I’ve had this dead oak tree on my property that’s been leaning pretty heavily over my fence into my back yard which is all nice grass. I w been contemplating cutting it down myself since the summer but I knew the only way it would not smash my fence would mean using my truck and a long rope to pull it 180 degrees against the lean. The property behind got cleared by me to make room for a new house for a friend of mine. Well the stumps have all been dug out and the ground leveled. I know they will be digging the foundation soon so even though it was the last thing I wanted to do Sunday after delivering 8.5 cords of wood and blowing my leaves, I knew it was time. I used an extension ladder to get a heavy rope about 20-26 feet up. I had my neighbor apply a hood but of tension on the rope with my pickup to see if I could get the top to move before I started cutting and sure enough it moved a little. So with the tension still on I made my face cut, against the lean, and then proceeded on the back cut. I went slowly as to be very careful not to cut too far. I figured a good string hinge would be important for this one. Once I was convinced I had cut enough I hollered for him to pull more and it went right where I intended thankfully. Problem was though it was caught up in the canopy of other trees so I had to maneuver my truck into the woods near the stump, put a chain on the trunk and pull it out. There was a lot of downward weight so it made this big trench as I pulled a few feet at a time before it finally made its way completely to the ground. The whole process took about 25 minutes. The trunk is about 18” in diameter and you can see the lean it had right from the bottom. Maybe One of the better looking stumps for me.
. WIN. Took your time, evaluated the situation, made an educated decision and implemented properly. Good feeling isn't it? Congratulations on a successful and safe takedown.
Thanks. Mine usually don't look like that but that's because I hardly ever take the time like I did on this one due to the difficulty.
Nice job getting it done safely. Always a little adrenaline rush when the scarce occasion i fell a tree.
Really is, I get one all the time. Sometimes just thinking about felling a tree I get one. I have a pretty darn big tree (I believe it's oak) that's dead and leaning heavy way back behind my property. It's about 28" in dia, my saw only has a 18" blade, I'd have to do a double cut. Never did one before this is kinda out of my league between the double cut, diameter of the tree, and it's pretty tall. But the two things in my favor are it's leaning big time in a good direction and there is nothing around I have to worry about hitting. All I can see when I look at it is splits of wood in my wood shed, I want it down.....
That's the ones you have to be careful on...we had several like that on our summer clearing job. Well done, my friend. Glad you got it down safely
Just talked me out of it.....lol. I probably have no business messing with it and not worth the risk, all I see is wood. Thank you!! Here's a pic, not sure how much of a leaner qualifies for a high risk barber chair. Maybe it's not leaning as bad as I thought. Sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread!
That 1 definitely has enough lean for a barber chair...but can still be taken down safely, even with an 18" bar. Make your face cut, then go about 1" above your bottom cut, bore cut from the face cut side to take out the center section. Then you can bore cut your back cut and leave some holding wood as a trigger. Clip that and down it comes.
