Daniel
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Suburban Philadelphia (Wayne)
Got a call from a local landscaper/tree man yesterday. Tall skinny tulip (maybe 28-30" dbh), in the woods not far from a busy road had a ton of decay in the base. Homeowners had just noticed the tree and said when the wind blows it was opening up so you could see daylight through the trunk. For those not familiar with tulip, it rots very quickly and falls apart soon after. It was right around the corner from my house so I shot home and picked up a step ladder and two truckers straps...
Came back in the afternoon with the bucket truck... rear mount 75 Altec 60/E 70, back right up to the base of the tree so it looked like I could reach the first branch but ended up about 5' short. The landscaper threw an extra strap of his own on when I got there. I was planning on bombing the top into a little lane in the woods, but it was growing into an adjacent tree. The top was 12-14" in diameter and 50-60' tall. But with it into an adjacent tree, there was zero chance of trusting it to break out of the other tree unless it could be pulled back away.
So I tied a bull rope to the trunk at about 60 feet and used a pick-up truck in the driveway to pull the tree back. I was pulling it back towards the bucket truck, which I had set up to allow an open lane in the direction of the pull. After the initial pull, I asked him to give me another foot 5x. After each extra pull, I checked to see if the limb came free, but it was locked up. At that point I didn't want to pull any harder with all that decay in the base, so was just hoping that it was just going to be the tips of each branch caught and that wouldn't be enough to stall, redirect, or stop the falling motion. Not an ideal situation. Just as I was taking a final look at the limb lock, I noticed a gentle breeze blowing through the other tree. It was just enough to unlock the limbs and the other tree drifted back well out of the way.
Now with the pull from the pick-up truck, the top was hanging exactly to the desired lay with a good bit of lean. It was still going to be a dicey cut but now with the top hanging free in a good direction, I was feeling much better about it. I still had to do some self-reflection. Is this one I should walk away from? AM I doing something unsafe to show off to the landscaper? Are we in the flow here or have I been getting bad vibes on this one?
Then after all that passed the "AM I going to live test", on to the mechanics. What kind of cut will I make? Is there any chance of barber chair? How much are the tips going to hit and will that effect the fall? While the Humboldt was the only option I still had to think how wide and deep and what angle it should be cut on. While the tree wasn't locked up in the other canopy any more, there was still going to be some contact and brushing limbs as it went. Would that be enough slow the fall and cause the but to slip back over the top of the trunk? I went with a narrow Humboldt on the shallow side. I whittled away at the Humboldt because I suck at cutting them. There could have been a little loose wood in the far corner, but not enough to affect the fall. I started the back cut with about 2" of stump shot, but stopped early and went up a little higher to make it 3". I needed the backstop to keep the top from pushing back off the cut (is there a name for that?)... I knew that there was going to be pushback early in the fall, but didn't expect the motion to come back much at me, as the fall was angled close to 45 degrees to my left, I expected the push back to direct the but to my right. Especially because there was already so much tension on the trunk from the pull line. That was pulling in my direction and set about 10 below the cut. I thought with the truck pulling that hard, there was no way the top could move it back at me much farther. But what I didn;t consider was the weakness at the base from the decay. Straps or no straps there was a major weak area that could just keep moving, even with all the pre-tensioned pull.
Out of instinct, I knew once the top started moving I needed to get on the controls and pull back as far and as fast as I could, but I never expected what was about to happen. We mostly deal with backyard trees, not these tall skinny things in the woods. Especially with all that tension on the pull line, I didn't think the top could put a lot more movement on the stem than the pull line. I stopped cutting as soon as the back cut opened up just a hair. I pulled back and waited for a second. It was clear the top was ready but needed a little more cutting. I positioned the bucket as far back from the cut as I could while just close enough to still reach. I bent forward bend out of the bucket and with fully extended left, was just able to reach the tip of the bar as far as needed into the cut. It didn't take much more cutting until the back cut opened up a bit more and she started making a few popping sounds. I stopped cutting stood up in the bucket with my hands on the joystick and hesitated for a split second to see if she was going to go. THAT WAS A MISTAKE.. AND A VALUABLE LESSON... NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!!
As soon as the second motion started I should have been right on that joystick backing up as fast as possible. That little split second of delay could have killed me. So I start backing up the lower boom as fast as possible. In retrospect, the upper boom may have given me more distance. Now the basket is moving back pretty fast, but the tree is moving faster, and not to my side as expected. It's moving right back at me (well actually at the boom and the corner of the bucket). But that distinction doesn't matter. At 70', if it hits the bucket, it might as well be hitting me.
I never looked at the tips. I was just looking at the trunk right at the cut. Like tunnel vision, that's all I could see. By the time that falling top was parallel to the ground, the back push had taken the base of that top right over the top of the upright tip of the boom and the corner of the basket. It was close, moaybe a foot or 18" above the bucket and falling fast now. If it dropped right then, it was going to catch the bucket. Fortunately, it held on another split second, just long enough for me to get out from under it. When it let go, it might have cleared the bucket by 12-18". I'm guessing that was 8'+ of pushback from where the trunk was when the top began to move. While the 8' of movement was not unexpected, the direction was. And I'm not sure if the trunk had started swinging forward again before the top finally let go, but I think t was just about at the apex of the back push. And I'm not sure why it came back in the direction it did. maybe the top held up on some branch on one side and that pushed the but back in the opposite direction. When I saw it clear the bucket, I felt a big sense of relief.
That was short-lived though because when the but hit the ground I felt the entire truck shake.. Felt like the but may have caught the bed of the truck. I looked down and saw the but of this 50-60' top laying right next to the rear outrigger... Another close call but no sign of an impact on the outrigger. I asked the ground man to check the outrigger. It looked fine. That was another close call. I went back today and saw the but had landed about 8' back from the stump. But the top had been leaning in the other direction before the pick-up truck started pulling. So it's tough to tell exactly how far that top moved to the side from where it started.
Next time I'm going to play it in my head before I start the cut and make sure I get as quick of a motion to the controls as possible. I think I'm also going to use the upper boom control instead of the lower boom.
The sim card on the go pro was full so I missed the shot. That's actually my biggest regret because that would have been a unique bit of video... the landscaper got a shot from the ground. I should get that soon. Will post it, but the details described above cannot be seen from that angle...
Came back in the afternoon with the bucket truck... rear mount 75 Altec 60/E 70, back right up to the base of the tree so it looked like I could reach the first branch but ended up about 5' short. The landscaper threw an extra strap of his own on when I got there. I was planning on bombing the top into a little lane in the woods, but it was growing into an adjacent tree. The top was 12-14" in diameter and 50-60' tall. But with it into an adjacent tree, there was zero chance of trusting it to break out of the other tree unless it could be pulled back away.
So I tied a bull rope to the trunk at about 60 feet and used a pick-up truck in the driveway to pull the tree back. I was pulling it back towards the bucket truck, which I had set up to allow an open lane in the direction of the pull. After the initial pull, I asked him to give me another foot 5x. After each extra pull, I checked to see if the limb came free, but it was locked up. At that point I didn't want to pull any harder with all that decay in the base, so was just hoping that it was just going to be the tips of each branch caught and that wouldn't be enough to stall, redirect, or stop the falling motion. Not an ideal situation. Just as I was taking a final look at the limb lock, I noticed a gentle breeze blowing through the other tree. It was just enough to unlock the limbs and the other tree drifted back well out of the way.
Now with the pull from the pick-up truck, the top was hanging exactly to the desired lay with a good bit of lean. It was still going to be a dicey cut but now with the top hanging free in a good direction, I was feeling much better about it. I still had to do some self-reflection. Is this one I should walk away from? AM I doing something unsafe to show off to the landscaper? Are we in the flow here or have I been getting bad vibes on this one?
Then after all that passed the "AM I going to live test", on to the mechanics. What kind of cut will I make? Is there any chance of barber chair? How much are the tips going to hit and will that effect the fall? While the Humboldt was the only option I still had to think how wide and deep and what angle it should be cut on. While the tree wasn't locked up in the other canopy any more, there was still going to be some contact and brushing limbs as it went. Would that be enough slow the fall and cause the but to slip back over the top of the trunk? I went with a narrow Humboldt on the shallow side. I whittled away at the Humboldt because I suck at cutting them. There could have been a little loose wood in the far corner, but not enough to affect the fall. I started the back cut with about 2" of stump shot, but stopped early and went up a little higher to make it 3". I needed the backstop to keep the top from pushing back off the cut (is there a name for that?)... I knew that there was going to be pushback early in the fall, but didn't expect the motion to come back much at me, as the fall was angled close to 45 degrees to my left, I expected the push back to direct the but to my right. Especially because there was already so much tension on the trunk from the pull line. That was pulling in my direction and set about 10 below the cut. I thought with the truck pulling that hard, there was no way the top could move it back at me much farther. But what I didn;t consider was the weakness at the base from the decay. Straps or no straps there was a major weak area that could just keep moving, even with all the pre-tensioned pull.
Out of instinct, I knew once the top started moving I needed to get on the controls and pull back as far and as fast as I could, but I never expected what was about to happen. We mostly deal with backyard trees, not these tall skinny things in the woods. Especially with all that tension on the pull line, I didn't think the top could put a lot more movement on the stem than the pull line. I stopped cutting as soon as the back cut opened up just a hair. I pulled back and waited for a second. It was clear the top was ready but needed a little more cutting. I positioned the bucket as far back from the cut as I could while just close enough to still reach. I bent forward bend out of the bucket and with fully extended left, was just able to reach the tip of the bar as far as needed into the cut. It didn't take much more cutting until the back cut opened up a bit more and she started making a few popping sounds. I stopped cutting stood up in the bucket with my hands on the joystick and hesitated for a split second to see if she was going to go. THAT WAS A MISTAKE.. AND A VALUABLE LESSON... NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!!
As soon as the second motion started I should have been right on that joystick backing up as fast as possible. That little split second of delay could have killed me. So I start backing up the lower boom as fast as possible. In retrospect, the upper boom may have given me more distance. Now the basket is moving back pretty fast, but the tree is moving faster, and not to my side as expected. It's moving right back at me (well actually at the boom and the corner of the bucket). But that distinction doesn't matter. At 70', if it hits the bucket, it might as well be hitting me.
I never looked at the tips. I was just looking at the trunk right at the cut. Like tunnel vision, that's all I could see. By the time that falling top was parallel to the ground, the back push had taken the base of that top right over the top of the upright tip of the boom and the corner of the basket. It was close, moaybe a foot or 18" above the bucket and falling fast now. If it dropped right then, it was going to catch the bucket. Fortunately, it held on another split second, just long enough for me to get out from under it. When it let go, it might have cleared the bucket by 12-18". I'm guessing that was 8'+ of pushback from where the trunk was when the top began to move. While the 8' of movement was not unexpected, the direction was. And I'm not sure if the trunk had started swinging forward again before the top finally let go, but I think t was just about at the apex of the back push. And I'm not sure why it came back in the direction it did. maybe the top held up on some branch on one side and that pushed the but back in the opposite direction. When I saw it clear the bucket, I felt a big sense of relief.
That was short-lived though because when the but hit the ground I felt the entire truck shake.. Felt like the but may have caught the bed of the truck. I looked down and saw the but of this 50-60' top laying right next to the rear outrigger... Another close call but no sign of an impact on the outrigger. I asked the ground man to check the outrigger. It looked fine. That was another close call. I went back today and saw the but had landed about 8' back from the stump. But the top had been leaning in the other direction before the pick-up truck started pulling. So it's tough to tell exactly how far that top moved to the side from where it started.
Next time I'm going to play it in my head before I start the cut and make sure I get as quick of a motion to the controls as possible. I think I'm also going to use the upper boom control instead of the lower boom.
The sim card on the go pro was full so I missed the shot. That's actually my biggest regret because that would have been a unique bit of video... the landscaper got a shot from the ground. I should get that soon. Will post it, but the details described above cannot be seen from that angle...
