tree and saw rescue

[rebocardo]

Today I rescued someone's Poulan from a tree. What happened is the guy was cutting a dead tree, it leaned back, and trapped the saw. It was a 14" Poulan on a 20" or so cut. I saw the plea for help on craiglist.org, it was an hour away, and I could fit it in my schedule. Plus, the person was really concerned about it falling and hitting his neighbor's fence and did not seem like a jerk. Turns out to be a very nice and still alive guy.

Before you post comments, I just want to let you know the guy is going to visit this forum (so be kind) and learn how to do this stuff safer. He does not want to buy chaps, maybe someone else could convince him otherwise.  ;)

I measured the tree with my clinometer, it was 95 feet tall. Where he had the notch facing, if it had actually fell that way, it would have hit the neighbor's house 65 feet away. His house was even closer and yes, it was close enough to crush the fence too. So, he was pretty lucky he was not successful cutting this tree down  ;)

I ended up getting a deadman line and a winch line into the top of the tree about 60 feet up and pulled it down with my 4x4 van. I had to redo his notch before I did though because I did not want it to barberchair even though I had it wrapped it chain.

After the tree was down, I found the only thing holding the tree up was the bar and about 1"x4" hingewood.      I was sweating bullets getting my lines into the tree and you can bet I used a 20 foot pole to grab my throwlines from in front of the lean. I almost thought I was going to pull it down by hand when tightening the cable nooses around the trunk.

Only damage done was a drain pipe on the neighbor's (friend's) house and a bent shackle from pulling the tree. First I got it up straight and started to gently pull it and when it started to move where I wanted it, it was pedal to the medal.

Here is the notch



I am pretty sure this would have resulted in a barberchair being some kind of oak



dutchman


the back cut



This is the stuck bar


neighbor's house, I ended up dropping it parallel to the white house next door because it was the only place I could get anchor trees and a straight line to pull with my truck. I figured there was no hinge wood to even try anything else. I was right.



I told him he was very lucky to be alive.

Some of the most exciting money I have earned with my chainsaw so far.

[Dan_Shade]

wow

the "not knowing" of trees gets a lot of people in trouble.  i know enough to know that felling trees scares the crap out of me!  you guys that are pros make it look really easy to get everything to line up, keep the bar flat, and cut good notches.

[Quartlow]

While I'm no pro, I'm pretty confident in putting trees where I want them. OF course I've also left some trees right where I found them more than once.

This is one I would not have cut on my own

[Engineer]

If that was mine, I proabably wouldn't have hesitated to drop it, but my planning would have been a little better.   

Good thing a nice gust of wind didn't come up, that would have been messy.

[tcsmpsi]

If you grab a tool and go to cutting trees down, at some point, everyone gets in 'trouble'.

Fortunately, this fellow was smart enough to cry HELP!! (not to mention, lucky enough to have avoided catastrophe...and, to have found someone to help  ;)).

[Ed]

WOW!! That was one lucky homewner. You did good.

Anytime I fell a tree that is even the slightest bit questionable, I have a 9000lb winch pulling on it. Since my ability to judge where a tree will fall isn't that great, the winch & truck gets used quite often.

Ed

[MemphisLogger]

Good on you for helping him, rebo--alot  of tree guys would walk away from that for fear of liability.

I had a similar situation happen a few years ago after a big storm. We're driving down a major 4 lane through a suburban area after prepping some logs for transport when we come across this brand new SUV with its flashers on parked in the middle of the lanes we're traveling. I assumed he was stuck and since I had tow straps with me, I stopped and offered to pull him out of the road.

Turns out the SUV is fine--he parked it there so nobody would get hit by the tree he was felling. I look at the tree (a little oak, probably only 18" and 70-80' tall) and see that it's apparently propped up with a 12' 2x4 with his little homelite is stuck in the backcut. When I take in the back lean of the tree, I note that his SUV is right wehere it would land.

I examined the notch and thought the angle was a little tight but appeared to have a good hinge left, so I had Austin go grab the wedges and a sledge out of the truck.

I asked the fella if he was sure the tree was going to miss his house and he assures me that he did his geometry. I asked him if he wanted us to put down the tree and made him shake hands to hold me harmless if it hit his house.

I cleaned up the notch a little and Austin set the wedge and gave it a couple of good raps with the sledge and the tree went back over the way it was supposed to go. As if to teach the guy a lesson, it took his gutter clean off but didn't hurt anything else.

The guy was really impressed with our wedges and asks where he can get some  

I chided him a little about not getting involved in dangerous situations without knowing what he's doing (he said he had read the manual that came with the homelite) and pointed out to him that neither his homeowners insurance or his auto insurance would have covered any damages.

He offered me money but I told him it was a WWJD situation and please be careful in the future. I gave him a card since he expressed interest in woodworking and he sent me $200 worth of Outback certificates the next day--best steaks I ever earned in 15 minutes of work              

[logwalker]

You guys are white knights with chainsaws. It has to tough to walk into a mess like that and giterdone. Good work. LW

[KGNC]

I use to work with my uncle doing tree work. He got a urgent call one day about a tree going to fall on a house. What he found was a home owner that had tried to cut a tree beside the house. It had leaned back on his saw and was leaning toward the house. The home owner and his wife had climbed on the roof and tied a garden hose to the tree (no rope I guess). The had tryed to pull it by hand and then with their compact car. They quit pulling before the hose broke but left it tied to the car to "keep the tree from falling on the house" It took about 10 minutes to get the tree on the ground but we used a real rope and a wedge.

[rebocardo]

Urbanlogger, Good story!  8)

Which brings up a question, in chainsaw manuals how come they do not tell you to use wedges??? Wouldn't that save a lot of beginners grief? Or would the saw OEMs get sued from not providing wedges with the saw?

[Dan_Shade]

well, i sorta think a saw getting pinched and having to get a pro to help you out is a good thing in many cases.

[Tom]

They are probably only interested in minimally telling how to use the saw rather than how to take down trees.  Taking down trees is a technical education persued by only a few.  There are many being paid to do the job that haven't the necessary knowledge to properly assess the problems that may be encountered.  To make it even more complicating, The felling, and disposal, of trees has more than one occupation path, each with its own techniques.  To be proficient in one may not make you proficient in the other.

I'm sure that chainsaw manufacturers, trying to provide instructions for their saw, have a difficult time determining where to stop.

[solodan]

Well, at least they give you some basics on directional falling in the homeowners saw manuals. : Imagine if they explained  no basic falling techniques.   ???
I know a guy who really knows his limits, he told me he only cuts extremely. small trees down, because his only felling tecchnique is the "one cut". :D

[tcsmpsi]

From what 'chainsaw manuals' I have seen, the instructions themselves are reasonable.  However, also from what I have seen, seldom are the instructions followed completely or precisely. 

Regardless of how many trees I have felled, or perhaps because of how many trees I've felled, seldom do I take one without having it secured with at least one line.

Even then, things can happen.  So I'm told.   :D

[Ianab]

Which brings up a question, in chainsaw manuals how come they do not tell you to use wedges

Just checked the manual that came with the new Dolmar, it's got 1 page on actually falling a tree, shows a conventional notch and backcut and tells you to use plastic or alloy falling wedges in the backcut and NOT to cut the hinge wood. All good advice, a couple of diagrams, but pretty brief. OK for cutting down a small well behaved tree, but nothing advanced.

Sorta like learning to drive by reading the car handbook  :

Ian

[beenthere]

Ianab
I also have instructions in the Stihl manual to use wedges in the backcut (called the 'felling cut') as well as good instructions for large and small, straight and leaning, and plunge cutting.
Sections with diagrams for
Felling Instructions
Escape path
Buttress roots
Gunning site
Conventional cut (notch)
Open-face technique (notch)
Making sapwood cuts
Felling cut
Hinge
Felling cut for small diameter trees
Felling cut for large diameter trees
Plunge-cut method
Limbing
Bucking

Mixed in the text are Warnings!

[rebocardo]

Tom, I see your point.

I think one of the worse instructions which almost got me when I started was they tell you to test the hand brake by dropping the saw unto a log near the tip to see if the hand brake engages. This after telling you to test the oiling by running the saw full tilt and seeing what spews off the end to a stump or piece of cardboard.

I kept telling myself the instructions can't be right as there is no way you should do that to a running chainsaw or any piece of running equipment.

They never tell you to do it to a non-running saw!  I am sure more then one person got surprised by following the directions to T   >:(