Taking down trees with tractor help

[Danno1]

.

Ha, ha....... I hear ya!

.

 

[jpm1]

Checked out the pictures of your tractor, real nice and that cab, well I suspose one could get real soft blowing snow in a heated cab. . . . all I can say is enjoy it ! To the subject of pushing trees with a tractor, I wouldn't do it! A tree is very hard to estimate weight wise, and there's the wind factor. I've done it with a skidder and a crawler tractor but I draw the line on my wheel tractor. Use a good notch while cutting your tree. wedge it a bit if necessary,and always leave your self a clear way out of the area if need be. We've cut our share of saw logs and firewood in the past years. Tractor parts-expensive, story of what happened to tractor- difficult to keep straight but body parts- irreplaceable! remember play safe to play another day!, John

 

[MidnghtOwl]

Why go to all the hassle? We have plenty of heavy equipment operators around us, i've called my favorite excavator every spring to bring his JD400 over and push on the winter kill. On an average hour, he can push over about 30 trees. Root balls come up when the tree falls down.

nice thing about BIG equipment is that the size of the tree isn't an issue. Most of what he has helped me with are 80' oaks between 2 and 3 feet.

Last spring he pushed over 25 trees for me and my bill was $160.00. Then use the tractor for cleanup.

 

[wedge40]

Why go to all the hassle? We have plenty of heavy equipment operators around us, i've called my favorite excavator every spring to bring his JD400 over and push on the winter kill. On an average hour, he can push over about 30 trees. Root balls come up when the tree falls down.

nice thing about BIG equipment is that the size of the tree isn't an issue. Most of what he has helped me with are 80' oaks between 2 and 3 feet.

Last spring he pushed over 25 trees for me and my bill was $160.00. Then use the tractor for cleanup.

Not everyone has easy access to heavy equipment and most of us would pay close to the $160 just to get the equipment delivered. Besides there are a lot of folks here that like the challenge of it.

Wedge

 

[patrick_g]

Not everyone has easy access to heavy equipment and most of us would pay close to the $160 just to get the equipment delivered. Besides there are a lot of folks here that like the challenge of it.

Wedge

Hopefully with forethought and care "challenge" won't be a featured word in anyones epitaph.

Not wishing to or not being able to pay to get a dangerous job done doesn't make it any easier or less dangerous for the DIY guy. Lets be careful out there folks!

So far I have either found a safe (but sometimes real slow) method of getting 'er done with my small equipment or bite the bullet and get some pro help.

For a practical example of the results of doing dangerous work under a time constraint, take a look at the History Chanel program, "Axe Men." Count their mutilated body parts.

Pat (Oh, and lets be careful out there folks!)

 

[davitk]

Some of you may have heard of the recent accident up in my neck of the woods (so wi) where a tractor was pulling a tree being cut, as the tree fell it hit another tree knocking loose a branch which just happened to be over the tractor operator's head. Med Flight arrived, wasn't much they could do.

 

[patrick_g]

I wonder how much money he would have saved, if he had lived, by doing it himself?

Pat

 

[witterbound]

I'm new to tractors, and new to this site. On my first morning with my Challenger (55hp), I pushed over about a dozen trees with my FEL that were up to 12". The ground was very wet, and that helped. No problems, and seemed like a very safe way to do it. Safer than using my chainsaw, in my opinion.

 

[patrick_g]

witterbound, If the trees were healthy with no deciduous limbs waiting to fall on your head it was probably not too risky.

Often people are removing trees because there is something wrong with the tree and that can be a lot less safe than good healthy trees.

Just a couple days ago I removed a 14-16 inch diameter (at 6 ft above ground) pine tree that was about 40-45 feet tall. It was close to and leaning toward a propane tank in the owner's yard. The tree was dead. I put a 24 ft extension ladder up the tree and climbed up to attach my winch cable. The truck was parked farther away than the height of the tree. I needed to drop the tree in the opposite direction from where it was leaning and only had a small clear space between other trees. I did go up the ladder and remove a few limbs from nearby trees so as to not have the tree hang up. (I hate widow makers.)

As I took tension on the winch to preload the tree a bit in the right direction I heard a little cracking noise so I kept winching and the tree broke off about 6 ft above ground and fell where I wanted it breaking again as it hit the ground. I used the chain saw to drop the 6-7 ft stump.

Had anyone pushed on that tree with a tractor it is altogether reasonable to have read about it in the obituaries.

Chose your battles carefully and live to fight another day.

Pat

 

[RayCo]

I'm a bit late on this thread, but I figured I'd add that using a loader can be done safely, but I wouldn't try it on a machine that doesn't have a FOPS. This may have been the funnest day of my life, since my father-in-law let me use his backhoe for a bit. My little Kubota is only used for pushing over small, dead, limbless trees.