Stumper vs tree, tree wins

[hayden]

Muhammad's picture of the overloaded car, the discussion about knocking down trees with tractors, and the welcome addition of photos to the discussions jogged my memory on this event. You guys will get a charge out of this one.

Last spring I rented a Vermeer stump grinder to tend to a bunch of stumps in my yard. It's a very hefty machine with a 2 cyl kohler engine. Came on it's own trailer and everything.

I made it nicely through the day and ground up close to a dozen stumps. Towards the end of the day, the wind really kicked up. While working, I thought I should be wrapping things up since I don't like being in the woods when it's real windy due to falling limbs, of which I get many.

So I wrapped up, loaded the machine back on the trailer, disconnected my truck without moving it away from the trailer, then went inside to clean up.

Next stop - Pizza. My son and I were getting ready and I looked out the window to find this. (picture attached).

This baby popped right out of the ground and came down for a direct hit on the stumper. Despite all it's substance, the tree won over the stumper. My truck suffered only minor skid marks, and my tractor was untouched.

The stumper was destroyed. Frame bent, engine smashed, axel bent, wheel buckled. Trailer also destroyed. I was picking rocker arms out of the lawn a week later.

Now I'm the guy who never, and I mean never, takes the loss damage waiver on rentals. Well, for some strange reason, I did it this time. Best $9 I ever spent.

The rental guy was speechless when I called him. I provided him with a set of pictures to clearly show the tree had up-rooted. I'm sure he figured I dropped it on the machine while felling trees. The ironic thing is, I never even took out the chain saw that day.

Peter

 

[Harv]

Peter -

Holy Cow!!!

You had just walked away when all that happened!!??? /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

That would make a religious man out of anybody!

I would conclude that trees don't like having their buddys' stumps ground down -- maybe that's a religious thing with them. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Glad this one had a happy ending. The alternatives are too scary to even think about.

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

Peter

I think that Vermeer made mother nature mad.
You sure have it right, being in the woods when the wind is blowing hard can be a sure way to miss dinner everyday for ever. I recall walking to get the mail with my youngest son on a windy day. I bailed and told him to come on back to house with me. He did, but was telling me what a "Wus" I was on the way back. Before we made it to the front porch a big fir dropped right down the middle of the road where we had been not two minutes earlier. He still thinks I'm a "Wus", but he does know to get out of the woods when the wind blows./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Peter, do you reckon that guy will ever let you rent another piece of his equipment?/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[gordon]

I bet that was the best nine dollars you ever spent./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Of course I'm glad you were in the house when this happend or else you might not be here posting now.

Richard see what a tree can do to a steel rim---just think if that was Brutus!! Hope you read this thread!

That looks like the stumpgrinder that I own. Of all the jobs that I do I hate and I mean hate running the stump grinder very boring. I need a bigger model with more horse power of course I need alot of things./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
gordon

 

[Thomas]

Glad your okay.
By the looks it seems those pine roots were top feeders,was the wind blowing when this happen or the day before?

Better than have it hit by lighting. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[hayden]

I haven't tried, but I'll probably have my wife go in if I need to rent again.

 

[hayden]

No, the wind was blowing real hard that afternoon and that's what brought it down.

It was this tree and this root ball that prompted me to make my comments in the Brutus-tree-knocking-down-discussion.

This, plus a few other incidents with trees leave me with a very healthy respect for the threat they can pose.

I almost killed my best friend many years ago through a combination of errors on both our parts. He went back to the house to get something, and I though he had not returned. He returned and though I was much further away cutting due to the muffling effect of a new snow. I dropped a tree (a big one) and when the snow cloud cleared, he was standing next to the tree. The trunk and brushed his shoulder as it went down. His comment: "You would have had a good time explaining this one!"

Another time I had a pro come to take out one that was too big for me to take out comfortably. He calculated the lean and started cutting intending to drop it directly AWAY from my house. It was a 15"d 100' pine. As he cut in it became clear it was going to fall backwards into the house, not in the intended direction. Panic ensued. I yelled at my wife to get herself and the kids to the first floor and to the other side of the house so if it came down it would only destroy the house. Then we scrambled around winding wedges, prop bars, pry bars, etc to keep it from falling and to drive it back the other way. While he held it with the end of a pole saw (not a very sturdy brace, to say the least), I hammered wedges in until we finally got it tipping the right way.

Anyway, enough of the stories. Just be careful cutting trees.

 

[bpence]

I agree with Harv.....that would definitely make a religious man out of an atheist.

Bob Pence

 

[Richard]

Yes, I'm reading this (he says with quiet voice)

"Yikes", and "That's what I'm trying to avoid" he says in his mind full of ironic confusion.

Even though I'm not always typing, I'm always reading...