Tree Felling jacks

I am considering buying one of these, and I see Norwood, Stalpen and Reipal coming up most often. Not cheap, but friend has one I have tried and you can put an awful lot of force moving a tree the direction you want with not a whole lot of rigging and effort. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

I know in Europe they are used often on the huge trees. Most of the Sweden's use them , check you tube and you will see. They are amazing

 

We had one for the longest time, and if it is the same design that we had, it could be used for a lot more then just felling. It really was a mini cant dog, and most times that was enough to be REALLY useful. Rolling a log over, getting the saw unpinched, and yes felling. Like my two bit axe, plenty of wedges, and almost every fencing tool tool I ever owned, it is lost out in the woods somewhere. But in short, yeah it was pretty much better than sex.

 

Fotos?

 

yeah it was pretty much better than sex.

...I better order several then ...

 

A logger will get much further I assure you, with the wife allowing a multiple order of felling levers then in securing multiple wives. I ran that by her once and she was not keen on me having a few 20 year old wives. I think it was when I started to get into the details on hair color, age and shape that she drew the line!

 

I've used a stalpen a couple times, or more correctly helped use it. Handy tool if a rope & winch aren't an option. Would really depend on your need. Practice with a regular bottle jack on smaller trees to get an idea of usefullness to you.

 

This what we had, but I am not sure the Stihl brand is required for quality. It is the geometry that made it work.

I would not take this on a River Drive of long Logs by any means, but for 90% of my Peavy work, it actually worked well enough. Really handy on the sawmills, and just acted like a lever for those pinched saw situations. The fact that it helped felling was an added bonus...just an all around handy tool.

I was actually looking at them the other day and thinking about replacing the one I lost.

 

Thanks fellas, helpful

Have found one to borrow a few days and going to put it to the test.

 

I have a cheapo off of EBay, it is great when needed, usually to unpinch the saw more than fell a tree.
I find it to be too short for a cant hook most of the time, but I tend to be needing a cant hook on big stuff more than anything else.
My 5 foot timbertuff cant hook is often too short.
The sliding shackle for the hook has pinched me more times than I care to deal with, I'm probably going to remove it.

 

I've never used one. I always thought they looked handy but possibly cumbersome to take into the woods. Also redundant if you already have a vehicle and rope. Redundant to if you have a come along or Maasdam rope puller. Because of leverage the force you can exert by pulling the top over is far greater than anything you can do at the base of a tree. That isn't always an option though.

When I was a feller out west we would once in a blue moon use bottle jacks. If you do ever decide to use a bottle jack be sure to use a steel plate or the little jack piston will just push into the wood. An old junk chainsaw bar works good for this purpose. I have seen a bottle jack cause hinge failure. Care should always be taken when applying lifting force to the back cut/hinge area. The bottle jack should be set up as perpendicular to the hinge as possible.

Pulling the top over with a rope is usually going to be my first preference. I can see where a tree jack would potentially be safer and easier to set up than a bottle jack though. Plus a bottle jack can't be set in small trees either.

 

I do the same thing with my skidder, but that tool is $11,760 dollars cheaper too!

All kidding aside, it is a pain to carry around a tool to drop a tree, but it depends how many you have to drop too. There is something to be said about getting a tree directly onto the ground when there is limited equipment to get it out.

Myself, I prefer a wedge because it kept the saw from binding if the tipped back while felling. Most times as soon as there was room, I took the wedge out of my back pocket, tapped it in with my hand as insurance. If the tree tipped back, I would take my saw, cut a sapling, then pound the wedge home. I never carried an axe with me...just something else to lug around and use. If the tree did not go over, the skidder ensured it did, either by blade, arch or cable.

BUT...I cut a twitch and haul them out. At the end of the day, everything I cut, is in the yard. But if a person likes to go in a drop trees weeks in advance of getting the trees out, their methods might differ.

 

The invention at 6 minutes in on this video shows how to make a nice safe mortise with a chainsaw...

 

you must be going to use it on some very big trees. Most of the jacks they use around here, are pretty good sized units and are used on 5ft and bigger trees to fall them the right way. They cut a block out of the tree to put the head of the jack in,then the power unit is a pretty large unit as well. Its more like a porta power unit. True, a bottle jack will work,but,like mentioned could end up causing some problems with the hinge wood. I think i'd stick with a good rope or cable, you could end up with a tree on your head. Just a suggestion.

 

This thread is useless without pics:


The op is talking about a simple timber jack. This one is sold by Norwood for just South of 500:

TimberTool™ Tree-Felling Jack

 

I must be doing the tree falling wrong.

 

I do owe the original poster, as well as the forum an apology. I incorrectly thought the person was referring to a felling lever, and not a felling jack, as he said.

I have never used one.