6' DBH laurel oak stump......

[budroe69moni]

hey y'all, long time no talk.......
business has been booming and i've been coming home to tired to log on to the site!!!! anyways, enough about me, here's the queston........
i stopped out to look at a job today and this is what i found........
a 12' tall 60' DBH laurel oak trunk on the edge of a 8' deep canal.
the customer wants the trunk cut to 2' so she can turn it into a giant plant stand to put potted plants on. how can i cut this trunk level w/ a 18" echo?????? it's my biggest saw......are there any cuts i can make to make this work?????? please let me know.....
thanks,
budroe
p.s. how much would you charge for this??????????

 

[treeclimber165]

I'm not sure how rotton or old the trunk is, but laurel oak is about 75lbs per 12"diameter X 12". Now you want to know about removing a 5' diameter trunk, 12' tall? You are looking at several hundred pounds per foot.
For a guy with a boom truck and a couple BIG saws, it's a few hundred bucks. For a guy with an Echo 3000 and a jeep, it's not viable. At best, you are looking at 7000 lbs or so. Out of your range, I'm afraid. Your best bet is to keep walking and don't look back.

p.s. We never even addressed access or how you were planning on getting it down without it falling in the ditch........

p.p.s. It would be a workout for an 046, 30" bar.....

 

[treeclimber165]

This reminds me of a removal I did several years ago. BIG camphor tree, postage stamp back yard, 2' from the house, tiny gate to the back yard. The entire tree was worked down onto the roof, as it was our only access. The last 10' of trunk was so fat, I had to vertical cut it with my 038M- making an X down about 15". Then I would cut the trunk horozontally, 12"-15" down from the top. That way, I was cutting off 4 quarters instead of one big chunk. These were pushed off to the ground and toted out of the back yard by hand because the wheelbarrow wouldn't fit through the tiny gate. Took all afternoon to get that last 10' of trunk out of the backyard.
I'm sure there were many ways to do that, but that was my best idea at the time with the equipment and men available.

 

[budroe69moni]

treeclimber,
i climbed up and the trunk center of the trunk is rotted out. the tree came down during hurricane irene almost 3 years ago. there are conchs growing out of the trunk and i the bark peals off w/ ease. it's a big ass trunk, that's for sure!!!!!
budroe
p.s. i was hoping to use an open-faced notch and fell it away from the canal. could i make the cuts on one side, then the other. do you know what i mean???????

 

[treeclimber165]

Notching and dropping a hollow trunk can be dicey on a good day. The holding wood for the notch can be disintegrated, and your notch can fail easily if you aren't careful and know what to look for.
With all things considered, as far as your setup, I'd pass on this one for now. Pass it on to someone with a boom truck and a way to handle that massive wood. There will be plenty more jobs like this down the road. Even with the right setup, this sounds like one of those jobs that could turn into a money-loser quickly!

Can you get it on the ground safely? Can you get it cut up into managable size pieces? How many buried nails have been put into this tree in the last 50 years? How many chains will you go through?

Even if it were on the ground and cut up, how would you get it to the dump? What are your dump costs? How far do you have to take that 5000-7000 lbs of wood? There are many more questions to ask yourself before committing to this job. If I pulled up with the rig I used to own a couple years ago, I MIGHT take the job. 1-ton boom truck with positraction, 18' flatbed trailer, 5 saws in the sawbox and a groundman that stood 6'1", 250lbs!

 

[budroe69moni]

sh*t

 

[treeclimber165]

How big is the hollow and how deep does it go? If there is only 6"-12" of wood at the base, it could be do-able weightwise. If the hollow is less than 12" at the ground (30" of wood all the way around), the weight will kill ya as far as making the job profitable. If you have to pay by weight where you dump, it won't work. The dump fees will be more than she is willing to pay for the job.
What kind of price range is this woman looking for?

 

[Stumper]

Can a job such as you are describing be done with a small saw? Yes. Can you make any money doing it with a small saw? Very doubtful. You are describing the sort of job that I never seem to get enough for-and I have bigger equipment. It is possible that the customer might be willing to pay you enough to justify taking the plunge for a big saw but probably the best thing you could do is: Tell her that you are not able to do this economically and suggest she seek another bid. You can add that you are willing to do it for xx (large$$) amount if she can't find a better deal.-That sort of thing makes for good customer relations and leaves a good possibility that you may get to do other work for the customer.-Of course if the competition does a great job they may get that customers future business.

 

[Nickrosis]

Budroe,

Be happy, because you're having a good time working. I just wanted to say this because I don't want this board to be depressing for you.

Nickrosis

 

[Greg]

I agree that this is probably one you'd want to pass on. I've gotton myself into jobs just like that numerous times (not prepared, underestimated the time/amount of work required to get the job done right)and ended up mumbling to myself all day long about how stupid I was to agree to do this. I've had that identical job and busted my a$$ with a dolly hauling out 1.5ft peices of wood that were still killing me at that size. I did get lucky several times when the tree sounds like yours is very hollow. I've taken out 50" DBH trees with only about 6" of sound wood all the way around. I'ts fun cutting those because it looks like your saw is just eating it up when in reality it is only cutting 6" of wood and the rest of the bar is floating around in the hollow center.
Greg

 

[budroe69moni]

would it be worth it to head back out there w/ my saw and make a few cuts into the truck to see how hollow it is????????

 

[FBerkel]

Seeing as you're almost definitely not doing the job, be careful not to mess up the tree for the guy who does. Too many exploratory cuts could effect the way it behaves when taken down, putting the eventual contractor at higher risk. Maybe one plunge cut, vertical.

 

[DDM]

Okay Lets say you got the tree safely on the ground? Hmmmmmmm What to do with it? Call a Roll Back? could he take it to the dump for you?
I Had a roll Back haul off a Large trunk once worked out rather well.

You Could Drop it off in the Canal Maybe someone would make a canoe out of it!

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

You really need a saw like the Stihl 046, with a couple different length bars. Maybe a 24" and a 36". The 24" would do almost all your limbing and felling, and the 36" could be used for jobs like this, bigger wood and flushing big stumps.

 

[Bradley]

Just charge the woman by the hour and not a flat rate. I did a similar thing about 10 years ago with just and 18" Stihl 025. Took alot of cutting. The crazy neighbor wanted the wood to bust up with his logsplitter.

 

[monkeypuzzle]

Tell the tree owner you will do the job if she buys you a NEW Husky 385xp or if you are Sthil man, a nice 46,then she will understand a bit more about what it takes to REALLY be of service. Live Oak is about 76lbs. a square foot, not Laurel Oak,but still heavy.

 

[DDM]

Budroe? Does Your HD rent Saws? do they by chance rent an 046? You could rent a saw Then order a Large bar and a few chains from
http://www.baileys-online.com/store/USA.htm
just another idea.

 

[murphy4trees]

The canal reminds me of a monster silver maple removal near a creek. We felled the tree in one cut. The whole top was rottten and broke off into a big creek some 50' below. While I was taking a few days to figure out how to get it out of there, it rained really hard, which solved the problem and saved a whole lot of work.
God Bless All,
Daniel

 

[treeclimber165]

Originally posted by monkeypuzzle
Live Oak is about 76lbs. a square foot, not Laurel Oak,but still heavy.

I thought Live oak was 84 lbs per sq. foot, so I guessed about 75lbs for laurel oak
It's been a while since I saw the chart. Isn't it on the Sherrill site somewhere? I thought it was in the catalogue, but can't find it.

 

[Treeman14]

Page 47.

Budroe, walk away and don't look back. You can refer it to someone else that has the tools to handle it. No one can do everything. As you grow your business, you will develop a network of associates in arboriculture, as well as other fields. The crane guy, the loader guy, the stump guy, the screen repair guy, the sprinkler repair guy, and on and on.