Safely piecing down high branch on tree?

I potentially have a job for a client but I have a bit of an issue. There is a large branch on a tulip poplar that goes out over the client's house. It's the main branch on this tree and the largest. The client wants that branch removed. There is another decent size branch on the tree but it goes the opposite direction and tieing into that branch means risking a big swing if I should fall. It's also about the same height as the branch I want to cut but maybe a little bit taller. There aren't any other large trees that I can tie into in that area. A bucket truck isn't able to get in there to access the branch. There's no way the client financially will go for a crane. Any ideas?

Why does the client want the branch removed?

Is your concern safe work positioning or safe rigging?

Your tail can be strung out somewhat opposite to the TIP to provide swing prevention. Might want a bit of give at the tail tie-off.



me me
Like so many things, ( SRT SOAPBOX), especially (Hitchhiker).






me, off the srt soapbox

You can arrange two safeties at 120* from your TIP, leaving space below the limb for rigging into.

540 wrap you lanyard for slide-arrest.

p.s. sounds like the HO might be trying to get off with a lesser bill...consider limb reduction or whole removal. Sounds like a future hazard in the making.


off to the job now...

There's no way the client financially will go for a crane

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Never let the client tell you how to do your job. If using a crane is the only option, then it's the only option.

It sounds like you're gonna have to tie in precariously and rig off the limb itself, with someone on the roof. I rarely do that...

Don't be shy to walk away!

My primary concern is my safety. I will be taking the limb down by pieces and the client will be paying the price to have that done. I am just use to easier jobs where I don't have such an extreme angle between me and my TIP.

Thanks for all of your advice. I am actually going to get a friend to come and look at the job with me and see what he thinks since he has had a bit more experience. I might be walking away from the job depending if we can figure this out safely.

Good plan.

Another trick for work positioning is to girth a webbing sling around the trunk for better footing.

Take these experiences and educate yourself. Is the client unreasonable? Is this a necessary branch removal? Maybe, I haven't seen the job.

If you let the client name the job AND the price; you won't be in business long. Most importantly be safe.

You have the right thinking process going there...nothing wrong with walking away. Just because the client has a badA$$ tree doesn't mean you take chances to resolve his problem.

I had a similar tree awhile back that had a big limb over the house, no good (or even only kind of bad) TIP's...would have to fishing pole the pieces..probably at least 40 feet long over the house. I had to decline...somebody with a bucket finally did the job, I think.

But I am still here, unhurt and advising you.

That was my feeling, too, when I read your post.
Walk away from that one.

Or high price yourself out of it.
Just remember that when you do that, sometimes they acept your price and then you are still stuck with the job.
Happened to me last month, luckily I didn't try to high price myself out of it because of safety issues, but because the owner is a bitch.

The poplar branch is a concern for the client because it goes so far out over the house and due to its size. We have tornadoes come through all of the time and even a small tornado could stress that branch due to its position and size. I am personally not concerned at all about the client dictating my price because if I don't think I can do it safely then I am backing out of the job and referring a different company. This is why I was asking on here for any bright ideas to more safely secure myself. I am still in the beginning stages of tree work and I don't have the experience to negotiate a crane job. I know and respect other companies in the area that can do that.

I have a number of different sized webbing slings for girth hitching on limbs for footing. I am not as experienced in that as I would like but I have done it at least a dozen times successfully and only one instance of not being successful(a safe swing towards the trunk with no saw running and nothing hurt but my pride).

Another trick for work positioning is to girth a webbing sling around the trunk for better footing.

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Interesting!

If you are removing the branch, why not spur climb it?

I'm assuming the limb is more horizontal than vertical. Spurs won't be much help.

What is it, Joseph?

MasterBlaster said:

I'm assuming the limb is more horizontal than vertical. Spurs won't be much help.

What is it, Joseph?

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Bingo. It gets a bit vertical towards the tip but that doesn't help me much when the branch is only a few inches in diameter. It's unsteady limb walking the whole way out.

You mention the tree having one other major limb.
Does that mean that it doesn't have a top.
I'm having a hard time visualizing this tree.

It must be a T shaped tree.

Pics.... And yes, put on your spikes if you are removing the limb! Everything helps! Can you rig the whole limb in one shot or will it touch the house? Hard to know whats going on without visuals...

I don't see it mentioned yet, but what is your climbing method? When I was DdRT I would have secured a separate rope between, and hopefully, 3 suitable points as high up as possible and with some MA pulled tight. Use it as a high line or just to steady the limb I'm going out on (most likely another DdRT line to pull me up, and the girthed slings as foot loops, mentioned) , and to sturdy up the rigging point so that the sway of a limb rigged off will not have a chance of catching any roofing or eaves, etc.

SRT with HH, fling the rope over the tree, ascend, rig, cut, lower, rinse and repeat, tag line, zip line if there is a chance of a limb swinging down will hit you.

Hey, Joseph!

Just two or three comments to add to the discussion. Before I start, let me say that most of the other climbers on this forum have much more experience than I do, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

First, what Sean said. If you've got a Rope Wrench or a Hitch Hiker, it enables you to choke the branch with a delta link or something similar, which can be loosened up and lowered down the branch as you progressively cut it back.

Second, this sounds like a pretty small limb to me, so I can understand feeling shy about depending on it as a primary tie-in point. Which brings me to the kick that Kevin Bingham has been on lately, which is the idea of climbing with two different ropes at the same time. Without seeing the tree, my thoughts would be that if I was going to attempt to do it, I'd have my primary tie-in point as high on the other branch as possible, with my first rope. Then I'd attempt to use a 2nd rope to do the SRT choke that was mentioned earlier, on the branch to be cut.

If you've got an SRT tool available, putting an ascender or a prussic hitch with a pulley above your SRT tool and running the tail of your rope through the pulley gives you a 3 to 1 mechanical advantage for pulling yourself out to your SRT choke point. It makes it amazingly easy to gain ground, even on a steep incline.

As long as your small branch doesn't break in the process of climbing out on it, your SRT choke climbing line will prevent you from taking a long swing back to the trunk. Just remember that if you do use an SRT choke, you have to attach some kind of a retrieval line to the side that you do not climb. In this way, you make a cut, drop down about 10 feet or so, or however much you're comfortable cutting at one time, tie in with a lanyard to secure yourself, then tug on the retrieval side of the SRT choke until it drops down to you. Choke it back up again and make sure your climbing hitch grabs, and you're good to go for the next cut. And so on, until you work your way back to the stem. I got this idea from Sean, AKA SouthSoundTree. I used it and it worked beautifully for me, but the branch I was working on had a much larger diameter, and was an oak, so I always felt really secure out there.

Hey, Joseph, I just had another idea, but it still involves having to get out on the limb at least halfway. There's this guy named Dan Holliday who has a website called ClimbingArborist.com or something similar. He's also posted videos to YouTube. Dan has a couple of videos that show two rigging techniques that might be useful to you in this situation.

The first is about Tip-Tying the branch, which would still require you to get about two-thirds of the way out onto the branch to girth hitch a sling around it. With a pulley high in the other branch, you could pull the whole branch up to the pulley, and then lower it straight down near the base of the tree.

The second method is to use a Spider Leg to cause the branch to swing out horizontally, missing the roof and then being lowered to the ground in an open area, still horizontal. This method is more likely to get hung up in branches if there are any in the way, but you might not have to climb out so far to make the Spider Leg work.

Here's the link to the Tip-Tying video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbKZiejUuTg

Here's the link to the Spider Leg video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtdabLZFwsE

Dan Holliday, (I hope I'm spelling his name right) is just an amazing guy, in my opinion. His videos were the thing that made me believe it was possible for me to learn how to do this stuff, as I had no climbers available to learn from. I think he recently joined the ArbtalkUK forum. I don't know if he's a member here or not; I sure wish he was.

Anyway, thanks for putting up with my long-winded post. Hopefully some small piece of it will be of some use.

Tim

Its Dan Halliday.. Yh his vids are clear and precise... Hes in BC now.

From the way you describe the situation, installing a cable sounds like a great alternative. Removing the large leader over house is generally a short term fix with long term consequences.

MasterBlaster said:

Interesting!

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Unstable and difficult as well.

Kinda like slipping on ice but having your shoe laces tied together!

mistahbenn said:

Its Dan Halliday.. Yh his vids are clear and precise... Hes in BC now.

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Oops. Thanks for the attempt at a correction. Dan is one of my arb heroes. I was just about to say that he doesn't really make it that easy to find his name, and that is true with regard to YouTube, I'd say. I just did a "Bing" search for climbingarborist.com, which led me to his own, proprietary website, and not YouTube. On his website I clicked on the tab called "About", which popped up this web page:

http://www.climbingarborist.com/about.html

This is the first line of his bio. "Climbingarborist.com was created by Daniel Holliday, with his idea to share industry knowledge among other arborists worldwide and hopefully create a great community and contacts in the process."

Thanks, mistahbenn, for getting me to get off my duff and actually find a source for the information. Much appreciated.

Unrelated, but I really liked the video you posted recently, "back leaning oak trunk fell". Nice work.

Tim