Handy machine for trees

[ctgoldwing]

When we moved in 23 years ago a very large oak was partially buried when we filled the driveway. Of course its been dead for years now. The problem is some of the very large branches kept falling onto the driveway and I was really concerned some car would be there at the wrong time.

I have attached a come along between it and have tried pulling it over into the woods. Since I was too concerned with my safety I could only get the rope up about 6 or 7 feet from the ground. Not enough leverage.

A week ago a telephone service guy happened to be working here and I noticed he had a bucket truck :thumbsup:

He happily volunteered to attach the rope about 35' up After he left I routed the rope around another tree and then back to the driveway. The end result was I attached the rope to the bucket and backed up the driveway. I was pulling almost 90 degrees from the direction the tree would (hopefully) fall. I also made sure I had plently of rope - the tree had to be 85' tall.

Perfect !!! It came down right against the tree I was using. Now its out of the way in the woods.


Now here we are a week later. A nasty thunderstorm just (2 hours ago) came through. A tree in the woods was either hit by lightning or was blown over but the net result is I had a good sized mother laying right across the driveway.

I waited for the storm to mostly pass & pulled the L3400 out of the garage. Using the fel I was able to lift (it broke in half across the driveway) each end and push it off the side into the woods, out of the way. Work for the chainsaw some other day. One thing I did find out though, the phd is not enough ballast for lifting heavy trees! When lifting the 'big' end the rear wheel came up in a hurry.

Even my wife is glad I have the machine - she has a friend coming over and never would have been able to come down the drive.

 

[boggen]

do you have filled tires? for extra rear ballast weight?

many topics of "ballast boxes" here on TBN. hit craigslist to find a used box blade, box blades normally have a spot right on top of them were you can stack concrete blocks, or other large heavy stuff. to help weigh the box blade down. but the weight can also help you keep from doing the teter totor of the front wheels were working the FEL.

 

[Baby Grand]

That was some storm! I looked up from my cube farm seat at about 4:45 pm and it was pitch black outside. My sister lives in Southbury and got a call from the town telling her that a tornado was in the area and that she should head for the basement until they called back with the all clear. Her maple tree found her truck and the result was not good ...

Agree about the PHD - next time try hitching up your box blade. Not only will it help keep your rears on the ground, but it will also unload some of the weight from your front axle. Better front axle life and less of that sinking feeling on rain soaked ground.

-Jim

 

[TripleR]

Yep, they are great for moving trees, after our last storm, I moved some off of our county road and road back to our ponds with my L5030.

We had three fall into each other and across a ditch and onto our pond road. I knew they were beyond my tractor's capability, but was back there bush hogging a couple of days ago when the sun suddenly went dark and the earth began to shake. I looked in my rear view mirrors and all I could see was green. I turned around and one of the men who rents our land had pulled in behind me with one of their 7000 Series John Deere tractors. He asked if it was OK to push them out of the way. Not wanting to seem unneighborly, I said OK.:laughing:

Sometimes you just need a bigger hammer.

 

[ChuckinNH]

Yep, they are great for moving trees, after our last storm, I moved some off of our county road and road back to our ponds with my L5030.

We had three fall into each other and across a ditch and onto our pond road. I knew they were beyond my tractor's capability, but was back there bush hogging a couple of days ago when the sun suddenly went dark and the earth began to shake. I looked in my rear view mirrors and all I could see was green. I turned around and one of the men who rents our land had pulled in behind me with one of their 7000 Series John Deere tractors. He asked if it was OK to push them out of the way. Not wanting to seem unneighborly, I said OK.:laughing:

Sometimes you just need a bigger hammer.

Well! that got a good laugh from me........ thanks!

 

[ctgoldwing]

That was some storm! I looked up from my cube farm seat at about 4:45 pm and it was pitch black outside. My sister lives in Southbury and got a call from the town telling her that a tornado was in the area and that she should head for the basement until they called back with the all clear. Her maple tree found her truck and the result was not good ...

Agree about the PHD - next time try hitching up your box blade. Not only will it help keep your rears on the ground, but it will also unload some of the weight from your front axle. Better front axle life and less of that sinking feeling on rain soaked ground.

-Jim

No kidding - I work in Waterbury & happened to walk onto the loading dock around 4:15. From my experiences doing long distance motorcycle riding I could tell the weather was going to get nasty in a hurry so I booked out on the mc & JUST beat the storm.

Yep, they are great for moving trees, after our last storm, I moved some off of our county road and road back to our ponds with my L5030.

We had three fall into each other and across a ditch and onto our pond road. I knew they were beyond my tractor's capability, but was back there bush hogging a couple of days ago when the sun suddenly went dark and the earth began to shake. I looked in my rear view mirrors and all I could see was green. I turned around and one of the men who rents our land had pulled in behind me with one of their 7000 Series John Deere tractors. He asked if it was OK to push them out of the way. Not wanting to seem unneighborly, I said OK.:laughing:

Sometimes you just need a bigger hammer.

Its all relative - I was just thinking you had a bigger hammer than me :laughing:

 

[TripleR]

Well! that got a good laugh from me........ thanks!

You should have been there and the 7000 Series is their utility tractor, they farm with 8000's, downright embarrassing.:laughing:

Its all relative - I was just thinking you had a bigger hammer than me :laughing:

We have an M8540, but it was four miles away on one of our other farms and even it won't come close to a 7000 Series John Deere. At least I wouldn't have gotten a crick in my neck from looking up though.:laughing:

 

[JB4310]

No kidding - I work in Waterbury & happened to walk onto the loading dock around 4:15. From my experiences doing long distance motorcycle riding I could tell the weather was going to get nasty in a hurry so I booked out on the mc & JUST beat the storm.

Well 2 things relating to this thread. First, I was just using my tractor to handle a monster 36" Ash tree, On Thursday afternoon.

This tree was standing half dead for the last 6 years, I had topped it when I had a boom lift in the yard, but left the trunk cause it still sprouted green out the top. This year it was completely dead, so I decided to take it down.

We knew a storm could pop up like the day before, but we kept working as the sky was darkening. It would not just pull over, had to cut 95% thru it, we just dropped the trunk and all of a sudden it got dark as night at around 4:30, trees starting bending over with the wind, had all we could do to get out of the front yard and haul a** back to shop in the back. My helper grabbed the saw and ran I started backing off the lawn and just decided to not even turn around just went full speed in reverse, I had to travel about 300 feet under a row of 80 foot high trees, where small branches were already flying off of.

Made it to safety and we didn't have any damage, but it was pretty nasty for awhile. My tractor had all it could do to lift the trunk sections the next day.

JB.

 

[pat32rf]

Thats one big ash tree....(couldn't resist, hee hee)

 

[ovrszd]

Thats one big ash tree....(couldn't resist, hee hee)

It would make a big ash pile of firewood....