Tree felling vids

[woodworkingboy]

Different approaches for sure and not meant as a criticism, but why not get it leaning over farther in the desired direction before completing your cut and relying on a small hinge and the final pull? Is there an advantage in pretty much only holding it until the final go?

 

[treebilly]

Tensioning to much to early can cause the hinge to break in an undesirable fashion. BC being one of the effects. To thick of hinge can also break unevenly causing the tree to miss the lay.

 

[cory]

Agreed. Often, just holding it while getting the hinge just right and then a fast pull to avoid it breaking off sideways is the best way, imo.

 

[sotc]

I had him pre load it a bit at first and once during the back cut, it didn't move much so I was afraid I was fighting the hinge so I sawed it to where I wanted it. Turns out he just wasn't pulling as hard as I thought. I had good leverage and the neighbor had cut all the brush off their side. I don't know what's right or wrong there but it's how I do it.

 

[treebilly]

You did it perfectly sir

 

[sotc]

My old boss said "alls well that lands well"

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Nice shot Willie.
You and your guys do great work.

 

[SeanKroll]

Like a Boss.

 

[murphy4trees]

Proof is in the pudding....
more than one way to skin a cat
different strokes for different folks
you say ether , I say ither
a stitch in time saves nine
trees on the ground... what are you complaining about!

Nice to be able to trust your falling skills.. that's my idea of a good time....

we all would have done it different.. just keep doing what works for you

Butch makes a good point... Seems like the small owner operators have more incentive to develop their falling skills to that extent... risk isn't worth the reward for anyone else except loggers

 

[murphy4trees]

I see you used an undercut. Maybe you should have BC'ed it instead "to shorten the fall". lol

got to watch your background... fence was in the way!

 

[flushcut]

Fence! Ahhhh see I am glad you are looking out.

 

[woodworkingboy]

What you use for pulling can dictate approaches as well. With a motorized device I imagine it's a little harder to determine the amount of tension on the line than say with a Tirfor, where how hard it is to move the handle tells how much pull is going. With the Tirfor, the cut a little pull a little method seems like it is easier to do. You pretty much know when you've maxed out your ability to pull whole observing how the tree is responding to it.

 

[sotc]

Yeah, I'd never worked with this guy before, had I run the shovel I'd know by feel, a few trees together with this guy and I'm sure he'd know what I wanted. Either way, we whipped it

 

[woodworkingboy]

It went over gracefully, good job, Willie.

 

[SeanKroll]

Strikes me that you're fighting the wood. A good, properly sized hinge for the tree (enough to hold it until committed to the lay, as much as needed) will hold it. Then you're only pulling as much as needed to tip the tree, not trying to bend a massive hinge.

For most pull-trees, I'll pretension a bit, then stand the tree up on the hinge and wedges, until I'm ready to pull it over. The way the tree moves with that slight pretension as the back-cut progresses tells me things. How the wedges feel and the pounding sounds, as I keep the wedges tight, tells me things.

I like the idea that the hinge/ holding wood fibers are still in their natural state of being, with slight deflection, rather than bending them more and more, relying on a distorted hinge to hold side-lean.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Sean, I guess you could say fighting the wood, or making them come over begrudgingly. The thing is, I'm a paranoid person with much back leaning heavy trees. I don't enjoy it until I see them leaning in the right direction. Seeing that and all is well in the beautiful world.

 

[cory]

Straight back leaning is cake, imo. Back lean with side lean can be a bit scary

 

[SeanKroll]

Tirfor's, with the load-limiting shear pin in the handle, and essentially no-stretch cable, are good tools.

 

[woodworkingboy]

They better be good with how much they rob you for the special solid core cable. They give you extra sheer pins with the device, so I guess people do break them.

 

[Burnham]

A 12k Warn on a full sized 4x4 truck is an order or two of magnitude better, I must say.

 

[sotc]

Little tree like that is well within capacity of the pull rope. Big stuff, I do more like you say Jay. Saw a bit, wedge a bit pull a bit. I like keeping weight on everything sorta equal. Also I feel the change in the pull and the wedge driving and know if I'm winning or losing. Also on a big tree if you saw it up all the way its easy to depend too much on a rope and not really have it backed up tight with wedges in a shtf scenario.

 

[SeanKroll]

They better be good with how much they rob you for the special solid core cable. They give you extra sheer pins with the device, so I guess people do break them.

I've broken one on a big Tirfor, maybe 8 ton or 8K capacity, moving boulders. Beast of a machine to have to take back-country for trail work.

We ripped a healthy 12" tree out of the trail tread like nothing. Slow, and powerful.


You can't take a truck a lot of places. When you can pull a switch instead of manually powering a lever, call it a win.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I'd be curious how wood fibers at a hinge respond to a slow gradual pull compared to a fast jerk. Is one way going to allow the fibers to bend more before they break?

 

[SeanKroll]

You have momentum, coupled with fast deformation. It's the speed and momentum part of the tree, in my mind, not the deformation rate. If it was just to tip the tree a little, then ask it to hold for years, then slow deformation would probably be better, but it's just a matter of hinging until falling for our needs.

Many ways, variables, and situations. If it gets them safely and predictably on the ground, call it a win.

 

[woodworkingboy]

If any parallels can be drawn from bending wood made supple by steaming, a slow even consistent pull around your form seems to give better results from cracking, than doing it by way of a quick jerky motion. Asking the fibers to stretch not tear..... Bending wood that is too dry, the degree of failure is much greater any way you do it.