Side lean

[EngineerDude]

Aspen in the back yard crowding a little oak. Aspen's gotta' go! 16-inch dbh, approx 55-60 ft. 10 degrees of side lean, and about 30 feet up, it takes a further bend. Really not in the mood to climb and drop the top (i.e. the part above 30 feet). The lean and the bend (and probably my relative lack of experience in such situations) are enough to make it a coin flip as to whether I can drop it in the narrow slot available without employing some technique to manage it, and I'm not inclined to go with a coin flip.

The technique I've seen described for this is to aim the notch in the direction opposite to the lean. But I'm looking at this and wondering if maybe it's preferable to use an angled notch. It seems like if the line where the notch top and bottom cuts meet is angled 10 degrees relative to horizontal in the direction opposite to the lean, this should "straighten" the fall.

Looking for some feedback on this idea. In general I'm hoping to hear the voice of experience here, but specifically, I'm interested in how the hinge behaves when it's not horizontal. Does it break uniformly, or does one side start breaking first, allowing gravity to change the direction of fall, etc.?

 

[Ekka]

If you use a notch parallel to the ground you have a larger surface area of fibres.

Use the adjusted gun technique along with the tapered hinge, if you are really concerned use a side rope to.

 

[Sprig]

Gah! Unless you are an extreamly experienced faller I would not advise trying to direct a fall with your notch in such a situation, what I mean is that thinking that you can change a leaner or get it to go against its balance point by adjusting the cut is a very dangerous crap-shoot imo, just dont do it, you could theoretically end up with a nice uncontrolled barberchair piroetting out of control, in the wrong direction, snapping tops etc., onto someone or something. First thing I'd do in seeking advice here is to get a couple of pics up (irfanview resized for us dial-up dinos lol).
From the general sounds of it though I'd look at doing your facecut in the direction you want to go, when you do your back cut have several wedges at hand and before your cut gets critical (it starts to fall or pinch your bar), at 16" you should have enough space for two wedges (one on either side of the backcut but not right at the very edge of it), make sure you have some more in case you have to stack them, start gently tapping them in (being aware of any dead branches that could be potential widowmakers of course) and get that 10deg lean out. You don't really explain if these leans are against the direction you want to go though. Pre-rope what you can to help direct the fall if you have worries about critical things like wires, shed w.h.y., a nice long strong rope (at least 20-30ft longer than the tree is tall, do not guess this one eh) to give it its falling pull will help immensely. Of course none of this advice means much without a really decent idea of whatcher up against, which means some pics, they are invaluable. Work safe, you're not afraid of asking for ideas, suss out the options and do the most logical thing, a good mate of mine years ago when I was young told me to always try to imagine the entire proccess from start to finish, including what can go wrong, and do the job accordingly, this wisdom has never let me down to date.

Cheers,

Serge

 

[elmnut]

I am in Syracuse, Glad to help out if you want. E-mail or pm me.

 

[northernmover]

The lean and the bend (and probably my relative lack of experience in such situations) are enough to make it a coin flip as to whether I can drop it in the narrow slot available without employing some technique to manage it, and I'm not inclined to go with a coin flip.

Get some advice on this, talk to elmnut or give us a call to come look at it. Pictures would help, but from what you're saying, I would use at least 1 rope to guide this tree. Only VERY experienced fellers should fully trust a hinge.

 

[EngineerDude]

Sorry for slow response, I was travelling.

Appreciate the advice and insight. Did the adjusted gun/tapered hinge thing this past Monday, with a bull rope tied off at 90 deg for insurance. Don't think the rope ever went taut, as the gun & hinge put it just a small bit right of where I wanted it.

This tree had a small bit of front lean too, so I didn't need wedges. In fact, I was a bit surprised by the timing of it starting to go (hinge was still pretty thick), but I was going slow at that point, so it wasn't a problem.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Hmmm. I guess it's too late to point you to Ekka's side lean video, then.





Glad it went okay!

 

[Doctor Dave]

What do people think about boring out the center of a tree with a significant side lean, so that you can bury a wedge there? It worked for me on a middling pine stub (20 in by 35 ft.) when I left too much holding wood in my tapered hinge and my plastic wedges had nowhere to go; I just bored out the middle, pounded in a metal splitting wedge and down it went. I couldn't take the wedges out, because it would have set back.

 

[computeruser]

How's about a video?

Ekka's Side Lean Felling Video