Harlen
ArboristSite Lurker
We could use some advice on techniques for lowering large heavy oak rounds down a slope. Just finished the job felling a 40" Iiveoak (Q. agrifolia), and had one hell of a time lowering the rounds without damaging the house below. I found nothing about this online, and so I tried various techinques. I made a giant tarp out of very strong trampoline fabric, and wrapped the rounds in it, to be lowered by gathering the loose ends in with a running bowline, and lowering with the rope from above. My second new technique was to load the front end of a longer round (~4-5 feet) into a cart that I had removed wheels from, to better slide the wood down. Mixed results with that too, as it was too slow having to wrap the log in. Trying to get around these slow processes, my son and I tried our old standard-- 3/4" webbing girth-hitched around the log, 2 different straps in different directions of cinching pull to avoid loosing the wood round through loosening of a hitch. It worked alright, but several times we were very lucky not to have one get away from us. We had the rope well-wrapped around uphill trunks for friction control.
The background is that the client wanted all of the wood tranported to his wood stacking area below. We had to lower about 50-75,' and the forest floor was very soft. We could have cut the rounds thinner to make the weight more manageable, or split them with wedges above, but we were after the fastest technique to get the wood down. I reckon the rounds were between 250 and 300+ lbs!
What is a better, that is, more secure method? Thanks for the advice, Harlen.
The background is that the client wanted all of the wood tranported to his wood stacking area below. We had to lower about 50-75,' and the forest floor was very soft. We could have cut the rounds thinner to make the weight more manageable, or split them with wedges above, but we were after the fastest technique to get the wood down. I reckon the rounds were between 250 and 300+ lbs!
What is a better, that is, more secure method? Thanks for the advice, Harlen.