Maasdam Rope Puller: Potential risk to be aware of

Talking about a recent experience with the rope puller. I haven't seen anyone else comment on this.

[wgtnnjo]

If you are worried about it you could try a progress capture prussik attached to the front eye, wouldn't stop it going slack in the situation you describe but it would stop it essentially freespooling everything back out. Hope that helps.

[corpsiecorpsie_the_original]

Thank you for making this video. I bet it'll help keep more people safe

[BrianDoherty-es]

These are great winches. You have to use good quality three-strand synthetic line. Good dense line does not stretch and lose its diameter like soft line will. Don't use braided climb line, it will get thin and slip. A steel threaded link is more reliable than a carabiner, but each to his own! At 1500 pounds of pull they can go a lot of work. I often hang a block off the tree and double the pull. When a tree gets really limb locked you can rig a Prusick onto to the pull line and use a second winch or a vehicle.

[stevecappella]

Thanks for that information. I'm getting ready to purchase a Massdam rope puller to do some tree work on some property I bought in New Hampshire. I have a couple trees I want to tie off and add some pull for added safety reasons and to help with lean. This is a good point you make and I have not seen anyone else in any videos about this puller mention this. So you are the first person that has addressed this that I know of. I like to research the use of a tool or process as much as possible before I actually get into it in a real scenario. Thanks again and as they say in the sports fishing world "Tight lines". Seems appropriate in this case.

[jessel]

Much appreciated. It's the nuisances that helps spread knowledge. Thanks brother!

[metaspencer]

Good point man. I was using mine today in snowy conditions ... rope got icy and started to slip, too. One thing I do to avoid the kind of setback you described is to grab the taught line and finish the pull by hand pulling perpendicular to the rope. Anyway, be safe out there!

[cmoayves]

To avoid the problem might I suggest that as the tree starts moving, you go and tap the wedges snugly. Then pull and go back to banging the wedges. I believe this would prevent the tree coming back if some slack appears in the pulling rope. The slack is compensated by the tight wedges. When the tree gets straight up It would then start falling when you pull. . Does that make sense?

[thomasgraysonjr.]

Employ your Porta-wrap as a progress capture. Attach puller to the front of your Porta-wrap, and pull, transferring the slack onto the Porta-wrap as you go.
Hope this makes sense. I’ve done it this way for years.

[brilaw]

I have a couple of suggestions. First, use a pulley attached to a tree in the "target" direction and bring the puller back to the tree being felled so that tension can be added without leaving the felling area. Second, keep tapping the wedge as the tree moves so that there is no opportunity for the tree to sit back. (Third, have a second person at the felling area maintain tension on the pulller - working alone in the bush is never a good idea!)

[ocsplc]

I just started using this thing and I’ve got a knot on both ends. The issue isn’t the rope pulling through, it’s that this machine requires constant tension for those teeth to bite. If your tree starts falling or bending toward the puller, the tension slacks and if you’re by yourself (which you shouldn’t be if you’re using this), you’d have to drop your saw and run back to the puller to reintroduce tension on the puller to keep it taught and keep continuous tension toward the direction of the fall

[zach-riggs]

Thanks for sharing this! This and similar reasons are why I replaced my maasdam with a rope jack.

[scottknabb]

I just ran into this situation. I protected myself by tying the discharge line tightly to the tree that I was anchored to (not the tree that I was felling). This prevented any more than 1 foot of loose line to slip out when the tree was falling. (problem solved)

[zacrowell]

was watching a video of someone falling trees with this puller. what he did to combat that was put a security knot in the rope on the outfeed side right at the opening so if it did slack up the knot would prevent the rope from running all the way through the pulley.

[barrybrum]

Great video! Which brand carabiner are you using there by the puller?

[RAMPHD]

Good comments: My take, DO NOT over tension it. If you are arm strength full out, and you need to check your rigging or attachment to tree. I was in the middle of pulling a leaner with the Masdam, . It got so rigid, I could not release it! Tech support at Masdam was great. I had to really bang the handle back to release the tensioner pion. Then went about repositioning my rigging - down it came with much less effort!

[robertwhitley]

The rope he is using in that video is a stiffer harder 3 strand rope, and the Maasdam Rope puller (in my experience), does not favor that type of rope. Example: The Sampson Tree-Master Rope 1/2" is absolutely no good in a Maasdam rope puller, but the Samson Pro-Master 1/2" 3 stand works fairly well because it's more flexible and softer than the Tree-Master. The best rope I found in mine is the 3 strand rope puller rope sold by Maple Leaf Ropes, softer than the Pro-Master rope and you need almost no tension on the rope and it will not slip in the puller. I have 3 Maasdam Rope Pullers and I use the Maple Leaf Ropes softer 3 strand ropes in all of them, never had a slippage problem. I also put a small accessory biner through the hole in the front of the puller to guide and hold up the exiting rope so it doesn't droop down off the engagement spool like you see in this video - that helps too.

[stcenturycaveman]

A really good point that mate. Wouldn't have occurred to me. Great safety tip. Des

[birdisinfire]

you want to insert wedges to control that

[PATCsawyer]

What's the WLL on that carabiner?

[Johnnyreengo]

I guess you should have had another person on the puller while you cut, or ran a tag line back to yourself to keep tension on the line if slack was introduced