to use the winch to tension I would put a portawrap on the end of the winch line so the speed line could be released normally

that would take up a good bit of length over the feed tray no? my idea would basically put the butts on the tray nice and easy and minimize lifting/dragging
im thinking, maybe take 2 or 3 wraps, maybe munter hitch around the steel carabiner on my winch line, run out 5ft of line, pull hand tight and winch into the fairlead (measurements not exact, gotta play with the idea and jobsite setup)
hold tension with munter while pulling, and since you can only hold so much by hand I doubt you would really be able to overload anything
the more I read the worse of an idea it sounds lol, I suppose it would take a while as well since the line pull is so slow, and unless im using aluminum carabiners it would dent/nick my fairlead

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Personally no. I am still thinking about welding some D rings to the back of the frame so In a pinch, we can speed line with a porty attached. Porty would be out a ways from the chipper on a leash so to speak. Still worries about rope being near the chipper I would have though. We have never really needed to. But I could see in an urban environment where it might be handy when you have less anchor points near your work.

 

[WoodCutr]

Personally no. I am still thinking about welding some D rings to the back of the frame so In a pinch, we can speed line with a porty attached. Porty would be out a ways from the chipper on a leash so to speak. Still worries about rope being near the chipper I would have though. We have never really needed to. But I could see in an urban environment where it might be handy when you have less anchor points near your work.

I have actually used a steel carabiner through the porty loop and clipped it to the safety chain loop on my bucket truck and just "dropped" the limbs right next to the chipper
I never like a rope near the chipper, so atleast a "tight enough" line is very hard to chip since there is no slack

used the winch for the first time today and I gotta say, takes a ton of getting used to, I wish mine spooled in faster since getting that line out of the way takes a while
atleast I dont speedline a whole lot since our trees and short and wide, now that I say it im going to get a 72 white pine job tomorrow lol
where are you thinking of welding rings? my feed tray is welded down (was bent and didnt want to shut or stay in place so I welded it) I could go on the outsides of it maybe?
ive thought about taking some chain or old rope and going through a rim on the chipper for the porty sling, chain wont damage a steel rim with the loads I would put on it

 

[greengreer]

You could weld an attachment point on your fairlead and just run the rope to that to get them in the table.

I get what you mean about tightening up to chip but then the climber can't be doing anything with the rope. I like to do big volleys (like 10-15 at a time) and then have the ground crew chip while I reset slings. Rope gets moved well out of the way of course.

In the pic we were zipping all the way, just staging them out a bit and he had already chipped what was close while I set up the top.

 

[Altissimus]

I would not use the winch as a speedline for the same situation posted above. It would eliminate any feel for the system getting to tight or being able to drop the load if need be.

Specialized equipment is ... , well , specialized. Winches winch.

 

[WoodCutr]

Specialized equipment is ... , well , specialized. Winches winch.

yeah, sounded like a good idea because well, my winch is in an oh so nice spot, and since its a worm drive it wont accidentally run out tension, but I can see it accidentally getting kicked on when someone goes for the crush cylinder lever since they are next to eachother, other issue is my winch valve is off a log splitter so it stays on due to long pull times and hand fatigue, also im pretty much the only one allowed to operate it since I built is and know its quirks. so it makes more sense to not have my groundies using it since none of them have touched it