Pulling tree out with wheel & chain?

[MTGreen]

Those kinetic energy recovery straps make me really nervous because the whole point of them is to store and transfer that energy. Snapping one of those must be a puckering experience I imagine...

 

[OldMcDonald]

I've got a number of scrub oak that I need to clear out of an area, and I'd prefer to yank them out rather than just cut them short as they sprout suckers madly and I prefer to avoid poisons.

I've managed to pull out smaller specimens with my tractor using a chain - up to a few inches in diameter - but when they get bigger than this it's not doable, as these scrub oak have crazy strong roots. these aren't anything like a pine tree, which while it's got a tap root there's not a lot else and they come out readily just being pushed over (besides, cutting those is permanent)

I've seen people use an old wheel so that there's an initial upwards pull, and I have questions before trying to find a reasonable wheel for this -

1 - I'm guessing the bigger the wheel, the better? I tried using a piece of steel I-beam I had, but it was too unstable and fell over to the side before I could get enough tension on it (working solo) to have it do any good

2 - has anyone had luck with this wheel method pulling scrub oak or something with similarly obnoxious roots?

There's way too many of them to dig out with the backhoe.

Never used the wheel method. I have a Sylvester. Sylvester’s Pullers
It was my father's before me. Note the remark about safely pulling out the timbers in coalmines. That was my father's job for 25 years - officially called a Colliery Timber Drawer (it says so on my birth certificate). Dangerous work because the roof fell when the props were drawn. Money was good. He was given it by someone who I presume "acquired" it from a mine. I know the box as an Elliott block.

I took it to Australia in 1979, back to Scotland in 1992, Portugal in 2003, and back here again last year. I used it often for moving many things and pulled small trees here last autumn. I am old so it is obviously easy to use. In Portugal I pulled some fairly hefty old olive trees. If the chain goes over something with a bit of height (maybe an old root stump of another tree, or a wheel) it gives the vertical lift. I usually use a longer anchor chain and if the anchor is stronger than what is to be moved the only limitation is the strength of the chain. I have a good one. I also have a piece of square tube so that the handle length can be increased to 2metres or 6.5ft approx. That makes it very easy to pull a lot of weight or break suction. Not light, but easy enough carried to where you cannot get a machine or vehicle.

 

[ning]

Pulled a couple smaller trees with the contraption the other day.

There's not a chance of breaking even my 5/16" chain here, my traction was so bad (R4 tires on hard-pack dirt lol).

I have no idea who welded the triangle originally (may have been me ages ago) but one of the welds broken off, cold weld with no penetration. Will fix that.
Also going to weld a chain hook on top as the gold chain is a pain to loop around enough to get it short enough to hook back to itself.

Finally, future tries I'll cut the tree first so that I can position the tripod such that I'm not wasting as much pull getting the initial tension (besides reducing the lift weight, though that's minor compared to the strength of the roots).

 

[ponytug]

@ning that looks easy-peazy! Nice job and thanks for sharing.

All the best, Peter

 

[ning]

A couple years ago I talked about setting up an A-frame thing to help pull trees in this thread.

I did make it (I had the A-frame from a different project, added feet and grab hooks); it's very heavy and cumbersome, but definitely effective.
It doesn't really work with the tractor, because I don't have a winch on the tractor, and I don't have enough traction... but I did buy a winch for my truck, which I can then anchor and winch the tree over.

Using the winch, especially with a remote, is key here because getting the A-frame set up and connected it's kind of unwieldy and with the remote winch I'm able to hold the A-frame up in position while getting the pull line ready to hold it up. Obviously I get out of the way for the actual pull.

Originally I was going to use a chain to pull with my tractor, so the A-frame has a horizontal grab hook at the top. I used a ~16' length of 3/8 chain I have connected there; there's a big slip hook that the winch hook is attached to.

The A-frame has a vertical grab hook at the top as well; that's connected to another chain which goes to the base of the tree; the chain there is wrapped around the trunk three times with a slip hook that's grabbed by the chain going up - with that the chain just gets tighter around the trunk and it didn't slip up the trunk at all despite this tree not having any protuberances for it to catch or tighten on.

The tree being pulled here was really well anchored in some deep rock. There were rocks embedded in the roots that did come out but a couple really big roots got busted off below ground. The tree removal left about a 25-gallon ready-made planter that I dropped a Meyer Lemon tree into; it's at the top of the garden space up there and the lemon won't grow to the point that it'll shade the garden like the oak was going to shortly.

The winch didn't really care about the tree with this setup. I had it stop and go not because of strain but just out of general caution.
And yes I should've probably untwisted the anchor strap first (the tension in it was from me driving the truck forward to tension it; the truck didn't budge during the pull.)

 

[ponytug]

@ning nice! And a great video. That looks very effective.

FWIW: I have usually seen the A frame start at an angle toward the tree, so that for the first section of the pull more of the force of pull becomes increasingly vertical, helping to wedge the A frame down. Your method works great as it is though.

Time for me to build one here for the things that I can't just rip out with the tractor...

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

@ning nice! And a great video. That looks very effective.

FWIW: I have usually seen the A frame start at an angle toward the tree, so that for the first section of the pull more of the force of pull becomes increasingly vertical, helping to wedge the A frame down. Your method works great as it is though.

Time for me to build one here for the things that I can't just rip out with the tractor...

All the best,

Peter

I was limited by the big rocks around the tree for foot placement. It did start at an angle, just not very much, but luckily it was enough.

I must say I'm tempted to put a winch on the tractor to be able to do this on parts of my land that aren't as accessible by the truck. I don't think you need a 12k winch for most trees when you've got the upward component, a 3500# would probably do it since the A-frame gives a good (if brief) 5x mechanical advantage (depending on angles). Definitely need to have the puller anchored though; a logging winch would be perfect with an A-frame...

... or you know what, some sort of a winch mount x anchor combo SSQA attachment would probably be ideal. I'm thinking of a heavy blade-like thing, maybe with deployable ripper shanks (for softer ground), that you set into the ground; the winch is also mounted on this, so there's actually no stress on the tractor proper (other than electrical - unless you use hydraulic winch). The winch action tries to drag the attachment forward, but the blade & rippers hold it steady.

 

[gstrom99]

... or you know what, some sort of a winch mount x anchor combo SSQA attachment would probably be ideal.

Good progress. You could get one of these and mount that winch on anything with a 2" receiver.

12,000 lb. Winch Hitch Mount

Amazing deals on this 12,000Lb Winch Hitch Mount at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[garry1p]

Recovery straps do break.
My friend was pulling me out in reverse, strap broke and went through his windshield.
No injury but scary.

 

[2manyrocks]

I've been thinking through my options for removing some tree trunks that I've already cut.

Reading the arborist forums, some of those guys distrust using any truck or tractor as an anchor point for tree work, one issue being that tires only have so much ground contact.

While 3pt forestry winches incorporate blades to resist the forces of winching an already downed log, I don't recall seeing any examples of someone using one to winch out a stump.

Right now, I am wondering how effective it would be to toss some of HF's moving blankets over the lines/straps used to pull if they were to break? The moving blankets are pretty cheap to buy.