Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[motownbrowne]

I understand barber chairs fairly well on leaning trees.

I guess I should have clarified not exactly a leaner, but a tree that's hung up in another tree as it falls. So the tree starts to go, and for whatever reason (poor planning, odd twist, misjudgment of mass, pilot error, etc...) the tree falls into another tree and hangs mid-fall. What do you do?

I've had it happen twice in the last 6 years. What I did is probably dangerous, so I'd like a better solution. I ended up cutting a new notch on the top side of the tree, and doing a back cut from the underside, stopping to put a wedge in, then continuing. Basically, I'm felling the tree away from the lean. What happens is the tree buckles towards the hang, snaps the hinge, and drops straight down into the dirt. That decreases the angle of lean, but the tree is now 16" shorter and still hung. I've had to repeat this 5-6 times until the tree ends up vertical in the hang. The last cut section makes it fall away from the hang and down it goes.

Anyhow, this sounds awfully unsafe. However, I have no way to pull the tree bottom away from the lean and drag the tree out the way it probably should be done. I don't think a come along would be strong enough. I don't want to fell the tree that its hanging in, as I'd then have two trees to contend with.

On a couple occasions, I've been able to notch the tree that its hung in, then drop a 3rd tree on that to force it to fall.

Anyhow, other than bringing in a heavy piece of equipment, a winch, or god forbid, just plan better in the first place, what do other folks do that is acceptably safe? Is the only safe alternative a long cable and winch well away from the tree?

Another good option, and something I've taken to doing even felling bigger trees in my dense mature hardwood stand is to set a rope (or wire rope) up high before making any cuts. So far I've just used an extension ladder to put a choker about 25' off the ground, but I'm planning on buying a 5/8" bull rope and a throw line setup. With a throw bag it's pretty easy to put a line well up into a tree using a running bowline knot. The higher you get your line the less pulling power you need. Also, you can add a doubling block if need be. I bet a rope set high like that would allow a small tractor like yours to really help manage a stuck tree from a comfortable distance.

 

[s219]

Thank you very much. Great descriptions. I'm learning a lot more about eyeing up a tree before felling it. My land is hilly, and its sometimes hard to eyeball the lean due to optical illusions. I've taken to standing back farther and using a plumb bob to verify actual lean from several angles VS apparent lean. I'm getting better at it, but I'll never let my guard down.

What I find useful is to carefully study the tree and understand the loads in the wood grain -- what's under tension, what's under compression, where the shear plane is, etc. That trumps everything else and is ultimately responsible for how the wood behaves when cut.

I've seen vertical trees and horizontal trees shear apart and barber chair just because the tree had a load that created the right type of flexure and shear. So it does not have to be leaning (leaning is just a case where gravity creates the shear loads naturally). For example, years ago a friend had put a rope on a tree and pulled on it with a tractor to make sure the tree went in a certain direction. May as well have been leaning over, as he created a perfect barber chair load and the tree split on him as soon as he started the back cut. I told him the mistake was putting tension on the rope before he made the cut. I would have taken up slack in the rope and used wedges to keep from pinching my bar, but not pulled with the tractor until after my back cut was complete. It's OK if the tree wants to sit back a little as long as you're under control, but it's not a good idea to pull on it and create a load before you cut.

There was another case where a big gum tree was leaning against a house, and after cutting up the top limbs from the roof to lighten things up, we used a tractor to pull the tree away from the side of the house up to vertical. Cut a notch on the side away from house, but then did a bore cut through the notch and completed nipping away from the sides for the final back cut. Had we used a regular back cut on that tree, it would have barber chaired and swung the butt right into the house and anyone back there sawing.

 

[MossRoad]

Another good option, and something I've taken to doing even felling bigger trees in my dense mature hardwood stand is to set a rope (or wire rope) up high before making any cuts. So far I've just used an extension ladder to put a choker about 25' off the ground, but I'm planning on buying a 5/8" bull rope and a throw line setup. With a throw bag it's pretty easy to put a line well up into a tree using a running bowline knot. The higher you get your line the less pulling power you need. Also, you can add a doubling block if need be. I bet a rope set high like that would allow a small tractor like yours to really help manage a stuck tree from a comfortable distance.

The latest hang got caught in a pin-oak tree. Soooo many branches. I think a throw-bag would have been useless in that situation. And no ladder in the woods. It's a remote property that we don't live on, about 9 miles from home. I thought about it, though. Getting a rope or cable up there and using a comealong to pull the leaner sideways out of the tree its leaning on. Maybe a couple pulleys for some mechanical advantage. I'll have to think about that. Thanks. :thumbsup: Just have to figure out how to get the rope up high enough to pull the cable up to get some leverage.

 

[Snobdds]

We have a lot of pine trees up at my cabin that were killed due to the pine beetle. I cleared everything within an acre when the trees were still somewhat green and they were easy to drop. Now that I'm working on the trees further out, they have had a chance to dry and split length wise. Each tree is dangerous because after the notch is cut, now you have a split in the tree to contend with while doing the back cut. On every tree I put a HD ratchet strap to keep the tree from splitting while back cutting. It works fantastically and even if the tree barber chairs, the strap keeps it together.

 

[MossRoad]

I have to study up on the different cuts.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Depending on how big and how seriously hung-up a tree is, sometimes a peavey or cant hook can be used to roll/rock it enough to get it to drop. I too frequently have to drop a hanger in sections, though. In awkward locations, I've occasionally had to accordion fell trees up to 8" or so...really big ones are too scary to do that, though!

 

[Otto Syracuse]

Yes, I understand that. I'm all firewood for my personal use. About 90% locust, 8% sassafras, and 2% cherry.

Moss Road, how long do you let your locust dry before burning. I have heard it will take up to 4 years to be ready to burn.

 

[John_Mc]

Depending on how big and how seriously hung-up a tree is, sometimes a peavey or cant hook can be used to roll/rock it enough to get it to drop. I too frequently have to drop a hanger in sections, though. In awkward locations, I've occasionally had to accordion fell trees up to 8" or so...really big ones are too scary to do that, though!

Another of the techniques we did in the GOL level 4 class. If the tree was still attached to the stump, we would cut away most of the hinge, leaving a bit on one edge of the stump. Sometimes this cut alone was enough to let the tree rotate, though often it needed a bit of encouragement - either with a peavey or with a "pole-in-a-hole" (stay clear of the pole when it finally does start swinging). That tab of remaining hinge kept the butt of the tree under control while "persuading" the tree to rotate.

 

[4570Man]

I cut a load of big rounds. Loading them would have been about a hundred times easier if I still had a grapple.

 

[MossRoad]

Moss Road, how long do you let your locust dry before burning. I have heard it will take up to 4 years to be ready to burn.

Year one.
I girdle the locust trees with three passes around the bark. That usually kills them in a year.

Year two I drop them, limb them, drag them to the landing, stack them up like a pile of telephone poles, and as time permits, cut them into 16" lengths. Then I split them and stack them for a year.

Burn them year three.

I suppose I could just drop em, cut em and split them all in one shot, but I'd still let them dry for two years.

One thing neat about locust is you can burn in pretty green and still get pretty decent heat. But it'll soot up your chimney pretty badly.... been there, done that, bought the chimney brushes and learned my lesson. Only dry wood.

Locust is darn dense stuff. My sassafras and cherry fires tend to burn down in about 4-5 hours. The locust will go 11-12 hours.