I have a handful of trees to take out on an empty lot I'm getting ready to build on. Most are pretty manageable, but the largest pine (24") has me wondering if a rope puller and felling wedges will be enough to get it over properly. The trunk is ~15' from an overhead utility line and most all of the branch weight will be working against me.
Here's the up-trunk shot:
The trees obstructing the fall will be gone by the time this one drops. As you can see, all the branches are on the wrong side of the tree, even though the trunk starts out leaning in the right direction.
An here's a shot from back a bit:
Mostly I'm concerned because I don't have a lot of experience with these tall southern pines. I've dropped a lot of maples and oaks with wedges and occasionally a rope, but this will be new. The trunk sounds solid and there's no evidence of bugs in this tree. I have a rope puller from wespur and 200' of good 1/2" rope, along with 4 or 5 wedges of various sizes. I figure I'll get the top moving with the rope and back it up with wedges as soon as I can, going slowly with a second person on the rope puller. This all seems do-able as long as the hinge holds up. So I'm wondering - How good are these southern pines at holding a hinge during wedging? Anybody think the back weight will be too much for it?
Here's the up-trunk shot:
The trees obstructing the fall will be gone by the time this one drops. As you can see, all the branches are on the wrong side of the tree, even though the trunk starts out leaning in the right direction.
An here's a shot from back a bit:
Mostly I'm concerned because I don't have a lot of experience with these tall southern pines. I've dropped a lot of maples and oaks with wedges and occasionally a rope, but this will be new. The trunk sounds solid and there's no evidence of bugs in this tree. I have a rope puller from wespur and 200' of good 1/2" rope, along with 4 or 5 wedges of various sizes. I figure I'll get the top moving with the rope and back it up with wedges as soon as I can, going slowly with a second person on the rope puller. This all seems do-able as long as the hinge holds up. So I'm wondering - How good are these southern pines at holding a hinge during wedging? Anybody think the back weight will be too much for it?