Leaning Pine removal

RC1

We brought down this leaning pine on Saturday morning. I only received the call the night before from a friend of mine who’s still recovering from a pretty horrific circular-saw-bench accident. Obviously I was glad to help him out of a spot. Understaffed, over a highway, it was a rush to put the tree down before the traffic got too busy….Far from exemplary saw-handling and traffic management, I know….but we were in control, made the best of the situation and had the tree down before noon. Nothing technical, just a bread and butter job.

Try to download the high quality version, makes all the difference. Thanks.

Part 1


Part 2

Eric Frei

Another nice one,

Reg, all the chogs sliding off like that, that always happen? Or are you causing that somehow?

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RC1

Its the lean Eric, could do with a few more like that

Eric Frei

Oh, it didn't look like a lean on the video.

Messy trees, bombing the chogs onto the debris pile would have made real nice rake up for the boys, but not like you could have them bouncing down the road or making pot hole.

Plant trees in the wackiest places eh.

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RC1

Exactly, and conifer brush will absorb a good pounding without breaking up too much so its still pretty much all chippable by the end. The customer wanted the firewood so it made sense for me to cut-to-size when I got down to the last 20 ft or so.

letigre

nice one! can i ask why you didnt rig off larger bits? ie instead of pieceing those branches down. prob obvious reason

RC1

If we'd had another pair of hands then that would have worked out well, especially considering the extra control over a situation that rigging provides.....but as it was, I didn't think it was practical to ask 2 guys to rig down big sections and manage the traffic at the same time. Probably would've created more problems than it solved.

treerat

Hey Reg, nice job man that sucks dodging traffic though, did you use any traffic signs on the job? We can usually get away with minimal signage on some of our back roads but on the heavier traveled roads no way, everything has to be spot on and it better be or some ahole from the state or the local cops will shut the job down until everything is in place.

RC1

Yeah we had plenty of signs etc, and took the added precaution of doing the job on a saturday when it wasn't as busy. I never enjoy these type of jobs though, people and traffic.....its unsettling!

Garry Brockley

i love these jobs just spent 18 months doing nothing but roadside removal country wide light suppliers came everyday to put up the lights and signs and we still had the smell of rubber most days as people skidded up to the lights and cars waiting at the lights.had bets on types of vehicle and sex of drivers ect. Great job done though, loved the vid, how do you attach the camera to your helmet.

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letigre

ah ha makes sense. didnt think a man like yourself would miss the opportunity to do some rigging without good reason.

nice vids man, compensating for lay abouts like myself that never contribute!. keep it up

RC1

I had to drill 4 tiny holes and run tie-straps through them to hold the lens bracket in place. Works well, so long as you remember to duck a little lower than usual when moving under branches and stuff.

I used it again today on a crane removal, I might even be able to edit it by late tonight. Thanks

newguy18

another good one Reg,when are you gonna invest in those caddy pads?What kind of pine was it?

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old schooler

RC1

It was an Austrian pine

I'd like to try those pads first

newguy18

man they're the best.I got mine about 2 months ago and you can go all day long in them,no worries.I don't have any trouble with my bad knee like i used to in spurs.

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JohN Dee

Hey Reg nice video once again.

Man I was packing for ya at 4:30 on part 1, 2/3 cut big branch, guy walking under and another cutting while traffic coming EEK, but was glad to see it hold Good work

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RC1

That branch had already been shortened some years ago so it wasn't as big as it looked and probably would have just skimmed em if I'd cut all the way through But they should have known better than to just run in before I'd given them the ok. That whole job was a little hit and miss....the main reason for posting it!

treevet

It must be an additional challenge to work with all the personalities one has to deal with on a crew when you are constantly changing crews. Some gm's are very stubborn and demand to enter the kill zone to do part of their work while the climber is in an uncomfortable or transitional position. That guy that walked right under while you were cutting.....man I might have fired him right on the spot, but you can't because it is not your company and they know that of course.

Was thinking about that vid today. Had a dope work for me couple of years ago that did just that 3 times after being instructed. The third time I was about 70 feet up and he knew I was cutting and ran under anyway. I had to reach to grab the butt of a heavy oak branch and have a nasty sawchain scar to prove it. I fired him and cleaned up myself, put an ad in the paper again.

Maybe 10 years ago a climber I had who couldn't stay off the drugs gave me problems and I had to let him go. Good climber too. Problem was I was the safety valve on all jobs. After he left he went on his own and dropped a large stub out of a pine when he could not see the ground and assumed his gm was out of the way. It hit his head on top, cracked his skull and he nearly died.
Didn't surprise me much when I heard this.

Jeff Darby

--Dads account grr--

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treevet

Can he still count to ten?

Used to do a lot of work at a very intellectual college, an Ivy Leaguer called Princeton Univ. These morons, likely of very high IQ, used to walk right under and look up and say, "whatcha ya doin up there?" (trying to move to an opening to toss a stub on yer forehead )

Is that you John posting on Dad's name or is that you Jay and your Dad a treeman also?

Garry Brockley

I had a groundie drive the truck under the oak i was working on i was 30ft up chunking down, ihad already dropped 4 or 5 pieces three foot long 12" dia.
lost part of the end of my middle finger trying to stop the piece, dragged him off site and made him walk/ hitch home and fired him, I agree you can't teach common sense

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treevet

That the same guy parked the chipper under the takedown in recent picture?

Like you, grabbing the piece to not hit the dumb shit, I put the saw into the hand, or holding the branch that was moving the hand was put into the saw, I got an ugly cut that just missed a vein. I fired him from in the tree, taped hand with t shirt and ofcourse I wasn't coming down just to give him a ride. It was 2 hours into the day on a Mon. and he didn't come back looking for pay either.

Garry Brockley

no he was a local guy to me. that dipSh** that parked the chipper under the tree has just failed the latest course i put him on basic felling course i give up you try to bring them on and help them and they don't have the intelligence to help themselves im taking a sign today with "breath in" on one side and "breath out" on the other and hold it up every few seconds, i dont want him suffocating and dieing on the job too much paperwork.

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treevet

I hear ya. The dumb/hungover ones are too numb nutted to get it and the good ones usually don't last that long for one reason or another. That is why I am still doin it at 60 (including womb time) but still love every inch of it.

JohN Dee

We had a guy like ya first one as well Treevet. We had the branch tied (liquidambar tree btw) and were lowering it to the ground in a lush speedy way, down comes the branch, under goes the groundy for a smaller branch already on the ground. Dad locked up the branch (~2m above the guy) grabbed the groundy and threw him out of the drop zone by his collar, marched him off site and he has never worked for us again.

You can induct and train a person til' they shit text books, but you can never teach them bloody commen sense. He was and still is a mate of mine, he packs meat in a factory now.

Lol I wish my Pop was still around to be a Treeman with us Treevet I accidentally posted on dads account again, left himself signed in

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newguy18

Man,i've had 2 groundies do that crap to me,one is a friend of mine who was standing under a section of limb i was cutting,about 6" diamter by 4' long,i cut 2/3 the way through it then let go of the saw so it couldn't hit him after it started falling,wrenched the hell out of my shoulder.The second was my brother and to this day will never forget the little lesson he learned that day.[no i didn't hit him in the head with a stub ].

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old schooler