Felling a tree for the first time

[Jay4200]

What methods do you use to fell a tree and have yuou ever been lucky or unlucky felling a tree. Sorry I did not take any pictures. David

I dropped several big (100'+, 2-3ft diameter) pines last year. I had a neighbor help me - he is a tree guy. He tossed a cord using a lead-shot-filled bag way up into the top of the tree, then pulled a climber's rope into the tree using the cord. Once the rope was tied off, we had a pull point that was 70+ feet up. The rope was tied to a convenient object in the direction we wanted the tree to fall (but well farther away then the tree was tall), then made a "knot come-a-long" to winch the tree over and generate tension. After a wedge cut was made in the direction of the tensioning rope, I hung on the rope to add even more tension, and he back-cut the tree. Every one fell w/in several feet of the target.

I also dropped a dozen small trees (less than 40' or so) recently - I just dig a bit around the roots with my backhoe, then grab around the trunk with my 'hoe bucket and and rip it down, root ball and all, then drag the whole thing off to the burn-pile.

JayC

 

[turnkey4099]

With all my experience I won't try to fall a tree that has any chance of damaging anything important. That is expert time and that I am not. The above one, I knew could hit the house, I was trying to avoid damaging a fence - it didn't work.

Harry K

Ooops. That should have been "I knew it could _not_ hit the house".

Harry K

 

[hitekcountry]

Another important factor to consider that can increase the danger is the condition of the tree. It’s possible to have a tree look healthy on the outside and yet be rotten to the core.
A rotted tree is going to make up its own set of rules.

This tree fell on its own, luckily there wasn’t anyone in its path at the time and I’m fortunate it didn’t hit my building. One of my renters called me and tells me “a tree just fell and crushed my truck”.

You can see in one of the pictures that the trunk was pretty much split vertically at the base. Anyone trying to cut down a tree like that is not going to be able to create any kind of hinge to direct the fall.

 

[davidseaquist]

Wow thanks for sharing the pictures. Thanks everyone for sharing your posts and the safety warnings David

 

[john_bud]

Hitek,

So, who pays for the damage to the truck? Just curious.

jb

 

[hitekcountry]

Hitek,

So, who pays for the damage to the truck? Just curious.

jb

Yea good question… My first thought was that the neighbors insurance would pay for the renters truck and the clean up of my property since it was the neighbor’s tree. Then the insurance adjuster (neighbors) asked if it was obvious prior to it falling that the tree had a problem or if there was any indication it could be dangerous and my answer was no. The truth was that no one was aware the tree had a problem. The decision of the adjuster then was that it would be classified an “act of God” and that each person would be covered in this circumstance by their own insurance. I checked of course with my insurance and they agreed that that was a well established precedent.

So the neighbor needed to cover the damages to his property which is only half of the cost to repair two 8’ sections of fence between his property and mine and that’s it for him because none of the tree was any longer on his property.

The renter needed to recover the loss of his truck through the comprehensive portion of his auto insurance. Problem with that was he didn’t have insurance on the truck.

I had $1K deductible and the insurance would pay the rest except that there was only $500 allowed to go to clean-up. So repairing the fences (the tree also took out a section of fence on the other side of my property) would probably not top $500 and a max allowed for clean-up of $500 against the $1K deductible, means it’s all on me.

There’s way more to this story than I can get into here but I cut up the tree and cleared it all out and rebuilt the fences on both sides, the neighbor where the tree came from paid for materials, the neighbor on the other side gave me a bottle of vodka. I didn’t bother to tell him I don’t drink.

The renter sued the neighbor in small claims court and sued me too at the same time just to cover all bases I guess. He did win against the neighbor but he didn’t get anything from me.

Oh yea the tree was a 65ft tall silk oak.