Narrating a complex tree job on the spot is never going to come out perfectly. Anyone that's ever tried it knows. I'm guessing that's none of the haters here.
This video from 2010 shows getting a back leaning locust OVER THE WIRES straightened out and then nipping the corner of the hinge to get it to fall 90 degrees to the pull. The drop zone was that entire overgrown area in background. However, if the tree had gone completely against the lean and towards the pull, it would have hung up in the trees we were using for ground anchors. So the object was to stand the tree up and then get it to fall to the side. The only way to stand a tree up that's this heavy and lodged in another tree is to pull it directly against the lean. that's what I did with the first of those two maples as well. Machine op
on the maple was told to stand the tree up and just til it was free of the other tree, then if it didn't fall to the side on its own (which it looked like it might due to side weight) I was going to come back and nip the far corner of the hinge to get it to fall into the open lawn.
In the case of the locust video below that was also in the plan as a contingency if the locust didn't fall to the side on its own. Locust is very strong hinging wood, so it hung on. One little nip of the corner of the hinge and it fell harmlessly into all that underbrush. While that was a wide-open drop zone leaving a lot of room for error it was important that the tree didn't go over completely against the lean (which was the direction of pull). For those that want to learn something, this is a viable strategy. An uprooted tree hung up and leaning towards 12 o'clock is notched and pulled towards 6 o'clock. When the tree is straight cut the corner of the hinge off at 3 o'clock and the tree falls to 9 o'clock. Another way to look at this is to use the pull line to straighten the tree and then convert it ot a right angle retainer line for the drop. To me, that's just common sense. To others that can't conceive that such a thing can be done reliably
@Tony they must attack it because it's so far beyond their capabilities, understanding and imagination.
The hardest thing there was pulling such a heavy back leaner against the lean. That was 2010 and something which I have never seen repeated on video until I dd it again last year.
crane videos and jacking a tree videos.. while they can be cool, how many are out there? how many slow smooth crane pics can one man watch before he's seen enough?
Please post any other video of pulling a back leaner this big, or in the case of the two maples, anything back leaning 60 degrees. I t hasn't been published.
And then there's my favorite criticism... "why didn't you just use a crane?"