Fell, technical, ballsy or just luck ?

[Dean Lofthouse]

Here's a fell which I dont mind admitting that had me wondering.

 

I planned the fell down to the last detailed exactly how it would go, however there is always a small amount of the unknown.

 

The tree (Sycamore) had a very heavy backlean and a heavy side lean. The was a building behind the tree under the backlean and one to the side under the side lean.

 

The problem was if we felled in the direction we wanted the tree to go the hinge would snap before it was upright, it would go 90 degrees to the side and demolish the outbuildings.

 

There were three trees to come out all with the wrong lean back over buildings and there were two trees to be retained. You can see in picture one we had already felled a large ash which then made room for the for how I wanted to fell the second.

 

The plan:

 

Attach the landrover winch high in the tree, put in a gob cut aiming the tree in the direction of arrow number one, which was directly at the retained tree, we winch the tree near to upright to get the weight off the winch wire and when it is near vertical reverse back quickly hoping the hinge would hold long enough for the side weight to take over when the hinge snaps taking the tree away from the retained tree to fall at 45 degrees to the hinge in the intended direction of fall, therefore misiing the retained tree and the buildings. The second arrow on pic one is where I want the tree to end up which would be 45 degrees to the gob cut direction

 

I was very confident the tree would do what I wanted it to do, my colleagues were very apprehensive

 

Listen for the comment at the end of the vid, I love it

 

 

 

 

 

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[Joe]

haha, nice work dean, i would of been a bit apprehensive too though

[josharb87]

well judged id say, with the landrover on it, it wasnt going to go back, only foward or as you judged, sideways because of side weight . . good job

[Buzz]

Nice one Dean. I hate standing next to winch wires though !

[Rob D]

Nice work Dean and I'd say ballsy and well planned! What a load of work you saved yourself

 

P.S I played it a few times but tricky to make out exactly what your mate said at the end! But it seemed complimentry!

[bob]

glad the landrover did not slip as bet that grass was slippy

how much did you pay liam for that comment

was not a comment i would of said:001_tt2:

[Dean Lofthouse]

I forgot to mention, the key to it working was to get the landrover ragging it back in reverse gear once the weight was off the backlean because the winch was no where near fast enough, it would just have gone sideways once upright otherwise.

 

So just before upright and on the first "crack" of the hinge, the landy was reverse as fast as we could in low box, which made sure it came that little bit more as it was falling

[Dean Lofthouse]

glad the landrover did not slip as bet that grass was slippy

how much did you pay liam for that comment

was not a comment i would of said:001_tt2:

 

The landrover wheels were chocked infront with stones so once the weight was off it would still reverse without slipping.

 

Risk assessed bob, risk assessed

[bob]

think i would of used a few wedges as well

[Mesterh]

Good stuff

 

Looks like it was also a bit of a tight spot to get the back cut in!

 

If it all goes to plan then no way is it luck