Anyone Use Recovery Dampers?......

Crow Horse

Does anyone use recovery dampers while doing any rigging? The damper drapes over a line and in the event of a line failure, it absorbs most of the energy of failed line. This is often required in 4WD competitions.

I'm asking this because many years ago a vehicle recovery line did fail and shot back with wicked force. It could have been lethal if it had hit anyone. I was thinking if one was using a come along or rope puller and a line failed it could get ugly. I'm new to all this and just want to err on the safe side........

Something like this....



All Good Medicine,
Crow

JayD

Hey Crow,

While you are using a winch out 4wdriving you are plain nuts not to incorporate some sort of dampening system on your cable.

With treework its not really practical in a sence that the rope with all the strain is in a vertical position, while the man on the lowering rope...or "ropes" is well away from the the load dropzone so if the rope breaks it only takes out property not human life, the man on the ropes if he or she is properly trained handles the rope in a way that dampens the shock load to the ropes.

However we do take precautions in our lowering jobs such as using more than one lowering pulley straped to the tree, theory is if the tree fails at the primary pulley tie in the the other pulleys will arrest the piece of the tree that has broken out,also serves to keep the rope in structual alignment to the tree, then can be lowered to the ground. Hopefully the climber survives this.

Think about this people take time to do thorough VTA of the tree you are going to work on...it could save your life.

JayD

__________________

Level 4 Arborist

Crow Horse

Yep, one can never be too safe.....

The situation I'm facing is that I have a small number of dead trees that the upper portion of it has broken and hung up in neighboring trees. I was thinking if I get a rope onto the broken portion and set up my rope puller (set out of harms way), with any luck I could pull it down and then begin cutting it up. The rope will be at an angle and would be difficult to just hang a damper on it although I'm sure I could make something work. Am I being too (is that possible?) cautious?

All Good Medicine,
Crow

Creator, everything we do leaves a track. May our tracks be ones we would want you to see and others to follow......

Ekka

Rope wont react as bad as wire cable though, tie a big rag or sack on the rope.

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AWF

You can never be to cautious and you are one step ahead of many others that may not consider all aspects of a job... hung up branches and trees can be very difficult in IMO...

If you do decide to pull the hung branches out consider the damage that may be caused to the trees they are hung up in...

Crow Horse

That's a very good point. I'm always concerned with any collateral damage be it traveling to a cut site on the property or the actual felling process. I'll go to great lengths to minimize my impact. It bothers me a great deal when there is some damage that was unavoidable. You see, my beliefs are deeply rooted Native American, so I always give thanks for the wood gifted to me and apologize (in prayer) for any damage I might have inflicted. We believe that everything has a spirit and there is no hierarchy in that realm. Some think I've lost the plot. Sad on them........

All Good Medicine,
Crow

Creator, everything we do leaves a track. May our tracks be ones we would want you to see and others to follow......

Pat h

Hi Chaps

Pulling hung up section out . If suitable rigging point is available. After attaching pull line to piece. Place pull line in pulley and hoist pulley above piece , tie off hoist line , now when you pull on piece you are pulling it up and out ,not down and into the supporting limbs.

The hoist line can be tied off away from the base of the rigging point and the pull point can be opposite tie off. Thus creating angles in lines that spread loads @ load points.

Cheers
Pat H

Pat h

While working clean up after Hurricane Isabel :Richmond VA

Blow over hungup Tulip tree aprox. 30" @ base , root plate lifted , trunk 50 degrees.

Pull line set with throw line ( taking care not to be under tree ). Attached 1/4 from top ie 3/4 up tree length from base. Pull line anchored @ 90 deg to stem ie we were pulling trunk side ways.

The supporting limbs were horizontal and tulip tree would simply be pulled sideways and slide off of supporting limbs and DROP TO THE GROUND.

We made notch and back cut @ base to match the intended sideways pull and drop of tree. Thus tree was released from rootplate hold but held by hinge so sawer could be clear and assist with pulling.

We used pulleys and a prusic to gain extra pull and hold what we pulled.

Confidence was high. We had a solution to a large hangup that we could not reach with equipment. Throw line work had gone smooth and quick , we would get a jump on our work for the day.

We were pulling , tree was moving and started to slide out. We had not noticed that the pull line passed over a young oak tree.

I made a loud , ergent demand to my forman , who was infront of me on the pull line , requesting that he release his hands from the pull line .

The tree fell . The pull line anchor rope parted with a loud CRACK and the pulleys catapulted past our sholders . The tailing line wipping the front man across the sholder as it snaked off. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

We were humbled and got on with the rest of the days work being some what more attentative to the details.

Cheers
Pat H

Crow Horse

Those "too close for comfort" calls make you sit back and think things through more. I once had a recovery strap fail and shoot back just whizzing by my forehead.

I just made a "damper" that amounts to a small piece of mil spec 1 3/4" nylon webbing that I sewed loops on each end. A rope or strap will pass through one loop and the other loop will have a weight tied to it just to be safe......

southsoundtree

You could probably drape a rope back and forth across the tensioned line so that it will absorb some of the energy of a breaking rope under load.

MrDiesel

A wet towl works well and is cheap... as long as the missus doesnt see you using it

southsoundtree

A good idea. Anything in a pinch is better than nothing--hoodies, chaps, tarp. I would think that it would have to be placed on the nearside of the break to be effective. I was thinking a rope could be draped back and forth over the whole span of the tensioned rope, if it is horizontal.

southsoundtree

never underestimate the power/ energy stored in a tensioned rope. An Emergency Medical Tech that I knew, went to a place were one group of teenagers were trying to pull another group of teenagers out of a ditch. One pick-up tied to the bumper-towball on the other pick-up trucks bumper. The ball ripped through the bumper (probably rusted) and launched through the back window and the back of one of the teens heads, killing him instantly.

The EMT explained that wire rope doesn't build up that stretching energy, so is used in rigging, chain likewise. Of course we are often bending trees with our rigging, thereby adding a storage tank for potential energy.