Congrats Obed!!
Thanks for the kind words and finding that picture of me taking out that tree. I actually looked for something like that in my photo's to show you, but forgot all about that being there in that thread. You must have spent some time here looking up those old threads!!!!! hahaha
You did a fantastic job taking pictures of your project, and how you did it. You picked a good, safe, easy tree to start out with and gained some first hand experience. This thread should be the one everyone goes to when they want to take out thier first tree with a backhoe. For no other reason, than to see your pictures.
I have a few comments, but nothing critical.
When you positioned youreself to start digging, you could have put the backhoe centered on the tree. There is no real advantage to diging the trenches perfectly square. I dig mine more like a "V" from one position.
Though you didn't need to, it will really help with bigger trees to use the teeth of your bucket to cut under the root ball as much as you can reach. Especially on the side that it's going to fall. You just chip away or rub away as much dirt as you can get. If you can still get dirt in your bucket, you should keep removing it. Only when you can't get any more dirt should you stop. This will really help on the larger trees. As you know, small trees don't realy need too much, they go over nice and easy.
When you change directions, I bet you had that feeling that the tree would fall down on you? I did the first time and it's not a very comfortable feeling. But that tree isn't going anyplace, as you know. In fact, I bet you were suprised at how solid it was even after you dug those trenches???
When you push it over, sometimes the distance you are from it will make a difference, and as you learned, also where on the tree you push makes a difference. If you can't get it to go over, and this will happen with bigger trees, then you will have to dig trenches on either side of the tree. Again, I dig them from one location in the shape of a "V"
You don't have to go as deep in most cases and after I cut through the surface roots, I try to push again. If it still doesnt' go, get as close to the tree as you can, and try to undercut the root ball with the teeth of your bucket. You will have to dig under the root ball and then along the sides back towards yourself. With really big trees with massive tap roots, this means taking out ALLOT of dirt. I don't advise this with our machine, but wanted you to know what to expect in the worse cases.
When you push the tree, you can also turn it with your hoe stick. I don't know how much power you have going from side to side, but it doesn't take allot when the tree is starting to lean over.
As you found out, once it gets so far over, the weight of the tree does the work.
Another thing to try is to roll the root ball with the bucket by lifting on the oposite side you want it to go and roll the entire tree over.
There are all sorts of little things that you'll pick up on and do that just come from knowing your machine and doing it a few times. From what I saw in the pictures and your comments, I believe you to be a very competent operator that has a very good understanding of what to do and how to take out trees.
One big bonus that I'm sure you, and everyone eles who's been following this thread must have noticed, is how easily you got that root ball out. If you had cut the tree down with the chainsaw, you would still have to dig up the root ball, and it would have been twice the work without the tree still attached to it. Bigger hole, more time and effort, then more work to fill the much larger hole back up again. This way you got it down in one easy step.
Thank you for taking the time to post those pictures and your comments,
Eddie
