Bucket Takedown

My sister had two locust trees that were over 20" that she wanted to take down. They were tall enough that if they fell wrong they would have hit her garage or house. I told her that if she would rent a bucket lift that I'd cut them down for her. This was my first time doing this.

Two black locusts. The one on the left is dead. They are taller than they look.

<a href="http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/?action=view&current=IMG_0245.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/IMG_0245.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Here's the 42' bucket lift.
<a href="http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/?action=view&current=IMG_0246.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/IMG_0246.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

I worked on the live one first.

<a href="http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/?action=view&current=IMG_0249.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/IMG_0249.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Taking the top out of the dead tree.

<a href="http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/?action=view&current=IMG_0273.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/IMG_0273.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

The two locust trees whittled down to size ready to put on the ground.

<a href="http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/?action=view&current=IMG_0276.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff93/danrclem/IMG_0276.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

nice job, man.

nice using a bucket...eh?

Oh yeah, livin the good life up there! Just up the road from me they took two down this summer with a 100' crane. For the price of lunch, I wound up with all the logs & tops they couldn't chip.

How was the pucker factor for you?

It's always nice dropping a tree top down, clean cuts.

wdchuck said:

How was the pucker factor for you?

It's always nice dropping a tree top down, clean cuts.

Click to expand...

The pucker factor was kicking in for a little while but it didn't take long for it to settle down. A few stains in the underwear but not too bad. The bucket had a lot of sway (at least it seemed like it to me) everytime I moved the lift.

I would recommend it for any semi-difficult takedowns. If it had been near any powerlines or right on the house I wouldn't have done it. I had the harness on and hooked off just in case of the unexpected.

I did this with the Wild Thing that I gave my sons. I bought a Makita dcs401 awhile back but it is in the shop.