Hard leaning Alder felling

[woodslinger]

My concern on hinges is how far they flex before they let go. Therefore I usually set a high pull line, and usually angle it 45 deg off the lay, opposed to the lean (the deg is not my main concern, I just find a bomber anchor in that general direction). Head leaners are really the only trees I don't pull. My other concern wedging a tree, especially a back leaner, is the upward force on the hinge before it comes over center. I am quite afraid of the sudden snap of a failed hinge and a free falling trunk, so I don't do it. When I find one in the woods that I can experiment with (with no consequences) I'll tinker with it, none of the trees I need to thin out of my woods are large enough.

Good tip on the broken off wedge.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

experiment with spars once they are too short to hit anything, in the meantime.

I can understand the concern, but they're more elastic than you think, species specific, though. Learn to ID each tree, then catalogue the experience in your mind. Ask about species specifics. Mostly, to start find out what's brittle. Don't trust cottonwood.

 

[woodslinger]

Are cottonwood and poplar the same? or just similar?
On that ash job the other weekend, it took a few minutes to figure out that what the HO referred to as Tulip, is known to me as a poplar.

I like the shorter spar idea. I'm gonna have to start writing this stuff down.

 

[sotc]

And now there are thousands of hikers hopelessly lost in the wild Pacific Nortwest

Worse, snowmobilers and cross country skiers are what those signs are for!

Are cottonwood and poplar the same? or just similar?
On that ash job the other weekend, it took a few minutes to figure out that what the HO referred to as Tulip, is known to me as a poplar.

I like the shorter spar idea. I'm gonna have to start writing this stuff down.

 

[murphy4trees]

Choco pants that day fo sho.

I was doing the job as a sub.... the guy that hired me was running my phone camera... funny.... you could hear him talking to his buddy as I was finishing the back cut, "I don't like this, that's not the way I do tree work, he should take all that wight off the back side first, Real worried tone to his voice... then after the fall, he announces with pride "that's the way we do it!"

 

[cory]

 

[pantheraba]

hahahaha...you gotta know when to take credit!!!

 

[murphy4trees]

just found the vid and uploaded ion youtube.. pretty funny...
60 seconds.. you can just see for a second the bucket truck used as a ground anchor and the chip truck doing the pulling...

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A2eFuIEXtQs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[woodworkingboy]

Wow, almost clipped the truck.

Taking credit is amateurish. Cool guys use the it's nothing special approach.

 

[cory]

I'd be worried about door dings in the bucket from all that flying dead stuff.

Nice cut.

 

[Climbhigh]

Looks like it went pretty well to me. Ever have a pull line break or have one fall were it wasn't supposed to ? Bring on the Blooper vids !

 

[murphy4trees]

I'd be worried about door dings in the bucket from all that flying dead stuff.

Or wiping out the boom with a direct hit eh?

No way to tell from vid or photo, but that tree had a LOT of back and SIDE lean... I pulled the bucket truck that far forward to adjust the angle of the pull line to help fight the side lean. August calls them compensation pulls and I think that's a good term for it. That said I never expected the side limb on the oak to come from left to right and splash so close to the truck.. Seemed like it was going to end up in the grass... Cone was the target. It just had a funny shape, came down hard and looked like it ricocheted off itself . I've watched the vid a coupe dozen times and still not exactly sure what precisely happened.. That's a job where using wedges to back up the pull lines provided a lot of comfort, as did the fat hinge which was center plunged.. Have pics of the cut on facebook.

 

[Mick!]

Nice falling.
I guess the guy was a little nervous, lot of jeopardy there. Can't blame him for a bit of jibber-jabber.

 

[murphy4trees]

<div id="fb-root"></div><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/DanielMurphyTreePro/posts/1615847691981506" data-width="500"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/DanielMurphyTreePro/posts/1615847691981506"><p>Two days ago took down a big dying pin oak. This giant had a lot of back lean and side weight. We used a doubled line...</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DanielMurphyTreePro">Daniel Murphy</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DanielMurphyTreePro/posts/1615847691981506">Friday, April 24, 2015</a></blockquote></div></div>

 

[cory]

Side lean coupled with back lean can be pretty scary if there is a target for the side lean. In the cell phone vid, were there targets to the side?

 

[murphy4trees]

Looks like it went pretty well to me. Ever have a pull line break or have one fall were it wasn't supposed to ? Bring on the Blooper vids !

Sure.. I've broken a couple pull lines and rolled big ash lead off the roof of a brand new house... That was on a twin lead ash with the bigger heavier lead leaning out towards the street primaries... I was trying to take them both together, but when the street side started to move first, I cut a little more off the hinge, accidentally taking out the corner of the hinge on the remaining side, which was just enough to through it 10º off the lay and scratch up the shingles and the gutter.. Cost me $650 in repairs, which were finished the next day. Funny thing is the customer referred me over 10,000 in work.. Valuable lesson... when you take care of any issues, mistakes etc promptly, the clients actually appreciate that more than no mistakes in the first place. There were a few other lessons to learn.. I should have never tried to take both leads together.. and there was no need to trim the hinge.. should have just left it as it was and pulled the big one over first. And I panicked in a way. Should have given it more thought when the first lead started to move. That's the only major blooper I got... Guess I got lucky a few times a long the way.. Had a big tulip top explode when it hit the ground and sent a fat chunk right through the siding.. Siding was wood and the whole corner of the house was getting rebuilt from a storm damaged tree, so the room was already stripped down to the studs.. Contractor only tacked on an extra $100 to fix the hole...

 

[murphy4trees]

Side lean coupled with back lean can be pretty scary if there is a target for the side lean. In the cell phone vid, were there targets to the side?

Only the house... pretty sure there was a small bridge or a fence there too.. wasn't going to hit the house with two lines in it, but we needed to have a good angle for the pull lines, so we pulled the bucket much closer than I would normally like.

 

[treebilly]

Daniel, why did you not strip off the side or back weight on that dying/dead oak? All went well enough but why take the extra risk? It couldn't have added that much time to the job. Why take anything off if you're gonna leave the wieght to the wrong side?

 

[murphy4trees]

I would have taken more side weight if it was going to be quick and easy. tree didn't look that big on video , BUT IT WAS! That big lead out the back was actually out of reach from the bucket. Maybe I could have re-positioned and got it down, but I was working on a flat rate, and the guy low balled me... And I trust my falling skills... Think I would have had to re-position to the lawn, which would have been a hassle. And there was a medium maple right under that back lead, making it impossible to rig off in big pieces...

 

[murphy4trees]

another perspective

Had to take the right and top out to clear the street and bucket

 

[murphy4trees]

Looks like a clean notch right???

 

[murphy4trees]

until you look a little closer... had to clean it up


I had a little bypass, like that on the corner of the hinge, throw the fall off by 45º on a similar sized chestnut oak once... that was scary... monster spar landed right between a shed and a big beautiful dogwood.... Got lucky on that one too come to think of it...