I always say the Harken does not go out enough , lately we've used it some. Gaining experience and skill every time. We follow all the rules of course. One thing I'm in the habit of doing now is choking the right size sling around the trunk above the chosen spot to mount the Faceplate then hang it from the top welded fairleads , works like another person holding it. I can get the faceplate lined up just exactly perfect plus manage and tighten the strap all alone one person no problemos. Last job we Tirfored a large Beech whole away from house , gardens, and a sauna , big top and big stem. Missed our lay (nobody is perfect) , still a good shot but the top was downhill in a shit spot. Firewood part of the job. We had finished another Beech earlier where we used the winch so GRCS was on site. Big idea was we choke a sling and lead block up which didn't even have to be very high , made our longs and winch ed them uphill ...about twenty foot off the hill onto flat spot and crosscut it there where the Tractor could drive. Set up and winching was worth the time and effort , went pretty good. We will bust that move again for sure. Little things help big , any other ideas out there ?
For instalation; choke rig rope around tree higher then desired position of GRCS, rope around winch with straps in place loose, if you need to cut space in the tree you have done it previously to all this, lift winch into position and tighten.
Reverse order for release.
Now the "Visor Plate" , spent the sixty five bucks and have never used it .... just looking at it now covered in dust , like the faceplate is extremely well made.
I only have a non tailing homemade version i welded up and i absolutely love it. I wanna add a much better fairlead with rollers, and thinking about doing a big rigging bollard and winch setup on a little hand cart, walk it up to the tree, lean it up, winch it tight, and then I'm all set up for all sorts of rigging scenarios in one fell swoop. I use it often with a big right angle drill, and it's just pushing a button and watching it work, especially after i added a wheelbarrow tire as a self tailer on different mounts i use with it. A good way to add a mount is to weld on a receiver tube and then use the hitch mounted base, so you can move it around as needed for different jobs. So i built a hitch base for mine too, and I liked it so much i added it as a chipper winch. I built a crane thing on it to give it lift and for lifting/loading bigger pieces and things, but even without all that it's a decent winch for a smaller chipper and smaller outfit. If you set it high enough you can use a garbage can for the rope to go in, really helps managing line when winching stuff with a drill. If you have a log arch that lifts when you push down the handle it'll work great for pulling bigger pieces and logs too, lifting most of the weight off the ground and onto the wheels and gently setting it down when the line is slacked.
Think of it as a tugger or winch, cause that's what it is. Anytime you want to pull on a line it's an option, either for pulling trees over to the lay, tensioning rigging lines, hoisting, etc. In the tree it gives you many different rigging options that were unavailable or simply too awkward to use before, and it can move material on the ground as well, and do really good at it. You can use it to winch a climber up in the tree using a rigging line, just pull slack out of your climb line as you go up so you're protected and not relying on a rigging line for life support, so it's kinda like a poor guy's power ascender. Not as good as a dedicated one I'm sure, but a free ride is a free ride, and it can be used to pull you over on traverses too. Very handy on small crews so the climber can come down at will to help or take a break, and if you're out on a limb away from your tie in point simply add a block there to redirect the rigging line and you can come right back to where you left off. To get back on top of the limb easily stop high enough to lanyard in, remove the rigging line from your bridge and run some slack down, then either use a foot ascender or a foot wrap on the rigging line to lift your feet up to the block so you can just step up and you're back on top. If it doesn't have a cleat for locking it off (would the self tailer count for that?) just learn the simple towboat hitch and you can tie it off easily just using the capstan.
You can also rig up a rudimentary boom off of a tree for lifting, swinging, and loading stuff, I've done that on jobs before to use as a crane to load the logs and brush bundles right off the arbor trolley onto a truck or trailer, which could save you a trip if it's a smaller job and you didn't bring a mini or something, or even worse no access. Use the grcs as the load (or hoist) line if not booming up, or even as the luffing line and lower the hoist line with a different friction device if you need to boom up for what you're doing. You would be amazed at how well a little derrick rigged up with simple components can be, and with a grcs and a drill and ideally another friction device to raise and lower the boom you have all you need for a rudimentary crane, and with a chainfall or similar (masdam puller maybe?) you can even luff the boom under load (raise and lower it).
It's a similar technique as lifting a limb off of a structure, where you lift the tips with the grcs after rigging the butt up to hold it up and control it, and then pull it around with tag lines. The last 4 pictures are when i had to do exactly that on my house when i was sick, rigged it all from the ground and picked it up, swung it to an open area, then lowered it, easy peasy even when i couldn't physically do much at all. When I'm wanting to swing branches over a structure I'll do the same thing, and since you can lift up and take the weight you can easily control the position of the tips and lift enough to get past other obstructions like a chimney. Since it can raise limb tips you can also break off snap type cuts after the climber repositions into a safe location, and can even rock it back and forth by pulling and lowering a few times if it wants to hold on. Tag lines are also a huge help with this sometimes, and with 2 of them opposing each other you have total control of a limb. Another good trick when swinging leads like that is to clove hitch the limb where you want to tie it on the top, and catch the tips with the tail of the rope and let it just hang, sometimes even with a few speedline slings if you can't take it all at once. This moves the center of gravity between your 2 rigging points because you no longer have the leverage past the end, but rather at the end, so you sometimes don't even have to climb way out to make sure you're not gonna tip it on the structure.
I'm sure you know about using multi part line to make it swing far above its weight class, very handy on occasion. I'm sure you also know you can stand up limbs that would otherwise hit the structure. And I'm sure you know you can pull limbs up or together more for cabling.
I also suggest to continue rigging your regular friction device and running 2 rigging lines too since it gives you so many more additional rigging possibilities, i usually just use a 3 strand line on my portawrap and use crotches as redirects for less block setting where you don't need them, and use the portawrap line on the butts so it doesn't swing wildly and will hold the same angle of lean once it's cut. I only run both rigging lines through blocks if i would have to winch on both lines at some point (storm damage is about the only time, where you are going to lift both ends of something alternatively). A good example of different rigging is for guying when dealing with lengthy and overweighted limbs. If as you're climbing you think there's a pretty good chance of the limb you're going out on won't support your weight much further or might fail under rigging loads you can use the grcs to quickly guy the limb, which will allow you to continue working out to the tips. You would have the main rigging line (the one through blocks that you winch with) with you, and when you think it may be a problem you just tie it to the limb and have them come up on it, pulling the limb up where it's the strongest and making the load on the limb mainly in compression because the vertical force is transferred to the winch. You then can work the tips, either by the 2nd rigging line, natty crotch with a small line sent up to do it all right there, or cut and toss. If rigging is required further out from the guy and you think you might want to winch (you probably do) or just want to use the more efficient and bigger bend radius of the winch as a bollard (i rig off mine all the time) then when you set the guy you attach both rigging lines, winch up, then tighten the other rigging line on your friction device to become the guy, and then you still have your main rigging line to rig out the rest of the limb. When you're back far enough you can rig to swing the rest of the limb, and drop down to rig and cut the butt, and then get winched back up to your tip to go get the next one attacking from above. With a throwing hook you can often traverse a good portion of the way by the time you land on it, or set your srt redirects if needed to help get out there.
If you have your main rigging line with you it allows you to drift loads effortlessly with far less headroom because you can lift it over stuff rather than just paying out line and holding the other, something that was likely too difficult and awkward before. Rig the tip parts with a natty crotch line wrapped right there by the climber and held fast by the ground or tied off, cut and then have the climber take the line, then winch the load back to where your rigging block is, drifting the load by paying out on the natty line. The climber is right there at the end, where he's best able to sense the load on the limb and see the obstruction so he can best determine the tension that should be applied to miss stuff, and with a higher rigging point the lower limbs can be drifted above where it was cut from to compensate for it inverting from the butt catch, redirects on higher up limbs can help even more for this to provide lift with better line angles. Once it's over the landing zone the climber can undo the wraps, and while the ground crew is lowering and working the limb he can climb and get ready for the next cut. He then can pull the ends right back to him, or can hang the line over a stub so the ground guys can do it for him (which is faster and easier).
You can even terminate the lines on a shackle and use slings, i usually add a self locking hook for greater ease and speed, which you can get with an eye rather than the more common chain connection. Here's a picture, which is also handy as hell on the ground because you can use wire chokers for the ease of use and abrasion resistance, and both safely and very quickly attach a fiber winch line to them where the wire chokers won't abrade them. It's a quick and easy way to rig any rigging line you plan on using chokers with, and if you want to can even be used to choke the limb securely. As the loads go up for actual crane use i feel that using these kind of hooks are dangerous because I've seen them be damaged by the practice, i much prefer solid ones with non moving parts that will take that kind of abuse better (or just a shackle). But for grcs work it's not going to see a load that would hurt it, and the weight helps to toss it forward and get through the brush for attaching it where you want to.
Lately I climb with a mini port o wrap (gift from Mr. August Hunicke , still grateful !) and a small hank for drift line , really good control added , I tell the Ground "it gives me something to do"
Almost said that we are flexible and tip rig often , was also gonna say that the customers really seem impressed when we drift line , but none of us do it for accolades
I think this is the overwhelming general consensus, and I'll be honest that fact greatly confuses me. I know I'm spoiled coming from another trade, and the fact that I've have a crane or other lifting device readily available for pretty much every day of my career doesn't help, but the ability to lift stuff is a game changer. I get that most trees can readily be dismantled without lifting, that cut and chucking the tips works really well, and that going smaller to where the ground crew can pull it manually is often safer and easier, but to be able to lift 1k or more on a single line with no straining is an incredibly productive ability. I spent about a hundred on the winch and i set mine up on almost any tree i do, i can't possibly imagine spending thousands on a good one and having it sit. The self tailing abilities makes the grcs far better than mine, so it would be even more pronounced of an advantage, and with a simple heavy duty drill you have a powered tugger.
I understand that you can quickly get in trouble with what the tree itself can handle, you do have to watch for that. And the lack of a convenient high rigging point (especially at radius) is another limiting factor, if these issues could be readily mitigated i feel that a grcs could honestly almost compete with a crane.
Almost said that we are flexible and tip rig often , was also gonna say that the customers really seem impressed when we drift line , but none of us do it for accolades
Also @Tree09, I totally agree that a GRCS or similar could compete with a crane. It can go anywhere, crane, not so much. I just did my first crane removal on the 6th, after 20 years doing tree stuff. Meanwhile, I've done tons of lifting and moving and such with capstans, come-a-longs, rope jacks, and even a HiLift.
Funny side note, the crane that showed up on the 6th, was one I've worked under countless times, just never for trees. It used to belong to a local hardware store, and spend a lot of time flying trusses for me to set. Still has the old logo on the door.
There is a thread by Muggs over at The Buzz about replacing the winch strap for a 4" ratchet strap. Same working load as the winch but lighter and easier. There is debate about the security of the modification but it is something I plan on doing so once I make up parts so I'll post pics once I've made it.
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