Nasty pine bid

BOOM!!

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Wow Ive seen the video of Gerry doing that dead pine but it still amazes me how calm his voice is as he does it. When Im in sketchy ones like that I wanna get it done quick and start shouting orders like an A hole.... Ask Carl..
 
I am actually more relaxed tied in twice or on a high line. I pretty much figure if it goes wrong.. I am above what did and can cut away if I have to bail.
But I know what ya sayin Paul..

I think that video is my favorite of Gerry's thus far.
 
I said no to a large fir tree back in Cali like that. It was felled in the end and did whatever damage it was going to do. I can't see any safe way to do that short of falling it.
 
Yes indeed, he gets up a crap ball tree and the ground crew's IQ drops so low it's amazing we could remember to breathe!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #34
Jay, that tree probably weighs in at 20k pounds, you could pick it at the half way mark without flipping but would it break? Where would you lay it if the crane had room to swing? As it were being layed down, would it stay together?
 
Willie, you need to take the head off of a harvester and reengineer it to be a climbing robot. Wheels squeeze the trunk and the machine climbs the pole, limbing as it goes up, chunking as it comes down. 150' of hydraulic lines trailing from it might be hindrance though.

Or use a big shot to set a line in the top, then use the line to pull explosives to a desired height and then BLAMMO!

Or if explosives are too expensive and dangerous, raise a basket containing a voracious beaver up to that height and pull a second line to open the basket up then BLAMMO!
 
If there are trees that can be used to support a highline or multiple attachment points, would they get you high enough to cut the top without damaging any of the targets? If you've got room for say an 80' top, you don't need much for tie-in trees to get you up high enough.

Otherwise, I'd set a line and pull test it to see how it moves. Maybe you'd get away with just two tensioned guys behind the lean in a V and be able to climb it and top it out.

Good luck with it.
 
Cheap explosives: http://www.weblowshituplegally.com/

Add a rifle,

Results:
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If you don't mind loosing a couple of throw lines it'd be easy to set the explosives.
Just sayin............................
 
Willie's tree is a lot like the one Burham posted pics of the other day! I couldn't tell if there were other trees a guy could tie into though.
 
I'd bid it for the crane then try to get it down as per Gord's recommnedations above.. the pull test could tell you a lot.. We don't have 160'ers back east. Based on your thoughts that you just need more line to back guy it, I assume you are confident that you can get the guy line(s) set from the ground... Are you choking or running the guy line up and over. I keep all my retired lines around for just such occasions as the guy line doesn't need to hold that much weight. In any case buying more line sounds a lot cheaper than renting a crane.

I wouldn't be too concerned about defects between the guy and the ground.. just defects above the guy line if you need to get above it to take the top out. Seems like the only real danger is the tree failing at the base, though you'd have to be very familiar with the way a dead tree of that species acts to know for sure. Generally there is a tendency to overestimate the danger in climbing a tree like that if there is only the added force of one man going up the tree, and whatever force gets generated when the top blows. But again it does depend on how that particular species acts. There are plenty of stories of trees like that going over on their own.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #40
I would probably set lines as I climbed. They would have to be choked. the hardest thing about guying is it has a compound lean. May all be fo naught as we have had some serious wind all night!
 
Thanks for elaborating on the possible crane use as you see it Willie. As you say, crane laying down a tree through other trees, if that is your only option, can really mess the tree about with a lot of force on it. Healthy trees can take the beating no problem, but rotten ones are very different. Very interesting thread....
 
I'd try to get at least one line set with the big shot, and use that same line for the pull test. If the tree is still standing after the wind, that should make you feel a bit better about climbing it. The higher you take the top off, the less force either pull or push back you'll be creating.. Sounds like you should be more concerned with the top pulling becasue of the lean of the tree.. I'd use an extremely narrow humboldt with a plunged back cut, leaving a thin hinge, then center bore the hinge and use very little stump shot .5-1" max, unless you are concerned that the top will hang up on another tree enough to push that butt back into your lap. In that case you'd need more stump shot, especially if you were taking out a large top, where it could have enough force to break that weak hinge.

The narrow, center bored, hinge with minimal stump shot will help the hinge to fail before the lean of the top has a chance to pull much forward on the hinge, by making the hinge very weak, so it fails with minimal force. And the narrow notch will have the top seperate before the top gets much lean out in front of the tree, again minimizing pull forward. The only issue with the narrow notch would be again if the top hangs up and then comes back at the cimber after the butt pendulums durig the drop. Then you have to go with a little wider notch.

If you only had to go up less than half way, it would be fun to back guy the top, then set an exra strong fused hinge with a step cut, tie another guy line just below the notch and back cut, then come down and use the line below the hinge as the back guy, and the higher line as a pull line.. Its like a game of chess, makes you really think how to get this thing down the safest, fastest easiest way. I love trees like that..
 
I'll put a hundred bucks toward flying Murph out to help you on this one Willie. I was saving that hundred to buy you the best Idaho beaver I could find and send that over but now I think Murphy could do you better than any furry old beaver I could find you.
 
YA I'd use that secret cut I used on that dead ash.... works great on front leaners... but you'd have to pay me a little extra if you wanted to watch :)

works much better than dynamite!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #46
I could lend you a long enough rope and a figure 8 like your other west coast trip:D
 
Every time Darin says that I am picturing willie, with a Idaho girl, in the tool shed and murph outside making one of his "special" cuts.
 
sotc said:
I could lend you a long enough rope and a figure 8 like your other west coast trip:D
Click to expand...

Good memory.. those guys were stoned out of their minds.. my old HS buddy ended up getting robbed by some hoods from LA he had been doing business with, cause the market got flooded up north.. the guy duct taped him to a chair and took everything he owned, while his 20 year old daughter was sleeping upstairs.. he went to the cops and later found out that the same team tried a similar home invasion and two of them got shot, one died.. I don't like associating with druggies.. I've been clean since 85 and sober since 91..

My buddy got clean in the late 80s and early 90s. then slipped. they say if you go back you're gonna die... he's lucky to be alive as there was a suicide attempt in the mix a few years back as well.. last I heard he went straight again, but had to do 30 days for DUI..
 
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