Spider Leg: Basic Setup | Arborist Rigging

Arborist Rigging Techniques | Spider Leg: Basic Setup

The old Spider Leg trick... 60% of the time... it works every time!

But seriously, I use this technique maybe 2 or 3 times a year at the most, but man does it ever come in handy when you want to balance something. The success of this is based on you being able to at least somewhat accurately estimate the balance point of the piece, and then tying the main rigging line on one far side of that, and the spider leg on the other side.

Here's what you need to know to set this up:

1. The Spider Leg: this is a piece of rope that is 20-25% smaller in diameter than the main line. It usually has a very long, weirdly large splice in the end, to make it easy to set on the rigging line using the Klemheist hitch. If you don't want to pay for a 'proper' Spider leg balancer, you can make your own out of a piece of rated cordage, and just tie a long loop knot in the end.

2. Attach the spider leg to the main line. I prefer the klemheist, but there are other options, such as a prusik, or a Blake's hitch.

3. After identifying the balance point of the piece, tie the main line way out towards the tips, and tie the spider leg down at the butt (or vise versa).

4. Slide the klemheist up or down the main line to place it roughly over top of the balance point.

5. Adjust everything so that when you tension up the main line before making the cut, both the main line, and the spider leg, are tight. It's very important that there is no slack in either leg of rope between where it's tied to the piece, up to the klemheist.

6. When you cut the piece off, if you have set it up correctly, the piece will maintain the orientation that it had, and won't invert or flip over either way.

This technique takes practice, but it can be very useful in the right situation. Note that you are not limited to using just a single spider leg as shown in this video. You can use as many as you need to support the piece. I hope this all makes sense. Hit me up in the comments below with questions/concerns/hatemail.

I made a video that shows how to tie the Klemheist last year, you can view it here: https://youtu.be/UaiPgQXws9c

Thanks YouTube friends, I appreciate you!
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