Looking for felling advice - is this the proper forum?

[flashhole]

I live in upstate NY and have a small 30 acre farm, about 18 acres cleard and the rest hardwood forest. I have been cleaning up a lot of storm damaged trees and have one big Hickory leaning on two other trees. The trees is leaning at about a 30 degree angle and the upper branches are wedging it between two other trees. I will get a photo when I can but I'm looking for advice as to how to fell this bad boy and not get into trouble.

Any advice?

 

[lone wolf]

I live in upstate NY and have a small 30 acre farm, about 18 acres cleard and the rest hardwood forest. I have been cleaning up a lot of storm damaged trees and have one big Hickory leaning on two other trees. The trees is leaning at about a 30 degree angle and the upper branches are wedging it between two other trees. I will get a photo when I can but I'm looking for advice as to how to fell this bad boy and not get into trouble.

Any advice?

Drop it and then come along it out while you are at a safe distance using chain or cable.

 

[flashhole]

Can you suggest a comealong? This bad boy is big and heavy.

 

[justme23005]

Where upstate are you? If you are close, I would be happy to come take it down for you. I'm not far from Albany.

 

[lone wolf]

Can you suggest a comealong? This bad boy is big and heavy.

a 3 ton heavy duty chain type.

 

[flashhole]

I'm in Owego, NY, about 20 miles west of Binghamton. I don't expect anyone to take the tree down for me, just looking for pointers on how to do it safely.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I was doing a logging job for my neighbor last year, and had gotten a 110' tulip tree hung up in another massive tulip tree. I tried everything including 2 3 ton comalongs. Nothing would pull this tree out. I ended up using a 1.5" twisted rope and and big track hoe ( had to pay for permits to move it over the road). I have never seen a rope stretch that much. It look like it was only about 3/4" - 1" diam when pulling on it at full power. But lucky it work, and the tree finally gave up and pulled down.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Hung trees are some of the more deadly work that tree guys do. If you have a pro willing to come and help drop that tree, take advantage of it. Might be the best investment you make all year.
Rick

 

[justme23005]

Its hard to tell what the safest way to get it down would be, without at least seeing a pic. Generally, you get a rope around the tree & pull it down. Put the line about 2/3 of the way up the tree, hook it to a decent-sized truck or tractor & pull it down... IF there's room. Most of my bull ropes that I use are around 100 feet long. If I have to yank on it, or do anything too stupid, I have a 100 feet of 1 1/4" line that's rated for 20,000 pounds that I use.

 

[flashhole]

I will try and get a picture posted tomorrow. Thanks for all the inputs so far.

 

[flashhole]

The first pic shows the lean angle. The hill slopes down and away.

The secod pic shows how the top is wedged between two other trees.

Any advice on how to get this thing down?

 

[jefflovstrom]

Looks like you could climb a tree next to it and piece it out.
Jeff

 

[flashhole]

That may have been an option 20 years ago but not today.

 

[lfnh]

What's the biggest piece of pulling equipment you canget in there ?

 

[AT sawyer]

Looks like unsound wood on one side of it and too high to cut above it. Hickory is tight grained though, so you might have enough good wood to begin a vertical top cut and wedge in behind it. Maximum compression will be halfway up, so wedging low could hold your kerf and not spit the wedges. Finish with an offset undercut and it should break and drop straight down. Once off the stump, just piece it out or use that come-a-long to pull it loose. Got a hardhat?

Pic is of a big hung up locust with similar stump rot in a wilderness area. Good ol' misery whip keeps me at arms length from the drop.

View attachment 212816

 

[jefflovstrom]

That may have been an option 20 years ago but not today.

Oh really,
Do you care to elaborate or just ignore my option?
Jeff

 

[flashhole]

Too old and too fat. No brag, just fact! :smile2:

 

[Fireaxman]

Hung trees are some of the more deadly work that tree guys do. If you have a pro willing to come and help drop that tree, take advantage of it. Might be the best investment you make all year.
Rick

True.

What shape is the tree in? Is it dead, or alive? If dead, how long, is it getting brittle yet?

A rope around the crown, a snatch block (pulley) at the base of a tree under the crown, and a tractor up on the hill may draw the crown in close enough to get it down between the two trees it is hung up in, especially if the limbs are either brittle enough to break or limber enough to draw together.

Cutting it at the stump without piecing it down from a neighboring tree can be very dangerous. If there is any "Springpole" effect, hard to tell what direction, how far, and with how much force the trunk will jump. Trunk might also twist (in this case, I would say "Probably Twist") in the final stages of the cut, possibly trapping your saw.

How badly do you need to get it down? Is it a hazard to anything? Is it an option to just girdle it (kill it) and let it self-prune? If it drys out for a year or 2 it might get brittle enough that the wind movement of the trees it is hung up in will break off the offending branches and it will either fall or you can cut it down more safely.

 

[flashhole]

The tree was blown over in a huge storm last spring along with 11 other large trees. I think there was a family of down blasts with tornado-like power. Made a heck of a mess and the storm took power out for several days over most of this area. This is the last one I have to harvest. I would call it recently dead.

Leaving it up is an option as far as location goes, it's out of the way but looks bad. The trees it is wedged in are stressed pretty hard, it's actually a single tree with two trunks. My fear is it will break one leg of the two during the next storm. Now is the time to get it before the other trees leaf out in the spring.

 

[treeman75]

Home owners should not try to do tree work. If you dont know how to do a tree like that you have no business even trying. You WILL get hurt or killed! Call a pro it would probly only cost you a couple hundred bucks to get it on the ground. Its cheaper than a hospital bill or your funeral. I see it every year, last year four home ownes got killed around here. Besides, your too old and fat!