[ QUOTE ]
professional arborists from all over the US and world, and we are all sitting in a little box... must be crowded in here
On both your backleaners, the hinge failed. ON BOTH. Not so 100%, cut and dry. 20 degrees? By the look of the picture, looked about 41.37 degrees... I think mashing other other urban trees with broken trees is in bad taste(just an unprofessional, boxed-in opinion) Keep it up though, you're almost a level 4 scoutmaster!
[/ QUOTE ]
You make the perfect point here.. YES you are stuck in the box if you can't see that the first hinge was designed to fail. WHy do you think I showed a pic of the failed hinge? As soon as the piece stood up enough to clear the tree it was hung-up in, it dropped harmlessly onto the lawn, just shy of the fence. Keeping the hinge in tact was going to lay the tree up in the ground anchor tree, or put it on the fence. The skid steer op. was instructed to pull until it cleared the first tree, then stop. If the hinge didn't fail on its own, I was planning on cutting the far corner of the hinge to drop it on the lawn.
Just another example of how I have to keep explaining such things to people who are so clueless, they don't get that that was the major point of video.
The second tree made it over the creek and did no damage. Given the condition of the hinge wood (which had maybe 2" of good wood on each corner) and the degree of backlean, I was happy with the result. Though in reviewing the tape, I think the tree could have made the lay if we had adjusted the angle of the pull line.
The point I was trying to make is that you could not even approach this job trying to fall it against the lean if you were planning on pulling by hand, but there is no point in trying to make logical arguments with you all.. You are stuck.. ANd I keep getting it done..