Been practicing with wedges. I had a couple trees that I wedged over How is this technique ? One fairly big one (for our birch) & with a slight wrong direction lean First I plunge cut in about 6" on the wrong direction side. drove the wedge in Then notched the other side, Then back cut on both side of the wedge . (left about a 1" hinge) then drove the wedge in til it went over. It went where it needed to go to not get hung up There's a couple birch mixed in with a lot of spruce I need to thread the needle so they don't get hung up. Any better ways ? I use to throw a grapple hook up, catch a limb put a strain on them , but; a pretty tight area & the limbs are out of my throwing range. Sometimes the limbs are mostly on one side & want to pull the tree to that side.
Sounds like you have a strategy. I am fan of a come-along and a long cable. Go up as high as I can to get as much leverage as possible. Tension the cable as needed after tying off to another tree.
I am pretty basic when it come to felling, I cut notches and do back cuts. When there is a bad lean, I climb up with a ladder and tie a rope as high as I can. The rope is tied to my trailer hitch and a buddy puts tension on it with the truck as I cut. Then he tugs a little as it goes. That's all I got to offer. I am sure others will have much better ways.
I have done the same when I can position my jeep properly. I use a long cable; I like my Jeep. Have multiple cable pieces I can put together.
Last summer I cut down a dead hickory that was 36 inches at the base, right next to power lines. Tree looked perfectly balanced. Didn't mess around. Tied a half inch steel cable up 16 feet in the crook of the tree and then attached cable to the hitch on a big farm tractor, then tensioned. Sometimes, you just can't take chances. Fell right where planned of course.
Wedge helps keep the saw from getting stuck. If the tree decides to got the wrong way, I start running. LOL Just 5 times as much work to get the tree down then. Got the "T" shirt a couple times in the past couple years.
On really heavy back leaners I'll use similar technique. I'll make my open face notch. Then bore through center of notch about an inch higher than hinge out the back. Place wedge and back cut just below wedge on both side which will leave a tongue and groove look on stump and butt. Small trees are nearly impossible to make this work safely .
Yea Most are small & hard to notch & have rom for the saw in front of the wedge tip Did some today, getting better at it but my wedge is looking a little worse for wear Did one today that went the wrong way, I grabbed the saw & ran.
I use wedges on small leans, but anything sizable I use a rope as high up as i can get it. While I use a come along, I also use the truck to pull with. One handy thing I have used as I work in a lot of back yards, is a small pulley rated at beyond the tensil strength of my rope, and some large straps I use to secure it, so I can direct the force when the truck angle can't work without tearing up the yard, or getting in the way
All good ideas. Small trees are tricky so I use a cable, chains, ropes etc. on the big guys I use wedges, and a snatch block with my skidding winch. Tricky since the brake is disengaged, and I don not want to rapidly spoil out cable when it falls. Some guys use a hydraulic bottle jack by creating a deep notch on the side opposing the fall. Seems to work, but I have not tried it. If you are daring, and have the right room and confident cutting, you can notch the tree with the bad lean and domino it with another tree. I would not suggest this approach anywhere near your house or power lines, and definitely not if you are not experienced with proper notching technique. Physics and gravity are your friend if you set up the proper plan and do not rush it. Good luck
I just use a winch. I have done about 30 trees now with this setup and will not go to the mountains without it.
Thinking about taking an 8', 2X2 with a hook on the end to position thr rope up high enough to get good leverage I could just drop the tree, but cutting in a trail to get it out is time consuming & hard work I'm lazy, so I try to drop them near the trails I've made May have to get out the ropes/pulleys to pull the logs accessible Add more tools to haul 80 miles & take into the woods "No such thing as easy firewood"
It is a 5000 pound winch from Harbor Freight. Around 199.00 dollars. Welded up the bracket so I could strap it to a tree using some scrap metal I had left over from other projects. I have also strapped it to stumps when I cannot find a tree. A lot cheaper then a Lewis winch. You should go for it.
By the way, I used to live in West Central Wyoming (Lander/Riverton). Spent 11 years climbing mountains in the Wind River Range. Loved it. Built a 16 x 20 log cabin from scratch above Lander in the foothills in 1992. Had a log outhouse with picture window and a 100 mile view to the Absaroka Range (Dubois). Good memories. Had an old Yodel "pot-bellied" stove in my cabin. Cut and burned a lot of Pine. Lived up there as much as I could. Favorite Peak Ascent in Wyoming: Wind River Peak, 13,000+. Go Wyoming!
Wow that must have been pretty cool. I have been up into Yellow Stone quite a few times on horse back on elk hunts and fishing trips. I always went through Dubois on the way there. That country up there is amazing. I am down in Carpenter which is 30 miles east of Cheyenne sitting on 40 acres. Just high plains here.
Some areas in the old cutting area I used the truck to get the log to the trail. could use a similar setup using the atv out in the woods. Doable , but double the time& work. May only get a 1/2 load in a day (daylight getting shorter) Fun though.
Easy to get lost Elk Hunting in the Absorokas around Dubois. The terrain is wild and confusing. Good memories of that as well: getting lost (just once) and getting stuck (just once) -- in the Absorokas Elk Hunting. (Difference between a 4-wheel drive and a two wheel drive is how far you have to walk after you get stuck !!!).
I think the technique most often used is to make the face cut, then bore cut from the side and cut only half of the back wood, insert the wedge, the continue cutting the other half of the holding wood. Like this:
