Decided it was time to take this tree down. It's an ash that has been standing dead for 4 years now. Right next to the road and telephone line with the power line on the other side. You can see them if you look close. Has a heavy lean over the road as well. This is where I want to put it and it is the tree just right of the pole. I'm guessing it is 80 - 90 ft tall. My plan is to trim some of the trees in it's fall path and put a chain up high. I'll use the lift to do that. The 2 limbs you see crossing the road trees trunk are the ones that will be trimmed off. the tree is just too tall to piece down with the lift for my taste. we have another one at the top of the hill that I will piece down today. It's about a 2 footer as well but only about 50 ft high. I didn't get any action shots with the lift today as I didn't want to block the road any longer than I had to. Here is a shot from another time at basically full extend. I was going to go higher with the chain but once up there I spotted the squirrel hole. I don't want to take the risk of it snapping off there. Picture skews the view but chain is about 10 ft higher than the top of the pole. 25 ft chain was 10 ft from the ground. Decided while I was blocking the road with the lift I'd also piece the leaning limbs over the road. I was at full extend(60ft) reaching and the tree was still about 20 ft higher. With all the limbs off now it should be a lot better. Here's a better view of it with the limbs trimmed off. I'm sure some would just wedge and drop but I don't like extra bills! Things can go wrong in a hurry and there's no going back when it does. This gives you an idea of the height.
Close up of the bad spot. Again, I like playing it safe with this. Figured I'd go ahead and get all the limb trimming cleaned up first. It'll make it nicer and I know the tree will break up pretty bad. Used all 3/8" chain and a long length of cable. I'm sideline pulling with the 3 ton puller from a distant tree. Dad came down to help which was nice and had 2 dogs come to visit as well! End of the line is anchored to another tree. When pulling trees I go for a deeper wedge cut. This gives you an idea of the lean it has. The wedge cut is on the left and the straight saw cut is on the right. I leave a large hinge on these as when they are dead for that long, they can snap. No expert here but it has worked well for us. I took this shot mid pull and till it was done, the wedge cut was right at being fully closed before it overcentered and fell. I should have made it even bigger. Right down main street! Here's a view of the puller. I got 2 of them and they are extremely useful for pulling trees. You can get them with the pulley as well and you can see it just on the left side of the puller. I cut everything that was in the cleared area and loaded it up. Then, with the same chain the pulled it over, drug the log out so I could cut it easier and wouldn't have to roll them all through the brush It ended up being right at 25 inches and I'll leave these set till I get the Catersplitter out. We have a large fence row tree to take down this year too.
Here's the stump and this is why I go with the wide hinge. Notice that only the fibers in the middle held while about 6 inches in just snapped. I tend to put a little tension on a tree at first and wait till I see the top start to move just slightly. Then get out and let the puller do the rest. You never know how brittle they are so it isn't worth the risk to me. Not bad for a 1/2 days work
It is and we use it quite a bit. Painting house and barns, repairs, tree work and roofs. The only downside is the weight as it weighs right at 20,000 lbs. Since we have it, we just wait till it's fit to do the projects. By painting 3 barns it has already paid for itself.
Thanks Kevin, this was a tutorial of sorts on taking down a dead tree hanging over the road and powerlines (always scary). You had a plan after much thought and how you were going to do it, and you had the right tools as well. You mentioned in your post you are no expert, but I disagree, and confer expert status upon you. Your whole post focused on safety throughout.
Awsome job Kevin in Ohio, looks like you did a mighty fine safe job! Took it diwn like a pro! At least you got a lot of BTU's. Too bad you couldn't have got it milled into boards.
Showing your skills right there. Fantastic. Love it when I see projects well thought through with sound knowledge and safety considerations. I have a couple of trees I would like removed. My son wants to do it, but I have told him not to try. It upsets him, but I know he is not experienced enough to do that without someone with considerable experience and the right tools.
The ground was fit and they are calling for rain so we decided to take out another bad tree. This one is on one of our fields property lines. We were clearing the fencerow close to 30 years ago and the guy who owns the house pictured begged us to let it go. Said it kept his house cool and provided a windbreak. He now wants us to cut it as it's rotting and would hit his house if it fell. Would have been easier to do 30 years ago! We brought the lift up as it will have to be pieced down to be safe and not hurt anything of his except the grass. This clump has some size to it. I'm really excited as it's Silver Maple.....and rotting! LOL This one would be potential 4 barber chair if you were trying to cut from the ground without taking some weight off. Oh joy, one already broke off and laying in the tree. We'll drag that out and down with a chain. Center is rotting and I told him we are going to leave a high stump because I don't want to ruin a chain if there is fence in it. He said okay and he would work at it later. Good luck. Starting to piece it down and going really well. The ones to the right had bad in the center even up high. He has a tree to the left so I'll have to go up high and limb it up. These are the ones that would hit his house. This lift does spoil you and makes it so much easier. The boys came out to play! dad had about 3 of his Homeys too.
With all the limbs off we decided to cut it all to size. Then load up the small stuff where the trunk will fall and move the brush out of the way so we're not fighting it. dad want to chip up the brush and use it in his garden for a soil builder so it will go to good use. I'll bring the splitter up and work up the chunks after that. all depends on weather. I guess he still has a windblock, sorta Wish it was a different variety of tree but it'll burn when dry. Quickly though! 98 inches or 8 ft 2 inches across the top of the stump. I measured the circumference 2 ft up and it was 238" or just over 19ft! Wonder how much water this thing was sucking up. I know our farmer will be happy as we trimmed some of his other trees that were coming in the field too. I'm tired so it was a good day with Dad. Here's an extra pic of piecing it down over his other trees. I actually learned a lot of nice ways to do take downs from watching Utube videos of tree guys. Notice also I do have a harness on and it's attached.
Awsome work yet again Kevin in Ohio. Looks like it was done yet again with precision and safety! Great job brother! I'll bet that was a chore stumping that thing WOW 19ft in circumference and 98" across ! So you get to keep all the good wood?
I keep a 36 inch bar on the 660 and it eats like a fat girl at a buffet! I run rs chain with a full house and it is just plain fun to run. It'll bury you in chips.Stumping it was easy and was keeping an eye out for it to split out bad but it did fine. I pulled the bar and saw out on all for as it was slow and contolled. It would have been a completely different animal if it wasn't topped. Yes, I get the great joy of getting all the wood. Have a feeling there will be a lot of nasty stackers till I'm done.
