Uphill Battle

jmcscrap

jmcscrap

Participating member
Location
Woodbury, MN
Here's what I have, 6 oak trees about 30" DBH, 200 ft down a snow covered hill. It's at least a 20% grade or a 40 ft elevation drop (not an even slope drop) right now there is no way to get a machine in there because of the slope and the slippery conditions. My question is what will be an easy way to hump this out of there. The trees are being removed due to oak wilt. I have thought about a speedline and possibly a fiddleblock setup to lift the sections of tree off the ground as they move up hill. Any other thoughts on this?
 
I would say the speedline. Maybe to pull it all up, use a GRCS to pull the load up the line. If you've seen AxMen, then I would do something like that, expect instead of a motirzed carriage, use the GRCS. To me this sounds like the best way to do it without equipment. And to get a crane you would have to have quite a large one, so a crane is probaly out of the question. Hope this helps.
 
how close can you get?

I have used a tree to mount a pully in like in "axe men" and then run a truck mounted winch to it. If the winch line doesn't reach then a rope attached to winch line.

On winches. I have a a 15000 warn, but if you are going to get one a "mile marker" type is much better. Warn type are electric, mile marker type are hydrolic. The electric one's heat up fast and can burn out the motor.

You might try posting in the logger section as well.
 
If it is uphill, then back down hill; after the 1st comes up; it can serve to decrease the work/ increase the speed of the subsequent pulls as a ballast...

Parbuckle is one way; it looks like it is just a 2:1; but is actually 2x ramp x log radius. Whereby you are using the log radius as leverage over the CG. So, the same length/weight of a denser log would give less leverage to roll itself. But then a longer log of same weight (therefore less dense) could give less radius so could be harder to pull; all dependent on the radius that allowed you to take leverage over it's own self. Whenever we roll any load, we are using it's own length on that axis as leverage over it's CG.

If you could even find a 20' truck run on solid ground, you could load weight in back of truck; 'billiard shot' a line to the load, anchor the line off side of the truck, then place pulley on the back of the truck and pull; to get half power but 2x the pulling distance (and speed); not allowing for stretch and frictions of pulleys on billiard shot run, on the load.
 
Treespyder, Could you give me more detail on the "billiard shot" method that you are talking about. Possibly a diagram? Thanks for the help.
 
if the trees are in that remote of a locations whats the damage of safely putting them on the ground (with out damageing the other trees) and leaving them their? there isnt a road otherwise you would be able to get your truck there and it sounds un inhabitably, so climb up, cut down, give your customer a break on the price because your not hauling anything away, and go home happy and hopefully a bit more rested then trying to hump the debri out
 
Familytree, I would love to drop and go, but these are infected with oakwilt and we need to get the wood out. We've been through the other options as far as burying or covering in plastic, debarking, but it just makes more sense for us to get them out.
 
You should be using a large bed winch, maybe rent a tow truck or skidder.
A skidding cone or bed liner can be used to reduce drag.
A crane would be be more costly.
A static cable used as a highline would work.
 
So oak wilt is introduced by beetles and spread primarily through root grafts. If the trees are infected with oak wilt, why would you risk spreading oak wilt by moving infected wood off site? It would make more sense to me to leave the wood in the infection zone after debarking it istead of possibly moving beetles farther off site. If you remove the environment that the beetles use to feed and breed then there is no more threat from that oak tree to attract disease infected beetles. Are you planning on trenching the roots to prevent underground spread? Maybe you could just haul out the smaller chipable stuff and leave the debarked logs there. Assuming its not unsightly and the client doesn't mind. Also, how far along in the disease cycle are these oaks? Are they dead, close to dead, or just starting to flag? In any case I hope you find a solution that works well.
 
When i said billiard shot; i meant tracing a line ricocheting off anchors through pulleys from power source to loads to deliver power where needed. If ya tie lines together between pulleys; you have to make sure that the knot doesn't jam into the pulleys. You can do this if the knot travel to pulley is less than the load movement and/ or if the tether of the pulley to it's anchor is long enough to allow the pulley to move when knot hits it or having someone release a pulley and leave it hanging if load is passing that point. Like it says in "Moving Heavy Things"; get lazy, creatively!
 
Phil, the area has been trenched, these are last seasons trees that need to be out by the end of march. The wood will be chipped to prevent the distribution through spore mats and beetle infestation.
TreeSpyder, I get what your saying now, thanks for the help.
Thanks everyone for the input. I'll let you know how it goes and what we decide to ultimately do.
 
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