Working the K-7 winch truck

We have lost our ash trees to the emerald ash bore beetle. We lost 5 trees but this one is in close proximity to the power, LP tank, and house.
There was also risk that the tree would split when cut down, with 1/2 going one way and 1/2 the other.
Bring in the winch truck and rigging. We used Manila rope and snatch blocks to the Winch capstan, rather than the winch it self. Rope on capstan allows more control over the pull, where as the winch and cable would have to controlled from inside the cab, restricting view of the pull. Winch was used once the tree was down to lift for cutting into sections.
As big as this tree was, it was all downed with 16" and 14" electric chainsaws.

winch capstan

one more

Tree rigging

Nicely done! What a difference having a piece of equipment and the knowledge to use it makes. I have to rely on a felling wedge,rope and my friends to drop those "iffy" trees. The ash have been hit hard too here in Pa. While there aren't any on the hill around my house there are many at my daughters property and I have taken down close to a couple of dozen of them. I wonder if they will make a comeback or will they suffer the same fate as the elm. Anyway it's nice to see the old "K" earn its keep!

Normally, I would limb out the trunk while it is still standing and then drop the trunk. It did some limbing while it was up (Electric saws are great for working in the tree) but it was hemmed in on 3 sides, 10' from the house, 4' from the propane tank and had limbs that had grown over the electrical feed to the yard pole on the 3rd side.
I wanted to keep as much weight on the side that was in the direction of fall, so it was left more or less intact.
The tricky parl was the limb growing over the wires. is was a deep cleft in the trunk and was leaning out over the wires away from the trunk. This ment it had to be pulled "over center" by the falling trunk and there was a great risk the trunk would split. The tree was rigged so tension on the line would pull this limb in toward the main trunk.
A lot, and I mean a whole lot, of time was spent looking at the "mechanics" of the tree and estmateing where the CG and CM was and how it would react when cut.
The winch line was more of a safety thing, once it started to fall in earnest the winch speed could not keep up with gravity, so all tension would be lost. It feel just where I thought it would and nothing was damaged in the fall.
Once we were "bucking up" the trunk on the ground, we found that cleft was weak and had we not rigged as we it, it surely would have split with the result the wires would have come down.
Amaizing what can be done with little 16" bar saws, some of the rounds were over 20"

Sounds like the tree needed to come down regardless given the close proximity to the house and wires. Glad it worked out well. Sometimes no matter how well you study it you can't see what's going on inside. Ants, critters can hollow out the insides and all bets are off. Again glad it reacted as planned. My main saw is an Echo CS-600 with a 20" bar. I can put up to a 27" bar for the big stuff but keep the 20" on it for most of the stuff I do anymore. Right after I got it many years ago I cleaned up the transfer ports and opened up the exhaust. It's a beast and has never given me any problems. Wood is my main heat source so firewood is a way of life, although with age the heat pump systems are looking better all the time!

There is another one to come down, that I am going to pay to have dropped,, over the wires and house blocked on all sides, A bucket truck will make short work of it, but I know my limits, and the one we did was right at the limits. The rest of them are not near anything so easy to fell.
When I was a young sprog, we heated with wood, mostly elm as the Dutch elm disease was rampant. My dad had a Pulan (sp?) with a 33 or 36 bar and a Craftsman electric. My brother an I felled and cut up a lot of trees back then.
Both of us are well past our prime, and can't do a 1/4 of what our minds still think we can, but we are better equipped now then we were when we were teenagers.

Great story.
Glad everything worked out OK.
The K-7 was doing what it was meant to do...WORK.

I have a small electric chain saw that works very well for my occasional use. I find that the inconvenience of having a cord is much less than headache of fuel deterioration, even with stabilizer.

Dean

I've been fortunate to never have been "bitten" by fuel breakdown. I've had to deal with it with other people's equipment that wouldn't run and it is nasty, but thankfully never had any problems on my stuff. I do use Stabil for the most part for the seasonal things but have forgotten a time or two. Just lucky I guess. However now that being said . . . lol

Tree service came and took down the one I did not want to tackle myself. I had another fun day with the K's The winch truck ran out of gas when I was putting the last log on.