Billy Ray's Back-Cut First Extreme Leaner.

Jed

Jed

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Snoqualmie, WA
O.k... Well then... this guy's insane in a good way. Unbelievable what he can lift off of mere plastic.

The guy's an accomplished arb... He could very easily have gone up, hung a rope, freed the limb and thumped the stick, but instead chose to give us what is a truly bang-up :lol: vid. Hope this link works out o.k. Hope youse guys enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/2_zcTFHjUpE
 
Of course we are not climbers, us fire guys, but that is pretty much how we do it.

We were not taught the back cut first method though.

Our instructor was a C certifier, he told us that sometimes the tree is going where its going, even if it is across the line. Glad we dont have too many houses to worry about!
 
Great demo of Billy Rays skill and confidence....but in reality that was too much work. If you had a throw line and bull rope at hand you'd be crazy continue with all that pounding. He's a cool guy though.
 
i can make sense out of the reverse pro-cedure for reverse lean;
but i too think in terms of high leverage rope pull and wedges more for safety backstop/some lift.
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i was thinking the pivot of hinge would come farther under the trees's center of gravity, to effectively reduce backlean numbers some.
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i'm not sure on maple hang; w/o seeing it seems spooky to go ahead with it.
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Peel bark real important, to make sure wedge push against 'bone' of tree, not 'skin' that will give/not push.
Head lean different than stick lean, harder to tell actual lean form pic angles.
i'd ask how long has that ground been swelled; always or since last storm?
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But hat's off to a great job and great amount of experience(so much so confident enough to film in front of cx and talk way thru!) , thanx for sharing!
 
Not how I would have done it either but it was good to watch. A jack would have been a better option for the pure logging part but my arb side would have said put a rope in it and pull with the truck.
 
Billy Ray isn't on any forums...no FB either. But he's up to 1800 YT subscribers, thanks to his showmanship (not faked) and skills!


I agree with everyone here...as most of us are climbers, we'd have done the job differently. But, moving that tree 12 feet plus at the top in order to stand it up and convince it to fall? Impressive to say the least, and ballsy-and too much work for me, especially since I'd never have the confidence it would work.
But, pulling with a truck? The truck would have to be big with plenty of weight and traction to lift the tree.....what if it didn't, then what? Add a jack? Sure. Or just climb the thing, limb it and drop 27 footers for the mill. 2 hours tops. Plenty of room to let them fall into the lean.
 
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  • #17
It's so funny how us tree guys can never revert from the most expedient way to get things done. From the little I know about Buckin, it's obvious that the guy does things firstly because he wants to, and only secondly (if that) for expediency. Why else would you use an old saw that'll rattle your teeth out? The guy's got heaps of Husqys with pro zip-jobs.

I'll shoot him a link.
 
I couldn't watch it with fast forwarding, nice cutting, impressive stuff, would never have reached the house though.
 
I concur with the prevailing sentiment. Nice job, too much wedge pounding for me. My first thoughts would be double up the maasdam, pull it over with wedges backing it up.
 
I use a Maasdam pretty regular, but sometimes it seems a little sketchy with the disengagement when there is slack put in the rope, I mean when working by yourself. A great tool, but the Tirfor for when absolutely no ifs ands or buts.
 
Been there a few times.
Usually keep my helmet on, though, even if I get all hot from banging wedges.

The thing I hate about videos like this is that it is completely impossible to judge lean.
I was thinking, " Why doesn't he just let it go into the field and swing it a bit with a whizzy"
Turned out the lean was the other way.
That usually doesn't happen to me in real life.
 
I'd have hooked one of my D4 Cats to it with a real long cable .

I only was fool hardy enough once to try and wedge a medium size white oak leaner over .Lifted it right off the stump .As far as I know it's still up against another oak .I was a lot younger then .
 
stig said:
The thing I hate about videos like this is that it is completely impossible to judge lean.
Click to expand...

Especially kinda wonder on head lean vs. spar lean on this; and then where that puts balance of pulls to hinge.
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Maintaining far part in hinge for anti-spin always good, to not shorten hinge across face because of this leverage, even if center punch.
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On any truck etc. pulls,
i look for good ground, put weight in back of truck(make sure has gas..);
AND, (at least consider) a low redirect pulley;
so equal/opposite of truck pull is not upward pull on truck;
so not losing traction the farther out you run..
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Low angle line straight to truck would not lift up on truck as went forward like high angle line does.
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1000# pull from 40' up from hinge/pivot = 40k of force leverage on hinge forward.
If nothing else wedges easier!
Real trick is if that distance encompasses or otherwise controls the Center of Gravity(CoG).
Focus on move CoG, rest of tree goes with!
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And of course a few pulleys to make truck a 3x1 pull,
go higher with line,
pull harder with truck, winch etc.
are all multipliers that can be stirred in.
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Still Billy Ray is artist and showman in own rite!
And makes VERY relevant point that as making face in Backleaner, are allowing it to sit back into anti-target.
As RB says, as climbers with the magic of ROPE in our repertoire; and easily putting it into position, we can see something different!
 
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