Radical lean

[travelr64]

I have some large ash trees to drop.  Some of them are multi-trunked, and leaning very radically.  How do you guys cut your notch on a tree like that?  I'm afraid the lean of the trunks might pinch the bar even starting the notch.  Am I wrong?

Or should I just go ahead and make the felling cut and let them fall over without a notch?

As you can tell, I'm new here and a bit green when it comes to cutting timber.

Thanks in advance for the help.  Great Site, and obviously tons of knowledge here ! ! !

Coop

[Ianab]

Hi Travelr

Have a look at these threads about plunge cutting, that seems the safest way to fell leaning trees, more control and less chance of barberchair splitting. Think you should allways make a notch, even if you reduce depth of it Very unlikely that it will close as 90% of the trunk is still intact. I have had it happen to me, but that was in a cypress tree that had about a 70 deg lean, should be OK with any sensible looking tree :

https://forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=Business;action=display;num=1076772988;start=0
https://forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=chainsaws;action=display;num=1080350803;start=40

Best to practise on some user friendly small trees before you go tackling the big ugly ones though

ian

[oldsaw-addict]

Whats the diameter of the trees? Also how many degrees are the tree trunks growing at?  If they're growing on a 45degree angle I think the best thing to do is simply cut em from the top without a notch.

[redpowerd]

i grab them as low as i can go, if the trunk aint low enough, take stems out individually untill comfy

[Kevin]

Welcome Coop.
You can't cut those with a normal notch and back cut because the tension wood on the back side is likely to cause the tree to split out and barberchair.
On a guess without seeing it I would think the best way to handle it would be to isolate each stem and remove them separately.
As always, if you aren't sure get someone in that's experienced to help.

[Hunter]

I think Kevin gave some great advise. Make sure you dont get yourself in a dangerous situation.
The leaning trees can be tricky and unpredicatable at times.
Hunter

[travelr64]

Well, I got a couple of the bad leaners down today.  Not much trouble there. Just cut a shallow notch on the bottom side, then made my felling cut and they came down fine.  They do tend to be a little tough to limb though.  I guess I need to get the winch I've had for seven years out of the box and start using it.  It'd be a lot easier to limb and buck these big trees if I winched 'em off of the hinge over on the side that had the least limbs on it.

Thanks for all the tips.  That helped a lot.  I did bore one  tree that I couldn't get behind very well.  Never considered doing it that way until gettin' that idea this morning from one of the replies.

Thanks again
Coop