winching trees downhill, safety tips please?

[cessna]

Due to lack of access we need to winch some large windblown Beech down a steep bank. Please can any one give us some tips on how to do this safely,thank you in advance.Should we have the winch cable at angle across the bank to try and avoid a straight down hill out of control slide developing?

[Stephen Blair]

Any pics?

You don't want to get hit, that's the main goal as you know.

If you can bounce the cable off a pulley so man and machine are out the way that helps .

Usually steady as you go with an escape plan.

All depends on kit and ground I'd say.

 

 

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[Gray git]

As Stephen says use a redirect if you can and take it steady, if you can get a few easy 1s first and lay them across the bottom of the hill as a brake to slow down any runaways before they get to you.

A run away role can be worse than a slide as more likely to bounce and less likely to dig in and stop.

 

sent while pretending to do something important on my mobile.

[cooks]

If possible leave the structure ie branches or pegs on as it will stop it rolling. Straight down from a re-direct will be better as it will follow the cable and use the bottom pulley on the winch it makes the nose dig in more. Across the slope means more chance of rolling IMO.

[muldonach]

As others have already said the key to safety is to keep firstly people and secondly machinery out of the line of fire.

 

Attach a pulley at the landing site and park the tractor well away from the pulley. People on site should be outside the triangle formed by log, landing pulley and tractor before winching commences - and the same triangle should be observed on the other side of the winch line, ideally anyone on foot should be above the log on the slope or at least as far out of line as the tractor is unless there is intervening physical barriers.

 

Cheers

mac

[cessna]

Thank you all for your advice,very much appreciated.Very serious dangerous consequences if one gets it wrong. Will not be doing the winching till slope dries off, as being slippery will certainly make things even more dangerous.

[slack ma girdle]

Use a drag line attached to the trunk to be winched down. The drag line goes from the trunk up to a pulley and then back down to the bottom. You can either tie on a smaller log to counter balance it, or run it through a friction device.

Or find someone with a double winch, and use the break on one to slow the other

[Mike Hill]

Use a drag line attached to the trunk to be winched down. The drag line goes from the trunk up to a pulley and then back down to the bottom. You can either tie on a smaller log to counter balance it, or run it through a friction device.

Or find someone with a double winch, and use the break on one to slow the other

 

WTF?

 

Have you actually done this?

[Chris Sheppard]

If possible leave the structure ie branches or pegs on as it will stop it rolling. Straight down from a re-direct will be better as it will follow the cable and use the bottom pulley on the winch it makes the nose dig in more. Across the slope means more chance of rolling IMO.

 

Can't disagree with that

[slack ma girdle]

WTF?

 

Have you actually done this?

 

I have used the double winch method, it also means that you do not have to go slogging back up the hill dragging the winch cable, the winch does that for you.