Hung up tree

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Unsure

Unsure

Friend
Neighbor
Joined
May 15, 2023
Messages
16
Location
New Hamster
Hello everyone. We had this tree fall and it got hung up on its neighbor. My son and the dogs like to play down there and I would like to remove the tree so it’s safe. I was thinking the safest way to bring it down is a ratchet strap or a come along tethered as high up on the tree as I can reach, and then just slide it off? If it goes wrong, I’d be out of the way of it all too.

It’s not really tangled up and I think with a little help it will slide off. But I wanted to get opinions first.
IMG_2024-06-02-074903.jpeg
 
I see a couple options.
Are you (or do you know someone) that's good with a chainsaw? You carefully cut off about 3-4' from the bottom and the tree then it falls down that distance. Repeat as necessary until it frees itself from the other tree.

Using a come along or something stronger (like an ATV or truck), grab the bottom of the hung up tree near the bottom then start dragging it away from the upright tree until it falls.
 
I just hook a rope or chain to the bottom fairly low and drag it away with my tractor, it will make a gash in the ground. but it works . I would be pretty careful of trying to saw that one it looks like a bad case of core rot and would likely bind fairly bad.
 
I learned (the hard way twice) that if your working with trees think about EVERYTHING that could happen. Once I was pulling a dead limb out. As I pulled another limb that I hadn't even noticed fell & tried to pop me in the middle of the chest. I was lucky & reacted fast enough to take the blow on my arm (right in front of my heart). Very stupid of me but I did something similar AGAIN. That time cost me a trip to urgent care & some stitches. So whatever you do, don't be anywhere near when it happens. Learn from an idiot!
 
You an use a cant hook on bottom by standing on uphill side away from it..meaning opposite direction you want it to go and you just roll it out of that tree its in.

 
Done! I’m so so happy that tree is not hanging over anyone’s heads anymore, thank you all so much!


I went with Tirediron’s advice and put the strap down low. Can’t get a tractor down there, (and don’t own one, ha ha), so used a come along. First time really using one for something big, and releasing it with tension on it was really hard, which I had to do twice because I pulled it out as far as the come along could go, and it still didn’t fall, so had to do it again (this is where a tractor would be nice because I guess you can just keep moving) All the tension must have been helping the tree stay put after I dragged it out even further, because within five seconds of the tension release, the whole thing came down. My heart definitely got a workout when I heard that cracking sound.

I would like to get more proficient with using a come along safely, since as a woman, I can’t just brute strength my way through things that a lot of guys can, so leverage is my friend for moving heavy stuff.

Also the cant hook is really interesting too! But similar to the chain saw approach, I’m not sure I trust myself to do it right so staying way far away from the tree is the best approach for me I think.


So happy its done. Now I just gotta clean it up. Maybe I’ll save that for tomorrow though.


IMG_2024-06-02-100053.jpeg
 
I'm glad to hear that you got it down safely, over the years I've seen trees do strange things and I've always found it best to get as far away as possible to get them down, Murphy's Law always seems to be in the works and I know a few people that paid dearly for what Murphy had come up with.
 
Late to the party, but your first three poster all are right, I have used all the ideals without harm.
Had a tree that was attached to another tree top by a large grape vine, so we cut the second tree down.
That was not your problem, but thought it was worth saying.
 
Last edited:
A thought to the future… around here we get powerlines downed and broken from nadoes/storms. Occasionally lines have to be replaced. Here, the power company will roll up pieces of the old line to be discarded. The pieces can be 100’s of feet long. I’ve never had a problem getting pieces or discards. Just ask or I have seen them left laying on the ground.

I keep a few pieces of this old powerline here on the farm. It’s fairly light, aluminum wire wrapped around a steel center wire. It’s handy when I can’t get a tractor close to an object to be pulled.

Normally I use a chain to pull trees or logs. Once in a great while having a couple hundred feet of old powerline saves the day. Just use cable clamps and put a small loop onto the ends of the line you acquire. Then you can hook a chain, come-a-long etc to the ends.

cable clamp
Cable-Clamp.jpg
 
Peanut said:
A thought to the future… around here we get powerlines downed and broken from nadoes/storms. Occasionally lines have to be replaced. Here, the power company will roll up pieces of the old line to be discarded. The pieces can be 100’s of feet long. I’ve never had a problem getting pieces or discards. Just ask or I have seen them left laying on the ground.

I keep a few pieces of this old powerline here on the farm. It’s fairly light, aluminum wire wrapped around a steel center wire. It’s handy when I can’t get a tractor close to an object to be pulled.

Normally I use a chain to pull trees or logs. Once in a great while having a couple hundred feet of old powerline saves the day. Just use cable clamps and put a small loop onto the ends of the line you acquire. Then you can hook a chain, come-a-long etc to the ends.

cable clamp
View attachment 153730
Click to expand...
Excellent idea, and I bet this is what the previous owner did to put tension on a bridge he made over the stream. When I was battling the brush and weeds and fallen trees to re-clear a spot by the stream I found the wires he had used probably 20 or so years ago. I had no idea to look for that clamp and used cable cutters to cut the lines! My son tripped over one that was hidden and I was mad at the hidden line and just chopped it, ha! I found the clamp later and felt like an idiot.

Sadly the bridge is a mess and a couple of the trees the lines were strung to are dead now. We still use what’s left of the bridge to tie our inner tubes to so we can float in the only spot we have deep enough to float in!

I even think he left a bit of the lines spooled up somewhere, I’ll have to check tomorrow.
 
Every single one. Ill generally spend 15 minutes or longer figuring out where I want it to drop, what can get in the way, what can't go wrong, and most importantly my escape route once it starts down with a secondary in case it goes a different way. I also keep a tourniquet on me
 
Weedygarden said:
Is that was is known as a widow maker?
Click to expand...

So are dead limbs in the top of a tall tree. They can break off at anytime but especially if you're underneath cutting the tree down. A dead limb doesn't weigh much but it doesn't have to when it falls 70ft. It can still kill you. A lot of things can go wrong when dropping trees.
 
I really don't like the cant hook plan, looks like a way to end up Can't walk, I always try to be at least 1 1/2 times the height of the tree away from it to stay clear of the wreckage. I have had a few do exactly what they shouldn't , if in doubt just don't And You tube is not the best place for tree advice, at all. for instance the can't hook video didn't show the hang, trying that with a tree caught in a v would be scary, and the onlooker and the camera operator were in danger too.
 
I have several fairly long pieces of cable with a piece of chain at each end, usually about 3 or 4 feet of chain with a grab hook, makes hooking up the end easy and cable is less expensive than chain, it is also handy to have a snatch block or 2 to help get tree length logs out of tight spaces, we should know by now not to mention logging when i am near a keyboard
 
Any tree can go in any direction and will.

I was pushing pines with a dozer that had a brush fence on it with about 6 inch holes it, A 4" thick pine came from the bottom of the pile bent in the center and sprang back through one of the holes in the fence I stood on the brake and buried the blade and it stopped two inches from my heart with a broken off spear point shaped end.

A green tree will build enough tension to jump about its length easily, a dead tree will disintegrate and the solid part will go where it wants, even the length of the tree away.

Like @Bacpacker said a good inspection of the site and the tree will go a long way toward coming out in one piece.

Glad your tree came down well.!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top