How would you finish this tree ???

[Ax-man]

I am just curious as to how some here would go about finishing this tree.

This is our latest project taking down this Hackberry for the city of Morris.

This tree was kind of a fooler when I looked at it, I knew it was a good 60 to 65 ft tall. Well it is probaly more like 70 to 75 ft.

I took two pictures from both sides. The red line is the working height of my boom truck 55 ft. that was the last cut I made comfortably with a chain saw, above that was all rope throws, power pruner, 12 ft pole saw work.

There is probaly at least 10 ft of tree left, stem diameter below the uncut branches 4 to 6 in, the crotches that are the highest would put the LZ right on top of the inside wire closest to the tree, there is only three maybe four feet of clearance between the tree and that 3 phase.

The tree intially had five leads, the no. 1 blue line was our number one gin that got most of the tree down, except for the heavier wood. The no 2 orange line was the gin that got the smaller secondary limbs overhanging the wire, but still allowed us lower limbs away from the wires. Flimsy as it was it worked.

Getting a crane is not an option.

Let's just say for the time being that getting the big orange A to finish is not an option either.

Larry

 

[ORclimber]

If a kill isn't an option, I'd call the utility ask them to hang gut(hollow plastic tubes) on the phases. Put sheets of plywood on the roof, and lean some up against the house. Climb up through the phases as high as comfortable and strategicallly cut small pieces, probably using a polesaw/pruner on the tippy top. But, maybe it looks different in person.

 

[kennertree]

around here if a tree is close to the line you can call the power company, and they will come out and cut the tree a safe distance away from the line from there, the contractor or homeowner takes it the rest of the way down. that's how i'd do it.

 

[DDM]

around here if a tree is close to the line you can call the power company, and they will come out and cut the tree a safe distance away from the line from there, the contractor or homeowner takes it the rest of the way down. that's how i'd do it.

That might be kind of Tough to explain since he's working for the city.

 

[begleytree]

Get that polesaw out, and start cutting small pieces that will fall through the wires. Don't leave any forks that will hang. six inch long pieces starting at the tips of the limbs.
-Ralph

 

[arboromega]

i just wouldnt do it. im EHAP certified and just trimmed over some lines today. doesnt mean i like it. in fact i hate it. not owrth the risk in my opinion.

 

[GOBRDGO]

I work for the power company as a lineman here in CA. Trust me we would much rather help you take it down safely without an UNSCHEDULED outage than risk a power outage or powerline related injury.

 

[newb]

We just did a big Willow last week looks about the same. Except the line was a service drop. When the electric company showed up they refused to take the line down saying it was pole to pole. The line went from the main pole to the customers house with a long run, so they had a pole in the drive. He called it pole to pole. We had the tree to the point you have it and he put a stop work order on us. After alot of fighting a Big orange super showed up and couldnt believe he wouldnt take the line down. Long story short, she had a crew out there in 30 minutes and took the hazard down . Everyone went home happy. Call me chicken put taking limbs down over wires isnt worth the risk, or money. We take enough risks. Pete

 

[Stumper]

Why the power company isn't an option is somewhat puzzling to me. If you just have to take your life in your hands and do it yourself then My younger and dumber way was to tip-tie 1, boom it off of 2 , hinge back toward center and take up tension as the cut is made. Should pivot away from wires and then drop to lower straight down the central leader. The other younger and dumber way was to pole saw little pieces- It works quite well. Why won't calling for the PC to clear that be acceptable?

 

[JJackson]

Call the utility, you should have done that in the first place. They can send a crew to do that lead, or cover the lines or provide a line kill. I send my guy to do work like this for customers (county and cities included) all the time. Lately we usually take down the whole tree instead of just the closest lead.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

There are ways to take it out, but the only real safe way is out of an insulated bucket with the sufficient hight.

You do have the outside stem into which you could pull light sections away from the transmission. This would require a climber for cutting and the bucket man on the rope. Not the best senario.

I'll work over transmission, but this looks like it's literally in it. I think you realize that this is beyond your current capabilites.

So did you win a bid against the local ROW contracting company?

 

[darkstar]

i agree with john ...you need an insulated bucket with height .. or dont do it

 

[Ax-man]

I need to sharpen my photography skills.

Lets start over with a different picture, showing that the tree is not growing up through the phase wires. If that were the case then the power company would definintly be involved in this one from the very first cut limb. I would not touch a tree like that anyway, not worth the risk.

I'm at the point now where I'm out reach with my extension tools using the bucket, if I do any more cutting I won't have good control of the situation.

The tree can easily climbed from a bucket, I have a few ideas of my own, just curious as to how others here would approach this one. The remaining side limbs can easily be cut with a handsaw and pitched away from the wires. The last 6 to 8 feet of the two tallest leads closest to the wires will be the trick to finish this one. I am looking for some input as to how to get them down but yet direct them away from the wires in one smooth motion. The two things that come to mind would be a speedline, I'm not crazy about this one because of the house feed that is under that is beside this tree, can't really see it in the pic, the other option would be a floating crotch with a retrieval line run by me in the tree. If someone has a different idea or a pointer or two I would be interested in hearing it.

The reason a utility tree crew has not been involved yet is because they charge us now to do the work, it is not free. But that is not the main reason, the last two times I had to have them was not a good experience. They will be involved if I don't feel comfortable in my abilities to complete this tree, I don't want an outage or an accident to happen either.

Larry

 

[Mike Cantolina]

I'd tie the two close leads together and run a speedline from there to the right of the garage. (On the road) Block the road of course. Use a tandem pulley on the speedline taking small pieces, remove top from above speedline. Then redirect speedline into other lead and do the same. Just let them zing down speedline. They will have enough momentum to reduce shockloading. Make sure they will clear service drop.

Not for the inexperienced.


Mike

 

[Ax-man]

Thanks Mike, appreciate the input.

Larry

 

[Dadatwins]

Probably tie the two leads together in a few places to support each other run a line up into the lead closest to the house and tip tie the leads close to the wire. Tip tie will let you pull leads over to tie in crotch and then bring the butt end down first and avoid it flipping. After getting the one closest to the wire butt tie the one close to the house, keep a tag line in it to stop it from swinging to wire. Last picture makes it look better and looks like a big enough drop hole between house and tree. Best situation would be have line guys get up there with 75' bucket to get it below wires. Of course, always hard to tell from a chair far, far away. Good luck and be careful.

 

[darkstar]

wow [[[way different in that pic]]] id tie the leads together and just remove a tiny bit at a time ...looks like it will be easy

 

[Eagle1]

Crane one off from the other with rope/block. The remaining side, tie low and top.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

yeah mike has the idea, or use the polesaw and chip away at it, the polesaw will take longer but probably has less exposure for error.

 

[Lumberjack]

Not too hard from my perspective.

If the wood will hold, it can be done from the bucket. Send a rope through the high center crotch (number 2 in your pic, natural crotch) with a wrap coming around the leader to spread the weight out in the crotch and tie it off to the left side (number 1), come down where it starts getting thicker and cut it. Lower it, pull the rope back up. Do the same for the skinny lead in the rear of the pic. Then come down the crotch where the red line is and tie off the top natural crotch, and set a tag line. Pull it towards the camera, or just pull it out if you can flop it. If you are afraid of it slapping the service drop then set a pulley and have the groundy run it down to the ground as it falls.

Or you can just climb it and smaller pieces. If I had a bucket and was there I might use that idea. Seeing the tree and my percieved level of climbing I would climb it, set my rope right under the crotch mentioned above (in number 2) and work down the rest in small pieces, then pull the top out in 2 pieces and work the spar down.


Doesnt look too bad to me, but pictures never do justice .