BeyondWedging; Dropping a Heavily Backweighted Tree

We're revisiting the pin oak where we watched Jason cut out the heart of the tree. This big tree was on the edge of the timber, and it had some heavy limbs reaching out toward the light. It would have been easy to drop in the field next to the timber, but that would not have pleased the farmer. Jason aimed it into the woods, and pounded in a wedge as part of his setup. In this video we pick up the story as Jason cuts the tree loose. It sits down FIRMLY on the wedge. It's obvious there is more backweight than can be overcome with a wedge and a sledge.

Jason's partner Roger backed up to the tree and attempted to push it over. He made the John Deere grunt pretty well, and then switched to Plan C. He and Jason put a choker around the tree, and ran the skidder out at a 45 degree angle from the hinge. You can hear Roger winching back to the pin oak at this point in the video. He winches himself into a tree (Off Camera), shifts his winch into low, and pulls the pin oak over.

Watch the big limb break over backward and fall back onto the stump. This is a great demonstration of why we want to get away from the stump when we turn a tree loose. The end is repeated a couple times to reinforce the lesson.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Stihl
• chainsaw
• logger
• pin
• oak
• logging
• John
• Deere
• skidder

[petemate390xp]

PPE????

[DavidN23Skidoo]

You can lead a horse to water.... These are independent loggers, and they kind of follow their own rules. They know a lot of good techniques, and are great guys, but they need to make a few changes.

[DavidN23Skidoo]

Cutting more would have severed the hinge, which would have allowed the tree to go in the wrong direction, and with no control. They kept it in the woods without tearing up their equipment, without injuries, and they put it in the slot it was hinged to go in. They could have dropped it in the farmer's field easily, but that not only makes for an unhappy farmer, but also spreads bad will to all the surrounding farmers that this one would talk to.  Happy landowner,no injuries, a good day.

[ticker511]

The skidder would have pushed it over , you just had to saw it a little more. It was lucking that it did't bust off the stump and come over backwards. Then when you used the main line, you should have saw'ed it a little more. the same time he was pulling it. Make it easy, not a job, took way to much time.