Digger Assisted Felling

[Stephen Blair]

As long as everyone knows what they are doing then my only critique is don’t faff about trimming the butt and putting such a tall face cut, it’s all time n fuel!

  If stumps don’t matter just shove the tree over, lift the trunk and get the cutter to cut off the root plate!

  Again as long as everyone knows what they are doing !

[carlos]

super quick, have to be careful on smaller trees that the digger driver doesent put too much force on before you make your back cut.

most digger drivers seem steady and safe to work with. 

[petercb]

This chap in US clears by pushing over with digger. His pond dredging videos on mats are something else as well!

[Haironyourchest]

3 hours ago, Stephen Blair said:

As long as everyone knows what they are doing then my only critique is don’t faff about trimming the butt and putting such a tall face cut, it’s all time n fuel!

  If stumps don’t matter just shove the tree over, lift the trunk and get the cutter to cut off the root plate!

  Again as long as everyone knows what they are doing !

 

Yup, I hear you, that was the only tree I bothered to side trim, just for visibility, I wanted to get the felling cuts exactly right. It was the biggest of the bunch and had to fall between two standing trees to avoid snagging. The others were not so critical. I went with deep faces on all of them, probably unnecessary, but just for peace of mind. With more experience I'd consider going with a more acute angle. 

[drinksloe]

Just thinking be a few months since last felled with a digger.

 

But for a digger even with a good operator I would do half back cut ( heavy side) then knock a wedge in, just enough to allow me to finish cut.

Then get out way and signal digger, with a 13t * digger u can afford to leave a decent hinge and trees not going anywhere so u have plenty time to get out the way.

With a decent harvester operator and plenty space for escape routes I'll use a dogs tooth cut, saves bothering with a wedge, but if limited escape space or dodgy operator I will wedge and GTF before he goes near tree. To be honest the wedge takes seconds anyway.

 

1 thing I'm always surprised with harvesters, even the bigger 1s is how little power they have sometimes for pushing outsides over if they can't get directly behind the tree, which is often the way f produce still lying.

[G13469]

The safest place to put the machine 

[CutterSy]

We fell with a digger everyday, but we use a hawk fork not a bucket. Less chance of it slipping off the tree. Nearly always bore to set hinge and release the back-strap. Safest way to hand fell big hardwoods imo

[aspenarb]

We use the telehandler rather than one of the diggers. Spreading the forks just enough to fit adds a bit of stability and helps direction.

 

Bob

[doobin]

I rotate the grab and use that open.