Digger Assisted Felling

[Haironyourchest]

Pushing pines over with a 16 tonne digger. Average 30" diameter, up to 40", about 120 feet tall. Make the face cut, digger positions behind the stem and places the bucket at optimal hight, make back cut and leave a generous hinge, scarper, digger pushes tree over. Way fast. Done about 30 odd trees so for, each one went exactly the same, no problems. Using a 394 with three foot bar mostly.

 

Thoughts?

 

[openspaceman]

17 minutes ago, Haironyourchest said:

Pushing pines over with a 16 tonne digger. Average 30" diameter, up to 40", about 120 feet tall. Make the face cut, digger positions behind the stem and places the bucket at optimal hight, make back cut and leave a generous hinge, scarper, digger pushes tree over. Way fast. Done about 30 odd trees so for, each one went exactly the same, no problems. Using a 394 with three foot bar mostly.

 

Thoughts?

 

Way to go, saves a lot of faffing about and what we used to do with a Cat 951 but Health and Safety wasn't such an issue then. I suppose the biggest risk is being hit by the machine

[Stere]

Saw hs2 tree felling was on   news they were doing similar

[s o c]

Interesting thread .

Fast easy method so long as both sawman and digger driver have a good understanding of what they are doing and the judgement and discipline to leave the dodgy trees for winching.

There have been a couple of incidents doing this on Irish forestry sites In recent years.

one where the tree ended up on cab of machine, another where no safety pin in digger bucket, bucket fell off , narrowly missing sawman.

[Stubby]

9 hours ago, Haironyourchest said:

Pushing pines over with a 16 tonne digger. Average 30" diameter, up to 40", about 120 feet tall. Make the face cut, digger positions behind the stem and places the bucket at optimal hight, make back cut and leave a generous hinge, scarper, digger pushes tree over. Way fast. Done about 30 odd trees so for, each one went exactly the same, no problems. Using a 394 with three foot bar mostly.

 

Thoughts?

 

Not much experience with the digger method but 394 was a good old saw ! . Had 2 before the 395 . Think the 394 had more torque for some reason . 

[Rough Hewn]

Don’t try that with a smaller digger!
Got a 7 ton jcb stuck to an oak tree about ten years ago.
Didn’t have the power to push it over and it wasn’t that big either.
Have used 26 ton 360’s to pull massive leaning edge trees over.
No effort.....crunch!
Big machines yes.
Little ones....NO!
???[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

[doobin]

You can do a lot with a smaller digger so long as you don't try massive heavy leaners and don't leave a silly amount on the hinge. I do it all the time.

[doobin]

10 hours ago, s o c said:

Interesting thread .

Fast easy method so long as both sawman and digger driver have a good understanding of what they are doing and the judgement and discipline to leave the dodgy trees for winching.

There have been a couple of incidents doing this on Irish forestry sites In recent years.

one where the tree ended up on cab of machine, another where no safety pin in digger bucket, bucket fell off , narrowly missing sawman.

Sounds like the operator was the problem in both cases. Safety pin missing is obvious, and when it ended up on top of the digger I'd wager that it was a heavy leaner and the saw bloke cut through the hinge to the point where it couldn't be controlled.

 

30" pines with no lean I would think nothing of doing with a 3 tonner. You'd do it with a bottle jack otherwise, the digger has a lot of push and it's the leverage that really makes it work.

[drinksloe]

Just don't let H&S catch u.

 

Can be a great way, althou sometimes it's safer to use a dogs tooth cut so u can have most off back cut done, put machine on the tree while ur out the way then just come in for the back strap.

That way u can be out the way when anything falling off tree as digger puts bucket on and can be further away looking up as u make final cut.

Basically less time with bucket above ur head and further away from the tree.

 

As someone says it works fine with 360s esp with bigger machines until it doesn't and then u have a big problem or if bucket slips of stem 

 

Doobin u wouldn't catch me putting a 3t er anywhere near a 30" pine, if it has no lean ud probably be as quick wedging it over, ud only lose a machine if it has a lean on it or a target near it.

[Haironyourchest]

Digger guy is a master operator, steady and methodical, been doing this kind of thing many years. There are guys I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this with.

 

The advantage of the digger, beyond the obvious clean up and access making, is you can leave a fat hinge. Tree is going nowhere, with or without the bucket, untill the digger gives a push - and a hard push at that. Plenty of time to retreat to safe zone and no fine-lining the hinge needed.

 

I was a tiny bit worried about the trees splitting, with the fat hinge and side pressure, but nary a sign of it. Depends on the species as well though, I suppose.