I have two maples in my yard that I've been needing to drop. The worse of the two came down today. Had a very rotten base and I was worried about it coming down on its own. So today I put it on the ground. I knew it had a chance of kicking to the side but it wouldn't reach the neighbors house so not a big deal if it did. After setting a high notch to miss the bad spot I did a plunge cut and set the hinge then out two wedges in before cutting the holding wood in the back. Problem though was the wood under the hinge on one side let loose and threw a chunk from the right side of the hinge about 15'. Tree went to the left. It still landed ok. It had the weight going in the right direction so I knew it wouldn't come back but didn't really want it to go left. In the end it ended up on the ground, nothing hurt or destroyed. Just closer to the neighbors then I wanted it to go. I got the main trunk cut into logs and moved all of those and the big branches down to the cutting area so I can work on getting them bucked up.
Edit the first title said "dropped a rotten one today" Got that changed, geez these people and where their minds go
Looks like you were able to get into a little more cuttin' n chopin' after all Sean. No more withdrawl from having all of your splits done and stacked, huh? Good to get those "ify" trees down...
Wow, that sure was rotten. Glad it made it to the ground without taking out anything important on the way. Any time that happens, is a success in my book
Good job Sean, shoulda called! I woulda helped! I had a dead maple right out front of the house that I took down two years ago, main trunk was dead and had a huge branch over the roof. Should have topped it, but didn't have any gear and put it on the ground before mother nature put it on the house. The other one out front needs to come down too but its the last tree I have our front
Nice drop Gonna get some good wood out of it ? Looks like you have a few more to work over too. Have fun Be safe !
Really good drop! With all that rot it sure could have gone bad. Still looks like you may get a fair amount though.
Trees rotted at the bottom like that can be tricky. I have done a few but nothing that big. I say good job with using the plunge cut and you got it down safely.
Good job taking that thing down. Even before seeing the insides, that tree looked like a trickster. Myself, I woulda called on a pro to drop it. A man's gotta know his limitations - applies to me for that weak of a tree.
Thanks Stang, I got another that I need to bring down and I'm trying to decide if I want to top it or not. In the last pic of the OP it two trees to the left of the one I dropped. There's still quite a bit of good wood in it. I'll be giving most of it to a friend that bought a house this year with oil heat. He doesn't have a stove but will soon.
Some really weird growth in that tree Sean. Looks like there are a couple more, or is that some ice/wind damage up top?
The next two over need to come down too. The first and shorter one will be easy. The next one I'm still looking at, I can't decide between climbing and piecing it down and dropping as one piece. Its dead though so I don't know if it's hollow or not. The other two that were dropped there were hollow so it could easily be hollow.
