Rope suggestions and help

[TomSeller]

I once knew a guy who had a tree on top of a bank that was severely leaning over a hill down to his beach. He wanted to remove the tree to increase his view. A number of neighbors, including myself, told him to have the tree professionally cut. He being a younger person without life's experiences decided one day to go buy a big new saw to cut the tree. He started cutting the tree without even so much as a back cut. Cutting from the away side of the lean, he got about 2/3rds through the tree before the tree, due to the internal stress of the severe lean, split up the middle and "barber chaired" on him. He evidenty had his head down near the trunk of the tree above the saw when the tree let loose. Decapitated, or close to it, the medics said. I never saw his body, and did not want to. Barber chair is common in some species, particularly in leaners.

 

[gsganzer]

There's a poplar in the lower left hand corner with a green ribbon on it that has grown with two forks. There is another poplar with one trunk just to the right of it that needs to be cut as well. Maybe not the best picture, but try zooming in. I can make more photos.

I'd leave it to a professional. The best you can do with a rope is to coax a tree to drop a max of 80 degrees or so from it's lean. To try to go any further is inviting disaster. Also, with a poplar, you don't have a very strong hinge to begin with. See if a tree company will just fell it and leave the bucking and clean-up to you, that way it saves you money.

 

[EddieWalker]

How many trees are you planning on taking down? For me, this would only be something I would tackle if I had to do quite a few of them. Otherwise, it's pretty cheap to hire a pro to come out and lay it down for you. I've taken out tens of thousands of trees with my backhoe and can lay any sized tree there is right where I want it. But when I had a huge pine on my property line and wasn't able to get to it with the backhoe, I hired a pro to make sure it fell into my property. He showed up with a nice collection of saws include one that was big enough to go through the truck which was close to three feet thick. He had a rope that he attached to the top of the tree after removing all the limbs that where in the way and we attached it to my tractor. That rope was 300 feet long and probably two inches thick. When it was all said and done, nobody got hurt and it landed exactly where I wanted it to. For me, that was money well spent and I'd do it again if I had to.

Eddie

 

[2manyrocks]

There's about 15-18 trees leaning towards the house that need to go. I was sort of thinking about hiring a track loader to push them out and move the debris to an area away from the house to rot.

"Barber chair"--I didn't get the name at first. I suppose it got its name from giving too close a hair cut?

 

[TomSeller]

There's about 15-18 trees leaning towards the house that need to go. I was sort of thinking about hiring a track loader to push them out and move the debris to an area away from the house to rot.

"Barber chair"--I didn't get the name at first. I suppose it got its name from giving too close a hair cut?

It got it's name from the shape of the stump after the tree explodes. See depiction I posted earlier. 15 to 18 trees leaning towers your house is a job for a professional. I would hire it out and I used to cut professionally.

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Also rather than plunge cut, try using some plastic wedges behind the cut to force the tree where you want it, then no ropes are needed unless it is a hard leaning tree and you want it to go backward from the lean. Wedging is best using a second person to keep pounding them in so they are tight all the time while the other person continuously cuts. In case of leaning trees, make sure you have enough power and weight with the pulling machine to force the tree to go where you want it. It could end up with the puller turned into the pull-ee. That might be a wild ride being pulled backward while hooked onto a falling tree.

One way to avoid that is put a snatch block on another tree, anchor, deadhead and pull perpendicular to the falling tree. It not only gets you out of the line of fall unless your snatch block is big enough to pass the tractor thru it it keeps you from being launched

 

[PhysAssist]

If you remember what happens to your feet on the foot rest of the barber chair when the barber leans your head back - they swing up, and if you look at TomSeller's picture, that is what the tree trunk did....

 

[bcp]

Barber shop chairs, when put into shaving position, tilted the backrest back and down, and the footrest went forward and up.



Modern people would probably now call the dangerous tree splits "reclining chairs."

Bruce

 

[PhysAssist]

Barber shop chairs, when put into shaving position, tilted the backrest back and down, and the footrest went forward and up.

View attachment 393467 View attachment 393468 View attachment 393469

Modern people would probably now call the dangerous tree splits "reclining chairs."

Bruce

What Bruce said!

'Cept the footrest hits you on the mouth and as TS described, decapitates you.

 

[TomSeller]

Unfortunately, I can't ask my late neighbor for his insight. Leaners are very dangerous.