Think you've rigged big wood?

[rbtree]

It twarn't even a son of a beech, there, young Jedi Warrior...It was a scrubby plum.... and one lead survived.....

 

[mistahbenn]

Cool. Good job Sensei.

 

[RegC]

Great job Rog. I'd have moved the rigging block down a log length down after the first section came off. So you wouldn't later have to rig the heaviest lower sections off the thinnest part of the spar tree. You couldve wraptored up there in a minure or two....no need for Pat to move. Turns out you didn't have to, but I wouldve just for a little extra piece if mind.

Lot of tension in Pats voice....understandably. Has he done much crane work ?
find those who have are much more at ease with big wood swinging around.

Great that you were able to capture such a critical situation for others to see. One to remember for sure.

What I really want to know is, if you hadn't underbid the job would you have done it the same way ?

Again, great job....your decades of experience really shining.

 

[Pelorus]

Enjoyed watching that, Roger.
Glad it turned out ok. It is discouraging to underbid something and not be adequately compensated for the risk + effort involved.
I find that one or two really technically challenging and difficult jobs in a year is more than enough satisfaction for me. Am approaching 30 years climbing now. I've completely lost any craving for adrenalin rushes or roller coaster amusement park rides.
Dave

 

[biggun]

Good work.

 

[pantheraba]

Good tip, Reg, on lowering that block on the gin pole. Little tips like that get read and used "out here".

 

[Levi]

Incredible work Roger, thank you for sharing.

 

[rbtree]

Interesting thought, Reg, but we really needed height...It was the lack of it that caused the problems with the first pick...not enough lift...AND, as I'd directed Pat to move the tie point down to at give us some height and a slightly better line angle, I then realized that he needed to make the cut lower to assure that the piece would be butt heavy. That made it a 21 footer.....and aggravated him due to me not thinking ahead about it. No, Pat has little crane experience, or in rigging heavy loads.... and he doesn't know how to use the sights on a saw...was making his cuts backward to the rigging point, not what I would do....further, /I didn't realize that I'd sent him that ported 357 with one side a tad dull--which further frustrated him.

On FB, Paul Cantlay and another obviously knowledgable rigger commented that the static line got shock loaded way too much...and I'm pretty sure they are right. It is not supposed to be shock loaded, and I know that, but thought we'd be OK..

The rigging sling I used was also a bad choice, being spectra. It melted a fair bit..too much for my liking! I should have brought a big sling that I had Dan Trawl make for me years ago...it is polyester 12 strand, done in a massive looking individual tuck splice, is about one inch, so probably rated at well over 30000 lb...and wouldn't have melted much if at all. (The other double braid spectra core sling that handled the butts came out unscathed....

 

[RegC]

Interesting thought, Reg, but we really needed height...It was the lack of it that caused the problems with the first pick...not enough lift...AND, as I'd directed Pat to move the tie point down to at give us some height and a slightly better line angle, I then realized that he needed to make the cut lower to assure that the piece would be butt heavy. That made it a 21 footer.....and aggravated him due to me not thinking ahead about it. No, Pat has little crane experience, or in rigging heavy loads.... and he doesn't know how to use the sights on a saw...was making his cuts backward to the rigging point, not what I would do....further, /I didn't realize that I'd sent him that ported 357 with one side a tad dull--which further frustrated him.

On FB, Paul Cantlay and another obviously knowledgable rigger commented that the static line got shock loaded way too much...and I'm pretty sure they are right. It is not supposed to be shock loaded, and I know that, but thought we'd be OK..

The rigging sling I used was also a bad choice, being spectra. It melted a fair bit..too much for my liking! I should have brought a big sling that I had Dan Trawl make for me years ago...it is polyester 12 strand, done in a massive looking individual tuck splice, is about one inch, so probably rated at well over 30000 lb...and wouldn't have melted much if at all. (The other double braid spectra core sling that handled the butts came out unscathed....

I see. Probably the 2 poles were further away than what they appeared on camera too. I think you moving the tip tie down like you did was a good thing anyway....and the butt tie would've stopped it flipping even if you'd gone a little too far. Orchestrating such a job from the ground was probably more stressful that being up there doing the cutting Id imagine. Good learning curve for Pat.

In case you missed it earlier would you have gone smaller had the job not been underbid ?

 

[Limbrat]

I'm probably looking at it all wrong Roger but one thing I didn't understand was the purpose of the butt section being lowered on the climber's tree after the GRCS on the spar tree got in a bind, seemingly putting more load on the GRCS after it had slid up. It seems you'd want to hold as much weight as possible on the climber's tree to at least give you a small amount of relief to fix the GRCS. I'm sure you didn't like being under a log of that weight, especially not knowing what might happen with the GRCS or rigging that may have never been tested under that kind of load. What did you do to fix the GRCS problem?
I also have no idea about saw logs out there. I guess they will saw that into twenty foot boards?

 

[murphy4trees]

why would you ever put that log truck down hill from a drop like that??? The guy that picks up my logs would have been parked half way down the street... GUessing you had to pick up the downed wood before the final drop, but it does have wheels, pretty easy to move... Between that and taking out the plum limb, you best be careful.... you only get so many small mishaps before the big ones come...

 

[rbtree]

I'm probably looking at it all wrong Roger but one thing I didn't understand was the purpose of the butt section being lowered on the climber's tree after the GRCS on the spar tree got in a bind, seemingly putting more load on the GRCS after it had slid up. It seems you'd want to hold as much weight as possible on the climber's tree to at least give you a small amount of relief to fix the GRCS. I'm sure you didn't like being under a log of that weight, especially not knowing what might happen with the GRCS or rigging that may have never been tested under that kind of load. What did you do to fix the GRCS problem?
I also have no idea about saw logs out there. I guess they will saw that into twenty foot boards?

You're exactly right, Limbrat..... I often don't thi9nk clearly under pressure....I think that pick was the one that I noticed the wraps starting to cross over, and I was worried they'd bind up, so I took a wrap off, which meant I couldn't hold the piece.... thanks for noticed what I know I did wrong, and should have pointed out. In fact, relative greenhorn Robert on the Portawrap did recognize what was happening and did hold his end until I yelled, like an idiot.

The sawmill will take 12 foot logs, but pays less for anything under 16'8"... more for 26-30 and more even for 32-40 and more as the end diameters go up. Max possible for these knotty logs was $510 mbf, not very good.

 

[rbtree]

Daniel, I questioned Rick on that exact concern. He needed to be where he was to load the logs.... and likely didn't want to be behind the back lean. He had protected the trailer with a log laid at an angle on it...and must have thought the top would be OK. He said and planned to use his boom as a shield...and did, but it was almost not enough! He was surely surprised by how fast the log ricocheted downhill! Phew. As well, the pull line was too short...which is why I had to add another line when I moved the redirect block back to a properly sized tree.

 

[Limbrat]

You're exactly right, Limbrat..... I often don't thi9nk clearly under pressure....

That makes a bunch of us Roger! Thanks for the info about the logs, very interesting

 

[Jed]

Sheesh Roger... just caught up with the vid! Wow! Better you than me sir! Dang hard way to get saw logs imho. Wow! Man, I've never done anything like that, and thank God for it. Crazy huge... Looked insane fun though.

 

[chris_girard]

Great job on a very BIG wood rigging Rog.

I have rigged trees in this fashion before (though not as big as that). I no longer use the GRCS as my main lead tip-tie lowering device because of the line jumping and binding the wraps as you almost had happen. I now only use the Hobbs H2 Lowering Device (which has never jumped wraps) and the GRCS as my butt-tie lowering device, instead of a Porty. Also, by pre-tensioning the GRCS, you can lessen the shock load on the tip-tie line as the piece comes over. Also I try to face up the notch to as close to the angle of the lead line coming from the adjacent spar pole and leave a big hinge.

I do crane work 2-3 times per week, so I don't mind rigging big overhead pieces, but I'm really impressed by the size of those logs that you took on a wooden spar pole. Great work!

 

[Pfanner man]

fun looking job, exciting challenges, good stuff, got my trigger fingers all itchy looking at this