homeowner dutchman

[murphy4trees]

You gotta know this guy's wife was giving it to him for this fiasco...

The lower notch is of course the homeowners!!! He aslo has set a couple of lines from a 20' ladder and had onew tied to his car which was spinning wheels... Fortunately the tree was leaning vewry close to the desired direction of fall... Hid face was heading towards a 115' tulip and possibly could have hung the tree... I gunned it as close as possible to the corner of the house to keep it off the tulip and undergrowth...

Good job for a rainy day!

What do you think of my notch and the begining of my backcut?
Should I have made the notch deeper? Or higher? or maybe down below his notch? Or should I have plunged the back cut for a back release? I know why I did what I did, I Am asking to see how you would have handled the situation.. This is an ash tree and I only had an 044 with a 20" bar on the job.

So what do you think happenned when I finished the back cut?

 

[mikecross23]

I don't know but I like the tire iron jammed in there. Is that taught at the Modern school of arboriculture?

 

[Ugly Kid Joe]

Good Save Right Out The Book I Would Have A Pocket Wedge in


the back Just In Case And a Little Higher on the Backcut.

 

[Dadatwins]

Originally posted by murphy4trees


What do you think of my notch and the begining of my backcut?
Should I have made the notch deeper? Or higher? or maybe down below his notch? Or should I have plunged the back cut for a back release? I know why I did what I did, I Am asking to see how you would have handled the situation.. This is an ash tree and I only had an 044 with a 20" bar on the job.

So what do you think happenned when I finished the back cut?

What a mess, thank goodness you showed up when you did, would have been sad when the EMT tried to remove the spinner bar from the homeowners chest after that thing let go.
As for your notch, looks ok, I probably would have gone a little higher on backcut and maybe put some wraps around the trunk in case of barberchair since it was ash and already screwed up. Have to see whole picture to make that call. 044 with 20" plenty of saw for that job. As to end result, tree fell and contents of homeowners toolbox was laying on the ground.

 

[Newfie]

Originally posted by netree
LMFAO....

I'll hafta get some pics of the stumps Newfie and I saw today. You guys would sh!t.

It was amazing how inconsistent they were other than being scary wrong. City boys w/ chainsaws!

At least I'll probably get a sweet landclearing gig close to home.

 

[NeTree]

I'll hafta take a ride up sometime this weekend with the camera in tow.

Mights as well mention the guy was in the process of creating yet another hanger when we rolled in.

 

[Stumper]

Dan'l, All we can see is the trunk with the notches and backcuts. (And the essential tire iron). Since you were there and could size up the whole situation I'm not too inclined to engage in much second guessing. Since you asked----I would have probably thrown my notch in a little lower than you did. When I started the backcut I'd run till movement began.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

in a situation i walked into like that (without essential tire iron) i placed the face cut back in and wedged from back to tighten/restrict movement front or back. Running a 2"web load binder around both, like to fortify crack.

Then, a good throw, not trying to get it to come down slow, as the control for going slow must put extra strain on weakened trunk.

And get the heck out of Dodge!

Nice one Daniel!
:alien:

 

[murphy4trees]

Here are a few close ups of the notch and back cut:

 

[murphy4trees]

back cut

 

[murphy4trees]

opposite side of the face

 

[MasterBlaster]

Dang!

 

[murphy4trees]

And here it is on after the fall... First thing the homeowner did was come out and check for damage to the corner of the house.. I had used the power pruner from the roof to tip back a few limbs, so the tree could sqeeze into the yard and not get hung in the tulip...

GOOD CALL TREECO!
That is exactly what happenned... The tree began to move and I stayed at the cut just a second or two, to steer it if necessary. I swear it must have moved a good 20-30* before the trunk split...

I had bailed out and was on the escape route, when I heard it split.... but the tree was definitely committed to lay by that time. The split didn't change the direction of fall at all. So that worked out, but I like to rethink a situation like this after the game to see what i can learn, or what i could have done better.

I was confident that the tree wouldn't hang up, but agree that the backcut should have been an inch or more higher as a precaution.. And I wonder if plunging the backcut to set up a thin hinge would have prevented the trunk from splitting. I wasn't comfortable with plunging as I didn't have secure footing. And in retrospect an easy was of making the tree safer would have been to wrap the trunk above the homeowner's notch, to prevent splitting..

It took out a couple of shrubs and left two nice sized stubs on the large tulip, which was expected....

 

[murphy4trees]

Mike,
Check your attitude there brother... The tree was committed to the direction of fall of the top notch before it split... and fell perfectly perpendicular the the top hinge.. That was the point of my previous post... It was close to 45* before it split, though I disn't actually see it split 'cause I was runnin away!

 

[SilverBlue]

Good work Dan, Here's a good one, homeowner killed two rental saws before they called me to cut it up for them.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i think it pivoted low at weakness tree had more leverage over, might have flexed at top to slightly differrent weight carrying to go forward. Hard height/angle fer me to hold on to saw at if tree tried to take it.

When i did my deal, i used a soft plastic wedge pounded in, then cut off about flush before wrapping with binder strap; then i think i cut below; was quite a while ago. i'm not really sure on where it was on the graph of just how much of another man's mistake ya wanna take on; and mighta shouda walked on that one. Though it went ok; i wuz way over my head!

Rob, that is a classic; had to steal it!

:angel:

 

[geofore]

Ash

I said it before and will repeat myself, ASH trees are prone to barberchair, unlike Mike, I would have told you to put a binder or 8 wraps of rope around the tree before you started your cut. Staying at the cut a second or two to steer is not for the faint of heart when dealing with ash, it's not safe in an ash tree that has been compromised. Make the cut and get out of there, ash can split to the first limb in the blink of an eye. I too would have thrown my notch in a little lower, I don't like having to stretch to reach the cut. You look like the hero on this one but you really took a chance not binding the tree to prevent an early barberchair. You don't get a do over, the homeowner did and called you, his lucky day. Could you not have set a rope and pulled it over using his notch and one more wedge to direct the fall?

 

[NeTree]

Ultimately, the homeowner was a moron, and Dan lucked out.

And... nobody got hurt, so I'd call it a success.

 

[ArtifexArboreus]

Dan Dan Dan

I heard about that project. In fact, it wasn't the homeowner that made the first notch, it was you Dan, YOU!!! Good job. I would have blamed the homeowner also. Don't worry though bro, it happens. Thank god for tire irons.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Be Gone you senseless goof.

Has someone messaged Darin that we need the Punk Patrol again?