Installing a high seat safely/easily

[Outstanding in my field]

Does anyone have any tips on installing lean-to high seats safely? Is there an easy way to do the initial push/tilt up against a tree? Have just been digging the feet in well then lifting with a mate then tilting and walking them forward until they are upright. Seats are against pine trees so no easy or strong branches available.

Not 100% happy with our method. Is there an easier / safer way? Been trying to think if we could winch them up somehow?

Once the seat is up against the tree I'm clear on how to install them it is just the first stage that's foxing me!

Thanks

 

[foxdropper]

Think you it about right .Someone will be along with a scaffolding tower you have to erect first I expect .
On your own it’s a struggle but two makes it far easier .

 

[The Singing Stalker]

The only other way would be to have the base of the high seat near the tree, lift up the seat end and as it passes vertical it will fall back against the tree then adjust the bottom of the legs to suit either in or out.

 

[Outstanding in my field]

The only other way would be to have the base of the high seat near the tree, lift up the seat end and as it passes vertical it will fall back against the tree then adjust the bottom of the legs to suit either in or out.

That's a better description of what we are doing!

It's the point just before getting it to vertical that's the hardest / most dangerous.

 

[croydbay]

Hi,i have taken a double ladder in erected that at the back of the tree ,if no branch available looped a small pulley then a rope to the seat.

 

[VSS]

You are already doing it the easiest way, by having a mate to help. It's much harder on your own.

 

[Outstanding in my field]

Hi,i have taken a double ladder in erected that at the back of the tree ,if no branch available looped a small pulley then a rope to the seat.

Ok thanks. That would work. All kit that I have too.

 

[Erik Hamburger]

A cheap single high seat is not that heavy and just about do-able on your own providing you are on flat ground without too much vegetation.
You 'walk' the V-notch at the back of the seat up the trunk. Securing the seat to the trunk is the risky bit, as you have to get up there before it is...secured!

A double high quality high seat is too heavy to do on your own safely and is a two-men (oops...two-PERSONS) job. Even then it can quickly go wrong.
A rope and pully thrown over a higher branch is really the best way to secure things and adds some safety.

I once got 'sandwiched' when the ladder of a high seat failed on the joint, and I was hanging in the air, wedged between the two ladder sections, in an area without mobile reception, wondering how it was possible I had not broken anything and how to extract myself without a major injury. (I did manage but it was a lesson).
I have heard other horror stories such as a very experienced stalker sitting in a vertical ladder high seat which then fell down forwards while he was in the seat; ejecting his face into the ground, and I was once directed to a high tower I was not familiar with, on my own, which was very, very high, and the ladder seemed a bit wobbly on the way up. Only once up on the tower did I notice the ladder was not secured to the tower at all (But I did shoot two Roes...!)

 

[foxdropper]

You are already doing it the easiest way, by having a mate to help. It's much harder on your own.

Is there an echo in here

 

[Firefly]

A rope will be your best friend when installing or lowering a high seat alone.

 

[Tim.243]

Does anyone have any tips on installing lean-to high seats safely? Is there an easy way to do the initial push/tilt up against a tree? Have just been digging the feet in well then lifting with a mate then tilting and walking them forward until they are upright. Seats are against pine trees so no easy or strong branches available.

Not 100% happy with our method. Is there an easier / safer way? Been trying to think if we could winch them up somehow?

Once the seat is up against the tree I'm clear on how to install them it is just the first stage that's foxing me!

Thanks

I built my single high seats so the ladder can pivot on the legs of the lower part of the basket ( where you feet sit on the ladder) This allows the seat to be adjusted as often a tree in the right place has a lean to it resulting in the rail/
basket too far fwd or back. I have wooden wedges to set the basket square and the ladder finds its own angle.

Quite simple just it would be beyond most people to work that type of fixing, but having a comfortable shooting platform is just like setting the seat to your leg length/back angle in the car.

 

[stevenedwards]

I understand how fortunate I am having struggled in the past and come close to hurting my self. Now I have one farmer who lends me his tele handler and another who pitches up with a John Deere and fore loader. No machinery no high seat now.

 

[VSS]

I understand how fortunate I am having struggled in the past and come close to hurting my self. Now I have one farmer who lends me his tele handler and another who pitches up with a John Deere and fore loader. No machinery no high seat now.

Put a pallet on the forks of the tele handler and you've got an instant mobile highseat!

 

[Alantoo]

Does anyone have any tips on installing lean-to high seats safely? Is there an easy way to do the initial push/tilt up against a tree?

I find the same problem with tall ladder if working by yourself, hinging up and back is not very controllable from the ground. With a ladder I just try to lift it to get up to 45˚ and then a combination of extending it and walking it up the vertical face and/or walking the base in.

I have an extremely heavy high seat which I managed by myself but I did remove the seat and shooting rail to reduce the bulk and weight at the top which helped a bit. But there was a fork I could chuck a rope over and part walk it up the trunk using the rope as a control/brake.

Put a pallet on the forks of the tele handler and you've got an instant mobile highseat!

Sadly my old tele handler headstock levelling system sags too quickly, but when the guys cladding the barn left the cherry picker behind for a couple of weekends...we found it was also a great apple picker and high seat!

Alan

 

[stevenedwards]

Put a pallet on the forks of the tele handler and you've got an instant mobile highseat!

you are spot on except he needs the machine for morning and evening feeding at exactly the same time I would want to sit out and its a bit yellow

 

[wag]

Pull it up with a rope a vehicle?

 

[NubbleMan]

I usually introduce a ratchet strap somewhere into the equation