Taking down trees with tractor help

[wedge40]

I have to agree with most of what has been said. If it's less that 8" in diameter than I'll take the chain saw to it and hope I get it to fall correct. Anything bigger and I call in a professional. I'm lucky enough to have someone in our area who use to work for the electric company keeping lines cleared..Now he works for himself on his schedule. About a year and half ago I had 8 or 9 trees cut down for about $300. I'm going to have him come back out this spring for at least two more. One is in the area of where I want my shed and the other is diseased and close to the house. Both of these are greater than 12".
Again some things are better left up to the professionals. I worry what my insurance company would say about me dropping a tree into the livingroom.

Wedge

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by RonMar

You are correct, energy, not force... Sounds like we have some similar experiences...

Ron, My best and snappiest salute to you. I never met a coastie CPO I didn't like. My wife and I were in the USCG Aux doing SAR work and teaching both member training classes
as well as public education classes, vessel exams and such for 10 years out of the San Diego CG air sta. I can still recall the coast guard officers who joined the aux and went out to play with us on SAR patrols. Toward the end of our duty there the AUX had begun to supply watch standers at the comm sta.

We didn't have any vessel available to us over about 65 ft so we relied on the real McCoy to do the heavy lifting or the rotor heads if a case were really desperate and too far out.

Pat

[turnkey4099]

Originally Posted by RonMar

large doublebraid nylon line is great for this, as you can load it up like a rubber band. It will continue to apply force to a tree in the directin of pull for quite a while(whatever distance you stretched it to) after the tree starts to move. It is best to pull it around something else such as a block anchored to another tree, as it can store a considerable ammount of energy and you never want to be directly in line with it. People who do much 4 wheeling have probably seen this used to great effect, using the energy of a moving vehicle to transfer energy in a stretched nylon tow strap to loosen another stuck vehicle. You just need to stay out of the possible line of flight if it should snap...

Yep, I should have remembered that seeing as I use it regularly in my firewood making, F150 2x and a stretching two strap plus lots of chains, cables (over 200 ft) and 4 snatch blocks. I had one set up where I used every bit but one snatch block and was looking for more cable.



All of that lives in the cab when not in use.

Harry K

[turnkey4099]

Originally Posted by patrick_g

Egon, when I was in London I was bracing myself for warm beer but was mildly surprised to find they drink their beer cool, just not super cold like it is often served in the US. Being the thorough researcher that I am I didn't settle for just one or two samples, I visited a lot of pubs to get a statistically significant sample.

Pat

I ran the same experiment in Germany. Total of 6 years and still wasn't sure of my results. I was willing to make the sacrifice for science. If I ever go back I will extend the trial.

Harry K

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by turnkey4099

I ran the same experiment in Germany. Total of 6 years and still wasn't sure of my results. I was willing to make the sacrifice for science. If I ever go back I will extend the trial.

Harry K

A friend of mine is scheduled to go back and visit the "old sod" early this fall and is trying to get my wife and I to go along. Maybe an additional justification would be a comparative analysis between Irish bub beer and English as typified in London.

Pat

[smfcpacfp]

Do all discussions ultimately end in old drinking stories?

[Egon]

Go to Pilsen and try some Pilsner.

Better yet embark on a ferry voyage up the Rhine and then switchover and go up the Donnau. Scenery plus sampling of local produce.

[PAGUY]

The voice of experience when it comes to dumb setup in felling a tree.I had a maple tree next to my garage that was 2 foot in diameter at the base. A third of the way up the base branhed out in three individual trunks. Upon deciding it was time to take it down I managed to use an electric chain saw attached to a fiberglass extension pole to cut off most of the branches and two of the shorter trunks. The final and tallest trunk was leaning towards the garage so I used a grapple hook attached to a rope and caught the branch close to the top of the tree. I then attached it to my tractor and drove out far enough where I figured it couldn't reach the tractor. Kept the pressure on to hopefully make the tree fall towards the tractor and land on the lawn. Went back and climbed the ladder with the electric chain saw in hand. made a cut on thew opposite side of the tree which was towards the tractor. Then cut the tree on the side the ladder I was standing on. Cut a little and check the pressure on the rope and adjust as I could hear a crack sound. My last cut on the ladder and I could hear and see the tree trunk lean 45 degrees from where I wanted it to fall. This caused the grapple hook to loosen and slip off. I was down off the ladder in micro-seconds. Like it happened in slow motion the tree once free from the pressure sprung completely in the opposite direction where I had been on the ladder. It snapped and came down between the house and garage but wiped out my 220V line to the garage. My tree was down to where I could now cut it up but I had no power in the garage so I had to run an extension cord from the GFIC outlet on the deck of the house. The nylon rope did make that grapple hook shoot like an arrow from a bow but no damage there. After cutting up the tree to clear the driveway I had to repair the line to the garage. So much for an amatuer tree surgeon. The stump is still there but slowly rotting away. I read somewhere that you put cow manure on it and cover it with plastic. Seem to do the job of beginning the rotting process.

[davitk]

OK, I think we have a winner here..... one empty beer cooler (well, almost empty, comes with the melted ice cubes) goes to..... PAGUY

[turnkey4099]

I did much the same. Over 2' red fir withing 6' of the house. Top hamper loaded toward the house. On roof, on ladder, cut off all the branches I could reach on the house side, cable out to a well planted RR tie, 3 5 gal buckets of water in the middle of the tight cable to try to maintain a bit of pull as the tree starts to move. Main concern was 'miss the house' - no problem after removing the overhanging branches.

Next was the fence. Had one good section of fence right angle and a slop job of a fence needing replacement.

Uhuh, beautiful aim, dead smack in the middle of the good section and about 30 degrees from where I was aiming.

All threads eventually get to the beer drinking as that is the whole purpose of the forum, isn't it?

Harry K