Reading this thread made me think...here in Fla, its pretty flat and you always end up with a bunch of trees where the whole trunk in laying flat on the ground. I've seen a lot of people get their chains in the dirt when bucking trees like this when they're too big to roll. any secret to keeping this from happening?
I have wrecked my back 7 years ago, and bending over is pretty much out for me. I use my loader tractor with a tine bucket used for loading manure, and lift up what ever I'm cutting about 2 1/2' of clearance from the ground, makes it nice for cutting. I put the bucket under 12' to 15' up from one end of the tree.
I usually start at the top, limning, until I have to bend over, then lift it up, and finish limning. I then work my way down, the rest of the tree. Depending on the size of the tree, I usually try and get in the middle of the remaining log, lift the whole thing up.
While cutting, I go from end to end, cutting a few blocks off, until it starts to dip lower at the other end, then go to the other end, to keep the log balanced, so the one end doesn't dip down too far, and keeps it on the bucket. To Finnish cutting the width of the 4' bucket, I try and shift the log so that I cut through in between the tines of the bucket.
Bruce.
:greenchainsaw: