Will it fit?!

[Treeaddict]

I sometimes have a harder time aloft figuring out if a limb will fit without property damage or hang ups. I usually walk the whole tree from the ground while looking up and placing myself at the edge of the limb to see if it will make it. This way I can cut with confidence. Before this, I used to ask my groundie. I still do sometimes if I forget the walk around. Does anyone else think it’s easier to judge from the ground rather than above? Are there any “tricks” you all use to make a determination?

 

[SkwerI]

I used to assess every tree before I climbed it. I had an idea of everything I was going to do and how I would do it before putting my saddle on. To climb a tree' blind' without knowing how you are going to work it is not a good idea.

 

[SeanKroll]

A free clinometer app will help you know how short of a spar you need, while chunking it down.

Fitting, and fitting then stopping are different. Hills and sweeps in the log affect the bounce. Forward momentum on a hard surface, like dropping a spar onto logs or hard gravel or pavement will affect things, along with the face-cut.

 

[flushcut]

My short answer to the question is: make it fit. It’s kind of why we get hired to do the job. But if I start second guessing myself I’ll get a second opinion from my guy.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Cut for fit and material handling. The sooner that rope gets to me and the LZ is cleared, the faster the next piece comes down. The sooner Im out of the tree and taking a check.

 

[flushcut]

And the best answer goes toooo??!!! ^This guy!

 

[Treeaddict]

All good answers!

Sean, do you happen to know which clinometer app you have? iPhone? The one I just put on kinda stinks.

I’m getting to the point that I plan the whole tree from the ground and make minor changes in the canopy. At first, I had to enter it to see how I could work it. I didn’t have enough knowledge or experience to plan the whole thing out necessarily. I never did anything stupid like cutting off all my rigging points though.

 

[lxskllr]

TrailSense has a decent clinometer for android.

Trail Sense | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Use your phone's sensors to assist with wilderness treks

f-droid.org

 

[Treeaddict]

I assume the clinometer is used much like the “stick” trick (I use an axe handle) except with the phone?

 

[lxskllr]

Not quite. It's trigonometry. You're solving a triangle. Basically 2 angles and the included side.

edit:
The above is for the application here. A clinometer's basic function is measuring vertical angles. Add a horizontal distance to that, and it'll give you the height of an object(tree).

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Not quite. It's trigonometry. You're solving a triangle.

So is the stick trick 😁

 

[lxskllr]

Yea, I guess, but I always prefer the precision of numbers.

 

[Treeaddict]

Yeah, it seems like one is a crude way and another is a more advanced way to make the same calculation- both trig. I’m curious to use both to see how close they are.

 

[Burnham]

This is a pretty good thread on the topic.

angle of the dangle | The Tree House (masterblasterhome.com)

Wow...from 2008!

 

[gf beranek]

Wisdom's from yar

 

[SeanKroll]

No recommendation.

The app i use is called Clinometer.

If in the tree, looking at flat ground on a 45⁰ angle from the top of the spar informs on the height.

If on a slope, it's different, involving math and a known horizontal distance.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

The math is nice if the numbers are available and acurate. I have an app on my tablet for tree's heigth. Fine, but no. I had a feelling of erratic/ ridiculous results. The main problem is me obviously because all depends of the reproductibility of the stance to take three mesures. Angle at known height, angle for ground, angle for top, you aim with the tablet's side. Not so simple. After a bit of thinking and geometry to "calibrate" myself, I took 7 mesurements of my baby cedrus the best I can. I didn't got two similar values, all different, by a lot. I'd be happy within a foot, but it was more like a window of 10 feet. Unusable. By the stick trick and by side projection, I got both times 48 feet.

 

[lxskllr]

Using a stick to rest the device on will help. Pivot the device on top of the stick.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

To make it actually works, I thought of a tripod for a camera, but that reduces greatly the interest for an easy field tool.

 

[lxskllr]

I had a tripod for my pocket transit. It was an antique camera tripod. I removed the couple steel parts, and replaced them with brass. It was light to carry, and increased accuracy by a lot, but I wasn't toting saws or anything. I used it for boundary recon, and one time getting tree heights around a quarry.