Advice on moving trees

[kubota4me]

I've got a L4400 with HST, FEL. I've got a Kubota ballast box (large one) also. That is about it other than a land pride bush hog and a box scraper. I will be cutting down some dead white elm trees tomorrow. They are about 30 feet tall and about 8-12" in diameter. Mostly straight, similar to a poplar tree. I plan on dragging them down to my valley about 150 yards away from where they now are positioned and eventually burn since white elm doesn't make very good wood to burn in a stove. Would you A) try to lift the stump end up slightly with the three point and carefully drag them to the destination taking care not to let the stump dip down and dig in putting the tractor in danger of flipping over backwards or B) putting out a lot more work and cutting them up somewhat and hauling them in small pieces in the FEL? I would like to move fast and drag them if I could. Any suggestions would be most welcome! Thanks for your wise advice.

 

[Jeff F.]

Dragging a 30 foot tree from the stump end should work just fine. Go slow and take the corners wide.:thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

I always just drag them from the drawbar, it makes some drag marks, but I have always been able to drag them ok.

James K0UA

 

[Fixemall]

If you are just disposing of them, drag with branches on by chaining the stump end to your scraper box, slightly raising it and then driving away with the whole tree, by slightly raising the box it will keep the tree from digging in and be safer and easier on your machine.

 

[magicheater]

I plan on dragging them down to my valley about 150 yards away from where they now are positioned and eventually burn since white elm doesn't make very good wood to burn in a stove. .

So I am curious, White elm has more BTU's than Poplar/Aspen, why would you not use it in your stove? Any wood seasoned correctly burns well. At #3000 and 19.5 million BTU's a cord it certainly has some value.

 

[Burrell]

Hey good luck pulling that tree simple trick if it will pull about 15 or 20 feet usually it will roll to what ever side is going to be up, hard to gues that with a tree just like falling one. If your draw bar hasn't got the ump saw that log at a 45 degree angel to the ground (Keep your saw out of the ground, HA, HA)
like a sled I have made them look like a spike depends on the property your draging it across if the logs going to roll around all it does is keep the front of the log from digging in. best of luck

 

[jbrody44]

I have had good luck using a choker or sling wrapped around the tree and the other end to the strong bar behind the fel bucket (using a shackle or clevis). raise it a bit and drive in reverse. You can see just what the tree is doing, and raise or lower at will. Oh yeah, remember to look behind once in a while to see where you are going:laughing:

 

[kubota4me]

Thanks much with your advice. I think I will try Fixemall's advice and try chaining it to my box scraper or try k0ua's advice and drag it by the drawbear. Believe me when I say I am going to take it slow. I can always cut the tree up into smaller sizes if I need to. Regarding burning this white elm (Chinese elm), it seems to produce a lot more ash vs. oak, ash or red elm. It certainly would be ok for an outdoor fire pit I guess.