Trees, Trees, and More Trees

[John Griffin]

I really need my gmk back. Grove dealer still hasnt fixed it and have been dropping the ball at every opportunity.

Had two trees on top of a house this week. Lots of damage to these poor folks house. So glad we kept the old tms300 but really could have used more lift capacity. At one point, we were working at 80 ft radius with a net capacity of 3300 lbs. That's not enough when dealing with a 34 in dbh poplar tree. No larger rental cranes could be had in our area.

 

[crane operator]

No school like old school.

 

[skyking1]

that sucks John, I hope they get you sorted soon.

 

[John Griffin]

Sometimes when you dont have enough crane capacity, you have to get creative. We had to cut in and stack cribbing to lift the tree off the house with a 30 ton jack. We were then able to crane out the rest of what was inside the house and have the remaining tree not fall on the house. We had to cut small pieces off at a time next. Unfortunately, the brick fence is very much in the way.

 

[CM1995]

Damn that popular did a lot of damage to that house. That sucks.

 

[John C.]

I've never had anything good to say about either poplars or cottonwoods. Nice work on solving the issue.

 

[Welder Dave]

Not so much on that house but I never understood people building a house in the middle of the woods with dozens of tree's within close proximity. Sure it looks nice but but way too many bad things can happen. A fallen tree is probably the least serious. When a big fire went through by my property the only house fully destroyed was right in the middle of a stand of spruce tree's. I was lucky I only caught the edge of it. The fire boss even said people need to think of what could happen when they're planning to build a house in the country. Not only is being in the tree's hazardous, it's even harder to get emergency vehicles like fire trucks in to try and limit the damage. When I built my pole shed I took out a big poplar tree about 15ft. away because I sure didn't want it falling on the shop.

 

[spitzair]

Wow that’s a ton of damage to that house! Hopefully nobody got hurt! Great pictures, hope you get your other crane back soon! In the late 80s we had a cold snap with howling arctic outflow winds go through and it knocked a ton of trees down. Our house was literally 10 feet from some 48” DBH fir trees. Luckily they stood their ground but one about 150 feet from our house snapped off thankfully 30 feet up and only the top 6 feet hit the house and just shattered without any damage to the house. Had it uprooted like most all the others did I’m sure our house would have looked a lot worse than that one! There are now far fewer trees close to the house but still some big ones. My dad doesn’t want to cut them down because he’s fond of them… hopefully that won’t bite him in the rear one day…

 

[Welder Dave]

That's flirting with disaster.

 

[John Griffin]

Had to break it all out today. Jib and boom are 136 ft together. Had a couple of tops and logs laying on this house at 100 ft radius.



2600 lb poplar log flying over the house. Dont use the jib much but when we do, we dont take it back down until we have to.



Tried out these bagsters. They work great vs other bags we have used. 4x8x2.5 size makes it way easier to put limbs in it.

 

[skyking1]

that shows the difference in chart between a real crane and a boom truck. That 28 ton National 1100 was good for 600 total @100, including the ball.

 

[John Griffin]

Yeah its not equal. Our tms300 is good for 2470@100. Its a 35 ton crane. The 2600 lb log was taken at 80 ft. We have a 28 ton manitex boom truck. Its 28 tons at 6 ft. If you move out to 10 ft on the chart like the grove, it becomes a 17 ton crane.

 

[skyking1]

yes and you don't leave the jib on like that either

 

[crane operator]

A2B weight isn't going to do much good sitting on the ball.

And what in the tarnation is that whole conglomeration of becket /plates/ and miscellaneous detritus above your ball? Looks like you got some optional equipment going on.

 

[John Griffin]

Unfortunately we hung the a2b and tore the switch apart on this job. I didnt have a spare one.

That's our ansi rated climber tie in point above the ball. It's not legal anymore for us to tie into the hook, not that i ever really liked to anyway. Its a tie in point that you can't come unhooked from on accident and has a backup in case something was to happen. Both sides of that are life support rated.

 

[crane operator]

Send me a better picture of that if you would, I've seen the bolt plates, but I can't see your becket- I'm always up for learning.

That's our ansi rated climber tie in point above the ball. It's not legal anymore for us to tie into the hook, not that i ever really liked to anyway. Its a tie in point that you can't come unhooked from on accident and has a backup in case something was to happen. Both sides of that are life support rated.

 

[skyking1]

Unfortunately we hung the a2b and tore the switch apart on this job. I didnt have a spare one.

That's our ansi rated climber tie in point above the ball. It's not legal anymore for us to tie into the hook, not that i ever really liked to anyway. Its a tie in point that you can't come unhooked from on accident and has a backup in case something was to happen. Both sides of that are life support rated.

kinda like our manbasket safety, it goes above the becket.

 

[John Griffin]

Here's a close up from today. 3/4 shackle around the load line with the screw "secured" against unscrewing. Two independent tie in points in case of a failure of one you are still tied into the crane. This is per ansi Z133-17.

 

[colson04]

Here's a close up from today. 3/4 shackle around the load line with the screw "secured" against unscrewing. Two independent tie in points in case of a failure of one you are still tied into the crane. This is per ansi Z133-17.

View attachment 277443

That would be a trip being hoisted into a tree like that. I've climbed some to take down trees, but I mostly use a bucket truck or aerial lift. Never been part of a tree removal with a crane and I wouldn't know where to begin.

Nice work, I love seeing your pics.

 

[John Griffin]

That would be a trip being hoisted into a tree like that. I've climbed some to take down trees, but I mostly use a bucket truck or aerial lift. Never been part of a tree removal with a crane and I wouldn't know where to begin.

Nice work, I love seeing your pics.

Yeah its a bit different. Closest thing to being able to float. I tied in a went up to put slings on another smaller tree today personally. Rigged it whole. It was about a 50 ft tall tree.

Tree work with a crane is kinda its own specialty. Its definitely not normal tree work or normal crane work. Ive taken down hundreds if not over a thousand trees crane assisted and its a great way to do it when the situation calls for it. There's even specific cuts you only use when doing crane work. We have dead eye slings that you actually tie around the picks. We also use regular loop style crane slings.