whadja do today?

[tree md]

I got a 110 foot bean pole 13" dbh to fall in a tight spot on that job tomorrow I could climb it but there is a nice Japanese maple right below it and really dropping it will be better anyway less time and labor It is in between two homes though :jawdrop:

It almost sounds like we are on the exact same job only mine is 28-30" DBH. I've got a small ornamental under it that I have tied back to clear somewhat of a lowering zone. I got 48' to the street so I am brushing it out first and laying the brush out in the drop zone for the pole as to cushion the impact and minimize ground damage. I thought about dropping the whole thing but don't want to take a chance of cracking a large concrete curbed area over a street drain that is right where I need to drop it. I'm just gonna brush it out, block 2 or 3 pieces and cut it about 8' off the ground. It's a little tricky but I've got a good 10' in between the houses to drop it. If I can't make that one I need to get out of the game... Would have had it done today but the bottom fell out after I had lowered about 6 limbs. I can handle a little rain, it's the lightening that gets me...

Prentice:

I had the same chronic pain in my shoulder about 10 years ago. A friend of mine at that time was a massage therapist and gave me a series of exercises to do for rotator cuff injury. First of all I knew my pain was from years of 1 arming big saws. I quit doing that and started working at better positioning before I made my cuts. When I stopped doing that and did the exercises my friend told me to do my shoulder gradually healed. It used to hurt me to do anything repetitive with my right arm... Painting, anything like that just killed me. Now I can do anything with it and haven't had any chronic pain in around 9 or 10 years.

 

[flushcut]

I here ya on that Rope. March 2010 I limb hitched a big ol chunk of Red Oak on a huge log and it blasted me up on top of it. Scary. In theory, it could have flipped me over the log completely, causing a long and deadly fall. I have that tree on vid, but not that cut. We rarely get action moment vids, cuz were to busy kicking ass. Big ? for you guys. Ive been having major issuses with my arm and shoulder lately. Anyone ever had a torn rotor cuff? Im too poor to go to the doctor and I dont have insurance. Sometimes it hurts so bad I cant lift my arm up, and the pain moves from the socket to about 5 inches down my arm. Any ideas?

Go to the doctor.

 

[TreeClimber57]

once they start cutting on you it never seems to end!

And many are never quite the same again..

 

[mr. holden wood]

Wah wah wah wah, the older ya get the smaller you cut stuff. I remember some crazy cuts I did in the past 20" diameter tops etc. I had an extreme moment about ten years ago from a shock load that my spurs went above my head and I racked myself on the spar. Ive been cutting smaller every since, you dont heal as fast at 48! I can't be on the ground and in the tree is the problem, getting groundies that have a clue is pointless as they don't, unless they have climbed a good many years.

Not true, I see old azz guys go huge they just know when to do it. Shock load pieces and you'll always get a rattled. Some day you'll get buddy hopefully soon ,you don't have alot of time.

 

[TreeClimber57]

I bought that low profile floor jack specifically for that tree. I've used bottle jacks like that before but thought the floor jack would give me more leverage on it..

I have to go and watch vid again, what was jack used for?

Oh yes, and a "Fug Yu" to all who ridicule my lawn tractor. The Steiner has been a great investment for me so far and I'll use it on 90% of my jobs.

Actually - for some jobs the tractor does seem to fill a hole. Certainally is light and small. Although a small Bobcat would likley fit same bill -- but small Bobcat would not have grinder, etc.

It likely has some downsides (as do all pieces of equipment - not one perfect out there). But on the upside, seems to fill you need for now. You know what.. that is what counts. Fits the need, is afordable and pays for itself. Do you need something bigger; likely for some work. But that will come in time as this earns you some money. You said guys loved it.. that is what matters. Get work done, make money, keep guys happy.

The assist to get it out was not staged, it really happened, and the Bobcat started wearing big ruts in the soft wet turf, even though we tried to straight line it as much as we could.

Hey, I can not argue, you were there. As for wearing ruts; it can do that. Weighs over 3 tons. If soft and wet enough going to leave some tracks. That is same for any heavy equipment, which is one area your tractor can do better.

Thanks to Rope for the plywood sheets idea, it's a great solution to a skid steer's main problem for the kind of work I do.

That trick is good.. keep in back pocket. Works for truck, chipper, etc. Anything you want on grass without making mess.


Roll with the punches, and hang on.. Most guys here are good hearted and mean well. But a lot of jabs thrown as well. Get thick skin.. you need it here

 

[deevo]

I here ya on that Rope. March 2010 I limb hitched a big ol chunk of Red Oak on a huge log and it blasted me up on top of it. Scary. In theory, it could have flipped me over the log completely, causing a long and deadly fall. I have that tree on vid, but not that cut. We rarely get action moment vids, cuz were to busy kicking ass. Big ? for you guys. Ive been having major issuses with my arm and shoulder lately. Anyone ever had a torn rotor cuff? Im too poor to go to the doctor and I dont have insurance. Sometimes it hurts so bad I cant lift my arm up, and the pain moves from the socket to about 5 inches down my arm. Any ideas?

That's not good, I am so grateful of our health care system here in Canada, we can just walk into any hospital, clinic etc, get done whats needed, and it's covered. I thought Obama was matching your health care system to something similiar to ours here? Yeah tree work does beat you up, but hey you still feel good at the end of the day knowing that you earned your money!

 

[mr. holden wood]

Ah yes AA, everyone's wrong about the granny mobile but you, in your honor and devoted distain for the round table critiques I shall dub it the "The Fuggy Truggy that could....mow the lawn," we'll call it "Fug Tru" for short, it's simply not a great investment for tree work, but you're stuck with it now, so you have to fake and fight for it. What a pity. The skidder incident is either a complete hoax or you're a complete tard, which is it? Did it "really" happen, or did you "really" want it to happen...on video? All the same, I guess it "really" doesn't matter, does it? The answer remains the same. And what was with the draggin of the baby wood all about, you've failed to explain that phenomenon to us. That's flat out treetarded if I've ever seen it.

You looked a tree over for three days to develop a plan for removal? Seriously?? At this rate, I'm trying to understand where you get the time and energy to plague this site with the constant bombardment of lame videos you produce of you, Fug Tru, and the band, if you're so busy. My honest advice is that you get in touch with a man from tulsa, ok. named Paul Nosack, he'll show you the real way to develop an outlet for the constant flow of nefarious tree removal videos. Perhaps you two could even team up. Either way, give us a break.

C'mon bigus ,your just jelous that even if you sold all that crap you list in the bottom left you'd still be short 5g's on buying double a's garden tractor.

 

[ropensaddle]

Not true, I see old azz guys go huge they just know when to do it. Shock load pieces and you'll always get a rattled. Some day you'll get buddy hopefully soon ,you don't have alot of time.

I go huge at times but you said everytime and in the tree, most of the serious accidents I have seen in my 30 years of pro tree work has been from cutting too large of piece. I was cutting and swinging out 30" by 25 foot logs in the eighties I was a young cocky #### much like yourself. Now days I don't have nothing to prove and I run my own show, if you survive through the next ten years maybe you'll start to see. It don't mean nothing if you was the fastest gun in the west for ten years then died because what truely matters is going home safe.

 

[arborpros]

I here ya on that Rope. March 2010 I limb hitched a big ol chunk of Red Oak on a huge log and it blasted me up on top of it. Scary. In theory, it could have flipped me over the log completely, causing a long and deadly fall. I have that tree on vid, but not that cut. We rarely get action moment vids, cuz were to busy kicking ass. Big ? for you guys. Ive been having major issuses with my arm and shoulder lately. Anyone ever had a torn rotor cuff? Im too poor to go to the doctor and I dont have insurance. Sometimes it hurts so bad I cant lift my arm up, and the pain moves from the socket to about 5 inches down my arm. Any ideas?

I had the exact same type of problem a year and a half ago and got surgery December 30th 2009. I thought it was my rotators cuff but it turned out to be the socket where your clavical hits your shoulder blade was all marred up and with bone growth and basically was not sliding in the socket like it should have. They went in orothscopically with 3 tiny incisions and ground the end of my clavical down and cleaned the joint out. I took me six months to get back to 100% when the doc said it would be 6 weeks.

Bottom line of this post is that the pain before was so bad I could not wipe my own rear end much less put my arm over my head some days. It kept me up at night and I consider myself to have a rather high tolerance for pain. I'm glad i got the surgery but the recovery was a lot longer than expected. Feels like a million dollars now with no side effects and no strength loss or anything. Atleast go get it checked out. It may be expensive but living in pain sucks.

 

[the Aerialist]

Can't we all be friends? kumbya and all that ...

I have to go and watch vid again, what was jack used for?

I used the floor jack in a notch like a super wedge. I was in Harbor Freight and liked the low profile for sticking in the tree. It was an impulse buy, but a good one. It worked great as you can see in the video.

Actually - for some jobs the tractor does seem to fill a hole. Certainally is light and small. Although a small Bobcat would likley fit same bill -- but small Bobcat would not have grinder, etc.

We used it all day today. It literally replaced two ground guys, and I didn't have to buy it lunch. First off it transports all the gear to the work site. After that it hauled a full dump truck load of heavy branches and logs with the one ton wagon and slip scoop, changing over to the stump grinder is easy and one man can do it. I ground out two major stumps with it and it never missed a beat. Not as fast as a dedicated stump grinder, but faster than most walk behinds. At the end of the day it hauled all our gear back to the truck. What's not to like?

It likely has some downsides (as do all pieces of equipment - not one perfect out there). But on the upside, seems to fill you need for now. You know what.. that is what counts. Fits the need, is afordable and pays for itself. Do you need something bigger; likely for some work. But that will come in time as this earns you some money. You said guys loved it.. that is what matters. Get work done, make money, keep guys happy.

The downside was the cost, but that's behind me now. Attachments are very expensive as well though and I'll probably be buying some of them. Theres a tow behind lawn sweeper that would end a lot of time spent raking and blowing.

... As for wearing ruts; it can do that. Weighs over 3 tons. If soft and wet enough going to leave some tracks. That is same for any heavy equipment, which is one area your tractor can do better.

When I need something bigger I can always bring it in. For the day to day residential work that I do the Steiner is perfect, expensive but worth it.

Roll with the punches, and hang on.. Most guys here are good hearted and mean well. But a lot of jabs thrown as well. Get thick skin.. you need it here

My fighting style is more like Mike Tyson than Mohammed Ali, i never was one to float like a butterfly, and I'm not into jabs, either receiving or delivering. Straight right hand followed by an uppercut left to the chin or solar plexus, depending on how tall my opponent is. But online it's a battle of wits and I find my opponents / antagonists posting on this forum to be disarmed when it comes to wits.. I'm not concerned by blathering idiots looking to feel tough behind their keyboards. Unless they cross the line into something actionable through all means available to me.

Having said that, I'm here to learn techniques and practices that will make my chosen profession easier and safer for me and my crew. I didn't come here to participate in childish verbal battles or #### swinging contests. If that's why you're here (not you climber57) please put me on ignore ...

 

[ropensaddle]

I may be wrong aa but them lawn sweepers would be a waste of money for what we do I think. I would ask to demo it on rakings like we deal with! I sometime brinng my big tractor ford 800 and use a rock rake on it to bunch the pile up on multiple tree jobs like 12 pines! It works pretty good gets the worst of it and quick!.

 

[ropensaddle]

Also rig you up a 5 to one pulley system for your tractor then use the jack for tires. Just take it easy on the pull maybe a 2 to one would be better depending on the true pulling force of your unit.

You could then get it tight and just do the rest of pulling by hand if its rigged to save progressive pull with a prusic hitch!

 

[Bigus Termitius]

C'mon bigus ,your just jelous that even if you sold all that crap you list in the bottom left you'd still be short 5g's on buying double a's garden tractor.

If you had a brain half the size of your mouth, you'd realize what a compliment that is to me, and how the only envy revealed is your own. Thank You.

 

[the Aerialist]

Yeah it will mow, but will it PULL?

Also rig you up a 5 to one pulley system for your tractor then use the jack for tires. Just take it easy on the pull maybe a 2 to one would be better depending on the true pulling force of your unit.

You could then get it tight and just do the rest of pulling by hand if its rigged to save progressive pull with a prusic hitch!

It was suggested earlier in the thread to rig a 2 - 1 pulley and I thought I might, but in the end I felt the 3 ton rope wench plus the jack would be sufficient, and it was. I didn't want to bury one of my blocks into the turf when it dropped.

The true pulling power of the Steiner is yet to be discovered, but so far wheel slip is the limiting factor. When I get all 8 wheels on it and a couple of big logs in the bucket for weight we'll see how that works.

 

[046]

sure wish that was true here in the USA. Obamacare has saddled us with all the bad of government intervention, without the heathcare benefits that folks take for granted in Canada. winners are the insurance and drug companies.

a bad accident in the US is almost guaranteed to bankrupt vs folks in Canada get what ever medical care without losing almost all your assets in the process.

That's not good, I am so grateful of our health care system here in Canada, we can just walk into any hospital, clinic etc, get done whats needed, and it's covered. I thought Obama was matching your health care system to something similiar to ours here? Yeah tree work does beat you up, but hey you still feel good at the end of the day knowing that you earned your money!

 

[ropensaddle]

It was suggested earlier in the thread to rig a 2 - 1 pulley and I thought I might, but in the end I felt the 3 ton rope wench plus the jack would be sufficient, and it was. I didn't want to bury one of my blocks into the turf when it dropped.

The true pulling power of the Steiner is yet to be discovered, but so far wheel slip is the limiting factor. When I get all 8 wheels on it and a couple of big logs in the bucket for weight we'll see how that works.

AA the point I was making is if it will pretension the 2 to 1 or 5 to one pully system and if the tractor will get it snug and keep it that way by either gears when killed with its pull or e brake if it has one. It will give you an anchor point where a suitable non moving object may not exist. I have pulled trees over with a 252 stumper with high tip. It ain't my twenty ton winch but it did the trick. I would do that before using a cumbersome jack that could break your hinge in an undesirable event, just saying!

 

[Bigus Termitius]

It was suggested earlier in the thread to rig a 2 - 1 pulley and I thought I might, but in the end I felt the 3 ton rope wench plus the jack would be sufficient, and it was. I didn't want to bury one of my blocks into the turf when it dropped.

The true pulling power of the Steiner is yet to be discovered, but so far wheel slip is the limiting factor. When I get all 8 wheels on it and a couple of big logs in the bucket for weight we'll see how that works.

You are right about one thing, slippage is your limiting factor. In your mind, you see 8 wheels giving better grip than 4, but what you don't see is that you already have too much floatation for maximum pulling. (see skidder "rescue" video) The 8 wheel option is designed to improve floatation, not pulling power. And rightfully so, it's a lawn tractor. Your best bet is to add weight to both ends and not more floatation. The FACT that you have surface slippage, instead of a digging slippage is the indicator. Which isn't the best for pulling, but keeps the turf intact, which is a goal.

Nevertheless, Rope is trying to give you great advice that will keep the operator from going on a hell ride. He's not suggesting you bury a block in the turf, btw.

 

[Toddppm]

Again please video tape this event!


Funny when you first came here flappin your gums you cried that you would leave if anybody else questioned you or gave you any ####. And also claimed you'd give us a learnin' or 2 about tree work:msp_w00t: I almost feel sorry for you wasting your $$$ on that pile of crap that can't even hold a couple sticks of wood, nah. At least learn how to sharpen a damn chainsaw, those videos are painful enough without the droning dull saws begging for mercy.

 

[ropensaddle]

You are right about one thing, slippage is your limiting factor. In your mind, you see 8 wheels giving better grip than 4, but what you don't see is that you already have too much floatation for maximum pulling. (see skidder "rescue" video) The 8 whell option is designed to improve floatation, not pulling power. And rightfully so, it's a lawn tractor. Your best bet is to add weight to both ends and not more floatation. The FACT that you have surface slippage, instead of a digging slippage is the indicator. Which isn't the best for pulling, but keeps the turf intact, which is a goal.

Nevertheless, Rope is trying to give you great advice that will keep the operator from going on a hell ride. He's not suggesting you bury a block in the turf, btw.

I couldn't agree more dullys are not great for traction especially without added weight which is why I have grips on my 79f350 the doubled frame and heavy bed and cylinders make full use of my mud grips. Im sure they make traction weights to fit your stiner aa I thing you would find them way more productive for traction. No don't bury blocks lol ,however a good couple of notch outs would make good scotches to add in anchorage.

 

[Jumper]

Attended a dedication for Habitat for Humanity, where ten families were handed the keys to their new homes.....then a BBQ lunch for all the people and a few VIP's, MLA, city alderman etc...

Then more or less at the end of lunch some non volunteer doofus tree planting landscaper punctured a gas line with a hydraulic tree spade so we had to evac, fire dept came etc, so that put an end to the festivities and the work day. You would think they would have located the utilities first?? Planted a few trees in my day.

Back at er tomorrow.

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