Rigguy Wirestop fasteners for cable

treeseer

Does anyone in australia use these? Rigguy, Inc.

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Guy Meilleur | Forensic Arborist | Better Tree Care

Tree Machine

I'm not in Australia, but I do. Have only cabled 30 or so trees with this particular system, so I have yet to dig in deep and get real knowlegable.

From the first-year perspective, very impressive. With wirestops, hi-tensile, EHS cable ONLY, no soft-annealed.

newguy18

I never used ehs cable and I always hand spliced mine but I'll give it a try when I get to cable a tree again.

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Tree Machine

There's no J-lags or thimbles or 'splicing' (as you term it) or any of that system. It would be a total changeover of rigging and gear, all except for the come-along.

newguy18

I said I never used ehs cable.

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DBS

i was at the TCIA expo and chatted w/ the booth rep about this system.all materials are quality manufactured, it seemed VERY straight fwd and requires very limited tools to install the system.




-Daryl

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TrevMcRev

I've done lots of cabling, mostly with cobra, rarely with steel wire.

So the website doesn't show it installed in a tree but i'll take a guess that the wire goes right through the stem.....
with the stopper on the outer end....
If so, would it need a washer/plate as well so it doesnt pull through too easy???

It definately looks like a better form of termination than a thimble and wire crimps, and i like the hub, that looks very effective for triple leader bracing.

Just not too clear on how it attaches to a stem

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newguy18

With regular steel cable you get about 2/3rds up in the tree and lets say for example you have a codominant stem with 2 leaders you drill 1 hole in each leader that are level with each other so the cable pulls straight and depending on your prefrence you can get long lag eyes for smaller wood or use j lags for larger wood.After that its a simple matter of splicing one end with a thimble to one of the anchors and then tightening up the other end and splicng it with a thimble to the other anchor.Simple but for the next tree I'm gonna try the cobra system as it looks like a real time saver.

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a_lopa

I need to get round to bolting/steel cabling a tulip tree thats been on the drawing board.

Thanks for the link.

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The main problem with J-lags is they can pull out, even if you slightly undersize the lag pilot hole as is recommended. This is uncommon, but happens. When it does happen, it can be bad, like the event you're trying to prevent happens.

I spent the better part of a decade cabeling trees as described by Newguy, usually 1/2" diameter J-lags, though I like left and right threads for tensioning and helical wraps for thimble attachment, end termination. On bigger trees I use the 5/16" extra high strength cable. On smaller ones, like bradfords, 1/4" soft-annealed cable with hand-wrapped terminations.

I still do small trees like that, but big ones, where forces are greater and stakes are higher, I had to look for a better, more secure system.

It was one of my big-tree J-lag cables that pulled out in a storm and dumped the stem onto the house, just as I predicted would happen if we did not install a cable. Quite an embarassing call, as you can imagine, but I didn't get sued.

I have also used big through-bolts, far-side terminated with big washers, nuts, heavy hardware, same helical terminations, thimbles, etc. Very secure, fairly expensive, just a lot of work to install, but that basically was about the fat thru-hole for the long eye bolt. Plus, that bolt needs to be longer than the hole you drill, or you're totally screwed. Generally speaking, you want to drill your through-hole horizontal, in line with the direction of the cable, so the hole drilled can be much longer than the diameter of the limb itself, depending on the angle of the limb you're drilling into

With wirestops, you get that far-side termination advantage, the diameter of the thru-hole you drill is the same as the diameter of the cable, affixing the termination is really slick and easy (one end can be done on the ground). The process is pretty fast and if you can get fast at drilling the (smaller diameter) thru-holes and cutting the cable, the whole process is speedier than anything else I've tried.

But, you DO need to drill completely through the stem. This takes serious drill power. If you use cordless drills on something like this, you're gonna heat and fry batteries (more correctly put, you will diminish their life). If you run out of battery power, You must have a second battery, if not, you're screwed. If so, you better hope the second one lasts or you gotta come back later. This is not a way to make an income.

A washer can be installed as an option, but the diameter size of the wirestop itself, compared to the diameter of the cable hole it would have to be pulled through, basically the wirestop termination acts as the washer.

Trees I used to slate for takedown, I am now more willing to cable because of the security over lags, and the swiftness with which I can do an install. I charge $175 per cable, $250 for a dual and compare it to the possible costs of the one single event that the cable would be there to prevent. Makes it seem like cheap insurance to the client when viewed like that. An install is usually around an hour, faster on smaller trees but I generally only cable bigger trees. The bulk of that hour is assembling all the tools and getting them up there, and the put-way after the install. The actual install itselff is remarkably fast if you have the right tools at hand. It would be way faster and easier if one was working out of a bucket.

Attached Images

dual-split.jpg (128.2 KB, 39 views)

treekiwi

Hi Guys,
only really use cobra for bracing these days, steel cable and bolting is frowned upon in the industry here, to distructive and does not allow the tree to move and can constrict and lead to limb failures and fibre buckling, we only use steel or cable bracing in conjunction with heavily rated soft strops if required.

TrevMcRev

Thanks TM, so it installs like i thought and stopper is big enough, cool.

Sounds better than threaded rod, nuts, washers, eyes & thimbles etc.

I've never used j-lags for the reasons you mentioned.

Still drill for rod bracing unions occaisionally combined with cobra cable if there's already some splitting at the union, otherwise just cobra standard(1t) most times and done a couple with cobra plus(4t)

Toasted a couple of cheap drill before getting a good bosch corded one .

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treeseer

TM, beautifully explained--you da man!

I'm gonna quote you on that okay?

O and I use non-EHS cable on little trees. EHS is hard to cut, but worth the fuss when forces are measured in tons.

Do you use a havens grip to tighten? I hate the crimp it puts in, even tho it may be slight. The BMP's call for a non-crimping "Chicago grip", but I cannot find one anywhere.

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Guy Meilleur | Forensic Arborist | Better Tree Care

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The Chicago grip I believe is also known as a 'porkchop', a cammed cable gripper. I had one of those and I know 'about' where it is in one opf my spreads of mulch..... when I can get a metal detector in my hands I'll go find it.

You can use a prussik to grip the cable if you attach a vice-grip. The vise-grip to use has the jaw that is shaped to grip a hex nut, as it grips the cable circumferentially, but any pair will work. The other models, though, grip by squeezing from opposite sides. I take a piece of webbing, or the finger from a leather glove, cover the cable with it, and then tightly grip the glove-over-the-cable. This protects and keeps from crimping or shaving off any of the zinc coating. The prussik is attached ahead of the vise grip and thus won't slide unless the vise-grip itself slides.

Generally I use this thingy that's used to grip and pull barbed wire. it will just fit over a 5/16" cable and I use the vise-grip trick to keep it from slipping as it otherwise sometimes will.

I also carry a pair of mini vise grips. These make swift the un-twising of the cable end, and also the bending of the middle cable strand that stops the inner wire-stop cone. I also bend the other six outer strands inward, not that it's needed, but it gives a better finished look.

Tree Machine

I stand corrected. Chicago grip. I found one for you here, at Karl Kuemmerling.


The cable gripper I used to use, the one at the bottom of the mulch pile known as the 'Porkchop' I bought from an industrial rigging supply, American Wire Rope and Sling. It was called a Klein grip and worked really well. It looks something like, well, like a porkchop:

Attached Images

Klein grip.png (112.0 KB, 190 views)

treeseer

oh, kuemmerling has it, cool. i bought some stuff from them at the ohio chapter show last week. What a great chapter! i got to talk to 1 muni and 2 commercial audiences, and see 8" of snow fall.

Yeah the one in your pic looks like my havens grip. I haven't seen a pork chp in a long time--my kid converted me to veganism. I'll wait to order up a chicago grip until I see your glove/vise grip/duct tape rig in action.

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Guy Meilleur | Forensic Arborist | Better Tree Care