question about crane over a house

Maui Palm & Tree Care

Maui Palm & Tree Care

Location
Pukalani, Hawaii
ok so i have this job comming up and we are bringing in a crane to asist in a palm tree removal. the crane will only be taking the top half off and then we have to fell the rest down a narrow walk way behind the house. blocking down is not an option becuase of the proximity between then house and then fence(6-7 feet). the crane will not be able to get the boom directly over the house so there obviously will be a large swing in the piece over the roof. i thought of an idea to remedy this. tie the crane sling to the top of the piece, then right above the cut tie a rigging line that runs through a block that then goes down to the porty where my groundy can slowly let the line out as the crane booms up and swings the piece over the roof. see the pic below and tell me if you have done this before or if you have other ideas??

crane.jpg
 
Bigger crane. Side-loading a tree like that will make you sweat profusely and could lead to very bad things. Especially when you are feeling the pressure of paying for the crane, you may make some calls that are less-than-thought-out.

Now if it's a really small top, and the trunk will be really fat and solid, and if your groundperson can run a pow really well, maybe it's a good plan.

Let us know how it goes, and pictures!
 
Not a good idea. Go with a larger crane that can get directly over the palm. Have you had the crane company look at the job?
 
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Not a good idea. Go with a larger crane that can get directly over the palm. Have you had the crane company look at the job?

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Yup, go with a bigger crane and bring in the operator before hand to discuss the job.
 
Definately not good. It will shock load the crane;side load the tree

How did you plan to get the hook to the tree?
 
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Definately not good. It will shock load the crane;side load the tree

How did you plan to get the hook to the tree?

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Ditto.
The crane co. I work with won't side load any boom. They're not designed for that type of loading. Get the load line as 'plumb' as possible.
Have the crane co. come out and look at it. The crane co. I work with will check it out for 'no charge'.
 
If your buddy has a six axle crane like the one in your drawing I think you should go for it. Judging by the boom angle and the lack of jib you should have it no problem. You might want to use a parachute though, as your ground mans line will be no competition for the cranes pull on the spar, and when it releases you will want a controlled landing when you touch down in the next county.
 
These guys are right, cranes are not designed for sideloading(anytime the hook in not directly under the boom tip is sideloading).

If you get the chance look at the load chart for the crane it likely measures the radius from the crane by load radius which means that it doesn't matter how far the boom tip is from the crane what matters is how far away the load is.

Now the tree, it probably wouldn't take the pull from the weight of the top, especially since its a palm, I could be wrong since palms don't really grow in Canada, but they don't really have any structural roots do they?
 
Sounds like you should have the right size crane, or maybe proper the crane boom on the roof of the house, it will be easier than having the big crane come from the construction site and lift your too small crane out of the house. But seriously, rig it down using the right gear, or use the right crane.

Why can't you rig it down in the same space that you can fell it into? Maybe we can just come up with a group brainstorm solution to safely get it down and done.

Dynamically loading cranes with unknown loads over a house could become http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDLEaAqbfbY.
 
the walkway where the palm is about 3 feet away from the roof and then another 3 feet on the side of the fence. thats 6 feet from side to side. think a very narrow rectangle with the smallest part of it is between the house and the fence.
 
How big is the trunk? Head? Is it a level dropzone?

I've never climbed a palm. It appears that you can get pretty much up to the top to trim or remove, right?

I'd imagine cutting the head apart and lowering it bouquet-style or dropping in the DZ. I'd bring some plywood to protect the fence/ house. If you need to negative block down the head/ part of the head, could you catch it, then cut it apart to fit the dropzone?

If you bring some tires and rope them together one or two layers thick, and if you put a rubber animal stall mat on top, you might be surprised by the energy absorbing affect of the crash pad. Used junker tires from a tire store---probably free, animal stall mat--maybe $40-50. Maybe a bit of Hawaii shipping cost to add to it??? You could likely bomb all the chunks out of the tree, no problem. They counter-intuitively don't bounce though they are rubber. Add a sheet of plywood underneath the whole works if there is sensitive real estate to hit (pavers/ utilities/ concrete).
 
this is like my first really tight drop zone. thanks for bearing with me here.
i think what we are going to do is wait for the larger crane. that one can make it over the house no problem. i spoke to the home owner today qnd told her its going to cost more to do it now but there is a higher risk involved. i said if we wait a few weeks for the bigger crane it will be safer and cost the same. she is happy with this. but still i need to have a backup plan in case the crane gets another job somewhere.
 
Gday mate!
Forget about the crane and use a portion of the crane costs on 2 extra labourers.
Dismantle the palm head frond by frond and rig down each block tiny,use snap cuts on sections that are light enough that you can manhandle safely to a postion to drop then your topping pulley and tag lines should get it to the ground.
Make sure ground crew know that you're doing light,but techniquical work, and that they dont go crazy on the friction wraps.
 
Mini Access? Rig it down and rental mini with forks, save a bunch on the crane, forget the extra workers.


If there is to lift it and access to neighbor's yard on other side of fence, lift the trunk in pieces, too, with control lines from the ground.

You can attach the control line to the mini for ballast or the stump or another tree. Run it through a pulley on the piece being lifted, and run the line to the neighbors yard. You will get a 2:1 for controlling the piece, then the rope can be let go once you clear the roof. The rope will pull free from the pulley and drop into yard. I'd attach to the mini or stump midline to adjust your length. A light friction wrap on another tree for the release cut, or as you drew, a POW, can help.


Maybe you can borrow camera, scope the scene some more, take pics, and measure it. You will want to have some idea of the weight for lifting. I haven't seen a green palm weight chart, though.
 
they are heavy at, 80-90 pounds per cubic foot. i like the tires idea alot. i found a place that has a bunch for free. im going to try a controlled speed line. we can get our mini loader around to the back of the house so i thinking about using the mini as an anchor and just taking small pieces. send the pieces down the length wise portion of the ally way. this is of course the last case scenario we might be dealing with but if the crane is not available we are gonna have to do this.
 
In eight years of doing this (I am a new-born compared to a lot of guys on here and I could be way off, but..) I've never saved money by not getting a crane. The amount of time you are going to spend working harder can't be considered saving anything. Maybe you guys cranes cost more to rent than the ones around here. Even if I felled the remaining stem, I'd pluck those pieces out from behind the building with the crane. There's never any need to work so hard. I respect hard work, but I'm far too lazy to waste calories on un-warranted ground humping. I love it when ridiculous statements still make sense.

So, long story short-- Bigger stick = no ground humping.
 
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