Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up!

   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #1  

DmansPadge

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2004
Messages
1,678
Location
Orange, TX
Tractor
Kubota B2620, Toro 2000 Series Z Master
I recently bought a 1/2 acre next to me that was heavily wooded. I had a dozer and BH out there to handle the big majority of the work. There were about 7 trees that I wanted to take out that were to close to my keepers for the backhoe to dig around. No problem... I'll cut em down and put them on the burn piles.

I did all of them except one with no problems whatsoever. The only one left was towards the front of my property and real close to the power lines. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I had some other things to do and I was waiting on my B-I-L to show up. He has a 200ft rope that we have used a bunch to take out trees that had to fall in a particular direction. The day went on and he hadn't shown up yet. I had most everything else I needed to do done and was getting a bit anxious.

So in all my wisdom... I figured "Heck... I can do it by myself." It was a sweet gum that was tall but small in diameter. I cut a notch and figured I'd shove it over with my FEL. It was a bit wet and I was simply spinning the tires. So I notched it a bit more. I tried shoving it over again and it broke loose at the base. No problem yet. The FEL was holding it in place. I put the parking brake on and let it stay until I could find something to tie the tree off with. The only thing I could come up with was about a 15' piece of rope. I got it up as high as I could on the tree and tied it off to a big pine near it. So I got back on the tractor and slowly eased off of the tree. I figured I'd come around the back side of the tree and push the bottom out from under it. No sooner than I could react it starting coming my way... my instict was to try again to shove it over.... I did, but, it didn't help. I knew what was coming... so I pulled the kill cable and bailed off the tractor. Once I was in the clear I turned to look back in time to see the tree graze the power lines and end up laying on the cable TV line. About 1 second later a block down the road I heard a load boom.

I ran to my cell phone and called the power company. Turns out it blew the main fuse at the end of the road and no real harm was done. The lineman told me I could go ahead and cut the tree off the cable line... and before I could crank up my saw he had the power back on.

Had I waited for my brother in law... it never would have happened. So I learned my lesson. Thankfully that was the last tree I had to cut and no harm was done.
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #2  
Glad to hear that the fuse was the only casulty.
It could have been a lot worse.

Those trees can be tricky. One time I was falling a tree that was next to a pond and I wanted to fall any direction but into the pond beascue it would be much harder to recover and saw up.
You guessed it.....that tree fell right into the pond no matter how I notched it and tried to control the fall.

Helpers and some expertise are denfinetly required even if you are along way from the power lines.

Fred
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #3  
I was going to ask you to come up and help me cut some trees in Jasper in the Fall, cancel the invitation /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Glad you weren't hurt and the tractor wasn't crushed. I learned that I do not know how to properly notch a tree so I always use a rope and winch if there is any possibility of it hitting anything.

BTW, I have also learned to use a tow strap to tie the back of my Jeep to a large tree when using the winch to pull a tree. I read a story about a tractor being pulled by a falling tree and decided I didn't want my nice Jeep to end up being a victim.

Bill Tolle
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #4  
I had a tree start to fall exactly how I wanted it to, away from the house, but almost as soon as it started falling, it twisted on me.

It turned 180 degrees and fell towards the house. Luckily there was a branch sticking out that caught the tree. It was the only branch between the tree and the house, and it wasn't very big.

A foot to either side and I'd have branches through the roof!!

To tell you my stomach did a dance and twisted inside me would be an understatement.

Glad things worked out for you, cause it sure could have been allot worse.

Eddie
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #5  
What is the best way to get rid of stumps? The trees are down
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #6  
There is an art to felling trees as is pointed out in these posts. Notching is not the only trick. One has to consider which way the tree is leaning, which way the wind is blowing, which side of the tree has the most weight. I am at the age where felling trees is not fun anymore. Especially dead ones. The last couple of dead trees I took down I had to cut almost into before they started to fall. No leaves for the wind to help. I don't know if I know how to "properly" notch a tree, but so far have never cut one down onto anything.
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #7  
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #8  
Sometimes,notching and chains tied on still wont make it come the way you want it. We had a big dead pine that the drought had killed and I wanted to fall it away from the fence, so I put a chain up about 20 feet in the air and knotched it in the direction away from the fence, I got it cut thru and brother in law was pulling with his NH 2030 but he couldnt pull it over. We had plenty of chain so no danger of it falling on the tractor. I went out to where he was and his tractor was reving but not spinning. (he had it in high range) I got him to put it in low and then he had the power to spin the tires and pull it over HOWEVER the branches was holding firm into adjacent tree and the next thing that happened was the tree broke at the chain and of course it fell directly on the fence and broke the top barbed wire but just crushed down the netwire. We cut it up in small enough pieces to handle by rolling them into FEL, fixed the fence and all was good. I later took the B26 over and dug up the stump. Nothing ever seems to go as planned when there is an option to go different.
 
   / Last tree I had to cut... and I messed up! #10  
A stump grinder. But the thread you dredged up is almost 8 years old.

Another Zombie thread!
1-zombie-2.gif
 
 
Top