I am cleaning up a bunch of rough trees in an old tree line separating a couple of fields. A lot of dead and alive, tangled up big cedars, which are also leaning badly, and I had this big old Hackberry with a broken down, 6" diameter, Cedar limb from another tree stuck in it, from an ice storm a couple of years back. And the Hackberry had a couple of other widow makers in it. I kept cutting away at all of this mess, and finally dropped the big cedar and when if fell, it pulled the broken Cedar limb out of the Hackberry, which was my plan. I should have taken some pictures, sorry. Anyway, that was bad enough, but then I had to cut a couple of big stumps out of the way and a bunch of briers to create an escape route, before cutting the Hackberry. I got to tell you, that long 28" bar on the 462 came in mighty handy for this work. Anyway, I finally felled the Hackberry which was a bit scary and the crown which had some long limbs ended up still being way up in the air and the trunk still on the stump. Actually, the whole trunk was still way up in the air. And I really couldn't read it as to which way it might roll for sure when I cut it loose from the stump. Normally, I might have worked from the crown first, but not on this one as the limbs on the high side of the crown, would likely roll down and hit me. So, I had to cut it off of the stump which was about 3ft high. I started with a cut on top going down about a third of the way, then come up from the bottom, not really sure how it would go, and watching for the pinch if it came. But it slipped up on me, as I was not sure which way this trunk might jump or roll. I stuck the bar, and couldn't get it loose. So, remembering reading, on, here I think, about removing the powerhead, to at least keep it out of harms way, which never really occurred to me before. I took the powerhead off, and decided to try a wedge first instead of another saw. The wedge was a hard drive (I had to bang it in with a 6 lb splitting maul), but it worked and I was able to get the bar and chain loose and was back in business. I knew if I dropped the tree from the stump, I would bend the bar if I just grabbed another saw and started cutting again. There was a lot of pressure against that stump, and it still took some tricky cutting to get it to finally leave the stump and roll over some, but most of the trunk is still in the air pretty bad, but I think I have it going my way now. I ran out of time, and will have to finish it tomorrow if it isn't raining. Anyway, removing the powerhead from the bar is a good trick to know. I would have hated to of trashed a brand new saw.
Very useful "trick" for sure. Done it more than once myself. Sounds like tough work, please be careful!
Yep, that's the first time I every used it. It's so obvious once you think about, but it never even occurred to me until I read about it.
This is just one reason alot of people prefer inboard clutches. An outboard clutch can make this trick a bit more difficult.
The invention of the outboard clutch has been responsible for more second saw ,wedge ,and 1 1/2 pound forestry hatchet sales then any other item ever produced ...
