Rope suggestions and help

[Rat Rod Mac]

This is probably the strangest question ever posted on there, but here goes. I need a rope. One that I can tie up on a tree before I cut it to help pull it in the direction I want it to go. By fastening it to the draw bar and putting some tension on it. So what kind of material should the rope be made of, nylon, polypropelene, etc, etc. And another thing, what size diameter should it be for this application? 1/2" or 5/8" or 3/4" ??? I'm thinking about 150' should do it. Any suggestions. RRM

 

[Ed of all trades]

If you can tie the rope up high in the tree it takes a lot less pull than you think. You have leverage. What size tree is it, 150 year old oak and a 10 year old oak are 2 different things. Pulling to hard can splinter a tree and cause it to kick back toward the cutter.

 

[IslandTractor]

An average CUT tractor draw bar can probably pull about 2000 lbs before the machine looses traction. Probably 1500 or less if the rope angle is more than 15-20 degrees. I would choose a rope with about 2000 lb working strength as a rough estimate. Three strand twisted nylon is usually the best strength to cost. 5/8th or 3/4" would do. I'd use 5/8 and just put reasonable tension rather than pulling until the tractor lost traction. The leverage of having the rope high in the tree needs to be balanced against the upward pull that diminishes traction.

If you know your tractor motor torque and drive gear reduction and wheel size you can calculate straight line drawbar pull. HowStuffWorks "Calculating Drawbar Pull". This doesn't take traction into account though and the upward pull of the line to the tree would affect that.

This link shows very conservative working load limits. You wouldn't have any shock loads like a boat mooring line or anchor line so could reasonably exceed these by 25-50% without much worry. Rope Safe Working Load - BoatSafe.com

 

[SirReal63]

We just did this last weekend, I used 1/4" x 100' steel cable, I bought two but only needed one. It was only $37 each at Home Depot and is much safer than rope. It has a loop on one end and the other is loose, I put a chain hook on the other end.

I attached the cable (wire rope) about 20' up and attached the other end to the 4wd. I cut my hinge and as I was finishing the back cut we tensioned it and as the cut was near finished amd the tree the truck pulled it the rest of the way. It took a coordinated effort but was otherwise very easy. This old dead Oak was about 20" in diameter at the cut. It worked as it was supposed to.

 

[CobyRupert]

Be advised, as others mentioned, when you start pulling on a tree, your putting force into the trunk that makes the trunk want to barberchair. So: 1) Don't pull too hard. 2) For the back cut, consider making a plunge cut behind the hinge and cutting away from the hinge to the holding strap. 3) Consider wrapping a chain around the trunk just above where you're cutting so that if it does start to barberchair, the chain holds it together.

 

[oosik]

I had a MIGHTY ponderosa pine -36 inches on the butt - that I was going to do that trick on. The more I thought about it - the more it worried me. Fear of pulling the tree over on my new tractor, etc etc. Its only me out here so I try to be fairly careful about the more crazy things I do. I ended up tying my small Stihl around my waist, on a rope, and slowly climbing the tree. The tree was 85-90 feet tall. I fell it in chunks - from the top down. Getting the top 20 or so feet was the most difficult.

Anyhow - when pulling with the drawbar I have 50 feet of 1.25 diameter braided nylon rope. Its extremely flexible, provides a nice amount of tension simply by stretching and due to its diameter is easy to undue the knot when the job is finished.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I don't have any trees more than 60-70 feet high with most being 50 or less so I don't need 150 feet of whatever material. I have the chains that I use for trailer tie down and a 20 foot nylon tow strap + a chain from my BIL for 80 feet total. I usually put the tow strap on the tree because it is so light compared to a 3/8 chain. 20 feet high is plenty for encouraging a tree to go where you want it.
Don't pull to hard or you may snap the tree in half. We did that with a pine that had hung up in neighboring tree branches, kept pulling harder and harder to try to dislodge it and finally the pine broke at the strap tie point. We didn't pull it out of the branches but the break dislodged it and it came down so mission accomplished.

It would have been a very different story though if I had been chain sawing on the tree when it broke, I might not have been here to type these words if that had happened.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Also rather than plunge cut, try using some plastic wedges behind the cut to force the tree where you want it, then no ropes are needed unless it is a hard leaning tree and you want it to go backward from the lean. Wedging is best using a second person to keep pounding them in so they are tight all the time while the other person continuously cuts.

In case of leaning trees, make sure you have enough power and weight with the pulling machine to force the tree to go where you want it. It could end up with the puller turned into the pull-ee. That might be a wild ride being pulled backward while hooked onto a falling tree.

 

[IslandTractor]

In case of leaning trees, make sure you have enough power and weight with the pulling machine to force the tree to go where you want it. It could end up with the puller turned into the pull-ee. That might be a wild ride being pulled backward while hooked onto a falling tree.

+1

On reading your admonition, the scene at the end of Dr Strangelove when Slim Pickens is riding the bomb and waving his cowboy hat popped immediately to mind.

 

[Baby Grand]

1) Double braid polyester is good rope - low stretch, UV resistant & very strong. It's also good knot tying rope.
5/8 diameter serves me well with a 6000 lb tractor. The Dynema/PTFE rope ($$$) is supposed to be the cat's whiskers, but I have yet to get my hands on any.

2) Add ballast as needed to generate greater traction/pulling force.

3) Use a snatch block to redirect the load direction away from your body and to pull the rear axle down instead of up.

4) Pull from the axle mounted drawbar and drive directly away from the snatch block to avoid putting side/tipping loads on your tractor. Make sure you have a clear, safe path in that direction before you start the pull.

5) +2 Yeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaw!