Long but light branch equals big excitement for a newb

[Eric H-L]

We have a Maple growing over our garage. It is shaded by larger trees on all sides except the garage side. It has been sending so many branches in that direction that some of them crossed and are rubbing each other. I wanted to remove all the crossed branches but only had time for one yesterday evening. I picked the lowest one to keep it easy.


My plan was: butt tie the branch to a high natural-crotch rigging point with a portawrap locked off at the base of the tree. I wanted to use Jerry’s bender cut to ease the foliage end down to my roof gently, and then cut through the heavier end leaving it suspended from the rigging point. Then I was going descend and use a tag line to pull the branch off the roof from the ground as I lowered the butt.


It sort of went as planned with a few surprises.


One was the bender cut: The branch started splitting. I was out of the line of fire so I was not worried about getting struck by a barber chair type lever, but I was nervous that if it broke suddenly the foliage would slap my roof harder than I wanted. Through no skill of mine, it bent a little, split a little, bent some more, split some more and came down easy on the roof.


Next surprise was trying to lower the butt while I slid the tips of the roof. Somehow my angles of the butt tied natural crotch was holding the branch back from me dragging it. I ended up lowering the butt all the way to the ground first, then switched to dragging the piece off the roof. This worked Ok until the tips went over the gutter. It made an loud scraping noise, but fortunately no visible damage.


I have several more similar to remove.


Any ideas for ways to do this safer for me, safer for roof? Easier ways?

 

[Altissimus]

Safer sure but this easier you speak of ... quick example is the one I'm working now , codominate yellow Birch in good health probably fourty percent of limbs over roof plus a deck. Have two blocks ending at nice high rig point which puts everything out over the deck rail ... fly in the Oatmeal is I'm hesitant to butt hitch and send the lowest limbs pendulum so branch tips don't hit roof or deck rail. I'm planning on having someone hold and lower the line plus I'll use a short hank w small portowrap on my side just above the cuts as a control line , not everyday need , but two people drift line rigging have great control ... extra work but I guess will be easier really (so , trick question I guess), use of those cutting techniques that will trip work very slowly and or cut and hold by hand as well.

 

[Altissimus]

One I use a bit even alone is directional line out on the limb and a sling or two holding the butt of the cut piece , let's you swing the work away from stuff

 

[Eric H-L]

Safer sure but this easier you speak of ... 😂

 

[lxskllr]

You could do a simultaneous butt and tip tie. If the geometry works out, it could all be manipulated from the tree.

 

[Altissimus]

Another cheap easy is two points rigging sometimes makes big difference

 

[Eric H-L]

I just looked in Jerry’s book I did the bender cut wrong. I was doing top cuts instead of bottom cuts! No wonder it split.

 

[lxskllr]

Maple's pretty brittle. It's probably not the best tree to use it on.

 

[Treeaddict]

This thread is useless without pictures!!!😜.

Please, show us what you got!! The more, the better!

 

[Eric H-L]

This thread is useless without pictures!!!😜.

Please, show us what you got!! The more, the better!

 

[Eric H-L]

Ok, now that there is daylight I can take a real picture.

 

[lxskllr]

Your previous pic was a pretty close fascimile. Nice job assembling it :^)

 

[Eric H-L]

I have a new plan. Using pole pruner, standing on the roof and letting the leafy tips fall on the roof. Then limb walk out and cut manageable pieces, catch with a butt hitched sling and then throw clear oaf the roof. I wanted to do some fancy rigging but with my total inexperience and all the congestion above them, I can’t figure out how to tip tie and lift them or any of the good suggestions that have been made. I will crawl before I walk.

 

[flushcut]

Tip tie the limb to a high block down to a porty with a fiddle block set/GRCS/or some other type of lifting device, tie a butt keeper line to control swing/drop, lift and lower like a sleeping baby nice and gentle.

 

[SeanKroll]

Avoid working from a steep roof.

Don't overthink it.

A natural-crotch butt-tie, and a slightly tip-tied rope will do it.

No need to lift the tip.

If you find the slight tip-tie allows, slip off the butt-tie, and use it as a control line to pull the butt down.

 

[lxskllr]

Or maybe overthink it. You could have some fun with more exotic rigging. Looks like there's another tree just out of frame. How about flying them out on a skyline? Depends on your goals I guess. Max efficiency, max fun, or somewhere in between.

 

[flushcut]

Fuggit call in a chopper! Lol

 

[Eric H-L]

Avoid working from a steep roof.

Don't overthink it.

A natural-crotch butt-tie, and a slightly tip-tied rope will do it.

No need to lift the tip.

If you find the slight tip-tie allows, slip off the butt-tie, and use it as a control line to pull the butt down.

Sean, appreciate the warning about the roof. Trying not to overthink it! Do you mean like this?

 

[Eric H-L]

Or maybe overthink it. You could have some fun with more exotic rigging. Looks like there's another tree just out of frame. How about flying them out on a skyline? Depends on your goals I guess. Max efficiency, max fun, or somewhere in between.

Haha. Somewhere in between! I am not trying to make money on this but I do have competing demands on my time. Also max fun might get me hurt. Too bad you aren't around here! But seriously, Trying to maximize learning also. Getting too exotic might be not be a productive learning experience this early.

 

[Eric H-L]

Tip tie the limb to a high block down to a porty with a fiddle block set/GRCS/or some other type of lifting device, tie a butt keeper line to control swing/drop, lift and lower like a sleeping baby nice and gentle.

Definitely filing this away as a good technique for future adventures. Do you ever have problems with branches above the target branch interfering with the raising? I have zero experience. Strictly an armchair warrior. I saw in TCIA Best Practices: "A successful tip-tie lift requires pre-planning to avoid unexpected branch tangling...clear out the airspace above and below the branch and the intended travel path." Scared me off.

 

[SeanKroll]

Yes, basically.

I would typically butt-tie on the same branch. This would do more to prevent upward movement if the tip tie is not as far out a you might have thought or that cut limb interacts with other limbs in an unexpected way.

 

[flushcut]

Definitely filing this away as a good technique for future adventures. Do you ever have problems with branches above the target branch interfering with the raising? I have zero experience. Strictly an armchair warrior. I saw in TCIA Best Practices: "A successful tip-tie lift requires pre-planning to avoid unexpected branch tangling...clear out the airspace above and below the branch and the intended travel path." Scared me off.

Yes, but with lifting and dropping of the hanging limb it will usually snake its way out. Straight lifting of the limb usually doesn't get hung up but you can run into a situation where you don't have enough head room to lift it as high as you would like but you get enough height to clear the roof and with the butt line holding the drop it's easier to snake out. Clear as mud lol ?

 

[Treeaddict]

I work solo frequently and I’d probably limb walk, cut small and hand toss. 2 slings would be used if I HAD to do a larger piece. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SeanKroll]

Yes, basically.

I would typically butt-tie on the same branch. This would do more to prevent upward movement if the tip tie is not as far out a you might have thought or that cut limb interacts with other limbs in an unexpected way.

This rigging might want to swing the butt around near the climber. You can always use a tag line on the butt, pulling away from the climber who is cutting near the branch butt, while you are learning what to anticipate and mitigate.

 

[Eric H-L]

I removed one more branch on Saturday, trying Sean’s method somewhat unsuccessfully. It was a comedy of errors but thanks to all your advice over the years (and the small size) no injury, no property damage.
I learned a lot. After it was on the ground I measured and weighed it and found the COG. Hopefully this will help me in future estimates of these attributes. 3-1/2” diameter at the butt. 30 feet long. 82 pounds. COG 13 feet from the cut at the butt.

Mistake numero uno: I was going for slightly tip tied but I under-estimated the weight of the foliage. I wound up about one foot on the wrong side of the COG. Thankfully Sean had suggested securing the butt so that it could not rise. The very fact that I might miss the target balance point was a valuable eye opener that had not occurred to me. So I was mentally ready and had it strapped. When the butt started to float up I was disappointed but not worried. After measuring I think future similar branches if I tie right in the center of the length I should get slightly tip-tied goal.
What I think I did right: I had thought of limb walking to tip-tie the branch. I ended up using a throw ball instead. With my dodgy limb walking I can imagine I might have chickened out and tied it too close to the butt. (I did anyway LOL! but I could have easily put it out further had I known better) Throw ball install was faster, less energy and gave me a better visual on how far out I was setting my line.
Second thing I think I did right was choose a small branch and follow advice!
One other mistake/learning opportunity. I tried to pull the branch away from the roof while lowering the overhead rigging. Would have been much smarter/easier to get a volunteer to help.