Unusual use of my 644

[Harry]

I have been cutting down some dead ash trees lately. I had one leaning towards some arborvitae trees and didn't want it to fall on them. Normally I would have gotten out my ladder and strung up a cable, hooked it to my 644 and pulled it over. That's a lot of extra work, so I got the idea to use the bucket of the 644 and lean it on the tree to push the tree over once I cut the wedge out. It worked great and will use this idea again in the future. I hope this may help someone else in the future.

Keep the Peace
Harry

[Chad]

Nice Spike! Definitely a time and back saver.

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[Eugen]

Great idea Harry! I might need to do the same on some of my current ash trees here. Great to see the 644 in action!

[Toolslinger]

I've done this frequently with our much larger JD300. Works great most of the time.

I will caution that our 6xx's are pretty light to influence a tree much if it isn't already likely to go that way.
I will also add that I've had the butt kick back every once in a while toward the tractor. I'm not sure a 6xx grill would stand up to that too well if it did.

[Gordy]

To control kick back cut out your wedge then make your back cut 6 - 8" above the inside point of the wedge cut. The wood will split easily with the grain. The stump will end up looking like a low back tractor seat, and the cut of the tree will have a leg sticking out that will ride against the seat back. I think the professionals call this a hinge.

For pull power I use my Blazer, but it has a slight advantage that being a block and tackle I made using 3/8 cable and 5 sheaves /pulleys on each end. If the Blazer can maintain traction and deliver 1,000# pull, at 10 to 1 that should be 10,000 # of pull With the B&T hooked to the base of one tree and 10 or so feet up in the other the end result is obvious With this and the hinge I have taken down a number of trees that were 2 feet from out buildings and not had a kickback

Another trick from a Youtube video. I had a hybrid Poplar that was leaning 20*+ towards a power line, I measured the 20 ton bottle jack and cut a square notch in the tree with a little extra room for steel plates to spread the pressure of the jack and not split the tree. With the jack in and pumped up to full pressure I started cutting the wedge (low hinge style) a little at a time and working the jack it did not take long and the tree was straight up then lening the way I wanted it to fall And with a little more jacking the tree fell down


Gordy

[crazycase]

Hello
Sure hope your wearing a hardhat
I've used the hoe bucket to assist me on knocking branches and trees down
I think running a backhoe is the best job I ever had, I learned a lot from the old guys
That and grading & scraping roads with my dump truck

cc

[Eugen]

@Gordy thank you for these details, I got two ash trees close to our house that I'd like to get rid of. Fairly large, about 16-20 inches diameter at the bottom. One of them is two trees from the same trunk, and one leaning towards the house. Unfortunately there are no other trees close enough to run any kind of pulley and rope system, plus I don't have rope and pulleys either. Not sure how I'll tackle this yet.

[Eugen]

https://vimeo.com/637167639

[Gordy]

I had a pine do almost a 90* twist, Took out about 1/4 of a 15 foot ball arborvitae :-( I used some fence posts and rope to pull some branches over to the bald spot,still it will take many years for it to fill in and look good again

Here is a search link with videos for felling trees with the bottle jack method, you may find interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ottle+jack


Gordy

[Toolslinger]

I've wanted to try the bottle jack method for some time. I haven't been in the position to need that yet, and I haven't wanted to do it just to say I did in the middle of the woods... Of course, that would be the best place to experiment, but we're not always logical.

I think the "hinge" is just the little bit left between the front and back cuts, I've also seen that called the
"holding wood". There is a name for the stepped cut you mentioned, but I sure don't remember it. (I did just take a quick look, and found it referenced as a "holding shot" in a US Forest Service training book. I hadn't heard that term before)

My current personal tree challenge is a 5 way Ash. Big wood that is going to take every bit of my 32" bar. I haven't figured out quite how I want to tackle it as some of the splits are too high to take the individual trunks. (5'-6' up) I'm kinda at the point of talking to my neighbor to have him come up with his bucket truck, and take it down from the top until I get it to the heavy trunks. At that point I'm less nervous about working them without the widowmaker tops in place.