I need advice on felling large dead oaks

[TheJollyLogger]

I used my throw ball and gas-powered winch to disassemble a tree once. It was hanging over a bunch of fences and A/C units, and was too dangerous to climb. After we pulled out the top, there was room to fell it.

Then we discovered the beehive!

I don't want to talk about bees...

 

[pdqdl]

Eh. I used to hate 'em, but now I look forward to them.

I box them up and put them to work for me.

 

[ZinTrees]

im starting to hate squirrels and racoons more, started a BIG oak today, got all the brush down and about a third of the wood, get half way through a crane pick and notice my 500 quit cutting right, pick comes off, look in the cavity (squirrel hole) and sure enough some bastard dragged a big chunk of paver or some sort of sandstone object up there



we do not have much sandstone nearby, somehow I managed to cut it right in half... yay

 

[HavinFun]

Hi Gents,
OP here. I’ve been learning from all the good info posted. I’ll get some pictures of the trees next time Im there. There is a lot of underbrush growth around the base of the trees since the leaves have been down. First step if clean up around them to lessen tripping hazards.
I plan on buying 150’ of 3/4” BlueOx bull rope (any good?) and get it high in the tree with a throw bag. I can use it for plenty of other jobs too. I’ll use the truck or skidsteer to give it on one quick jerk (as the Stooges would say). Hopefully that will bring down the most likely to fall stuff. I don’t expect trees to come down, but will feel safer under them. Real good ideas have been posted, great!

 

[ZinTrees]

I would not try to shake stuff off a tree, may make any cracks worse and make stuff more likely to fall (what stayed in the tree after shaking it may be weaker now)

 

[pdqdl]

Eh. Shake it twice. or ten times, for that matter.
Pull the damned things over if you can. If possible, leave the rope in the tree, and just make a back-cut to weaken it. You have lots of trees to choose from, and plenty of room for them to fall, right?

One thing is fairly certain: you won't likely be hurt by a tree or any branches falling a hundred feet away. I've seen wood thrown that far away, but it is pretty unusual.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Pushing big trees over with machines will EVENTUALLY end very very badly.

Im with PDQDL on having rope in the system. Having that stretch in the system makes up for the slowness of the winches working, especially with back leaners, and I live in whats often listed as the windiest city on earth, so if you dont have positive pressure, you have a tree going wherever the wind decides.

This was wednesday, 2 tirfirs and a little 3.8 ton digger as a helper and on stupid steep ground. And it STILL followed its sidelean after we got it off its backlean and fell about 10 degrees off where I wanted!




The butt tie, note the tree didn't pivot far