My life and skin saved by God, FF, and chains

rebocardo · February 03, 2005, 01:55:56 AM

BC_coops posted in another topic about using 5/16 grade 70 chain to wrap trees to help prevent barberchairs. My thing was does it really work and does anyone have pictures as proof positive.

I decided to listen to my elders (more experienced peers) and start using chains to see if they would work. So, I went to Home Depot and bought 25 feet of 5/16 70 grade chain that said it was rated for 2900 working load. I put 3/8 chain hooks on it because that was the biggest hook that can fit between the links.

I was taking down a tree I knew was bad because a big chunk of it had fallen off in August and it took me all this time to get my neighbor's back yard cleared and mine so I could drop it properly. Part of it I had already removed that hit his house.

I cut down potential spring boards, removed two chain link fences, and basically cleared out everything within its fall, about 110 feet. It was 28 DBH oak.

I wrapped the trunk twice with my newly bought chain, 25 feet of 5/16 chain, and once with another spare tow chain I had hanging around.

I put three cable lines on it. One around each trunk section of the crotch so if the Y split it would be pulled into my yard in the right direction and one cable wrapped around the lower part of the crotch attached to my truck as the winch line.

As I tried to make an open face cut I dulled three chains before I finished. I do not know what I was hitting, probably nails since sparks where flying, but, I ended up from going from an open notch to a humbolt since I simply could not cut the lower part of the tree.

Worse, I had only one chain left and I was nervous because this tree had to come down once I started the face cut because there are too many kids that might wander into my neighbor's yard or mine. Especially with fences down. Yellow tape to a kid is like catnip to a feline.

So, I put on my last chain (4th) chain and started my back cut. I did a small cut in the bark, stood back, readjusted so it would be two inches above the face intersection and level. Perfect, so I started cutting and pounding in wedges, I am almost to the hinge and my wedges are going in very hard and I hear a crack. So, I scoot expecting the tree to fall.

Nothing!

Then standing back 15 feet from the side I noticed the tree bulging around the chains!

I was so worked up about dulling my three chains and working with the last worse stoned one that I never stepped to the other side of the tree to make sure my cut was level on both sides before going all the way towards the hinge like I usually do with bigger trees.

I was good on one side of the tree and off three inches below the hinge on the other side! I had just created my first dutchman. Worse, when I went and got a light, since it was now 1.5 hours after I started the face cut and dark, I can now SEE the tree starting to split. The chains are tight, but, not deformed.

So, I recut the notch almost all the way to the ground since my back cut is so off and try to pull down with my truck. No go. Too much wood left even with the new deeper face cut.

So, I go back and cut a bit out of the backcut more and more towards the hinge on the bad side and stop and wait after each little cut until I hear no more cracking, while watching the chains.
I had the 28 inch bar stuck in only about 1/2 way and was cutting at full arm's length.

Meanwhile praying for God to let me run when its time to run or to let me know when its time to give up. So, I hear a crack while cutting and think I see movement, its running time. The tree came down right where I wanted it.

I was correct in wrapping the crotch with cables since it was rotted in the crotch and the tree could have split in 1/2 just from the ice storm we had coming. It was also rotted right down the middle of the center of the tree and got worse as it went up. It was rotted about 3 inches in the center at breast height and 20 inches and hollow at the crotch.

The tree split completely from top to bottom and the crotch split in 1/2 when it hit the ground. I was really glad I wrapped the back side of the crotch with cable and pulled from the backside. The chains held and loosened up once the trunk hit the ground.

I was even happier I used the chains. Thanks BC

DanG · February 03, 2005, 02:50:43 PM

Good show, Rebo! I'm with ya on the good advice and ideas we get here on the forum. Applying what you learned, you put in enough safety gimmicks to overcome the mistake you made.

Good reporting of the incident, too. I'm sure it will help someone else in the future.

You was going real good there, till ya tried ta smooch ol' BC.

We may never see him again, now. :D :D :D

IndyIan · February 03, 2005, 03:24:22 PM

Hi Rebecardo,
I'm glad you got the tree down ok and that the chains stopped the barber chair.
Sometime though you should get someone to show you how to plunge cut. It sounds like this tree would've been a good canidate for the plunge and backstrap method. I'm no expert by any means but I use it alot on anything leaning at all... Gives you time to wait for a bad gust of wind to go away, put in wedges, have another look around to make sure nobodies wandering into your fall zone...
I've never had any bad kickback either,(knock on wood) sure sometimes the saw would come out at me if I let it but even a 372 at full steam doesn't have enough jam to move you when your anticipating it and in a good position.
I practiced with a small bar on a smaller saw on softwood stump and then moved up to the bigger saw. I find the longer bars are abit harder to use for this but it still works.

Anyways, this is just my advice, its worth what you paid ;) Keep up the good work regardless!
Ian

BC_coops · February 03, 2005, 04:06:33 PM

Good news ... to hear your tree came down safely ... what I see is that once you thought about which safety measures were applicable to the exact predicament of that particular tree, it took you only a reasonable and minimum of effort to set them up. That's an ongoing and important lesson for all of us. So that was great reporting.

I agree with IndyIan about the plunge cut, with the warning that when plunging there can be more room to accidentally tilt the bar up or down and make yourself a hidden dutchman. Especially around a large tree, where the ground is tilting this way on one side, and maybe that way on another, and a tree buttress is pushing this way on one side and that way on another, and so on. Add to that the spiral tilt of the tree, and it can be difficult to be sure where dead level is when plunging a trunk from multiple sides. It can help to have a spotter double check level on your plunge cut before you go in. I recon that theoretically, a plunge cut tree could also barber chair on you when you cut the backstrap, if you setup a hidden dutchman at the hinge. Also, when cutting the backstrap, the tree will "go" a lot faster ... unlike when cutting toward a hinge, where you start to get a kind of feel for when the tree will go ...

Now that you got yourself a chain, you might think about getting yourself a hydraulic winch ... you'll never look back if you've got any land to maintain. Great for rolling over the trunks of big ones for limbing, as well as dropping them on a dime.

Dean Hylton · February 04, 2005, 11:41:32 AM

Great Post thanks for sharing.

twostroke_blood · February 04, 2005, 06:46:26 PM

Thumbs up to the plunge cut. Ive always called it "drilling the tree" I used that method on hardwoods on my property in Kentucky its some very hilly terrain wich makes for lots of leaning trees. By my experience a hard nose bar works best.Less kickback when drilling into the tree than the rollernose bar.

rebocardo · February 04, 2005, 08:44:15 PM

I was looking for the handshake icon, the only other one left under "more" is the afro one.

Besides being very scared, I felt pretty stupid making the dutchman and could not believe I did it after all the prep work I did to do the tree safely.

But, since the chains saved me, I thought I would post about it to save someone else.

> Sometime though you should get someone to show you how to
> plunge cut.

Yes, I hope so. The only thing that keeps going through my mind is what if I hit metal on the push cut running skip chain. I think I need a good metal detector, finding it with my chains is getting dull. Maybe one that finds metal AND concrete would be better :D

The other tree I took out that was leaning over his house, while cutting it into firewood I found some sort of metal ball 1.5 inches across 30 something feet up into the tree.

> you might think about getting yourself a hydraulic winch

I really want one! I just need power steering first ;) I already broke my 6k electric.

rebocardo · February 22, 2005, 02:34:19 PM

Here are some pictures that prove wrapping the trunk with chain works:

The butt end where you can see the tree split into a V and the chains held it together and the heart rot that went up the whole length of the tree and got bigger as the tree got taller. If you did an increment bore at the base of the tree (28+ inches) you could have easily missed the rot.

The tree was so cleanly split/barberchaired that after the tree was down and the chains and cables off and the tree cut into 8 foot sections, I was able to split the trunk in 1/2 by hand by lifting one piece (wedge) off another.

As a precaution, I wrapped the upper crotch of the tree of the tree in 1/4 cable, attached to my truck as a winch line, then wrapped each Y of the crotch to a separate anchor/tree and tensioned the cables slightly. Just in case the tree split at the crotch or above, I wanted each part of the crotch pulled towards the falling tree/line.

One branch coming from the crotch was about 100 feet high ( 60+ feet long) and if the tree split I did not want it going anywhere but towards the fall, PLUS, if the tree split I did not want it to come crashing down on my head. I had thought about someone coming in and climbing the tree to get that one branch down, but, I knew the tree was extremely unsafe because of how it has split earlier. So, I decided to fall the tree along its natural lean (that bigbranch) across two yards and between two trees.

The whole yard was cleared and the fences down so I had multiple escape routes. When the tree came down I was behind a tree (135 degree behind 40+ feet away) against the wall of a brick house just in case. It did come down exactly where I wanted it.

I waited four months to do the tree because I wanted all the leaves off (less weight, sailing, and clean up) and I wanted dry firm ground with no wind. I did not want the tree to start going over and have the root ball pull out.

This is about a foot below the crotch, 30+ feet up, the tree was just filled with smelly punk and acorn shells.