Stupid mistakes you've made doing tree work

[Billhook]

Some years ago I went back to collect our fully loaded Land Rover in the woods after dark with my dear brother.  The Landy is a six wheel drive V8 with a tipping IW body which holds a couple of tons of timber.

Rule number one is that it is probably best not to venture down a rutted narrow track in the woods in the dark after some heavy rain.

Anyway the inevitable happened and we slid off to the side and with all six wheels spinning were not up to our axles but just slippery stuck.

Told my brother to take the winch line from the front into a bunch of thorny scrub where we could just make out the trunk of a substantial Ash about a couple of feet in diameter with the dim headlights

Rule number two is do not forget to take a torch in these circumstances

Anyway he fixed the line around the tree and I started the electric winch again with all wheels spinning

The winch line came in but the Land Rover did not move.

Suddenly out of the thorny scrub in the dim headlights appeared the whole tree trunk complete with enough root ball for it to remain upright.  It was of course rotten and only about fifteen feet of the trunk was left but the bark was still on and it looked ok at waist level!

We walked home laughing and went down to the pub

Next day went back with a tractor and realised that if the tree had been its original height we might have pulled it over to crash down on the Landy cab.  I think it had been dead for some time and lost the top in a Winter storm and the ground being so wet meant the root ball came out easily.

[Stephen Blair]

Chipped a full climbing kit, ran over 2 sheep in a mog, employee sneaky rats, worked for sneaky rats, ran over a top handle saw, caught a few BT lines, caught a few fence rails, made a few dents in some lawns.
Split my hand open and had 5 days in hospital, got filings in my eye and had 4 days on the couch in the dark, caught myself with silky, hit a cow in the arse with the mog.
Probably more wee things but nothing epic.

[Treerover]

11 hours ago, Billhook said:

Some years ago I went back to collect our fully loaded Land Rover in the woods after dark with my dear brother.  The Landy is a six wheel drive V8 with a tipping IW body which holds a couple of tons of timber.

Rule number one is that it is probably best not to venture down a rutted narrow track in the woods in the dark after some heavy rain.

Anyway the inevitable happened and we slid off to the side and with all six wheels spinning were not up to our axles but just slippery stuck.

Told my brother to take the winch line from the front into a bunch of thorny scrub where we could just make out the trunk of a substantial Ash about a couple of feet in diameter with the dim headlights

Rule number two is do not forget to take a torch in these circumstances

Anyway he fixed the line around the tree and I started the electric winch again with all wheels spinning

The winch line came in but the Land Rover did not move.

Suddenly out of the thorny scrub in the dim headlights appeared the whole tree trunk complete with enough root ball for it to remain upright.  It was of course rotten and only about fifteen feet of the trunk was left but the bark was still on and it looked ok at waist level!

We walked home laughing and went down to the pub

Next day went back with a tractor and realised that if the tree had been its original height we might have pulled it over to crash down on the Landy cab.  I think it had been dead for some time and lost the top in a Winter storm and the ground being so wet meant the root ball came out easily.

Haw Billhook, enviable bit of kit a 150 V8 (I've got its sister the 130).....unless its stuck guess!!! How is it though trucks know to get bogged in

a) mostly at the end of the day

b) when its dark

c) when there's nothing to winch to ?? 

[Billhook]

22 minutes ago, Treerover said:

Haw Billhook, enviable bit of kit a 150 V8 (I've got its sister the 130).....unless its stuck guess!!! How is it though trucks know to get bogged in

a) mostly at the end of the day

b) when its dark

c) when there's nothing to winch to ?? 

Here is a clip I took of the Sandringham 6 with five wheels turning on a level ground and enough room underneath for me to crawl under.  The tyres look like slicks but they were nearly new and just filled with a very sticky clay!

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

8 minutes ago, Billhook said:

Here is a clip I took of the Sandringham 6 with five wheels turning on a level ground and enough room underneath for me to crawl under.  The tyres look like slicks but they were nearly new and just filled with a very sticky clay!

 

 

Did it ever go on a weighbridge empty?

[Billhook]

6 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Did it ever go on a weighbridge empty?

It is on limited use, agricultural/forestry

[Khriss]

11 hours ago, Stephen Blair said:

Chipped a full climbing kit, ran over 2 sheep in a mog, employee sneaky rats, worked for sneaky rats, ran over a top handle saw, caught a few BT lines, caught a few fence rails, made a few dents in some lawns.
Split my hand open and had 5 days in hospital, got filings in my eye and had 4 days on the couch in the dark, caught myself with silky, hit a cow in the arse with the mog.
Probably more wee things but nothing epic.

Epic standard you got vacancy ? Am bored with rail work k

[maybelateron]

Some years ago we we reducing a long wide conifer hedge using our mewp.

I had looked along the far side of the hedge, ie the side that was not facing the customers premises, and all looked ok. There was a BT cable within the hedge, just to make the job nicer.

What I could not see when I did my recce was two large wooden poles within the hedge with a large oil filled container between them.

So imagine my horror as I was cutting stems to suddenly come face to face with a transformer within the hedge, presumably 32KV. There were no power lines in the air to it, both the feed and exit wires came up from the ground, who knows why.

Scary or what?

[dig-dug-dan]

30 minutes ago, maybelateron said:

Some years ago we we reducing a long wide conifer hedge using our mewp.

I had looked along the far side of the hedge, ie the side that was not facing the customers premises, and all looked ok. There was a BT cable within the hedge, just to make the job nicer.

What I could not see when I did my recce was two large wooden poles within the hedge with a large oil filled container between them.

So imagine my horror as I was cutting stems to suddenly come face to face with a transformer within the hedge, presumably 32KV. There were no power lines in the air to it, both the feed and exit wires came up from the ground, who knows why.

Scary or what?

That my friend is one scary miss! Not only certain death, but a costly bill!

[maybelateron]

I sometimes say we learn from our mistakes, make no mistakes and don't learn a thing.