Felling an Ash with a "Y" - pic inside...

[randyg]

Use Truck/don't Use Truck - Use Ladder/don't Use Ladder

Here is how I see this tree. Don't need ladder. Rope is high enough. Back lean by the first 12 feet is negligible(no big deal) HOWEVER, looks like from 12 feet on up leans to the house about 10 degrees?

Tie to truck and have friends jerk on rope - VERY BAD IDEA
I use trucks to pull trees over all the time. Some things to remember are: Wrapping rope around any sharp object will cut rope. Having to short a rope will land tree ON truck. Rope high in tree gives more mechanical advantage but also takes weight OFF vehicle so you loose traction. Having to small/light of truck and tree pulls truck,ooops.

OK Bottom line is you should not need a ton of force to pull this tree over however the apparent side lean is an issue. Face cut needs to be not to deep. Hinge needs to be narrow on house side of tree (compression side), and wide on side away from house (tension side). Otherwise the hinge will fail and tree will fall on house.

I shant go into more detail since I don't know how big your truck is, or how strong your rope is, or how long your rope is, or how good your aim is, or much else at all. So.............

If you are not 100 percent sure how to properly set up this hinge before pulling over this tree, DON'T TRY IT!!!!!!

If that is a good rope, and tied properly, a PRO will not charge you much to notch and drop it. Well worth the money, that education will be.

 

[Ekka]

I would cut as low to the ground as possible, just above the other lead.

This gives you wider hinge.

Judging by the two pictures it seem if you lost it out at a 45 degree angle it would miss the corner of the house/deck thing anyway.

The key here is have a tapered hinge, thicker the side opposite the lean.

Any chance of a side rope?

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I would cut as low to the ground as possible, just above the other lead.

This gives you wider hinge.

Judging by the two pictures it seem if you lost it out at a 45 degree angle it would miss the corner of the house/deck thing anyway.

The key here is have a tapered hinge, thicker the side opposite the lean.

Any chance of a side rope?

Okay, so the additional pull leverage, wider hinge, and lower risk of cutting from the ground seems to win out over cutting from 12 feet up.

As Ekka correctly indicates, I've got significant margin for error in the drop zone.

Good reminder on the tapered hinge - that just increases my odds for dropping it dead on.

A side rope just isn't possible here - there's a whole staggered row of tall evergreens in the way. This is a live Ash, so it should be rather predictable to work with.

Appreciate all the input...

 

[BCMA]

I would recommend felling the tree in one piece if you have a large enough drop zone. Just be sure you do not have a seam, crack, or included bark below the fork on the main trunk. 1/2 of the tree could split out on you as you are cutting or pulling.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Just be sure you do not have a seam, crack, or included bark below the fork on the main trunk.

Yep, I'll probably go about 18" above the "Y" just to give me room to work and provide a comfortable work height. I just now inspected the trunk again and it is free of any visible defects that might provide a clue of any surprises inside.

For the back cut, what about a plunge cut and then a downward cut to meet the plunged cut? Does that really buy you anything? Something like this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVH3ShnhMRA

 

[BCMA]

Yep, I'll probably go about 18" above the "Y" just to give me room to work and provide a comfortable work height. I just now inspected the trunk again and it is free of any visible defects that might provide a clue of any surprises inside.

For the back cut, what about a plunge cut and then a downward cut to meet the plunged cut? Does that really buy you anything? Something like this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVH3ShnhMRA

Stay away from any plunge cuts. Just put a nice wide-open face in the right direction, back-cut leaving more holding wood opposite of the lean. Remember to face the tree to compensate for the lean-angle.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Stay away from any plunge cuts. Just put a nice wide-open face in the right direction, back-cut leaving more holding wood opposite of the lean. Remember to face the tree to compensate for the lean-angle.

Yep, covered in this video quite well... http://www.palmtreeservices.com.au/video/sidelean.wmv
(Note, you may need to cut and paste the link for viewing)

Ekka, did you use a tapered hinge in this instance? It's not mentioned, but perhaps that was because you wanted to keep it focused on other elements.

 

[BCMA]

Yep, covered in this video quite well... http://www.palmtreeservices.com.au/video/sidelean.wmv
(Note, you may need to cut and paste the link for viewing)

Ekka, did you use a tapered hinge in this instance? It's not mentioned, but perhaps that was because you wanted to keep it focused on other elements.

A tapered hinge will leave more holding wood opposite of the lean.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

A tapered hinge will leave more holding wood opposite of the lean.

I understand that. I was just asking Ekka if he used a tapered hinge in the felling of the tree in the referenced video.

 

[appalachianarbo]

Glad you found Ekka's side lean video. Sounds like you have a plan together cutting it from the base. Your face cut target is right, and as long as you keep a nice hinge, you should be good.

There's no benefit (and a lot to lose) from cutting that tree at 12' just to avoid some trunk sweep.

You may want to use your truck as an anchor, but I wouldn't pull with it. That tree won't need a lot to get it to start coming over. Tension the line with a 3:1, then have your helper put easy tension on it when you are done with your back cut.

Make sure you have your escape route planned out.

 

[Nailsbeats]

Nails I believe the original poster was talking about cutting the whole tree from a ladder at 12 feet off of the ground.

........and you were talking about just cutting off a limb.

I think he might get into trouble cutting the whole tree at 12ft. off of ladder.

Yes, you are right. Don't top that tree off the ladder, thats not safe. I meant use the ladder to hang your ropes while tied in and rope down a small limb.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

You may want to use your truck as an anchor, but I wouldn't pull with it. That tree won't need a lot to get it to start coming over.

Yea, I wasn't planning to pull it over with the truck - just use it as an anchor since there's not a tree in the right line to anchor from.

Make sure you have your escape route planned out.

That one's easy - just jump behind that stone wall and let the world crash on top of me. :greenchainsaw:

 

[Ekka]

I did not use a tapered hinge in that video.

That's because I wanted to have all the odds stacked against me for hitting the witches hat. So I had slack side rope and no tapered hinge to prove the theory.

Now if I tensioned that side rope and gave a tapered hinge thicker the side opposite the lean I would have got a little more out of that fell, and opened myself up to some voodoo science.

That video link of the bore cut, beware, just another ****** with a saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVH3ShnhMRA no idea, hinge was too close and idiots do an angled strap release like that.

Always beware the fools and know alls with bits of paper from Kellogg's.

In your application forget the bore cut, you want a pull rope to get it going on a nice fat tapered hinge, just a little pre-tension, maybe 100kg of force which is a man pulling, no more. The key for you is cutting that back cut tapered from the word go, have a mental picture in your mind of the saw cutting through leaving a triangular shaped hinge... once the tree starts to fall, stop and use your escape path.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

In your application forget the bore cut, you want a pull rope to get it going on a nice fat tapered hinge, just a little pre-tension, maybe 100kg of force which is a man pulling, no more. The key for you is cutting that back cut tapered from the word go, have a mental picture in your mind of the saw cutting through leaving a triangular shaped hinge... once the tree starts to fall, stop and use your escape path.

Got it. Keep it simple and even a :monkey: like me can understand! :greenchainsaw:

Let's see how close I can hit my mark now.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I did not use a tapered hinge in that video.

Well, apparently I didn't either.:greenchainsaw:

I thought I actually had a little wedge going on in my back-cut, but I think since I faced my hinge a little more "up-hill" than I planned, I fooled myself a bit on the back-cut. But like Ekka, I was "bang on" in my results...

Although I was glad to have a helper on the rope, I bet it would have dropped where I wanted without any assistance. That said, in light of the implications of a failure in this case, better safe than sorry.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[BCMA]

Nice job!

 

[Ekka]

You didn't bang up that other tree much did ya?

See, it's not that big a deal.

Worked well, just watch the level of your back cut in future, a tad higher and flatter, it was a little bit below the face on one side ... but no big deal.

The notch is your aim, unless the hinge wood busts out etc the tree will fall true to it. I find keeping cuts level by finding something around like rails, fences and even brickwork helps.

Now your confidence will build, but just dont get cocky.

 

[DPDISXR4Ti]

You didn't bang up that other tree much did ya?

Nope. It just clipped it at the base, but the bark shaved off the falling tree, not the standing one, so no harm, no foul. It's sorta neat how with the way it fell, the bend in the trunk somewhat arched around the trunk of that other tree. I won't try to pretend that was intentional - the trunk rotated about 90 degrees as it fell to provide that end result.

Worked well, just watch the level of your back cut in future, a tad higher and flatter, it was a little bit below the face on one side ... but no big deal.

Yep, I noted that as well. I think between the ground and trunks all being at different angles, I struggled a little to find "dead true flat".

Now your confidence will build, but just dont get cocky.

Indeed. I hope I realize that I don't do this often enough to get over-confident. Especially when something of value is at risk, we all need to be very methodical in our approach.

 

[wvlogger]

well you have to be carefull with latters and saws but if you are confident in your ability go for it but if it gets out of hand stop

 

[woodchuck247]

1. if your not confident call a proffessional.

2 if you think you can do it you are going to need to get some things.
- read your chainsaw manual on how to fell.
- throw a line in the crotch of the tree (Y)
- have someone pull on the rope in a safe direction away
from your house.
- if you can i would get a felling lever because it allows you to
percisly drop a tree in the right direction. ( you tube felling lever)