Pushing over dying pines with FEL

[Cowboy Billy]

Even a green growing tree can be rotten. It would be best to read as much as you can. Watch a bunch a Utube videos especially the ones showing felling gone wrong. As knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Then find someone that knows what they are doing to teach you. As there is a lot to learn and watch out for and it takes time to sink in. Part of the studying is also to see if your experienced person really knows what he is doing. I have cut with several people that claimed they have been cutting for years and claimed they "Knew All There Was about it" That left me shacking my head and leaving.

Two tips. After felling look up at the trees around the one you dropped for broken branches hanging up in them. I have had big branches fall out 20 minutes after dropping that were big enough to really hurt me if they had hit me.
Sometimes it can be really hard to tell the lean and weight balance on a tree. Take a stick get some fishing line and a sinker tie it to the end of the stick. Hold it up infront of you looking at the tree. After it stops swaying hold it so the string is between you and the center of the bottom of the tree. Then look up the tree and you can see the lean of the tree and take a guess how much weight of branches are on each side. Do that from two directions 90 deg apart.

The biggest danger with pushing over trees is 1/ having it break and fall on you. I have had trees break in 3-4 pieces and fall any which way. 2/ broken branches hanging up in tree tops and falling out later. 3/ the tree you are pushing or felling hitting a dead tree and that one falling back at you. 4/ the bucket of the tractor you are pushing with riding up the tree and to one side or the other and tipping the tractor. I haven't had much of a problem with the root balls tipping the tractor its more of a case of the roots coming up and into the hoses or radiator and damaging the tractor.

I have pushed over several hundred trees making trails, roads and building sites on my 120 acres with dozers and loaders. And its just plain stupid to push on them without a full overhead ROPS.

In this one I was pushing in heavy woods and the roots pushed out before they they pushed over. I tried to back out but they hit a third one over and I had to go get a chainsaw and cut my self out.

Billy

 

[AGGIE00]

Ive seen people pushing trees with FEl and the tree split in half with the top of the tree coming down on the cab.

thats why i hired a large excavator and operator to fell my large ones. fast, clean and safe

An if it is a Deere it will cost you about $7,000 if there is no structural damage. Had this very thing happen to me and now I NEVER use my tractor in the woods. Had my tractor been open station I would most certainly be dead. Tree was a 16" elm and it broke right where I was pushing about ten feet up and fell directly back on the cab.

 

[foggy1111]

Very seldom will I use my FEL to push over a tree. Way too many bad things can happen when pushing trees.....dead ones or live ones. Even when one would think there is no way for a tree to barber chair....they seem to have a way of doing just that! :confused2:

If that doesnt get you....then the small branches will. For trees that need to be dropped precisely.....I have a long rope that I tie high on the trunk and pull the tree from a safe distance to guide it down.

Just the fact that the OP asks how to go about it.....proves to me that he has not had enough experience in this area. Loaders and trees just dont mix.

For me....with but a few exceptions.....the loader is off-limits for felling trees. Dont become a victim!

 

[Short Game]

I agree there are too many ways to get in trouble here. I learned by doing when I was fast, young, and agile. I also learned a lot from screwing up. I learned from watching experts too. If I had any doubts, I'd get the expert who has the confidence and knowledge to do it right. Funny thing is, the best experts I know have had multiple broken bones during their careers.

Be safe.

 

[Ford tractor]

. I'm now leaning toward cutting a > in the direction I want them to fall and then cutting from the other side. How deep should the > be? I'm thinking 1/4 to 1/3 in. Probably move my stuff anyway even if I do try cutting them down.

I cut the fall direction notch 1/2 way into the tree. Make sure it's straight across.

You may want to see if a tree pro can drop the trees then you can buck them down yourself.

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

Just the fact that the OP asks how to go about it.....proves to me that he has not had enough experience in this area.

True, I have absolutely no experience doing it. I would not have thought it could be done if I hadn't see it on youtube. It looked easy enough to do on medium-sized, live trees. But now I'm convinced it's not a good idea. I REALLY do appreciate everybody taking the time post your experiences and opinions on the practice.

I did a little free hogging for one of my neighbors who drops a lot of pines on his place, so I'll get with him to see if he will give me a hand. That, with all the links and advice from this thread (wedges, ropes, etc...) should let me get them down safely.

 

[Don87]

True, I have absolutely no experience doing it. I would not have thought it could be done if I hadn't see it on youtube. It looked easy enough to do on medium-sized, live trees. But now I'm convinced it's not a good idea. I REALLY do appreciate everybody taking the time post your experiences and opinions on the practice.

I did a little free hogging for one of my neighbors who drops a lot of pines on his place, so I'll get with him to see if he will give me a hand. That, with all the links and advice from this thread (wedges, ropes, etc...) should let me get them down safely.

Good luck, be safe, and keep us posted.

 

[foggy1111]

True, I have absolutely no experience doing it. I would not have thought it could be done if I hadn't see it on youtube. It looked easy enough to do on medium-sized, live trees. But now I'm convinced it's not a good idea. I REALLY do appreciate everybody taking the time post your experiences and opinions on the practice.

I did a little free hogging for one of my neighbors who drops a lot of pines on his place, so I'll get with him to see if he will give me a hand. That, with all the links and advice from this thread (wedges, ropes, etc...) should let me get them down safely.

Schmart guy! :thumbsup: Good luck.

 

[wcampbell47]

I have had some experience cutting down live pines in Texas and also cutting down dead trees resulting from our drought. I know if the trees were live they would be valuable as timber for sale. Don't know if there is a market for dead pines. If there is a logger in your area check with him. You may be able to sell the timber and they will do all the work. A pine tree has a tap root about as far down in the ground as the tree is tall. Once the trees are down have the stumps ground.

You would be putting yourself and equipment in danger if you tried pushing 24" pines over with your machine. I have seen D9 dozers work hard at that.

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

Good luck, be safe, and keep us posted.

Reviving this thread to let you guys know how things worked out. Ended up taking down about 10 pines last weekend. Used a both a pull line and plastic wedge on them. I did a lot of reading and video watching to get ready. Then I started out on the smaller ones to make sure I had the technique down. Dropped every one where I wanted, but there were a few newbie mistakes. My friend caught one of these on video. It is the last tree and was the only one falling toward an open area so he could get a good shot of it.

Quick video - felling a pretty big one. Sorry, NOT working for some reason!

I got a little overconfident toward the end of the day and forgot to watch for falling limbs. I knew the pine was going to brush against another tree on its way down. If you look real close you can see a dead limb break off the pine and get slung back toward the stump. The pine was on the ground well before the limb hit the ground in the 6'-7' space between me and the stump. I was a little confused about how it exactly happened until I saw the video. It wasn't a real big limb, BUT it would have certainly hurt if it had gotten me.

You can see the limb in the background of this pic showing that my chainsaw was probably too small for the job. I had to keep going from side to side to keep the back cut even.



I guess that just goes to show that felling trees safely is more than just technique. I had kinda glossed over the part were they said watch for falling debris.

 

[Short Game]

Sometimes, if you do get hit, it's better to not see it coming.

I've had some pretty good bleeding from a falling branch, I looked up and didn't see a thing. Then I looked back down and wham! With dead trees, I would still be keeping a lookout for anything coming my way. I have seen dead limbs thrown a long way. I see your pines are not all that small. A bigger saw would be a good thing.

Be careful. You are getting great experience. I just had several trees voluntarily fell themselves in the snows and blows. Now that is the way to do it.

 

[Hollow]

DANGER!!!!! DO NOT DO THAT!!!!! Unless you've got a forestry cab on your tractor that is one of the most dangerous things you can do. A tree might snap in half and they always fall backwards but what's worse is when the top snaps. The limbs act like fetching's on an arrow and they come down with the sharp freshly broken stalk first! I've seen them put nice dents in 1/4" steel roofs of skidders and dozers.

 

[Short Game]

A tree might snap in half and they always fall backwards but what's worse is when the top snaps.

I was felling a tall dead 12 inch fir once with most of the limbs already gone. I was watching it and as soon as it started to tip, the trunk broke off up high and one of the top sections just walked, end over end, down the trunk. I dove out of the way and the big piece hit where I had been standing. I threw the saw as I dove and it got out of the way too. I now leave those dead firs alone and hope the next storm brings them down.

 

[BeeferMan]

That's why you always retreat at a 135 degree angle from the direction the tree is falling. Not 90, not 180...

 

[PapaPerk]

Time to get some experience with a chain saw. :thumbsup:

 

[Hollow]

I was watching it and as soon as it started to tip, the trunk broke off up high and one of the top sections just walked, end over end, down the trunk.

My family owned a logging business when I was growing up an I've seen many 10' top sections of pine trees fall and stab in the ground 2'. With that kind of force a regular tractor cab or canopy wouldn't stand a chance.

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

That's why you always retreat at a 135 degree angle from the direction the tree is falling. Not 90, not 180...

Yeah, that's one of the "best practices" I found on-line. Found it hard to do in some cases due to the density of the trees and brush, so I retreated to behind a tree for them.

 

[PILOON]

Pine is a brittle wood, Snaps easily.
Even chainsaw vibration can cause branches to fall.
Dead tops are what are called 'widow makers' and you just don't want to mess with such a tree.
Leave it to a pro.

 

[BeeferMan]

Yeah, that's one of the "best practices" I found on-line. Found it hard to do in some cases due to the density of the trees and brush, so I retreated to behind a tree for them.

Probably one of the best practices listed right before that one was to clear the area in which you'll need to work and retreat of brush so you won't trip when you need to move in a hurry.

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

Probably one of the best practices listed right before that one was to clear the area in which you'll need to work and retreat of brush so you won't trip when you need to move in a hurry.

True, but when you've lost so much already due to a drought (the only reason I was doing all this in the first place...), then you might make a few adjustments to the list.