Daniel
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Suburban Philadelphia (Wayne)
I wrote the following description for YouTube. I would assume most experienced fallers know this already.
Dropping this decaying maple is a good reminder of how little the hinges on this species and condition can be trusted. The tree made the lay because I had an overwhelming amount of pull while having very little control from the hinge.
Important notes about the rigging are:
1) Rather than isolating the line, I prefer to use two ends of the line for pulling. Given it's going to take x amount of force to break the pre-set hinge, two lines make the force on each leg of the line 1/2 x. So when pulling with the equipment, I will generally tie both legs to the loader or truck and thus half the force on the line. In cases where I want to get additional pulling power, I will tie one end of the line to a ground anchor and pull with the other, nearly doubling the force of the pull. I will almost always use this MA system when pulling by hand. And I will almost always go natural crotch when using this technique because it's faster and easier than setting a block (or shackle or ring) in the tree, and this precludes the potential for damaging the block upon impact. It's important to use a rope that can handle the friction on natural crotch rigging. I prefer 1/2" true blue. There isn't going to be that much friction given the short length duration of the pull, and the amount of force needed to break the hinge. I have only seen rope damage in the most extreme case where I was trying to break an 8"x 40" hinge in oak.
2) when tying to two ground anchors on different trees the vector of force on the pull line is going to bisect the angle of the pull line. That means the pull is going to be directed to a point right between the two anchor trees. This can be adjusted by improvising a long sling so the pull is directed to one side of the tree.
At the beginning of the video, my friend says something to the effect of... " I finish the back cut while the truck is pulling but that's not right". I replied by saying, "it's not about right and wrong.. it's simply a matter of "is it necessary". " Generally when pulling by hand you don't want to over-cut the hinge so you have the guys pulling while you finish the back cut, leaving as much hing as possible with the amount of pull available. In cases where the amount of pull from a truck or loader is going to far outweigh the amount of force needed to trip the hinge, this is not necessary. The hinge can be formed to the faller's specs and there is no need to stand at the tree and keep cutting unless it's a really tight drop and the faller wants to steer the tree on the way down by racing the saw to adjust the angle of the back cut. So there is a transition needed in the faller's skill set when moving from pulling by hand to pulling with equipment. It takes some time and experience to know exactly what kind of hinge you want to use before you make the back cut. That's something you don't think about much when you just keep cutting until the tree starts to move.
