Hinge Thickness For Falling Large Diameter Trees?

[moxiemaul]

Giving the tree and/or some limbs a tug with a truck or similar reveals something about its condition. No guarantees but I'd rather go in cutting if it withstands a good hard pull beforehand.

 

[Del_]

Way too high. Most of the time for pulling over a tree, you don't need that much leverage, let alone on a dead tree.

It's at that height because it's just a bit higher than the limb on the left.

A perfect and easy place to toss a throw line and then to pull up the bull rope. Then running bowline the bull line and pull it up.

How would you set a pull line lower than that location?

 

[JimR]

Hello,

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here is an interesting question to ponder over turkey and football.

The Forest Service guidelines specify a falling hinge thickness of 10% DBH as a maximum. The 10% number works out pretty good for trees under 20" or so. But what about a 48" tree? 10% is 5 inches which sounds like a near impossibility to wedge over, especially if the tree is dead and has no lean or weight. Think about trying to break a true to life 5" x 48" piece of wood. Think about a huge dead, dry piece of red oak.

Here is the situation: The tree in the photo is right next to a hiking trail and has been dropping widow maker limbs onto the trail. Due to this the trail section monitor has asked me to evaluate the safe removal of this tree. The tree was supposedly alive a couple of years ago until the town put a sewer line in the vicinity of the tree and damaged the root system.

As a disclaimer I have not laid eyes or hands on the tree as of yet. I do have it on good authority that the DBH was actually measured at a little over 48". The diameter tape was only 12 foot and that was the end of the tape!

For mitigating resources/measures we have access to rope rigging and a Tu-17 Griphoist so this could belay having to wedge the tree over.

Your thoughts?

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I have been clearing trees on our woodlot since 1972. That tree for me is a no brainer. It has a good lean to it. Notch it and drop it. I surely wouldn't worry about how many inches of hinge to leave. That tree is coming down by its own shear weight. I would back cut that until i see a gap opening up then get out of the way. I wouldn't waste my time putting a rope or a cable on it. I have cut down dozens of standing dead timber. Not once have I ever seen branches fall off of a tree from chainsaw vibrations. They do fall off when hitting other trees on the way down. This is just my .02 cents worth. The front two rows of this pile was last weeks dead Ash trees loaded with dead branches. Of which no branches fell off by themselves. As of this afternoon the front pile is stacked full all the way to the big Maple on the left. That canopy in the rear is 20 feet long.

 

[rwoods]

Too many ifs to give advice based upon a picture, but I can tell you dead trees can be particularly dangerous, especially those that have been dead for a while. I have experienced 30” oaks that are sound at the top and bottom but rotten in the core in the middle without outward signs visible from the ground. I have had large trees fold back at the slightest movement - one dropping its top within a few feet of me which could have hit and killed me if I had chosen to cut from that side.

Ron