Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck

   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #22  
Just posted for the humor :)
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #23  
totally agree.

Had an instructor who was amazing Arborist; got in to it working in the Arboretum in golden Gate Park. He showed us pictures of trees that fell on houses. tree trimmer had tied off to the tree, and to truck that was on pavement. Tree drug the truck across the pavement as it fell the wrong way, even though it was tensioned. In one case, it totalled the truck, in addition to dropping the tree on a house.

And a couple example were of "contractors" with no license or insurance. They dropped thier tools, chainsaws, ropes, ladders, everything, disconnected rope/cable from truck, and left...

Anchor your winch/come-along to another solid object...

I would use whichever is best insured. :laughing:
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #24  
Rent a snatch block or buy one. Just my two cents.

Wedge
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #25  
This one my change the equation a bit.

Crazy Turbo Charged Tractor - YouTube

Curious if that was his field he drove to. I wonder how those gears held up, never designed to spin that fast. Pretty amazing,

The comment about traction it would get reminds me of growing up when a buddy who had a corvette was arguing with a buddy who drove a road grader for a living about who could out pull who. The road grader had like a whopping 50 HP. This went on for months. Finally one Friday night we met at the equipment yard of the road contractor's shop. A few beers and some arguing later the two were chained up in the lot. That grader pulled that corvette around like a rag doll. The buddy driving the road grader was so mad he pulled the corvette around for probably an hour. No surprise to us farm kids, but the city kid corvette driver never really understood. I am sure he did later in life, but not that night.
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #26  
Curious if that was his field he drove to. I wonder how those gears held up, never designed to spin that fast. Pretty amazing,

The comment about traction it would get reminds me of growing up when a buddy who had a corvette was arguing with a buddy who drove a road grader for a living about who could out pull who. The road grader had like a whopping 50 HP. This went on for months. Finally one Friday night we met at the equipment yard of the road contractor's shop. A few beers and some arguing later the two were chained up in the lot. That grader pulled that corvette around like a rag doll. The buddy driving the road grader was so mad he pulled the corvette around for probably an hour. No surprise to us farm kids, but the city kid corvette driver never really understood. I am sure he did later in life, but not that night.

Too funny.
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #27  
I would use the truck in reverse,, tie to the front,, a lot of weight.. but I have a F350 diesel, 4x4 crew cab with long wheel.. My tractors one is 57 hp. the other 40hp.. both have fel.. Lou
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #28  
We really don't care what you use!
Just post video!!

I'd use the tractor.

Just be sure to pull low.
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck
  • Thread Starter
#29  
Tree is down

We really don't care what you use!
Just post video!!

Great and interesting input-- thanks to all who responded!

Well, as it turned out I didn't get a chance to set up any video, but was able to take some cell phone shots. Here's a "before" pic:
tree_before.jpg


Couple of notes by way of more information. The rope in the pic is tied off quite a bit lower than I would typically set things up. When I got up on the ladder I was able to see more closely that there was decay just above where the rope ended up. Thought it best to sacrifice a bit of leverage rather than risk having the trunk break off at the weak spot. Also, although the tree was leaning away from the camera here, the large limbs on the right over the cabin were a concern given their weight and tendency to pull things in that direction. The tree was in pretty bad shape overall and you never know what the inside is like where you're cutting. I also wrapped a chain around the circumference just below the higher large branch.

We thought it might hit the ash trees just to the left but that wasn't really a concern and if they got damaged there were coming down anyway.

In the end, we used the truck. Others have explained much better than myself what I was trying to describe as sway. Especially if a tree is leaning heavily, when it starts to fall and you're pulling in the direction you want it to go, you need to accelerate enough at that point to keep the tension. But the final decision to use the truck came down to the fact that the fellow helping me didn't have any experience with this tractor.

The rope was a very high strength, woven, 200 foot bull rope so he was well out of harm's way. Running bowline on the tree and tied off to the tow hooks on the front of the truck so he could watch what was happening.

Here's a pic of the truck taken a while ago:
truck.jpg


Everything went pretty much as planned. Here's a shot of the tree down:
down.jpg


It did indeed catch the closest ash tree and in the process, spun the tree to the left as it was falling. But I was too busy getting the he** out of there to witness the actual descent.

Finally, here's a shot taken the other day of the tractor:
massey.jpg
 
   / Pulling power: Tractor vs. Truck #30  
Excellent! Beautiful pics...:thumbsup:
 

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