Falling trees against natural lean

[fearofpavement]

Douglas Firs typically rot from the outside in. Rarely would you find a tree that was not solid in the middle, even if the outside is a little soft. The concern about the tree being 'dead' is really not a concern in a DF, and in fact, most firewood trees I drop are standing dead Firs.

So not like this you're saying?

 

[Nitehawk55]

Get a lot of hard maple up where my youngest son lives with rot in the middle , I do a plunge most times now just to see what we're dealing with and how bad .

 

[MustangMike]

I have dropped a few hollow ones, sometime on a rock ledge with no place to run! They are never fun! I think if you tried to plunge cut these, your saw would have gone with the tree. Surprisingly, both Oaks above these rotted stumps were pretty tall, leaning a bit, and heavy! Scared the crap out of me dropping them, but I had to, the guy has 3 young kids, and I knew these could come down in his back yard any time. Got some good firewood out of the upper solid part.

 

[skippy]

Be safe ... If it seems you are in over your head ... Most likely you are . .. I usually use the truck a block and a3/4 bullrope ...
They follow the rope .

 

[MustangMike]

I knew which way the tops were going, so a rope would not have made any difference, the danger was in what the bottoms would do. I was as careful as I could be, and it went well.

The biggest danger would have been not to carefully assess what you were dealing with before proceeding, but I did. For example, I did not mention it, but there was a leaner against the tree that was hard to see that was removed first.

 

[skippy]

Most importantly make sure Numéro uno comes out of the woods ... Period.

 

[stihl saws]

I see lots of pines with hollowed out centers. Ant's are bad for that.

 

[Deets066]

It's better when they go over by themselves

 

[MustangMike]

If they fall clean. As I previously mentioned, the house where I dropped those trees has young Triplets. Leaving them was (IMO) not an option.

 

[Adirondackstihl]

You did right IMO @MustangMike

 

[junkman]

If they fall clean. As I previously mentioned, the house where I dropped those trees has young Triplets. Leaving them was (IMO) not an option.

Good idea to take the young triplets out of the house before you dropped the tree on it ,good call .

 

[Al Smith]

I can get them to turn about 90 degrees from the lean--most of the time.Up hill,well I'd have to find a hill first ,this is flat country,I mean flat like a pan cake .

 

[VinceGU05]

drill a hole thru the centre big enough for a 3 sticks of TNT and blow the farker over.. no fear of tree coming down on top of you then.as ya 1/2 a mile down the road.

 

[MustangMike]

So, you think I'd look good in pin stripes???

 

[redoakneck]

drill a hole thru the centre big enough for a 3 sticks of TNT and blow the farker over.. no fear of tree coming down on top of you then.as ya 1/2 a mile down the road.

Where can one acquire said TNT sticks???

Seen tannerite take a few down, not real good for urban areas.

 

[VinceGU05]

Where can one acquire said TNT sticks???

Myth busters [emoji1360]

 

[MustangMike]

Just use good old Black Powder, I seen it on Alaska The Last Frontier!

 

[jakethesnake]

Good ol black powder is very very good explosive if you can compress it a tad

 

[Blackgreyhounds]

1) Gravity is a law and it's goes up with the first power of the mass(weight) and height of the tree

(m1 = mass of the earth,m2 = mass of the tree, r=height of center of mass of the tree)!
2) Try to drop your trees in the direction gravity wants to go, or MAYBE a little off of that.
3) Dropping a tree other than a little off of it's natural path is for experts only... double black diamond territory. Usually, this requires climbing the tree and taking it down in small billets.
4) First priority is to come home safely. Firewood is a DISTANT second place.
5) The higher up you can get rigging lines, the more influence they will have on the fall of the tree (if any!)

 

[MustangMike]

Good post, but I would also point out that tension (and momentum) is your friend. I don't care what kind of stuff you have, if the tree starts going the wrong way, it is likely to break your stuff. So if you need to tie it, keep tension on it, and keep momentum in your corner! (Which is why I like using a rope winch).

Not usually for woods trees, but near houses, power lines, & roads I like to tie them. You just can't trust the wind.