Winching to destruction

[gibbon]

A little video of an experiment we did last year. An incredibaly decayed large beech we tried to winch to destruction. 1st we tried a 4t landrover winch and 3.2t tirfor but the old girl resisted. In the end she needed to have the last remaining piece of live wood cut then we dragged her down.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKRAKkHIpWA]YouTube - beech winchin[/ame]

[Dean Lofthouse]

You would think it'd have failed at the root plate !

[Mike Hill]

I enjoyed that! Thanks for posting!

[Rob D]

That was great

[Mozza]

Gotta love the "cracking" noises, Great vid!

[geoff]

Nice vid,interesting how it held on. How far up was the winch anchor?

[gibbon]

Both winches were tied off about 15m up. With both cranked to the limit there was just a little crack. I cut half way through the only piece of live tissue on the stem which was about 10 inches in diameter (on the right hand side of the 1st shot), but was being slowly seen of by HF. The tree was about 20m but had been radically reduced 4 or 5 times in the last 15 years. I reduced/veterenised it twice in five years.

 

It was hard to get photos due to all the laurel, but heres a few to get an idea of how bad the decay was. It was beside a footpath, burger van and avery. I could have stood up in the cavity.

[Danavan]

The holding power even with such decay & your pull from 15m is astounding.

 

Did you just lay a horizontal cut in the remaining live wood?

 

What did the final pull? I like the hand winch method if you have the time & stamina to go through with it as espesuily on beech this must give the fibers time to fracture with max effect?

 

Any pics of the end result along with cut angles & placement?

 

Looked like fun project to do:thumbup1:

[gibbon]

Yep just a flat cut into the live wood then pulled it with the land rover winch. I think with both winches it would have maybe gone if left, but that wasn't really an option.

 

My battery died but my mate has some more shots and a video from the other side of the stem. It could be a while before I get a chance to get hold of those.

[Stephen Blair]

i have pulled a big beech over before with 2 50ton winches on a artic recovery vehicle, it took all 100ton to get it over by the roots, we only anchored about 4m up so not to snap it out. good vid matt