Rolling vs. swinging

[davidwyby]

Nah. Dry pine is light, even if hard from baked pitch. The trailer is not your run of the mill car trailer. It’s an equipment trailer rated for 12,000 lbs, heavy steel. Been through a lot worse. But yeah a shark gill or big tall hinge and the winch in the truck would be perfect to ease one down. I didn’t know of such things back then. I will use that for sure if I can remember when the opportunity arises.

 

[davidwyby]

Oh, and the limbs are reasonably sized to provide some resistance and stacked strategically like a log cabin with no notches so that they crush and cushion.

 

[SeanKroll]

I dropped onto small criss-crossed logs once. Snapped one in half, helicoptering one piece to the far side of a tile roof, breaking two tiles.
Oops.

 

[davidwyby]

I dropped onto small criss-crossed logs once. Snapped one in half, helicoptering one piece to the far side of a tile roof, breaking two tiles.
Oops.

I thought only I had luck like that

 

[Marc-Antoine]

No, just no. Never do that. It can be an heavy rated trailer, but just look at what happens at the trailer hitch. You see the jolt ? it even shakes the truck. Can you imagine the forces at play here?

 

[davidwyby]

No, just no. Never do that. It can be an heavy rated trailer, but just look at what happens at the trailer hitch. You see the jolt ? it even shakes the truck. Can you imagine the forces at play here?

I’ll defer to y’all on the finer points of tree work, but truck and trailer use and repair is where I make my living. Been doing it my whole life. Do you know what a pintle hitch is or what it’s rated for? That trailer has bounced through the desert and down unimproved roads with big diesel pickup trucks and suburbans on it, that tree is nothing.

 

[davidwyby]

(Different tree, same yard)

 

[davidwyby]

@Marc-Antoine i forgot to mention Big Green was moving cuz one of my guys smoked the parking brake for me, so I have to leave it in gear which has some slop.

 

[Burnham]

It's your trailer, David. Do what you want with it. No judgement from me.

But I'd never do that to any trailer. We all get to decide for ourselves, fortunately.

 

[davidwyby]

You guys are killing me. I guess if I’m here to learn about tree felling I can take the time to teach you about trailers.



This similar log hardly squatted my Dodge. It’s a desert, we’re talking bone dry.
I can shove one end of those try pine logs around by hand. The little 4,000 lb rated forklift doesn’t “feel” them. It does eucalyptus. So what do they weigh, 1,000, 1500 lbs maybe? I’m dropping one end. The front of a diesel pickup weighs 4,000+ lbs.. Now imagine the kinetic/dynamic energy (down force) created when I go through a dip in the highway or freeway. You can watch the suspension and everything compress and rebound inches…and I’ve hauled scrap and such heavier than a pickup. Heck I once stacked two scrap suburbans on it.

Pintle hitches are used by the military and on heavy equipment for their ability to swivel off road and handle abuse. Offhand, it’s probably rated for 10 tons, likely more….dynamic load bouncing down the road.

Most car trailers have around a 4” frame. This one has 4” crossmembers over an 8” frame and a steel deck. It’s basically a backhoe trailer but only has single tires instead of duals. The trailer itself weighs 4,000 lbs, double a std car trailer…or a gooseneck trailer but with a std tongue.

 

[davidwyby]

@SeanKroll I appreciate your attitude and wording.

 

[Burnham]

Like I said, it's totally your call on how you use your equipment. Wouldn't try to change your mind.

I won't change mine on this either, but that's no problem for you or me .

I'm sure you are making a well-considered choice, knowing your gear and the subject completely.

 

[davidwyby]

@Burnham you have a point…I should have included a disclaimer. Don’t try this at home, kids! A green log would surely fold a std car trailer into a taco and earn one a trip to my repair shop. Eek.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Ok, I hear you.
Your trailer weights as much as my van and is way more sturdy than it.
So I will never see such loads like yours. Luckily because a van taco is way harder to drive.

But, just to clarify my view, theory there: the impulse given by a load falling on the frame doesn't belong to the same range as the impulse coming through a road / offroad bump. In the last case, a part comes by the tires and the suspension (hard, but slowed by the dampening) and an other part from the inertia of the truck and trailer+load (hard, not dampened but relatively slow). I speak from the point of view of the hitch here. The log can weights less than your usual iron loads, it moves fast though, the tip even more than a freefall. And the frame takes the hit, not the suspension (at first). Given that the hitch is physically part of the frame, bolted to a long lever arm, that gives even more of a pic load/harsher impulse, like a whip hit, Enougth to endanger your equipment at term? I surely don't know, but what I know is that I personaly wouldn't take the chance.
I'd love to have a load cell to get an actual idea of these phenomenons though.

 

[davidwyby]

I follow you, and I know it could be calculated, but am not nerdy enough to calc it…I assume there are calculators on the ‘net.

The hitch area is double strong because it is a tilt deck…I even thought about unlatching the tilt so it could absorb some, I don’t remember why I opted not to. I think the truck rolling fwd was a result of the base of the tree pushing
Fwd on the back of the trailer, maybe be theory was that would slow it down…now I’m itching for another tree to try more tricks. I think I know of one.

 

[Tree09]

It's hard on the trailer, but with the pad stuff it lowers the force quite a bit. I know guys that do stuff like that with dumpsters, welding rod is cheap and quick when they're making money. Watch a green operator load out hard surface in a dump truck, now that's tough on equipment. Not an ideal practice, but it does save time.

 

[davidwyby]

I was looking at this thread and the videos on my desktop...not all exactly as I remember from a year ago. Both the vids I previously posted were the same tree, different perspective. I never had the trailer up against the tree, I think that was another option I discarded. I did look back on my phone and find the other tree.

Tipping pine onto trailer - YouTube


In the process, I found where another feller did the same trick.


Felling a pine tree onto trailer - YouTube

 

[davidwyby]

At work we have been straightening/reinforcing the bottom crossmembers and rails of 40yd trash containers from people dropping too heavy of objects in them too much...on operators loading the containers improperly.

 

[davidwyby]

Pine tree job....guy almost got himself killed. It was in my neighborhood, and I kept seeing the dead trees and thinking about offering to remove. One day, one tree was half gone, then work stopped. I stopped in and the lady said her BF put himself in the hospital. He had nailed 2x4s to the tree to make a ladder, limbed it, and somehow took himself out of the tree when he topped it. The top was a big nasty piece with big stobs sticking out everywhere. Must not have been his time. I handled the rest and the other tree with the man lift, hour tops.

 

[Tree09]

Or fitters demoing pipe with minimal tools. You would be amazed at the abuse a scrap metal trailer will actually take

 

[Marc-Antoine]

The truck rolling forward actually eats some energy, but what concerned me is the vertical movement.

Murphy posted a vid where he cut a trunk like that. I don't remember if it was a trailer or a flat bed. He rised it at about 45° to lessen the choc (less speed) . But he wasn't far from losing the spar sideway, rolling at the impact.