I need advice on felling large dead oaks

[HavinFun]

Hello,
I have the chance to collect firewood from 40 or so dead oaks. They were killed by a combination of gypsy moth and drought. Been dead 4-5 years. Lots of large, seemingly dried out branches above, which is where the worry come in. Trying to avoid injury or worse from widow makers. I have my skidsteer, and thought about fixing a cable up a tree and giving a quick pull to try to shake off brittle pieces. Good idea? How would you take down such trees? Thanks.

 

[ZinTrees]

best way is to let them go whichever direction they have weight or lean, don't bang wedges if you can avoid it and same goes for pulling them over, try and avoid it, oak is fairly strong even when dead but sudden shock can send things crashing down with zero warning, such as limbs while banging wedges


use rope, not cable if you do decide to pull them, lighter and safer, plus you can tie knots in it to terminate

 

[Oletrapper]

Hello,
I have the chance to collect firewood from 40 or so dead oaks. They were killed by a combination of gypsy moth and drought. Been dead 4-5 years. Lots of large, seemingly dried out branches above, which is where the worry come in. Trying to avoid injury or worse from widow makers. I have my skidsteer, and thought about fixing a cable up a tree and giving a quick pull to try to shake off brittle pieces. Good idea? How would you take down such trees? Thanks.

Are you positively sure they are oaks? Sounds like they might be ash. Just curious. OT
Pics would help also.

 

[HavinFun]

Oletrapper,
Oaks. Had a forester with me to figure out what killed them so I didn’t bring it back to my place where I’ll be processing it’s .

 

[farmer steve]

Like @ZinTrees said above. Plus have a good escape route when they start to fall. Dead limbs can snap of when the tree is falling and become a projectile. Hard hat a must!! Good luck and be safe.

 

[Woody912]

I frequently use chains, just the weight alone is enough to pull them over.

best way is to let them go whichever direction they have weight or lean, don't bang wedges if you can avoid it and same goes for pulling them over, try and avoid it, oak is fairly strong even when dead but sudden shock can send things crashing down with zero warning, such as limbs while banging wedges


use rope, not cable if you do decide to pull them, lighter and safer, plus you can tie knots in it to terminateuse

 

[ZinTrees]

I frequently use chains, just the weight alone is enough to pull them over.

rope stretches, pretty much impossible to shock load a tree with it, and a hell of a lot easier to get up the tree

chain works but nobody I know has a 150+ foot long section of chain, and if the tree is short enough to use 20 or 30 feet we just push them or wedge them usually

 

[singinwoodwackr]

rope stretches, pretty much impossible to shock load a tree with it, and a hell of a lot easier to get up the tree

chain works but nobody I know has a 150+ foot long section of chain, and if the tree is short enough to use 20 or 30 feet we just push them or wedge them usually

Amsteel Blue

 

[ZinTrees]

Amsteel Blue

amsteel (dyneema) is good, I usually just use a rigging line tho, trueblue, stable braid or my favorite so far, 3/4" pelican, don't know the name but its a lowish stretch line with a 25K pound MBS, yet to break it and I've done some wildly stupid stuff with it

 

[singinwoodwackr]

amsteel (dyneema) is good, I usually just use a rigging line tho, trueblue, stable braid or my favorite so far, 3/4" pelican, don't know the name but its a lowish stretch line with a 25K pound MBS, yet to break it and I've done some wildly stupid stuff with it

View attachment 1162063

View attachment 1162064

3/4" is overkill
My 3/8" winch line is 21k.

 

[ZinTrees]

3/4" is overkill
My 3/8" winch line is 21k.

yeah but different uses, you don't use amsteel as a bull rope, the bark shreds it from my experience, also knots aren't good in it
this double braid lasts a long time doing tree work, amsteel wouldn't last a day lowering logs and limbs, especially with shock loading, its a near zero stretch line which is what we do NOT want for pulling trees over or rigging


between fraying, cutting, melting or snapping, ill take a legit bull rope any day


for a winch line its ok, for general tree work its not, maybe id run it on the chipper winch, but even that I use 1/2" stablebraid on mine

 

[farmer steve]

rope stretches, pretty much impossible to shock load a tree with it, and a hell of a lot easier to get up the tree

chain works but nobody I know has a 150+ foot long section of chain, and if the tree is short enough to use 20 or 30 feet we just push them or wedge them usually

We don't pull many but we hook a chain to the pulling vehicle and hook that to the rope when we do. If the rope breaks the chain absorbs the shock from the rope. If that makes sense. Only ever had one rope break and the chain worked. No chain and I might have got wacked with the rope.

 

[singinwoodwackr]

yeah but different uses, you don't use amsteel as a bull rope, the bark shreds it from my experience, also knots aren't good in it
this double braid lasts a long time doing tree work, amsteel wouldn't last a day lowering logs and limbs, especially with shock loading, its a near zero stretch line which is what we do NOT want for pulling trees over or rigging


between fraying, cutting, melting or snapping, ill take a legit bull rope any day


for a winch line its ok, for general tree work its not, maybe id run it on the chipper winch, but even that I use 1/2" stablebraid on mine

Yup, not very good for general tree work...not designed for that. Works great for just pulling a tree over

 

[ZinTrees]

Yup, not very good for general tree work...not designed for that. Works great for just pulling a tree over

fosho, only good for pulling things, didn't push stuff very well last time I tried it!

 

[Woody912]

40' of heavy chain and enough rope to get out of the danger zone. Sometimes on a comealong so I have lots of control on the pull and movement. Although I do have 150' of chain! lol

rope stretches, pretty much impossible to shock load a tree with it, and a hell of a lot easier to get up the tree

chain works but nobody I know has a 150+ foot long section of chain, and if the tree is short enough to use 20 or 30 feet we just push them or wedge them usuall

 

[ZinTrees]

40' of heavy chain and enough rope to get out of the danger zone. Sometimes on a comealong so I have lots of control on the pull and movement. Although I do have 150' of chain! lol

the chain makes zero sense to me in your use case, adding it to where? only thing it does is go flying when stuff breaks just like rope, and if the rope breaks on the far end and fly's back, theres enough rope to where its hit you before it ever moves the chain

 

[Woody912]

chain goes on the tree and adds a lot of pull when you lift it up off the ground

 

[ZinTrees]

chain goes on the tree and adds a lot of pull when you lift it up off the ground

Same amount of pull as just pulling normally, the weight might help with low stretch rope to yard the tree over, but it doesn't add any pull

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Yeah, not a fan of chain or wire rope at all, not to mention what a PITA to use. How are.you setting chain up in the tree? So much easier to just set a bullrope with a throwline and running bowline.

 

[rwoods]

Hello,
I have the chance to collect firewood from 40 or so dead oaks. They were killed by a combination of gypsy moth and drought. Been dead 4-5 years. Lots of large, seemingly dried out branches above, which is where the worry come in. Trying to avoid injury or worse from widow makers. I have my skidsteer, and thought about fixing a cable up a tree and giving a quick pull to try to shake off brittle pieces. Good idea? How would you take down such trees? Thanks.

Without being there, general advice is all you should expect. Taking specific advice over the internet could get you killed. That said, find someone local with expertise to view your situation.

With 40 or more dead trees, I suspect that your overhead danger is much more than just the limbs of the tree you are felling. You should consider every tree (or other object) that may be hit with the fall and what shrapnel will result. If possible, you should plan your falling to start with the least dangerous tree and to create openings for each successive tree.

Ron