Ground lead rigging

Tree09

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Feb 28, 2017
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Peoria il
As I just made it home, i was relaxing and decided to pick up the fundamentals again. I noticed a section on ground lead rigging, where you put a block at the base of the tree and run it over to another tree or vehicle or something. While i have done that to pick stuff before, and use my truck for pulling all the time, I've always rigged with either my homemade portawrap or homemade grcs thing but i could see the advantage of having that removed from the base of the tree.

So just out of curiosity because I'm obviously not doing anything soon, but how many guys here prefer rigging off a ground lead? Do you guys have special bumpers welded up, or use a mini with a bollard? A rigging device on a hitch? I'm finally to the point climbing where i can see the production advantages of using complex or large rigging to speed up a job, and moving forward i need to be moving in that direction. There will always be a need for my base of the tree rigging devices because of accessibility, but I'm curious if there's a better way to approach rigging on accessible jobs.
 
Is tensioning with a 3:1, such as with a speed line, it can help to keep all parts of the MA at ground level.

Part for the operator, and part to keep the run of the SP clear from getting hit by tree parts.




Lift and lowering, I've used a block at the base, with all the excess rope on the hood of the truck, anchored to the front hooks of the truck. Everything moves with the truck, backwards, and forward if driving forward to lower, rather than sliding rope through a Portawrap.
 
What page @Tree09? are you talking about negative rigging with a remote lowering device? Just any rigging?

We used two blocks on a spar recently and it worked great. Rarely use with a porty on a second tree, but have before. That can be super useful in some scenarios
 
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On the paperback copy i have, it's on page 26. I'm just wondering if anybody had this set up on a truck, where you just park and your rigging devices are set. Same with a machine, does anybody have rigging built on your machine where it speeds up rigging and makes it safer? With my chipper behind the truck would a front bumper or even a hitch mounted unit thing be the way to go?
 
My whoopie sling gets so little use these days, sometimes I don't even see it for a month or two.
I keep an old school porty permanently attached to read D-rings on bucket truck with large shackle and will switch out to the skid loader from time to time, suing a D-ring specially welded on the grapple bucket.

When the skid loader isn't on-site we often pull with the pickup. Either tie off to the front hooks or turn the pintle hitch upside down and tie off with a doubled bowline
 
I used my truck recently to lift a limb from the neighbor's yard up and over the fence into my yard. The limb was on a downhill slope, probably 20 feet lower than the base of the tree. The rope had to go over the chipper so I didn't use a base block.
 

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Your question reminded me of the cardinal rule of understanding the forces you might be applying to a vehicle with small contact patches under those tires!! I was driving home one day and a neighbor from around the other side of the next block was looking up and looking worried. I pulled over, looked up, and saw that her cousin, a steel erector had placed a steel cable high up in an oak tree. My eyes followed the cable out across the yard and as I drove forward I could see around the corner to a GMC Jimmy with its hind wheels off the ground! I backed away from the ill-leaning tree and got out.
The cousin and a buddy were positioning a pickup in front of the Jimmy and attaching it with a chain. I had the neighbor direct traffic away from one end of that block and I diverted folks from the other end of the street until they had it up over center and falling away from the electric lines and the road.
 
Is this what you are asking about?

Here is where we used 2 trucks for the job...mine to anchor a block, Alex's to pull.

We had to pull a tree away from a house...set a block where I needed the tree to go and ran the line to another redirect block thru the woods to my truck/block and then to Alex's truck on the street...got a good strong pull...had 3 "legs" of ropes zigging to get to the pull truck.

 
I sometimes set the porty on a tree outside the drop zone and run the line through a tail block so the groundie is more out of the way. Also makes rigging smoother as more rope is in the system. However, if lowering big/brushy limbs, that same line is something else to work around for the groundie.
 
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