Locust = Killer tree

[No_Bivy]

todays crane job...........two very big and very decayed Locust. Both trunks were pretty skecthy. A little winter blast greated us with snow and 18 degrees, wind 10-15......damnit, they said it was gonna be 40 and sunny:X ....put on a happy face:D

[No_Bivy]

first tree 4 picks, start off the second...........42"dbh, totally rotten at base.....i was skeered:O

[No_Bivy]

with some weight out of the top I started to relax....despite I was freezing me arse off.....canadian clippers, they call em' here. Thanks Squisher:/:

[squisher]

Heh east coast gots nothing to do with me. Wow crazy looking job man.

[No_Bivy]

more picks...It had a hidden co-dom, sealed together with IVy. So I added a camstrap at the bottom to hold the two together.....luckily it worked. last pick from ground was 5500. stump pic is locust #1...

[No_Bivy]

stump of tree 2, butt log was total sponge., decayed down into root flare at the base. I was amazed it had not fallen over yet. Most Locust around here fall over before they get this big........I'm glad I didn't have to back the crane back out:O

[rumination]

That is a couple of rotten mean looking trees. Good thing there was crane access! Nice work NoBivy.

[OTGBOSTON]

Nice Pics! If you were sketched by the tree, why not stay tied into the crane??

[MasterBlaster]

Great job, John!!! :beer:

[JIML]

Nice pics!
We wrecked out a bunch of locusts similar in size to those at work last week. I don't care how sharp your saw is the damned dust is the finest of any tree i have ever cut. I had that crap all over me at the end of the day. Didn't matter which way i was facing the wind would blow it in my face. If it was at my back I swear it made a vortex or something and would blow it in my face :)

[No_Bivy]

That would have been a false sense of security. I would had to untie anyway, and with wind blowin the load around......i took my chances

[No_Bivy]

the pics that didn't load....from a couple of post earlier

[sawinredneck]

AWSOME!!!!!!!!:O
Awsome pics, awsome climbing, awsome crane!!!

[No_Bivy]

Heh east coast gots nothing to do with me. Wow crazy looking job man.

eyh...or aye...or eye...I get confused. Jus' yankin' your chain, ya crazy canuck....mini workin' for ya?

[brendonv]

Awesome work...I would love to pull up a seat and watch on a job like that.

Gorgeous truck too.

[Mr. Sir]

Nice pics and very nice looking equipment. Very professional. :thumbup:


I do have one minor pet peeve, though. Give those toy cones back to the soccer team and get some real cones. :P

[OTGBOSTON]

60ton crane J??

[stehansen]

Very impressive NoBivy.

[Wagnaw]

Damn! You weren't kidding!

[MasterBlaster]

I do have one minor pet peeve, though. Give those toy cones back to the soccer team and get some real cones. :P


Those size cones work just fine. They don't need to be three feet tall.

[pantheraba]

Good stuff, John. Excellent pictures.

[Paul B]

those are the same I use when I want to let traffic know that I dont want them to smack into the back of my truck. I put three out usually, on at the drivers side bumper, one about 5 feet farther, halfway to the curb and one five feet further, at the curb. Not sure if there are official regs for that kind of thing.

[sotc]

thats what i use also, they are no good for main arteries so i rent big ones on occasion.
cool pics john! nasty trees

[TC3]

Locust trees in these parts do very well. In fact, I have never seen a failure ? I guess that's a PHC issue / question...
What causes them to fail ? It must be environmental ?
The drainage pattern looks altered from the pix, but I don't know if that was a cause for failure or not ?
Locust is a hard wood, no ? I just have no experience with it because it thrives here.
P.S. Great job on a hazardous removal !!!

[No_Bivy]

The wood is hard but the trees usually hollow out at the base, and they get "polypore" cankers all over the trunk. I think there are some borers that affect them to. Great firewood, shatty trees

[No_Bivy]

60ton crane J??

50/70 ton. We did not put the counterweight s on so technically, 50. You can run the fulll 130' of power boom with out weights. This crane will get into very tight spots and has great capacity:)

[Blinky]

I'll bet you were skeered... nice, high pucker factor being on the tree during the first few picks. After my recent incident, I don't know if I'd have done it.

[xtremetrees]

Indeed Impressive!
Andy said it best "Awesome"!

[Cobleskill]

We don't see locust fail that way aroune here either. We do have the borers. I have one in the back yard that was hit by lightening 50 years ago and split 3 ways straight down the trunk to the ground. Still solid. You must have a fungus would be my guess.

[Burnham]

Great pictures, John...well done. That sort of job SHOULD give anyone the willies.

I'm gonna have to throw out an old man's warning...don't let success with that pair make you feel like the envelope can bear to be pushed a little more on the next hazardous tree, eh? Peapod needs you around for a good long time.

You really do great work, sorry to be a crumudgeon.

[Chisel Tooth]

Them was some dead ass trees John, glad everything went well.

[No_Bivy]

They were both alive but very decayed....Don't worry Burnham, I listened to the little voice inside, thats why I insisted on a crane. Someday maybe a spider lift will be a tag team to be ultra safe..........I would not have even considered roping anything outta those mofos'

[Burnham]

I know you are a thinking man, John. I'm not really too concerned about you getting carried away with yourself.

I appreciate you letting me worry out loud at you without telling me to mind my own business.

I bring it up only because I have seen a cutter or two decide that since they got away with falling a nasty one without incident, they began to feel competant, even complacent about taking on anything...and then get bit. I suppose it's human nature, and we all need to watch out for the tendency, me included.

[gf beranek]

Great shots.... of a scary job. You did good. Someday you will lay awake at night and flash back on it. I still do from a few scary old rotten trees I took on many years ago.

Some people let there trees go too long after dying. I like to get right on them. With the bug kill happening on the coast there's so many dead pines right now it's scary just thinking about all the ones that are too far gone to climb. But someone will and I'll read about it in the paper. It's just a matter of time.

[treelooker]

Thanks for telling the story, Biv. Hope you made money; you earned it.

[Al Smith]

Locust is rather odd.You can make fence posts that last for decades but when they die on the vine,the rot gets to them .

[No_Bivy]

Thanks for telling the story, Biv. Hope you made money; you earned it.

I did OK....it was for friends:/: Thier kids have been playing under them for years, and they were about to build an addition which would have eliminated crane access........so I said now or never for me.

[No_Bivy]

tight squeeze
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the all wheel steer is awesome!
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[Jamin Mayer]

Wow. That crane has all wheel steering!:O

[MasterBlaster]

Most impressive indeed!!!

[brendonv]

Question.

When you do a crane job, who chooses the best crane for the scenario? Does the company come out and look at the job with you, or do you just say "I want XX ton crane"?


I've never used one but would like to consider it someday!

[Mr. Sir]

Question.

When you do a crane job, who chooses the best crane for the scenario? Does the company come out and look at the job with you, or do you just say "I want XX ton crane"?


I've never used one but would like to consider it someday!

I decide what size crane to use. I'll sometimes meet with the crane guy or have him go check out a job if it's really hairy.

[No_Bivy]

I decide crane...have them look next. Super tight = AT crane. Sometimes truck crane access is no biggie. This rig has 130' power boom, jibbed out with counterweights to 180':\:....with great capacity.

[Jamin Mayer]

When I schedule for a crane they give me the option of what size crane. I usually don't care what size crane they send out to me. I am usually more concerned with who they send out. Because the smallest crane they have is a 23 ton.

[Jamin Mayer]

If they send me someone new, the next thing I say after greeting the guys is this; "Have you ever worked with a tree guy before?":?

[sotc]

ha i just asked that yesterday as the first question

[No_Bivy]

stay safe SOTC............:/:

[sotc]

as can be:)

[No_Bivy]

All is well SOTC?

[squisher]

Only 5:30 on our coast he's probably still wrapping things up.

[No_Bivy]

time warp...I forget these details sometimes..:D

[sotc]

naw we were back at 5, still have to go do a little raking in the am. wife and i gave ourselves a computer curfew:) no computer from 5-9 so here i am
;) pics in the work pic thread