What do you folks recommend for dead leaders with no collateral damage possibility?

I am sure the Samson should be fine...my biggest rope is Samson 9/16 Stable Braid...very good rope. Just used it for my biggest rigging recently. I'll post up some picts/vids when I have time to mess with it.
 
I whooped some 1/2 stable braid on the first job, thinking it was true blue and could handle NC rigging (back in the day).. the true blue, with a 30% less tensile, can take an unbelievable beating in NC rigging, giving you a lot more options to get creative in the tree, getting better landing zones with hybrid rigging systems etc.. As Raj mentioned for a pull line it also allows for storing energy in the line with pre-tensioning, which is a lot easier to judge when pulling with equipment... Stretch in the line is also a lot safer for dynamic rigging of big pieces. These benefits far outweigh the 30% less tensile

Sounds like a BROKEN RECORD eh?
 
I think I have almost every size in Stable Braid but the rope I couldn't wear out in natural crotch rigging is an old hank of 5/8" 3 strand I got.
 
Raj said:
Stretchy rope in a MA system sucks, IMHO. A good double braid is nice. Now stretch on a maasdam is nice, gives you just a little extra pull with no extra work when pulling over a spar or whatever.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I almost NEVER us MA systems anymore.. always use equipment... much easier to just step on the gas
 
I feel that the 1/2" rope is a little weak to pull with equipment, over all by "just step on the gas". The safety margin could be easily heavily reduced by the power of your trucks / skidsteer. Consider you can pull with as much force as the equipment weights (with the maximal grip on the ground), much more if you pull dynamically.

Oh, and don't stay anywhere near the tree when things begin to move. The dead wood chuncks could fly very far.
 
I don't worry so much about safety margins when pulling trees over... I like to keep things under the safety margins if possible but would much rather exceed a safety margin on a pull line than climb a dangerous tree... Note: it doesn't matter how much pull a machine can generate when the hinge is weak point.. the machine WILL ONLY generate enough force to trip the hinge, which will be well under the SWLL in almost all cases, if you know how to set up a hinge properly
 
I agree that breaking a well made hinge isn't a big deal with such a nice lever arm you get by tying the bull rope high in the tree.
But you have to fight against the tree's weight too, part of it at least. When you deal with heavy back leaners or wide asymmetrical crowns, that means a lot of force. And by your vids, it seems that the giant trees (for me) are pretty common on your market area.
You can add to those numbers the less than ideal rope pulling angle, which decreases the efficiency of your pull by a substantial factor, aka even more force to put in the game.

I feel comfortable with the twisted 1/2" mounted on the Maasdam rope puller, but not at all if I have to pull with my small van (3800 lbs). Even the 5/8" braided bull rope has only 2100lbs as a WLL. The breaking load is 15000lbs, so I can play a little, but still, it's a hair too short for my liking.
 
That's when I put two or three ropes in.. Don;t get me wrong.. I will definitely get out the bull rope from time to time... yeah like when pulling with a 28,000 lb truck... ANd I don't mind replacing the blue lines from time to time... they pay for themselves over and over..
 
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  • #36
I ended up getting 200' of New England Sta-Set through tree stuff. They had a 16% off sale on it. I haven't pulled any of the the leaners yet, but I got a chance to tie it high in a small ash and elm today. I'm pretty sure the ash would have gone where I wanted it to without the rope, but the elm was a different story. It went straight up for twenty feet then bent quickly to just shy of horizontal in less than 15' with the tip of the tree a full fifteen feet from the center of the tree. The neighbor was worried that if it went down in exactly the wrong direction it would hit his house, so I tied in to it about twenty five feet up, put an alpine butterfly mid way to the anchor tree 180° from his house, ran the rope through a shackle there then back up a steel carabiner in the butterfly and back to the anchor tree. Should have been 3:1 if my understanding is correct. It fell farther towards the lean than I thought it would, but still within ten feet of where I THOUGHT it would land. The ash we did the same, though I think I missed my mark by a foot 50' out.

The rope feels nice, ties nice, and untied nice.
 
Good stuff, Flash. Sounds like you worked a good plan...good accuracy, too. I almost always use a pull rope...good insurance even when it looks like everything SHOULD be no problem.
 
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  • #38
If there's NOTHING I can damage if it falls the wrong way I'll forgo the safety rope. Any other time, with ANY chance of hitting something I don't want hit, I'll throw a rope into it. If I'm by myself I'll pre-tension and lock the rope off. If I have help I'll have them pull tension. Most of the time my rope-less trees go within a couple feet of where I think they will, but those weird leaners or trees with more weight on one side still throw me off. It's definitely a job where experience is not something you can fake very well. I'd love to have the time and opportunity to get to the point where I could look at a tree and read it easily.
 
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  • #43
Three more ash trees down this morning. It's starting to look different around here. Still have the one that started the thread, but I'm cleaning up the little ones around it!
 
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