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! They got that far along useing the ladder, they must know what they are doing! And they are using good technique by having two hands on the saw!
 
Seen knobheads do this many times on YT. They think they can jump clear at the last moment. Unsurprisingly many of them get hurt, sometimes they just manage it and think they are god's gift to tree falling.
 
So long as that line is tensioned properly that fellow should be able to cut up to the hinge. Then pull the saw out of the cut, step down the ladder, put the saw away, move the ladder to a safe area, and then signal to pull the stub.

Ha, I've done like that at least a few times.

But, if said line is not tensioned enough, or tensioned too much, or the fellow cuts through the hinge there could be problems either way.

Even if done according to proper procedure there's a number other things that could possibly go wrong: the line or the knot could fail, if not set right, or there could be a nitwit on the other end pulling the tree. And that could open another can of worms altogether.

There must be a hundred different videos of the same scenario at youtube, and most of them end in some kind of screw up.

and sometimes people get hurt, bad.
 
How else would I learn how “not” to do things if everyone else didn’t post the failures and dangers online for entertainment. As a matter of fact. I think I’m gonna watch some failure entertainment now to ensure my tree job tomorrow is a success 😝
 
It was pretty much standard procedure for me to make all my cuts on fat trunk picks with a crane, except my finish cut's final few inches, before untying from the crane and relying on only a lanyard n climbing line below the cut..

From the ground it might be misconstrued as tryin to commit suicide.

I take full advantage of the mobility of a high TIP for as long as I safely can.

Jomo
 
I pulled over a back leaning ash spar once looked not too far leaned, medium to largish. Reality set in when with either a 2 or 4 to 1 it wouldn't budge. Ended up sweating the line and (tiny) progress capturing on the bounce. Gotta have a lot of faith holding up a spar with a rope. :) Forces can be a lot bigger than they look at first blush.
 
If you think this could be near the limit of your system's possibilities, but you are confident enough to try it, it's better to still take the time for a plan B or an upgrade before hand, just in case. Messing around a tree almost cut in a "what do we do now" situation isn't particularly fun and secure.
That almost got me three weeks ago. It was a hard leaning black locust with all her limbs on the lean's side, near the neighbour's property. That's a lot of weight on the wrong side. I climbed to ty my bull rope with the 3400 lbs rope comealong. That should do it. I pulled the rope tight, made my notch and back cut with two wedges.. After setting the hinge, the maul just bounced on the wedges. I worked hard on the comealong, giving all I can on the handle. The comealong was maxed out but the tree didn't want to surrender. To late to put a 2/1MA in the system. Luckily, my efforts eased a bit the things at the stump and I was abble to push the wedges a tad further. In return, that allowed some progress on the comealong. Alterning pounding and pulling I finally won the battle and layed down the tree in the intended area.
Glad it went well, but knowing that it was close, I should have climbed with a block to set directly a 2/1MA.

That's a lot of unexpected work due to being lazy.
 
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Yea, wind kinda picked up in the wrong direction. Ended up running back and forth from the anchor to the truck with more stuff putting more mechanical advantage onto other MA then running back to cut a wee bit more. It was a bit exhausting. Put it where I wanted to though, no harm done. Pulling too hard with MA on these EAB dead ash can be bad too.
 
Had lower foliage this past growing season mostly epicormic on the lower 2/3 of it. Tops were dead.
Seemed pretty sound, bark still holding on pretty well, but this stuff can barber chair when alive and well if one pulls hard enough.
 
Had an uh oh a while back. Never saw the rivets from my saw chain stamp their pattern into the wood before, kinda neat.
All turned out fine in the end, glad I carry a ridiculous amount of pulleys, biners, rope, and prusiks.
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center plunge on the backleaners helps some... you still have to get the backweight to move... I always wondered if the force needed to break the hinge was added to the backweight or are they multiplied? Either way, the center plunge seems to help a ton.

Back in the day I got stuck pulling by hand with 2 pull lines on a huge backleaning oak. HAD to go across the street to a construction site and ask the men to come help out. we wratched back from. one line to the other 4 or 5 times... nail-biter
 
Needless to say and everyone already knows this, but you set up your anti-backwards falling hold system separately from your pulling system so you can adjust, rejig etc your pulling without losing your safety hold. :)


It can be arranged on the same line with judicious use of progress capturing. Doesn't have to be two lines.

Force to bend-break the hinge is just added in, but the stresses in the hinge takes a bit more brain scratching. I took a stab at that somewhere before and it generated as much interest as a wet rag.
 
@Jonny do you ever do the back cut first? Cut the back first, pound wedges to stand the tree up, cut the face cut pound her over. It helps against having the tree sit back on your bar when you go to cut the back cut because the wood where the face cut is going holds the tree in place for the time being.
 
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