Rigging Failures

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9/16 rigging line on a big drop and catch
9/16 rigging in a heavy pull situation, failed...apparently rope was mis used.......some jack ass pulled a truck out of a ditch with it and put it back in the rigging, they didnt use a porty
side loaded a block 5/8 failed, broke several 5/8 slings
but thats it, over 20 yrs thats not bad, i way overused my rigging in c city awhile back, turned my 5/8 into about 1/2 inch when it was loaded
now my rigging is bigger and placed real nice
 
tophopper said:
When you say "block hit the ground" do you mean the piece of wood being rigged down?

35'dbh is crazy huge. You cant really NB a piece much shorter than 2 1/2 to 3 feet either. Would you say now looking back that a bigger diameter bull rope should have been used?
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Yeah the piece of wood. We had been running them to the ground and stopping as the wood landed. Rope got a twist in it that I didn't see and jammed the piece about 2 feet from ground.
 
When I stated we used 1 inch polypropelyne ropes- broke a few of those. It was not up to the task. Then some 16mm double esterlron rigging out a beech. Big big bit of timber, 2ft by 12ft long. Groundie only had to put the lightest touch on it & stop it rolling down the banking. I took a severe kicking in the tree as he locked it off. Funnily enough he took a bigger kicking when I hit the floor. I presumed he was trying to kill me:evil:
 
Mr. Sir said:
Did you say anything, or just let them have at it?
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I think it's funny when this happens. I'll turn off the saw and just stand there watching as they pull and pull until their faces turn red and they start to get frustrated. Sooner or later they figure it out that I'm not ready for them to pull yet and they stop. But unless I let them figure it out on their own, they never seem to believe me when I just tell them "don't pull until I tell you to."
 
Broken the odd polyprop here and there, negative blocking on a shackle in the bad old days.

Broke a 14mm double braid, twice, on consecutive pieces......

Rigging down a big leaning pop for another contractor, I offered to bring my rigging kit, he said not to, he had his own gear.

Got to the top of the tree, set the pulley, pulled the lowering rope up, by the time I threaded it through the pulley the other end was off the ground.....

His lad had cut it and not told him, so he had to tie the two halves together to get it rigged down....

Then I started negative blocking the stem down, the tree leant over a listed wall, big money and big trouble if it got broke.

Got most of the way down, then when I was cutting a 24" ish diameter 3 foot ish lump the rope snapped like a rotten bootlace. Fortunately it held just long enough to swing the lump in over the wall, landed safely in the garden. Then I did exactly the same thing with the next lump.

My client was insistent on getting it done that day whatever happened, so I just cracked on. There wasnt much left of his rigging gear by the end of the day though! :lol:
 
I had a 5/8" bull rope break on me in Sanford, thankfully the piece landed inside the fence. The rope smacked me in the shoulder from the recoil and i had a nice welt,still a faint almost scar like mark on my arm. I should have said no because I knew it was a bad rope.
 
I haven't snapped a rope but I've broken out two rigging anchors (limbs failed) and had a sling slip over the gate of a non-locking biner.
As for human failure I forgot to slip the knot back above the cut after facing once, crashed into a streetlight wire.

Sort of related, I was natural crotching a hickory down in chunks and let my lanyard drop into the crotch without knowing... the rope burned it right in two.

Near misses... I was speedling a hackberry and a 9" x 10' doglegged piece whipped way out sideways and almost kagged my groundie... that was scary. A tip-tied doglegg piece on a tulip spun as it went on the rope and missed my face by less than a foot... it was big, I'm sure it would have killed me had I been closer. the sound was unforgettable.
 
I've pulled apart more cable highleading than I'd care to type about really. I've seen almst every imaginable break out that can happen. Highlead cable logging all over BC I've seen cables, stumps, trees, and machinery of all makes and manner pull and snap.

Couple wild ones. Mainline breaking right at the carriage and a motorized carriage screaming down some skyline til someone 'locked to sky' right as it blew up the spar tree at the edge of the block. I had a full view and help in the clean-up, re-rig of that one.

I've seen a skyline snap and zig-zag down a steep hill like a giant steel snake snapping small logs as it went.

I've had good-sized runaways comes so close to me you could damn near touch them as they went by and saw alot of close calls with other dudes too.

I know a handful plus of people that I grew up with and at one time or another were good friends with now who've passed working in the woods.

In the residential setting though, cloest I've come is pulling apart a 5/8" rigging line while using a wheel loader to pull over a giant cottonwood that was one of the hollowest trees that I've ever seen still standing. It was a calculated part of the job, and it was an old(ish) rope. It broke strands but never actually broke and the tree came over just as planned without a single cut being put in it. There was literally nothing to cut to form a hinge, the tree was wide open on the side it needed to go, you could've stepped inside of it no problemo.
 
No sh-t. Highlead logging is some nasty business. I've never seen a yarder actually tip over. But I have seen one mostly destroyed from a runaway while yarding downhill (yarder at the bottom of the hill/slope) a bad set-up and some questionable operating and big wood for the machine all lead to that mishap.

I rig some pretty nice sized pieces at times and have never had any rigging failure yet, trees don't really get too big around here, but I'm sure I push it a bit at times because cranes are prohibitive around here.
 
Never broke a rigging line or a rigging point in the tree. But in the woods, especially on the yarder, I've seen a lot of rigging break. It's normal actually and all in a days work. Pretty exciting and scary too. Always made for good BS over beers at the pub.
 
It is exciting if things get nuts, as long as you live to tell about it. I was always good at staying clear.

And I concur, it's a normal part of logging, but not really acceptable in residential work.
 
gf beranek said:
Never broke a rigging line or a rigging point in the tree. But in the woods, especially on the yarder, I've seen a lot of rigging break. It's normal actually and all in a days work. Pretty exciting and scary too. Always made for good BS over beers at the pub.
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Wow Squisher and Jerry, that would just scare the hell out of me.You guys are brave to experience it more than once.
 
I've seen some ropes snap, usually on pulling things like trees.
You get to know what it looks like before it's gonna pop.
We seperate our lines into pulling (red tape) and lowering (blue tape)

I've blown one major rigging spar, and I half knew it was gonna happen.
Subconsiciosly I blame the rope guy for hanging on it too long before dumping it.
Big piece, big swing, blew the rigging spar (codom),. No targets just had to clear the road.

I've seen people twist blocks up, usually includes the loader in the equation of why.

Seen folks snap some 3/4 inch ropes doing silly stuff like 4 and 5 wrap big wood false crotches.

Does glazing count or is that normal wear and tear?

Smoking ropes and peeling it off the hobbs.
 
Lol, smoke is normal wear and tear I think.

Just kidding, I've only melted 1/2" once, and now I mostly use 5/8"s for blocking down and 1/2" only for smaller stuff.

I'm guessing from some of the pics you've posted you've seen a failure or two!
 
That goes under the silly big wood 4-5 wrap stuff.
FWIW, the loader was pulling on that thing too.

The rigging didn't fail, the rope man did. I watched him throw the rope, Nothing broke but the water main.
HAHA. I love that picture. It's my supervisor, foreman and crew looking at it going "WTF DEVA!"
 
I broke a 14mm new Marlowbraid negative blocking a fat chunk of Beech that also pulled the whipping out of the double esterlon sling I was using for the block, nearly killed my old boss swinging out a Horse Chestnut top, I had a feeling it was too big and told him so, he said it would be OK so I made the cut and the rigging point failed, probably two feet across and it just ripped right out sending both top and load towards him, he was a little upset with that one. Broke a few ropes working in Oz, lost a ring of Euc when the cheap old rope broke sending it flying down the bank, bouncing once off the decking and landing in the pool.
 
I've had a tieback on one side break whilst hauling in a big tush. yarder and tower went clean over with me inside, threw me out the cab. Tractor powering the rig ended up hanging by its hitch with the back wheels 6ft off the ground.
 
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