bacpacker
12-29-2011, 01:11 AM
Spent the day at my parents, helping my step dad cut a couple of pine trees that he was worried about falling on the house or garage. We cut the first tree after hooking a steel cable up in the tree and pulling it thru a shive and pulling off in a different direction with the tractor. I made the notch cut in the direction we wanted the tree to fall and went to the other side and cut into the tree and it fell right where we planned.
We then got everything set up to cut the second tree and stopped for a break. Dragging a 100' 1/2" steel cable is a PITA. Anyway I cut the notch and started making the final cut to drop it. My dad was keeping the slack out of the cable. While I was cutting the tree started popping so I pulled the saw out and got away from the base. Nothing happening, the tractor was moving downhill, but the ground was wet and leaf covered so we couldn't get enough pressure on the tree to bring it on over. So I got back to sawing and the dam tree settled back on the cut I was working on (away from the notch) . We had enough weight and force against the tree to keep it from falling toward the house, but had no way to pull it the way we wanted it to go other than the tractor and we were in danger of losing that. We did still have about 3" of tree left to cut thru.
We tried everything we could and nothing was working. I had ran out of ideas to try and my step dad ( who usually has an idea for about anything ) admitted he had nothing left either. We ended up calling a tree service to come out and take it down. Which they did after climbing 60-70' feet up and tieing off to it and pulling it in the same direction we wanted to drop it.
Lesson Learned: ANYTIME you are cutting a tree take a very long look at the build of the tree, which direction are the bulkof the limbs are hanging off of, is their any wind blowing and what direction is it blowing from, and in particular where your escape routes are.
I'll freely admit this episode scared the crap out of me today and has given me a much greater respect for planning every step in extreme detail before dropping a tree. Even with perfect planning and cooprative weather there can still be things that go wrong.
We then got everything set up to cut the second tree and stopped for a break. Dragging a 100' 1/2" steel cable is a PITA. Anyway I cut the notch and started making the final cut to drop it. My dad was keeping the slack out of the cable. While I was cutting the tree started popping so I pulled the saw out and got away from the base. Nothing happening, the tractor was moving downhill, but the ground was wet and leaf covered so we couldn't get enough pressure on the tree to bring it on over. So I got back to sawing and the dam tree settled back on the cut I was working on (away from the notch) . We had enough weight and force against the tree to keep it from falling toward the house, but had no way to pull it the way we wanted it to go other than the tractor and we were in danger of losing that. We did still have about 3" of tree left to cut thru.
We tried everything we could and nothing was working. I had ran out of ideas to try and my step dad ( who usually has an idea for about anything ) admitted he had nothing left either. We ended up calling a tree service to come out and take it down. Which they did after climbing 60-70' feet up and tieing off to it and pulling it in the same direction we wanted to drop it.
Lesson Learned: ANYTIME you are cutting a tree take a very long look at the build of the tree, which direction are the bulkof the limbs are hanging off of, is their any wind blowing and what direction is it blowing from, and in particular where your escape routes are.
I'll freely admit this episode scared the crap out of me today and has given me a much greater respect for planning every step in extreme detail before dropping a tree. Even with perfect planning and cooprative weather there can still be things that go wrong.