Newbit tree cutdown question

[K7147]

The tree grew towards the power line becasue there was more light in that direction. Getting a tree to fall against it's natural lean takes and act against gravity, which can be done.

There are several unknowns at this point which can influence whether or not this tree can be dropped from the ground or if it has to be taken down from the top to the bottom. What is the over all health of the tree, is there a chance there is rot in the base of the tree or in the trunck? Should there be any question of the vitality of the hindge wood I would suggest it be taken down a piece at a time from the top.

Getting a tree to fall in the direction you want it to go against a lean will take leverage as high up as you can get it. As many others have suggested a GOOD strong rope is essential. I use a rope puller and a 1/2" high strength rope. The rope puller is designed to pull rope and has an advantage over a come-along in that the pulling range is whatever your rope length is. The one I have is rated for 1400 lbs.

Once you have the rope positioned as high up as you can get and your rope is longer than the tree you are cutting which is fastened to an object heavier than the tree put a little tension on the rope. Make sure you are pulling in the same direction as your notch will be facing.

Make your notch facing the direction you want the tree to fall so that the width of the notch is at least 80% of the tree diameter. Your hindge wood thickness should be at least 10% of the tree diameter but you can leave a little more if it makes you feel better. Remember you have to break this band of wood to get the tree to begin to fall. Picture a 2X12 standing on end in the ground and the force it takes to break this off by pulling on the top and you get an idea of how much the hingde wood can hold.

Directly behind where your notch cuts intersect bore into and through the tree a couple of inches behind this point, here you will establish your hindge before you complete your back cut. Once you have cut foward and made your hindge start cutting towards the back of the tree. You can cut one quarter of the back wood away and leave one quarter holding. Insert a plastic felling wedge and tap it in until it is good and tight.

Cut around from the other direction but leave a small strip a little more than the chainsaw bars width from the first wedge of holding wood. Insert another felling wedge. Knock both wedges in until both are tight alternating hitting one then the other. Here is where two people come in handy. Have the other person increase the tension on the rope.

Sometimes the tree will start to fall at this point, the little remaining holding wood you left between the wedges breaks and the tree falls in the direction you notched it. Sometimes the holding wood needs to be cut before the tree falls. Knock your wedges in once more. If you need to take your saw and cut the holding wood between the wedges, the wedges will keep your saw from being pinched. Once this holding wood is cut the tree should begin to fall in the direction you want it to, keep putting more tension on the rope until you are certain the tree is on it's way.

One way to tell if you have the rope up high enough and enough leverage is before you cut put some tension on the rope, if the top of the tree moves in the right direction you've got it.

Randy

Randy!

An erudite explanation of a logical process imbued with obvious experience and sprinkled with tidbits of common sense. Most appreciated!

Ken

 

[turnkey4099]

Ok, I have a bit more time now to reply to the comment about NOT using rope to fell a tree…..

A cable has a great deal of tensile strength, however, little in the way of stretch…agreed? A synthetic rope of proper diameter and quality will have “stretch”….agreed?

When a cable is used to tension a tree and the tree starts to fall the first few inches the metal cable immediately goes slack and thus becomes useless as it nor longer provides any tension to direct the fall of the tree. As we all know this is exactly the moment when falling trees are apt to do strange things with respect to the choice of direction.

When a synthetic rope is used to tension a tree it becomes stretched. As the tree starts to fall this stretching is somewhat reduced, however, if properly tensioned the rope will maintain pull on the tree for a much longer period of time than a cable and particularly during the critical first stages of the tree starting to lean.

Does this pass the common sense and reasonable test for anyone?

Ken

Does for me too but with a caveat. It needs to be a good, strong one. Not a 3/4" one that has been laying in the shed a year or two.

Good point about the 'stretch'. I have hung 5 gal buckets of water off the middle of my cable in the past to accomplish the same thing.

Harry K

 

[K7147]

Does for me too but with a caveat. It needs to be a good, strong one. Not a 3/4" one that has been laying in the shed a year or two.

Good point about the 'stretch'. I have hung 5 gal buckets of water off the middle of my cable in the past to accomplish the same thing.

Harry K

Hi Harry K!

Thanks for the reply. I suppose the reason for my initial reply was not to espouse the use of rope over cable, but to indicate that there is not just one way to accomplish a task and that there is almost never one mutually exclusive way to do accomplish a task involving a tractor. If you use a cable and apply some common sense to the process and I do the same with rope…..I figure we’ve accomplished the same task via different routes.
Hey, who knows, sometime in the future some fellow will figure out a way to use laser beams to accomplish the same task in a safer manner and you and I will throw away our ropes and cables and start shooting out red beams from our tractors?

I do carry 125’ of 3/8” cable on an electric winch on my tractor and make frequent use of this winch. Just thought I’d mention that to indicate that I’m not with tunnel vision with respect to felling trees.

Ken

 

[rich_ncal]

There were some good suggestions from Treeguy in previous posts.

One of the good suggestions was on using wedges to control the direction of tree falls. After that discussion about wedges, I purchased a set of plastic wedges from Northern Tool made for tree falling. I have not had an opportunity to use them yet but perhaps soon.

Cables and ropes on trees can be very dangerous. I have heard number of times of cables and ropes breaking or slipping with injures or deadly results. Be careful.

I saw one example of how dangerous this can be with a tow strap with a chain used to pull logs from a log pile. The after building tension pulling with a pickup truck, the log moved and the chain slipped off. The chain looked like a missile heading for the back of the pick up truck that was pulling the strap. It hit the tail gate. A few feet to the side or higher it would have missed the tail gate and could have hit someone in the truck

 

[sendero]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I definitely learned something.

I agree that the rope I have is probably not strong enough for the task, what about using chains - I have plenty of 3/8" and 5/16" chromate tow chain. I really don't like messing with cable, it's as inflexible as a mother-in-law

In any event, I hope to tackle this chore before the next growing season, and I appreciate each response, which I have read and re-read...