Dropping a Few Trees This Weekend Next to the House

[Westboastfaller]

Pull them as close as possible to 180 degrees off the lean. Are they ash? They will break off with very little side lean and you will lose a few degrees from the aim direction to the heavier side. One easy way without using a modified felling cut is to aim a few degrees to the tension side If you have canopy room. I personally wouldn't put much if any pull on the trees but just set your wedges and walk away. Ash are very prone to barber-chairing.. Perhaps not as bad on back-leaning trees if you keep the undercut in the tension wood. (Not too deep with undercut) Don't leave to much holding-wood. A regular under cut is fine. That means it's not less than 45 degrees (1:1) the steeper you go then the easier it will be for you to line up your cuts. Looks like the dead one first then you have move room to fell the other away from the tree it is touching? Keep it simple. Fall them from the tension side so you can MAKE SURE 100% that you don't have a bypass cut at least on that most critical side. Remember it's 3 precise cuts. Don't go to number 3 if number 1 and 2 aren't right. You start with $hit..you end with $hit. Get that first cut level.

 

[Westboastfaller]

Sound trees with back of axe also to ovoid cuts in a rotten spot. You can often ovoid rot with higher felling cuts.

 

[bulletpruf]

Quick update - no bloodshed yet but not for lack of trying! Landlord was doing some crazy one-handed stuff with his MS170 up in the bucket. Cutting with throttle lock on, one handed, saw at neck (read: jugular) level, dropping big pieces on the already soft roof, etc.

He doesn’t want to take the big trees down today. Just wants to trim limbs over roof and get his chain hooked up in the tree. Said he doesn’t have a long enough chain yet.

Thanks again for all the input and more to follow!!!

 

[Bearcreek]

Say

Quick update - no bloodshed yet but not for lack of trying! Landlord was doing some crazy one-handed stuff with his MS170 up in the bucket. Cutting with throttle lock on, one handed, saw at neck (read: jugular) level, dropping big pieces on the already soft roof, etc.

He doesn’t want to take the big trees down today. Just wants to trim limbs over roof and get his chain hooked up in the tree. Said he doesn’t have a long enough chain yet.

Thanks again for all the input and more to follow!!!

Stay out of his way and get some video if you can! Honestly, just the fact that a job like that is taking more than a day tells me he doesn't know what he's doing. What's average EMS response time in your area? Also, (not that it sounds like he'd listen anyway) chains don't belong up in trees. Those are for dragging logs on the ground.

 

[softdown]

I've read and seen what seems like a thousand techniques for falling trees. Still won't work close to a house without a winch unless the tree is straight and there is no wind. Unless the bucket is there to remove several feet at a time.

Guess I don't fit in.

 

[Bearcreek]

I've read and seen what seems like a thousand techniques for falling trees. Still won't work close to a house without a winch unless the tree is straight and there is no wind. Unless the bucket is there to remove several feet at a time.

Guess I don't fit in.

There aren't really that many different techniques that actually work well consistently. Obviously there are some trees that simply cannot just be felled from the ground, but many can. It's all about the right combinations of the basics. It is surprising sometimes how many alleged "tree guys" there are who don't really know how to fell trees, but only know how to take them down in pieces. I briefly worked for a guy like that many years ago. Had me standing in spurs, 5 feet off the ground chunking down a spar. Couldn't figure out what the hell he was thinking since there was plenty of room to drop a 20'+ spar. Then I saw him taking down about a 10' tall, 12" dia spar nearby and it all became clear. I didn't work for him long.

 

[bulletpruf]

Say

Stay out of his way and get some video if you can! Honestly, just the fact that a job like that is taking more than a day tells me he doesn't know what he's doing. What's average EMS response time in your area? Also, (not that it sounds like he'd listen anyway) chains don't belong up in trees. Those are for dragging logs on the ground.

Yeah, y'all would have cringed with me had I shot some video.

Definitely going to stay out of his way.

 

[bulletpruf]

I've read and seen what seems like a thousand techniques for falling trees. Still won't work close to a house without a winch unless the tree is straight and there is no wind. Unless the bucket is there to remove several feet at a time.

Guess I don't fit in.

Used the winch on the Gator to put some tension on several dead locusts in the front yard today. Worked well.

 

[mbrick]

Get some video on the two big ones from out the window of the truck if you can...

 

[northmanlogging]

Quick update - no bloodshed yet but not for lack of trying! Landlord was doing some crazy one-handed stuff with his MS170 up in the bucket. Cutting with throttle lock on, one handed, saw at neck (read: jugular) level, dropping big pieces on the already soft roof, etc.

He doesn’t want to take the big trees down today. Just wants to trim limbs over roof and get his chain hooked up in the tree. Said he doesn’t have a long enough chain yet.

Thanks again for all the input and more to follow!!!

oh my...

With the throttle lock on? Like for reals?

To hel with video, just stay home let Darwin take its course.

 

[bulletpruf]

oh my...

With the throttle lock on? Like for reals?

To hel with video, just stay home let Darwin take its course.

Yes, for reals. Man, it was crazy. I'm glad Darwin didn't come calling.

 

[bulletpruf]

Ok, no bloodshed again today - woohoo!

He did get some chains up in both trees so we won't need the lift when he comes back in a few weeks to drop the trees (he's out of town next weekend).

 

[bulletpruf]

A few pictures from today - this is the saw lineup - that's the landlords MS170 (I'm not real impressed; too much plastic), landlord's MS250 (still too much plastic, but a capable saw), and my 020AV Super top handle (fresh rebuild), and my 026 (fresh rebuild, muffler mod, base gasket delete, 18" bar with 3/8" chain). Not pictured here - my 044 - see below.



Here's my 044. Another fresh rebuild; this one with mismatched plastic. Has a muffler mod. Quench was too tight to do a BG delete, so I made a thinner than stock gasket. Wearing a 28" sprocket tip bar, 3/8" chain. Used it to take down the 4' tall cedar stump that someone here recommended removing. Good call on that; we'll drop the dead tree right where the stump was.


Landlord's Gator. Diesel engine, 4x4. Close to 10 years old and only has a little over 100 hours. Good piece of gear.


Landlord's tractor. Used for cleanup duty today. This is what he wants to use to pull the two big trees over once he gets more chain.



Landlord's dump truck. Rugged and rusty. Made several trips this weekend to dump limbs, brush, etc.


And here's the lift that we used this weekend. 100% electrical.




Here you can see that the big overhanging limb is gone and both trees have some chains hooked to their trunks.

 

[mbrick]

I still don't understand why he insists on chain.

 

[bulletpruf]

I still don't understand why he insists on chain.

Good question. I honestly don't know.

 

[kenmbz]

Dead Ash, lots of back lean-2 of three trunk branches already dropped.
Used lots of wedges, but these can split, so slow cut.
When this one fell I was 40 feet away, patience on the drop.
Hit the wedges a few times to make sure of direction.
When it hit, the top shattered all the way to the crotch.
I got it to twist left to avoid the smaller maple.
Wish I had the cherry picker, could have used a rope tied to the crotch and straight into lean, would have been a nice safety net. Only worry was dropping in the lean would have hit 2 big trees and maybe a lot of other stuff.

 

[arathol]

I still don't understand why he insists on chain.

Putting a loop in the end of a rope and using that grab hook to pull it is not a good idea. Put too much tension on it and the hook can cut through the loop. Using a slip hook with a safety clasp would be better, but tying the rope to the tree itself is the way to do it.

 

[rwoods]

Dead ash seems to want to hurt you. I spent last Friday afternoon falling dead ash. Here is one I call a death ash. Unlike Ken's tree, this was a forward leaner initially, but at the first slight movement of the tree the entire top broke off leaving a 15' back leaning stem that required wedging and hinge thinning to fall where intended. It was like the tree had a back up plan to get you with a back falling stem if you survived the falling top and explosion. It pays to have a wedge in place as things can change in the blink of an eye.




Be safe,
Ron

 

[northmanlogging]

I still don't understand why he insists on chain.

some folks only know one way, and refuse to learn. Chain will work, its heavy, awkward a PITA to get up a tree, but it will work.

A big shot some throw line and throw ball, likely cost less then the lift rental, but what do I know.

 

[rwoods]

NM, you know more than me except here I think the lift was primarily to take out the overhanging limb as a precaution.

Ron