Happens all the time with hurricane damage.
How's this for a problem oak
- Thread starter calamari
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calamari
ArboristSite Operative
It needs pictures to do a better job of describing what this one is like. Maybe it's very common not having been in a hurricane or tornado damaged area.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
Actually, that's not strictly true. In 1984 I was fishing in the Florida Keys after a big hurricane went through and tore a lot of tress up especially around Key Biscayne.
By the time you've worked a gulf coast hurricane, I promise you there is very little you haven't seen... I saw enough from the one pic. It happens a lot in a hurricane zone... Tornados, not as much... they usually don't leave much behind, except on the edges of the path.
Cricket
ArboristSite Operative
Eh. I had 2000# of Percheron draft horse sit in my lap a few years ago. Gave me an excuse to buy a sword cane.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
What struck me as unique is that it is a very large dead fall that a survivalist would make to catch a rabbit. Or, an even bigger mousetrap that only needs a 100# chunk of cheese under the crown to try to get me to just stand there a little while.
Stihl a grasshopper
ArboristSite Operative
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
Update: I was wrong twice and TheJollyLogger (JL) was right twice. JL said I shouldn't have been able to break a 5/16" wire rope and he was right. It was actually 1/4" as I found when I went to repair the end. He also said that It looked like I'd pulled the clamps off the end and again he was right. I said I hadn't broken a cable in 5 years and my record is still intact. I pulled the clamps off one end by doing what you should never do if you use wire rope with the ends made using clamps. I didn't retighten the clamps before I used them the first time. When I took the other end apart to remake that end just in case, there were two loose nuts on the three clamps. I bet it was the same or worse on the one I pulled apart. A fellow wood cutter who has some long 3/8" cables will join me for the final assault in the coming weeks. Film at 11.
As an aside, a friend of my friend, both being retired iron workers, had three mature trees removed by a licensed and insured tree removal expert. I'm guessing about the license part since I don't know what kind of licenses they might have other than a business license.
Anyway, the three trees required a crane to get them out of the way and the tree guy just rode the headache ball up to the top where he made the hook fast, came down on a rope and cut the tree at the base while the crane kept the weight off the base. It picked the tree up and laid it aside. The guy rode the ball all three times. Very lucky guy.
Makes my ladder suggestion pale in comparison.
As an aside, a friend of my friend, both being retired iron workers, had three mature trees removed by a licensed and insured tree removal expert. I'm guessing about the license part since I don't know what kind of licenses they might have other than a business license.
Anyway, the three trees required a crane to get them out of the way and the tree guy just rode the headache ball up to the top where he made the hook fast, came down on a rope and cut the tree at the base while the crane kept the weight off the base. It picked the tree up and laid it aside. The guy rode the ball all three times. Very lucky guy.
Makes my ladder suggestion pale in comparison.
Trivia time, and anyone can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe tree workers are the last guys OSHA allows to ride the ball, "if in their estimation, attachment to the lifting device is less dangerous than ascending the tree in question..." or words to that effect.
I have jumped through that loophole plenty of times, lol. " That tree looks a little sketchy, I should probably just ride the ball up..."
Having said that, there are definitely situations where riding the ball is a safer alternative. I have ridden the pick down, when the tree is just that unstable... lower me down, let me set a couple slings, and then I would reach out and cut the pick away and swing out with it, and then rappel down once I was in a safe spot... those were the days I earned my pay, lol
I have jumped through that loophole plenty of times, lol. " That tree looks a little sketchy, I should probably just ride the ball up..."
Having said that, there are definitely situations where riding the ball is a safer alternative. I have ridden the pick down, when the tree is just that unstable... lower me down, let me set a couple slings, and then I would reach out and cut the pick away and swing out with it, and then rappel down once I was in a safe spot... those were the days I earned my pay, lol
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
As I say both of my friends were iron workers and one owned a company. He felt that sitting on the ball and hugging the cable was a firing offense. I'll give him some crap about tree cutters having bigger clappers than Iron workers which should put him in just the right mood to warn me if something is about to fall on me.Trivia time, and anyone can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe tree workers are the last guys OSHA allows to ride the ball, "if in their estimation, attachment to the lifting device is less dangerous than ascending the tree in question..." or words to that effect.
I have jumped through that loophole plenty of times, lol. " That tree looks a little sketchy, I should probably just ride the ball up..."
Having said that, there are definitely situations where riding the ball is a safer alternative. I have ridden the pick down, when the tree is just that unstable... lower me down, let me set a couple slings, and then I would reach out and cut the pick away and swing out with it, and then rappel down once I was in a safe spot... those were the days I earned my pay, lol
Lol, and I should clarify, I never "rode the ball" in that manner. I would set a belay point right above the ball, and go ddrt right below the hook.As I say both of my friends were iron workers and one owned a company. He felt that sitting on the ball and hugging the cable was a firing offense. I'll give him some crap about tree cutters having bigger clappers than Iron workers which should put him in just the right mood to warn me if something is about to fall on me.
501Maico
ArboristSite Operative
Lots of YT footage with "Guilty of Treeson" riding the ball up, but he works in British Columbia. I can't remember exactly but he mentioned his TIP makes a legal difference. Like above the ball and not off of the hook.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
No, No! This is good stuff for the ride to wherever. I say lots of things that make his ears bleed. I call it a clevis while he calls it a shackle sort of things. He says only farmers use clevises.
Sorry...
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
No reason to be sorry and I appreciate your interest. I wasn't clear in just wanting to show how tree toast can land jelly side down sometimes.
I was going to go up tomorrow to cut it down but a long time friend passed away this morning and his step son who was going to be my spotter I don't think will feel like it for awhile.
He was almost or may have been 90 when he died after a long stomach and intestinal illness. He started as a telephone lineman and worked up to becoming a supervisor of an area. He continued to climb and cut down trees even on the side. He was our tree trimmer until he quit that work when he turned 81. He climbed like a monkey and was fearless. He had a couple accidents over his lifetime in the trees but nothing really serious. I don't know a single person who met him that didn't like him and that's the best epitaph anyone can have..
He is not wrong, at least as far as our industry is concerned. Shackles are used in rigging and are load rated. Clevises, not so much.
Good luck with your tree, following along for sure.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
My iron worker friend and I went up and got the hard part done on the broken oak. I even found 2 of the three cable clamps I pulled off the last time I was there. We used my friends excellent rope to pull it over after I threw my parachute cord with a 1/2" shackle on the end over the broken top. Never lost a whole tooth.
On other threads I've said I hadn't thrown a chain in decades but I did this time so not a bad record. The main reason was that there were nails the owner's kids drove into the tree for tree house/fort steps that I couldn't see from 20 years in the past. I've got Dremel work to do getting the dings out of the drive links so it'll even fit back in the bar and then seeing how bad the teeth are. Happened at the very end of the cutting so I was lucky that way.
My friend standing next to the tree for scale looking up at the broken top.
Hard to get it all in one picture but here's the top jammed into the the fir and upon further inspection, a medium oak tree too.
A slightly better picture of how many trees the top is caught in and how bent over they are. The top is horizontal to the ground and 30'+ up in the air here. You can see the broken top fir and the bent over oak it's tangled up in.
After we cut the base, we pulled it over to the side. That's the moss covered log on the ground. Now it's easy. Just cutting it in sections and work toward the top which is still hung up in the trees but with a lot less tension on/from them. I may set a cable above where the rope is (not my rope) and a block as high in a tree as I can get on my extension ladder (Come on! Give me the ration!) and then cut mostly through the top with a wedge cut out of the bottom and some wedges holding the cut open on the top. I'll then try to jerk it over the log because as it is it just keeps sliding back and jamming into the log as I cut sections out. I cut a couple out before my chain gave up the ghost. That way maybe it'll fall completely on the ground. If not I'll just keep cutting sections or maybe cut the log out of the way but that's the part with the most hidden nails.
It rotted I guess from water and leaf accumulation in the crotch but is perfect otherwise.
I cut it with an angle with a wedge out on the front just to be sure it wouldn't kick my way from the trees pushing on the top. Flawless oak but I'll have to rip grooves for wedges and then split the sections into 1/4s to be able to pick them up and put them in the truck. 28" bar for scale.
On other threads I've said I hadn't thrown a chain in decades but I did this time so not a bad record. The main reason was that there were nails the owner's kids drove into the tree for tree house/fort steps that I couldn't see from 20 years in the past. I've got Dremel work to do getting the dings out of the drive links so it'll even fit back in the bar and then seeing how bad the teeth are. Happened at the very end of the cutting so I was lucky that way.
My friend standing next to the tree for scale looking up at the broken top.
Hard to get it all in one picture but here's the top jammed into the the fir and upon further inspection, a medium oak tree too.
A slightly better picture of how many trees the top is caught in and how bent over they are. The top is horizontal to the ground and 30'+ up in the air here. You can see the broken top fir and the bent over oak it's tangled up in.
After we cut the base, we pulled it over to the side. That's the moss covered log on the ground. Now it's easy. Just cutting it in sections and work toward the top which is still hung up in the trees but with a lot less tension on/from them. I may set a cable above where the rope is (not my rope) and a block as high in a tree as I can get on my extension ladder (Come on! Give me the ration!) and then cut mostly through the top with a wedge cut out of the bottom and some wedges holding the cut open on the top. I'll then try to jerk it over the log because as it is it just keeps sliding back and jamming into the log as I cut sections out. I cut a couple out before my chain gave up the ghost. That way maybe it'll fall completely on the ground. If not I'll just keep cutting sections or maybe cut the log out of the way but that's the part with the most hidden nails.
It rotted I guess from water and leaf accumulation in the crotch but is perfect otherwise.
I cut it with an angle with a wedge out on the front just to be sure it wouldn't kick my way from the trees pushing on the top. Flawless oak but I'll have to rip grooves for wedges and then split the sections into 1/4s to be able to pick them up and put them in the truck. 28" bar for scale.
Good thing it was load rated
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
It was just like butter.
