Top or drop? / rope or throw?

[teamtree]

On bombing out big wood....if you are grinding out the stump the base of the tree is a great place to bomb out chunks. Plus, it is easy to fix a small area of turf.

Again all trees are different but if you have limbs out over a house it is easier to rope them out and then get to the trunk and start chunking.

But sometimes you need control over your big wood when it hits the ground so roping is an option. I try to sell everything we can do to the customer. Get a feel for what they want and go from there. I.e. We can rope everything out including the trunk....but to save $300 we can drop the log and fix the big divet....what do they want? what are they willing to pay for?

 

[Mapleman]

Great thread...I'm of the philosophy to make as few cuts as is possible and safe, so that means big wood. I like to sharp shoot my pieces by holding wood on one side of my back cut and/or giving limbs and chunks a nudge with the tip of my bar as they break free.

Of course everything depends on your impact area. When I have doubt because of how the piece will break off due to sap flow or rot, or if it might catch a stub on the way down, then I'm more inclined to lower. I often work by myself when the homeowner does the cleanup, so sharp shooting and self lowering using caribeaners (sp)can come in handy. Pretty cool how a $4 beaner can take the place of a ground guy. Groundies who didn't get laid by their wife or girlfriend the night before can be a real ##### to work with sometimes...

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Today i was taking out a big limb over a roof and deck on a highend property.

Of course the roof was rotten cedar shake, and the deck had so many soft spots that I could not drop even a twig. I set a secondary rig point far our a limb so that the loads would swing out nice and easy. The GRCS made things very easy.

 

[Mapleman]

That's what I'm talking about--finessing the tree--working with it instead of against it.