Full body harness

[Treeaddict]

Thinking about saddle upgrades in the next few months. Thought: If you’re going to use a standard saddle with suspenders, why not have a full body harness? I don’t see a lot of guys using full body. What are the reasons? Cumbersome or restrictive? Weight?

 

[SkwerI]

You must know about a harness of which I'm not aware. The only full body harness I know of is a 'fall arrest' harness with the D ring in the back. They are OSHA required for aerial lifts but I refused to wear one. If you do fall out, you are completely helpless to rescue yourself and are 100% reliant on somebody else getting you down. With a 'work positioning' harness that has the attachment point in front, you have the ability to rescue yourself. Of course none of this has anything to do with climbing trees.

As you gain experience and get older, you will discover weight of your gear is an issue. Young teens can handle the extra weight but those days will be fleeting. Supportive but lower weight is the priority for most climbers. A full body harness seems like a trip in the wrong direction.

 

[cory]

. With a 'work positioning' harness that has the attachment point in front, you have the ability to rescue yourself.

My understanding is that if a work positioning were to catch your fall, there's a good chance of a broken back or other severe injury due to the front attachment point

 

[lxskllr]

I have a cut down version of this as my truck setup...

CAMP Tree Access XT Harness

Fully certified fall-arrest harness with all the functions of the Tree Access ANSI ST saddle. This is the perfect harness for climbers who need fall-arrest certification, but want maximum efficiency and performance for SRS maneuvers. In addition to fall-arrest, the XT has two adjustable mobile...

www.wesspur.com

Mine doesn't have the rope bridge. It's not bad to wear, and not particularly heavy, but I don't care for stuff over my shoulders. I needed fall protection for work, and this allows me to get in trees with it too, but I prefer a regular saddle. If I needed suspenders anyway for whatever reason, might as well get suspenders that can hold you up if necessary.

 

[Treeaddict]

I was thinking something along these lines. Sold through arb supplier. Would never use the back d ring though. Would hold you in of upside down I guess.

I’m not at that age/weight junction yet😁. It’s fast approaching though!

 

[Treeaddict]

John,
That’s the stuff I’m looking at. Got a D in the center? I like suspenders and will start clipping extra biners to them once I get my climbing configuration sorted. Can I try yours please? I’ll let you play with the Unicender!

 

[flushcut]

DBA Selwa(?) Exofit brand makes some full body work positioning fall arrest harnesses for tower and rope access work.
My fall arrest harness that I use in the lift is an Exofit crossover meaning it can be use as either fall arrest or work positioning.
That all being said it’s hard to beat a true tree saddle.

 

[lxskllr]

Some of Buckingham's higher end saddles have addon fall arrest available. It could be removed for circumstances where you didn't want it. That's a negative in some construction environments. Some groups don't like removable fall arrest, but that wouldn't affect you.

realtime edit:
Sure, you can try mine any time. It's the one I wore last time over. It has two work positioning Ds on the sides, one you can climb on on the lower front, fall arrest top front and top back, and work positioning lower back. No rope bridge.

 

[Mellow]

up in the Nifty Lift, I always use a full fall arrest harness with the back D-ring. I'd rather be hanging and waiting for someone to lower me than lying on the ground waiting for an ambulance. I tried using a saddle with the fall arrest attached in front but it just gets in the way.

 

[TINYHULK]

I'm very much new in this industry but am a bit of a gear/book head. if your looking for a new harness you could always go with the tree motion evo. The back "dee" ring is rated for fall arrest while you would still have your climbing bridges. Add some suspenders ( I have the camp tree access srt and I love it, I know: not osha/ansi) and just remove them when you don't need them. Just an idea if you fell on a harness with the rear dee attached could you have a hand ascender to reach back and pull yourself around to attach your floating dee and work your way back to the bucket? last idea, if your using the front floating ring as bucket fall arrest and worried about the shock load. Would incorporating a shock absorbing tool like a petzl absorbica be a safer solution? Again just a new guy that is passionate with ideas. Please correct/educate me in any way you see

 

[lxskllr]

Welcome to The House TH!

I don't know much, but I don't like the idea of falling into a centrally mounted(on body) anchor. Seems to me your body would tend to fold around that point in a fall, and the results could be painful-disastrous. Maybe better than hitting the ground, but for fall arrest, I think a top mounted anchor is much better/safer.

 

[cory]

Welcome Hulkster!

 

[Treeaddict]

Nice to meet you TinyHulk! Thanks for your feedback. I’ve heard good things about the Evo. It’ll probably be a “try on and see” situation at the local arb supplier. There are shock absorbing lanyards for fall arrest. I’m mostly thinking about the full body for the support and not tying off to the back D. I agree that being caught by that thing would cause a real bad day. Even when I rec climb I wear suspenders. It just feels better to me- all cozy and stuff!

 

[TINYHULK]

Appreciate it guys! I look forward to growing with all of you that’s a great point lxskllr. My only bucket experience is in a rented man lift from the local sunbelt and I’m located in south east Virginia so other than a couple big tree companies that do a lot of production bucket line clearing work there aren’t too many high end climbing services so finding a mentor is next to impossible so I lean on the books, videos, and all of you to bring top notch climbing to the area. Guys around here refer to SRT as “YouTube eye candy” and too much gear if that tells you anything lol

 

[SkwerI]

90% of tree climbers stick to the simple old style saddle, buckstrap, gaffs and Blake's hitch (or tautline). They are not interested in anything new. Most climbers have used that old style system for years (decades) and it works just fine and they have no interest in spending more money on new gear or learning new techniques. You will not change them, but you can still learn some true skills from observing them. I was in my early to mid 30s before I started learning about newer methods. In fact I learned most of what I know here on this forum (and ArboristSite back before this forum was started).

 

[TINYHULK]

I love climbing on the hitch climber and getting to experiment with different hitch cords and configurations. I’m 28 and quite fit so hip thrusting myself up and down all day is still doable but as the company grows and I’ll be climbing more and more, I don’t want to be doing that on a 110 degree day in the summer multiple days a week. So I guess that, the inevitable aging process, and being so competitive that learning better ways of doing things is a huge motivation for me. Imma wait about another year before I consider learning srt. I want to have ddrt down pretty good. I’ve learned how to splice and had them tested so my next step is splicing my own foot locking prusik cord so I can learn that. I want to master (or atleast be proficient in) all of the original techniques before I become gear dependent.

 

[Treeaddict]

Sounds like you’ve got a good plan. I like the hitch climber as well. Just got a Unicender and look forward to Ddrt with it and then move into the srt. I agree about the time to hip thrust (and footlock) and a time to just get up with least energy expenditure. Rec climbing I take the hard way because it’s good for me. When going to cut something, it’s focused on efficiency.

 

[SeanKroll]

Or learn srt, don't lose you foot ascender, work efficiently.

I can foot lock. I never have at work.

Save your body.

This takes enough of a toll.

Why learn obsolete techniques you don't need.

I can't tie a saddles and blake's hitch from one rope. I'm not a commando.

So far I've never needed that in over 13 years.

Focus on becoming deadly accurate with a throw weight.

$0.02
Ymmv

 

[TINYHULK]

I hear ya seankroll and your probably right on the foot locking on the job lol. I gotta whip lock my splice and I’ll be able to start learning footlocking. My boss and I started the tree climbing journey about 2 years ago so a lot of things I do in the tree have to be approved by him. I’ve talked to him about starting training srt fall of 2022. Will give me more time to advance my ddrt skills so I know exactly what technique will be best in given circumstances. I’ve been looking into a hybrid footlock/ddrt system where I could have both systems available. I have a foot ascender already and love it but for me it’s too easy to do it ddrt and not fast enough. It’s great though when I’m airborne away from the stem

 

[pantheraba]

It took me a LONG time to finally get SRT to work. I tried it off and on several years but it was tedious to tweak it. But now that I have a decent handle on making it work I am amazed at how efficient SRT is. It can take a long time to DDRT 60-70 feet up. SRT up that distance is awesomely quick. Get your DRT stuff working for sure; then you will really appreciate SRT.

I still switch to DRT once up in the tree sometimes. I am still learning how to smartly do SRT redirects. The SRT canopy traversing/exploring I have done is pretty interesting...lots of good potentials once you start exploring SRT.

 

[ruel]

Unless you are regularly accessing trees by lift/ bucket truck, you don't need a full body harness IMO. Also going to jump on the SRT recommendation train. Do yourself the favor and start practicing. It's better.

Also, that single central attachment like that petzl has would drive me crazy when pruning. some bridge saddle With suspenders will be much more versatile than that

 

[ruel]

With an easy on/ off SRT device line the Uni, ponytail redirects are a breeze.

 

[Treeaddict]

As soon as I figure out the Unicender ddrt (shouldn’t take long) I’m going to practice srt. I have an understanding of the principles (at least I think I do. May change when implemented 😁) A little more gear will be needed but it’ll be very manageable.

I suppose there’s a reason no one regularly uses full body.

I bypassed the Blake’s hitch and even substantial throw bag practice. Homemade APTA and Hitch Climber. Part of me feels guilty. The other part really enjoys pinpoint accuracy at 80’ and easier access/maneuvering!

 

[TINYHULK]

Out of all the different types of srt ascent, which style would y'all recommend to begin with?

 

[Burnham]

Oh boy, now that right there is a big question .