swinging some gum - sliding tagline

pantheraba

pantheraba

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There was some talk about a sliding tagline in another thread...I reckon that is what I used today to float some sweetgum chunks. I have been piecing out an 85 foot gum near my house...the roots are starting to cause problems with brickwork, plus I HATE sweetgum balls.

We needed to keep the chunk from crashing into the belay tree and used a sliding tagline to control the butt. Alex ran the portawrap and the tagline...the tagline had a couple of wraps around a small tree to give the tagline some friction as the piece dropped. This is the 2nd piece. We took 3 pieces with this method, last one was about 9 feet long.

The trailer at the end is what we did for fun before I went up to set the rigging.

IMG_3729-2.jpg IMG_3728-2.jpg
 
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And here is the video of the tagline at work.

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Wahhooooooooo :lol:
The kiddo looks like he was having a great time at the end there.
Looks like Alex was getting the hang of it after the log whacked your perch pretty good. Maybe another porty or a rescue 8 instead of wrapping a tree would have given him more running control.
I lean toward operating the tag line myself from aloft in situations like that so Rob can work the chucks better, not having two ropes to deal with.
I will use the small or medium porty or the rescue 8 up top. Soft lock it until I can push the chunk out after the cut or over..
Just smooths it out some and working tandem in that manner with a groundie you can set something into a pretty tight area. Frees groundie up for a lift if necessary also.
Not criticizing my friend. The landing was awesome. :)
 
That last piece was all over the place.

Sometimes I throw on a tag line that is half hitched to the trunk to slow the piece down. Sometimes I run that line other times I just let it slow it down on its own.
 
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Old Monkey said:
Sometimes I throw on a tag line that is half hitched to the trunk to slow the piece down.
Click to expand...

WHERE do you half hitch it to the trunk? Just below the cut? My initial thought was to do just that but I didn't want the tag line wrapped and running near my spurs...figured having it captured in a link would control where it stayed.

An 8 would have been a more consistent friction source for the tag line, true...haven't done that yet. I'll try it on something small sometime.
 
Nice!
Nothing like total trust in your dad'd loving care like that... Put a big smile on my face..

Oh ya, and watch that side loading...

(is that the same video they are talking about above?)
 
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Hahaha, John..seems like it...after work it ends up getting too dark too soon.

10-4, Murph, on the side load. If the tagline had run more it would have smoothed out the side load. We'll work on that.

We will also have to get Hayden a proper harness and helmet...he's starting to like the ropes.
 
didn't look like much of an issue there, BUT.. side loading can KILL YOU! Just not a good habit to develop... when rigging down a spar (negative blocking) the shock loads can get out of hand in a hurry.. the math is scary... combine that with side loading and party OVER! The remote tree looked to take most of the shock on your video, and having two lines greatly reduces the force on any one tree... so you were good..
 
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Got it...thanks for the input. The top and first few pieces were negatively blocked and caused almost no motion when their fall was arrested..but the larger pieces did start causing more oscillations than I wanted, even when they were allowed to run some. So, we went to a remote belay point to transfer the shock to another tree. The idea was to slow the piece as it traveled towards the anchor tree. I think the tagline belay needed less friction...we'll "8" it next time, see if that helps.
 
So Gary, do I understand right what you are up to...with the rigging point overhead and off to the side, the load wants to swing a lot, so you have a tagline on the removal tree attached to the log to control the log, but not catching its energy much...a control line that goes through a friction point to allow some slide to prevent collateral damage.

A chest harness might make that a bit better, until a regular kid's full body harness. Looks like a blast. To be a kid again...
 
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  • #13
Yes, right on all counts...most importantly...yes to the chest harness. I was very aware that if he inverted with no chest straps there could be a problem. I was watching that waist part of the Swiss seat closely to be sure it stayed over his hips...plus it is helmet time, too.

Yes, the main purpose of the tag line was to minimize a large pendulum swing over towards the belay tree (it was off the side approx. 12-15 feet) and to prevent collateral damage to the belay tree (though it is a gum and mainly a nuisance...want to keep it looking OK until I finally remove it). The tag line caught more energy than I wanted it to...I had told Alex to put 2 wraps on the tagline belay tree...a loose one wrap would probably have slowly mitigated the force and eased the butt over rather than stopped it so abruptly.
 
In my experience in most cases if side loading is an issue then you just take smaller pieces. I can take it in 4-5 cuts instead of 3 cuts a whole lot faster than the time it would take to set up a guy line for the rigging tree. And besides, the piece invariably will get cut up once it's on the ground anyway. Why waste all that extra time and effort? I'll take as big or bigger pieces than most anybody when the situation calls for it, but many times smaller is faster as well as safer.
 
... starting this season I have been running the secondary line from the tree ... gives me something to do instead of waiting with the next piece rigged for the groundman to wrestle the piece through the hole and onto the ground with two lines ....paired up with GRCS we are developing quite the control....
 
Cool Gary.

I've had to do it maybe only a couple times. Mostly I'll just wrap around a natural limb, and I remember using my mini porty for it once.
 
Nice work, Gary.....however, and not to be picky, but don't we normally call a tag line one that is held from below?...Your usage was actually just as a lowering line..in conjunction with the side gin pole rigging point.
 
Yeah, maybe I was just being too safety minded. A lot of people don't realize that tied harnesses and seat harnesses work on adults, but not so well for children's body shapes. I didn't short Gary on being a plenty good spotter to keep him safely off the tree, where a helmet would come in to play more. That seemed fine. My kneejerk reaction was to the swing close to the other strand of rope, where a clotheslining could cause a kid to let go/ get his hands knocked off. A fun time that can easily safely continue with a simple sling, and the attentive spotter that Gary was being.

Sorry for being overly protective toward a kid, and offering a simple, immediate solution.
 
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