Re: pulling out a tree

Posted by Billy NY on March 07, 2014 at 07:18:42 from (66.67.105.23):

In Reply to: pulling out a tree posted by 37Chief on March 06, 2014 at 20:35:03:

I've done it many times in the past. Sometimes they pull over, sometimes not. Crawler would provide more traction and likely more pulling power. Sometimes there is slippage with the tractor, and that's probably a good thing. Considering ones rigging and if it were to fail, I find using care is important, so as not to put oneself in danger, every situation is different, every tree is different, priority is safety first. The first shots are of a black cherry tree, dead, in what was the old hedgerow. I logged off all the dead trees from this old hedge/fence line and many I had put a line on to secure the direction of fall, like the one in the photo, that wanted to fall in the neighbors yard, given the lean it had. I got a nice pile of black cherry out of this, then with the clean up from that ice storm in Dec '08, I hauled in 3 more truckloads of hardwood, which I still have some oak in my shed, provided me enough wood for 3 years, whats shown is just 1/3 of what I had piled.

Sometimes the line is just set to secure the tree, I'll put relief cuts in it, have enough line to be out of its path and I walk clear around to get to the tractor, then pull them over. I sometimes will ratchet strap the ladder to the tree so I do not have to worry about it rolling out from under me. I then set my wire rope choker and clevis, then hang a shorter chain, so I can connect the big chain on the ground. Yes, I'd prefer better rigging like has been mentioned already, snatch block 2 to one line or similar, be nice to have a crawler on the other end too, but the tractor and direct line is safe if you do not push things beyond their means, if it don't want to go, then I just cut it and use the line to secure its fall. Once set I'll tug on it a few times to get the feel of it, sometimes they will come right over. In this photo of the dead black cherry, tractor was headed downhill, nice slope so I had that in my favor, yet not all would pull over, most were felled with relief cuts or some tension on the line, just enough to insure they fell where I wanted, opposite the neighbors backyards.

The old hard maple in the photos, I had observed for awhile, it was the backyard of our old house, and was hollow, top fractured, already lost a huge limb, I figured a storm would take it down, well it would have taken years I think. I put a line up top on that one, pulled on it, couple of decent quick little jerks, was a boat anchor, so I put the first relief cuts in it, no dice at all, held tension, walked clear around the back of it, nothing above me, and the lean in my favor, cut further into it, but left it standing, then got back onto the tractor, it pulled over easily, broke right off, I had removed a gate, but it took out brace on the side anyway LOL.

Now, all of these, I made sure to be clear of tree, canopy and everything before even considering doing any of it, also made sure to never take my eye off the tree once I started work, as well as having clear paths to where I needed to be, and always enough line to be well clear of the tree, these things are paramount, if any were not available, the trees would be left standing. That maple my friend would park near when hunting, I warned him repeatedly, kept doing it but finally stopped, I was by a gate, so who knows when or how it would come down, was nice to have it on the ground and not worry about someone getting hurt when passing by, including me LOL ! You can see its rotted, hollow, fractured, already lost that big limb, yet no tractor, maybe a crawler, then maybe not, would have broke it off, forget pulling it with the rootball.

I have straightened chain hooks with dozers, and I narrowly missed being taken out by shrapnel of a broken chain link on a site job when I was an operator, hit the upright of my OROPS on the dozer, put a dent into the thick steel, was right past my head. Needless to say when one of the fools mouthed off at break time about what happened, I settled it quickly, by pinning the jerk on the ground and teaching him a valuable lesson, foreman said "did you get him good or what?" while he was writing me up for fighting on the job LOL ! I should have walked away, but sometimes it does not work out that way. Snapped chains are no joke and the will kill as fast as a bullet, and is the reason I share that story. Jerk was pulling out a vibratory roller out of deep mud, dumb operator thought he could make it through that stuff, then tweedle dee and tweedle dumb start pulling on it, I should have known to get away from them, almost cost me because I did not. Will never forget that moment when it hit the upright.

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