question on felling a tree

[Sigarms]

Have a dying 25' weeping cherry I want to take down.

Looking at the tree, the main trunk slopes to the 10 o'clock position. However, I want the tree to fall going towards the 3 o'clock position.

I've taken down some much larger trees, but I've never taken down a tree going against the angle it was leaning, and was wondering if I'm making a moutain out of a mole hill?

 

[Richard]

I'm not giving any advice on how to take it down, but I had a tree leaning towards my house that I wanted taken down. What to do...

I finally got some help!

I cut the notch in the tree and left the hinge thicker than I would normally make it. My thinking was I wanted the hinge strong enough to hold the tree and let the force of the backhoe break the hinge slowly, allowing me to help guide the tree.



On another note, our neighbor (wifes cousin) wanted two trees taken out next to his house. I ended up leaving the tree intact. I dug on three sides of the root ball, keeping the part opposite of the house intact in the theory that it would help anchor the tree from falling towards the house, but the other side (dug up) would allow the tree to fall away from the house. In this specific circumstance, it worked.

 

[Midniteoyl]

It will try to fall towards the 10 o'clock if its leaning hard, or spin that way.. I'd tie a rope as high as I could and tie it off under tension towards the 3 o'clock..

I just tried to fell a tree that was leaning towards the pole barn. Even though I cut the notch on the other side, it still tried to fall into the barn... The rope did the trick...

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Often a dying tree will not 'hinge' well and can snap.

Just paid a guy $200 to get a huge tree (heavily trimmed last year and it died in August) on the ground starting from the top using a bucket truck. I thought about using either end of the backhoe but with the house and deck at risk as well as ME I did it with the billfold method.

 

[gwdixon]

Not sure what you mean by "making a mountain out of a mole hill". Do you mean dropping to 10 o'clock is going to be a problem or is not at all acceptable? Or do you mean that you are going to notch it to fall to 3 o'clock and wonder if it will work?

I recently cleared several acres of 40' to 80' eucalyptus that was leaning every which way. Some of it was next to a road with telephone/electric lines and others were near buildings.

The most successful way to insure a correct fall of a leaning tree was to pull 180* of the lean with a cable attached about half way up the tree. For severe leans we used a pulley to multiply the force of the tractor's pull - straighten up the tree and pull it over. Any angle less than 180* seemed to result in the tree falling the way it leaned.

This method would have your 10 o'clock tree pulled in the 4 o'clock direction. However, you can notch the tree in the 3 o'clock direction to try to get it to fall exactly that way. After notching, the tractor (in low gear) is used to tighten the cable and pull while the cutter backcuts the tree just above the notch. Oh, use a minimum 50' cable on a 25' tree for safety.

In a worst case the tree can only fall 90* off line (toward 1 o'clock or 7 o'clock). Safety police can come in here and point out that if the tree falls completely the wrong way it could pull the tractor backwards. It never happened to me but theoretically it could.

If you still don't have a tractor you could try it with a pickup truck in low gear.

 

[Sigarms]

Or do you mean that you are going to notch it to fall to 3 o'clock and wonder if it will work?

Right there.

I"m thinking I'm making a moutain out of nothing.

Have plenty of good rope and pick up truck.

Tree could actually fall to the 10 o'clock side, just would destroy some bushes that I'd prefer to keep.

I'll let the rope and truck due to work.

 

[Kyle241]

Agree with others. A rope or cable and use tension to gradually make it fall the way you want it. I recently cut down a 60yr old ash that was right beside my new garage by tying a heavy duty rope half way up in a notch and to my Kubota. I put tension on the rope by backing up the Kubota, then notched the tree on the side I wanted it to fall, then starting cutting from the other side enough to weaken the tree. I then got on the Kubota and started backing up slowly watching the top of the tree for movement and it finally gave way coming down exactly where I wanted it.

 

[CobyRupert]

Just remember:
1. Don't cut throught the hinge.
2. As the tree starts to move , or hinge, the rope will quickly become slack, maintain tension or gravity will take back over and the tree will fall in an unintended direction. Whoever is operating the rope needs to keep an eye on the slack (sag) in it and keept tight all the way to the ground. Timing is critical.

 

[Egon]

You could wait for a day when the wind is favourable and help guide it.

 

[Swiftriver]

Just don't do what my neighbor did. Pull on a 40' tree with a 25' chain with his freshly painted pickup. That didn't work out so well. He wasn't laughing at the time but now we get some good laughs out of that episode.