Any ideas? Is this more than I can safely handle?

I showed the pic to my 394 and it started salivating!!! That’s a nice one for sure. If you have the means, rope or chain up to it and give it a little pull. I’d saw on it like Redneck mentioned. Noodle it vertically then buck rounds off. I’ve tackled many this way and it works well for me. Keep us posted.

 

Ill bet it was! I was waiting for you to show up on this thread Jason!

 

42” bar and a ported 394 would tackle that monster right quick. If he were close enough, I’d offer up the help to ensure he got the wood. Philly is just over 2 hour drive and NJ is beyond that.

Another thought is to use a HiLift jack or similar. Cut a small notch for it to have a place to lift (on a side) and use the jack to roll the log onto the ground, being sure to have an escape route.

 

Its a safe way to get it on the ground

 

Great advice right here!
Follow his steps carefully and sounds like you have all the right equipment to be safe and successful.
Update us on your progress.

 

CAD is what she has when your CAD gets bad...clear as mud now, right....
Your CAD = Chainsaw Addiction Disease...you guessed your wife's CAD...

 

Yup thats the way have cut many that way

 

Road-side Oak how hot to trot is the homeowner about getting the area cleaned up? I apologize in advance if this was already discussed. What I would do is get everything I can manage myself and hauled away using my truck. As far as the monster log I would find someone with a rollback to winch the log onto it for you and move it to your property so you can work on it at your leisure. I'm not sure how far away your property is from the score. If you could find someone with a roll back that burns firewood and could work a deal out with them would be ideal.

 

another way to let the log down is to cut V's in it rather than trying to cut all the way straight through , also prevents pinching by opening opening up the V as you progress down. Leave them connected at the bottom by a couple inches or more to prevent anything from suddenly rolling out. Takes more time and makes some uglies ( but hey they burn just as well). Bonus those slices from the V can be used as wedges as well. Once you have stabilized that way then start on some horizontal & vertical cuts to make movable pieces. I do a lot of this as I get huge stump sections or calls from various tree services at times when a customer of theirs figures out they bit off more than they can chew and do not want to or do not have the funds for the service to move it all out. Or get called to see if I want something or just plain to help with some behemoth. I have several saws now days starting at the top with an 084 /42" bar down to a little Echo with a 14" bar.

 

I've had a big one completely supported end to end up on a pile and it was pretty easy to dice up like that.
Made the mistake of pulling rather than pushing the rounds off the pile. The third one I pulled off to split rolled on top of me, knocking me over and pinning me to the ground on top of my knees. Working alone, luckily it was a nice sunny fairly warm day as I was going to be stuck there for a while until someone came home. Fortunately I was able to yank two branches that were just within reach out of the pile to use as a lever /pivot to get out from under it. I used a 16" bar at the time as it was all I had and I wasn't going to buy a bigger saw/bar for just one tree.
The next big tree I went out and bought a bigger saw. The right tool(s) for the job and all that.

 

A come-along might be the ticket if you don’t have any access to a winch.

 

With that being a yard tree, you will have to look out for any embedded metal in it. Depending on if or how much metal is in it, that may make the wood not worth getting.

 

Whatever you end up doing get that thing on the cold hard earth as soon as possible.
That would be my first goal, where it is sitting right now to be blunt could kill you.

 

You can get it all safely i have cut many one chunk at at time until it was small enough or light enough to move. Then my main saw was my ms290 heavy and slow but it got the job done

 

I guess there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Or cut a log! It’s neat to hear so many approaches to the same end. Lots of experienced cutters here willing to share knowledge, that’s why I like hanging out with you all.
I’d love to tackle that, especially since it’s oak. I never get oak

 

Thanks again everyone for all the sage advice. This forum is so great for someone like me who just getting more into wood cutting. I hope this log is still around in a week when I have more time to get to it. Will keep you all updated!

 

Can you slide another smaller log or cribbing under it 3-4' in from the stump end. Then get a 4 ton or better bottle jack under the stump end just enough to lift it up off the log it rests on. Pull out the freed up log and lower the jack to rest the big log on your cribbing. Cut off 2 or 3 rounds and repeat.

 

Good thing I'm not in your neighboorhood because when you got back from your weekend most of that tree if not all would be gone and in my stash.

 

I wouldn’t miss this one if it all possible.
All the above are great.
I’d have two or three thoughts.

Have a second person with you, at minimum. If for nothing else a peer check and some one that laugh with afterwards, or be a witness

Second, accept that the initial plan will change after the first cut or somewhere in the process. This is where the second person is really valuable in strategizing the next move.

Safety first, although third here.

Come armed with your new saw, wedges, breaking bars, peavey, rope, etc.

Take your time.

That was 4

Good luck

 

Me too. Southern Jersey a good three hours for me.