Why Not Pull Trees Over With Chain?

[flushcut]

Well you can do the stick trick with the running bowline but you have to use rebar

I forgot completely about the stick trick. Thank you for the reminder.

 

[arborjockey]

Loggers love the cable. Trick is in the pre tension. Depending on the lenth and diameter of the cable, determines how much belly (un straighten cable) you leave. A lot of times the weight of the cable without really pulling on it is enough to bring the tree down. Cable is getting bad press by the NEW tree guys? It has its place. Chain on the other hand has its place its just not as big. You can tell the tension in cables you just have to be good. In the tower business we did it by tone. Strike the cable with a wrench and listen. :msp_thumbup:

 

[treeclimber101]

This is what it looks like when I read threads like this!!!! And then I just breath and realize that it could be much worse for me in life :msp_w00t:

 

[Tree Pig]

This is what it looks like when I read threads like this!!!! And then I just breath and realize that it could be much worse for me in life :msp_w00t:

well theres living proof that smoking wont stunt your growth

 

[dts99]

I dont think my big shot would launch a chain very far

shoot one peice at a time!

 

[Tree Pig]

This is almost disturbing

AND













WAIT FOR IT.....







WAIT FOR IT.......

 

[treeclimber101]

This is almost disturbing

Its not almost it certainly is .......













AND













WAIT FOR IT.....







WAIT FOR IT.......

well almost is more like certainly disturbing

 

[Slvrmple72]

didnt somebody post a pic a while back of some fella using a chain as his flipline?

 

[pdqdl]

Yep. I remember that.

Hey! I'll bet he never cut it with the chainsaw.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

The stretch of the rope mean once the tree starts moving its still got some "pull" where as as soon as that first tension comes off with steel, the tree can do whatever it likes, bad news if its got side lean and the hinge starts to let go!

 

[imagineero]

Cutting your hinge properly and leaving an appropriate amount of holding wood is one way around that. If you cant manage that, then putting some pull on the cable as it goes over is another way. Honestly though, most guys who can't manage a decent hinge don't have enough experience to judge pull correctly and overtension themselves into barber chair territory. It's probably a good thing for that sort of operator if they do cut right through their own hinge. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Shaun

 

[arborjockey]

Cutting your hinge properly and leaving an appropriate amount of holding wood is one way around that. If you cant manage that, then putting some pull on the cable as it goes over is another way. Honestly though, most guys who can't manage a decent hinge don't have enough experience to judge pull correctly and overtension themselves into barber chair territory. It's probably a good thing for that sort of operator if they do cut right through their own hinge. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Shaun

Good point Shaun

For the arguement against rope. The cable is static but your more so using the weight of it. The dynamics of the rope being like a bungee works the same as the cable pulling the belly out. But the cable stops it from setting back. It also keeps weight on the tree for the entire drop. Down sides, its heavy and hard to work with.

When you have a big tree its the hot ticket. Tie it high and don't pull at a downward angle. Get a ways away from the tree. Let the cable do the work. Lastly with rope you have to untie. With cable you can start yarding that bad boy.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Cutting your hinge properly and leaving an appropriate amount of holding wood is one way around that. If you cant manage that, then putting some pull on the cable as it goes over is another way. Honestly though, most guys who can't manage a decent hinge don't have enough experience to judge pull correctly and overtension themselves into barber chair territory. It's probably a good thing for that sort of operator if they do cut right through their own hinge. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Shaun

Only takes an abnormality in the wood to make the correct hinge next to worthless. Had a beaut in a big old pine years back on a job I was contract climbing, it had grown over an old branch, right on the uphill part of the hinge and had a pool of resin around it, lucky for us it only cost us a tirfor and some hours getting the log up the hill.
I had to laugh, the guy was pumping the tirfor for all he was worth but the hinge was failing and he couldnt move it fast enough. Guy on the backcut (not me) was screaming "faster! FASTER!".

Had it happened on the tree further back in the line we had felled in the morning, good bye house. Nice springy ropes all the way for me. I should also add that I live in an incredibly windy town, we get some crazy gusts and winds pick up from nowhere. Rope is cheap insurance

 

[FanOFatherNash]

didnt somebody post a pic a while back of some fella using a chain as his flipline?

out west when they had to remove the protesters out of trees, they used chains as fliplines , sure it was for saftey reasons

 

[pdqdl]

out west when they had to remove the protesters out of trees, they used chains as fliplines , sure it was for saftey reasons

Nonsense.

Cable fliplines are common, easy to use, and knife-proof. Apart from fling crap (literally) at the authorities trying to evict them, the tree huggers were not trying to hurt anyone. Had they brandished a knife or other cutting tools at anyone, a sniper probably would have dropped them like flies.

If anyone was using a chain as a flipline, it's because they didn't know about good cable fliplines.