Felling trees with a M35A2

[FL_Frank]

Hi all,
Had a 60'+ tree right beside my house that, since I live in Florida, became the tallest object and thus a frequent lightning rod. A very dead, unstable lightning rod specifically eying my house.

It had to come down, but paying someone $2000+ to do it professionally wasn't going to happen, so time to break out the toys.

Ended up using (2) 6" 15.5 ton McKissick snatch blocks and (1) 8" snatch block (8 ton, I think) with 3/4 wire rope, chains, HF tow straps and a few slings to do the deed.

First pull was a 4:1 using 2 of the snatch blocks for the leverage and 1 to redirect the pull. This only bent the tree over a bit as I ran out of pulley/cable line.

Second pull was 2:1 and did the trick. It caught on a few other trees on the way down and spent the next 30 mins going 'pop/crack/bang' as the other tree's branches gave into the load on them. Tree has a 6' root ball I get to clean up this week sometime - should be fun.

I did initially try this pull with a F150 - which really didn't do anything but lift the snatch blocks off the ground. Tree didn't even budge.

Glad it went uneventful - and the wife kindly filmed it behind a very large oak tree for safety. Videos are below:

First 4:1 pull
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkT-Nr7bqU8[/media]

Final 2:1 pull
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqr9pMdupTo[/media]

-Frank

 

[Recovry4x4]

Good work. I do tree felling in a similar fashion.

 

[joeinaforest]

Good work, that was awesome!

 

[T. Highway]

Excellent job!

 

[FL_Frank]

Thanks guys - all this military hardware does come in handy at times, least that's what I keep telling the wife.

 

[fuzzytoaster]

Always good to have the right tools for the job. (It also doesnt hurt to have a little overkill too! )

 

[stevegr]

Good work. I'd say that job was a "cut" above the rest. If that is oak, I could sure use the firewood. I work in Apopka. I could stop by with my Deuce to pick some of the wood up if you are willing to part with some of it.

 

[treeguy]

Nice root ball! I've thought about trying out this tactic but the situation hasn't come around yet. I have to do it a little different, could you imagine the look on an 80 year old customer's face when you tell her the tree is down but some one otta do something about that new hole in her yard!

 

[FL_Frank]

Thanks Greg - appreciate the offer to come get the wood. If I didn't have a fireplace, I'd have taken you up on it, but my fireplace loves oak =)

Treeguy - I wasn't expecting a crater in the yard, but the tractor has a front end loader on it, so it'll be easy enough to fix. Getting the massive trunk out of there should be trivial for the deuce, once I get all the dirt off of it of course.

-Frank