Rootpull picture for Gary!

[stig]

A good while ago I promised Gary to try to take a picture of a rootpull.
I've had two good chances to provoke one, the oak in the first picture and a large headleaning beech.
I chickened out of both.
The oak had been selected by a mill builder, and I was afraid to ruin the log and the beech had a large widowmaker right above where I would be cutting when it pulled roots and fell.
i decided to trip that one from the outside and run away instead

Then today as I was felling a medium red oak, it happened.
I had just started to trip it from the side/backside when it pulled a root. Right between my legs, too.
It took some fast footwork to avoid castration

Not a large rootpull by any means, but a real one.

This is the one I chickened out of tripping from the inside


The red oak


By the way, I know that my stump looks like shat, no need to tell me

 

[SkwerI]

You know Stig, with a longer bar you could reach all the way across the stump from one side and not end up with mismatched cuts.

*runs*

 

[Burnham]

Bad Skwerl...bad, bad, bad!

 

[pantheraba]

Well, just damn...thanks, Stig, for remembering to do that. I didn't want you to become a eunuch in the process!!

I'll can see where that pull could be a REAL problem depending on where you are standing. Good show.

 

[Bounce]

Nice pics. I haven't seen this happen yet, so it's nice to see the picture so I know what to watch out for.

 

[SkwerI]

I had it happen once on a camphor spar that I was flopping in between a house and a row of hedges. The root pull was on one side of the hinge and pulled the spar 20 degrees sideways, wiping out the hedge. If it had been on the other side it would have been expensive.

 

[stig]

Did you read the last line, Brian?
Just couldn't help yourself, I guess

Before taking the picture, I looked at that ugly stump and thought about doing a littleflush cutting first.
But with as many experienced folks as we have here, someone would have spotted it, and then I'd really never hear the end of it.

This root pull was only about 3 feet long.
My personal record is somewhere around 15 feet. I did that one on purpose to show it to a bunch of apprentice loggers. It threw a shower of dirt in the air and scared the shit out of everybody, myself included.
I had expected a root pull, but not that big.

 

[pantheraba]

This root pull was only about 3 feet long.
My personal record is somewhere around 15 feet. I did that one on purpose to show it to a bunch of apprentice loggers. It threw a shower of dirt in the air and scared the shit out of everybody, myself included.
I had expected a root pull, but not that big.

Hahaha...you know what they say..."be careful what you ask for!!" It is excellent that you understand the dynamics well enough to be able to predict (and try to control) the event. I am sure your learning loggers will not forget that lesson.

 

[Tucker943]

I get a root pull now and again if i face up a tree, bore cut it and then finish the deal by pushing it over with a skidder without tripping the back first. Ill do that now and again if I am laying a tree against its lean (mild lean) and dont have my wedges handy. Stig, what sort of gamebirds live in those forests I see pictures of? Im sure in dense young stands of trees you must have some gamebirds.

 

[Burnham]

Don't have your wedges handy??? Blasphemy!!!


Note to self...downgrade early positive assessment of this young buck and place deep in cubbyhole reserved for arborists.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

 

[pantheraba]

Double

 

[Burnham]

All in good fun, and perhaps our friend Tucker may yet learn .

 

[SoonerFan]

I'm with Tucker. I don't like wedgies either. It's never convenient to have one.

Oh wait, you guys are talking about wedges.

 

[Burnham]

I've yet to take him out behind the woodshed and inquire about his choice of wedge driver...see, I'm a kind and easy-going sort .

 

[Tucker943]

Now Ive gone and done it. I will admit, there are times when I hack up the matter. I will often go days or weeks without falling any trees. Sometimes I just dont leave that skidder at all in a day. Then, out of nowhere, I have to jump out and do some falling for a few hours, days or weeks. What Im getting at, is that I lack the room in my skidder for anything but the gear that I need, and when going for long peroids of not falling any wood, I ditch the wedges, and my trusty mash hammer. Then I may come along and find a tree marked that wasnt cut and I have to nip that fella while its on my mind.

It pains me to say it, but the environment I work in doesnt command very much skilled falling. Amongst the men I work with, I am by FAR much more concerned with the art and skill of professional falling than any of the other men. I should take some pics of some stumps just to amuse you guys.

 

[Burnham]

You should...we have had some great bad stump analysis threads in the past.

 

[pantheraba]

True...."stump forensics"...some of these guys are like Apache trackers...they can tell ALL kinds of stuff from a picture of a stump.

 

[stig]

. Stig, what sort of gamebirds live in those forests I see pictures of? Im sure in dense young stands of trees you must have some gamebirds.

Woodpigeons and released pheasants.
That is all.

But if you like banging away at grain fed pheasants, raised in cages by the thousands and released just before hunting season starts, you're in like Flynn, here!

 

[squisher]

It pains me to say it, but the environment I work in doesnt command very much skilled falling. Amongst the men I work with, I am by FAR much more concerned with the art and skill of professional falling than any of the other men. I should take some pics of some stumps just to amuse you guys.

That seems crazy to me. In all my years in the bush, a crappy stump was always cause for ridicule.

 

[Tucker943]

Ill give you a run down of what I see from fellow fallers where I work. But, oddly enough, the company I work for is by no means an inexperienced or hole in the wall company. One fella mismatches every cut in the falling process. Another cuts the hinge almost entirely out 2 out of 3 times (bore cutting), another likes to double cut everything (everything that absolutely does not need the saw plunged in twice). To add to the fella that double cuts everything, he mismatches his plunge cuts from each side EVERY time.

I preached and preached my heart out from the day i came thru the door there. I am the youngest man there and they dont want to hear it. So, I keep my own work clean and simply pray for the others.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Here is a video off Graeme's site, Sherbrooke.

Quote the comment from the site.

When removing two mature Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) from Tarabolga National Park, Graeme suspected that the defect would cause the stump to tear from the ground as the tree departed. A hazard many tree loppers and tree fallers need to place a lot more concern when dealing with tree falling in all operations.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1tQCrsuzvcg" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

 

[Peter]

Yup, thats a root pull alright. Good to see the cutter was nowhere to be seen when it started moving!