Am I being too ambitious?

[Rob_Red]

Hey all, I have a dead oak in my yard that’s about 80’ tall and maybe 3 feet thick at the trunk.

Due to its position I need to have a tree service take it down, I really don’t want them to haul away perfect firewood but I have no tractor and it would be just me cutting. Is this something I should take on solo? How do you guys move wood like this around?

how do I cut this into small pieces without putting my saw into the dirt?

 

[bholler]

Hey all, I have a dead oak in my yard that’s about 80’ tall and maybe 3 feet thick at the trunk.

Due to its position I need to have a tree service take it down, I really don’t want them to haul away perfect firewood but I have no tractor and it would be just me cutting. Is this something I should take on solo? How do you guys move wood like this around?

how do I cut this into small pieces without putting my saw into the dirt?

You could have them cut the main trunk into firewood lenghts

 

[Rob_Red]

Not a bad idea, I’ll have to get some quotes. Hopefully I won’t pay more for that service than the wood is worth.

 

[bholler]

It won't cost that much more. You will still have some fairly big stuff in the main branches but you should be able to manage

 

[kennyp2339]

Typically tree services will cut a trunk into your desirable length request, so you can say 16's, 18's and so on, another trick of the trade is for the bigger rounds, take your chain saw and cut the log in half to make it easier to move.
Good luck and be careful, oak is heavier wood and you dont want to hurt your back.

 

[lindnova]

I say go for it. I second having the tree service buck it up for you while they are there. What size of saw do you have?

Getting in the dirt is the least of your worries. 36" will be large pieces and need a longer bar or cut from both sides - plastic wedges can help keep the kerf open so it won't pinch. Then they are heavy to move around and if on a slope can roll back at you so be careful. Noodle the big ones down to halves or quarters so you can handle them then split and enjoy.

 

[EbS-P]

Every load they don’t have to dump saves them money and time. Big tree is at least one load of chips and one maybe two loads of bigger wood. I quartered the big rounds with my axe and then put them on an appliance dolly to move to around back. I got a load of oak chips for free and they make nice mulch. It was a little twiggy but I pulled most of the bigger ones out.

 

[Mutineer]

I bought a 24" bar for my Stihl MS290 and cut up a red oak of that size a few years ago down in the woods from the road. Had about a 50 yard trail with a rise of about 12-15' from bottom to top, so I just took my sledge, maul and wedges down and then split the rounds into quarters so I could fit them into my wheelbarrow. Luckily it was red oak and not white so the splits were clean as a whistle as there was no branching for 35-40 feet. My experience with white oak is that it's much more stringy and would have been a lot harder to quarter down in the woods. Seasoned the splits for 3 years and got probably 3 months of burning out of it. Beautiful wood.

 

[NorthernFireplaceFool]

I had the city take down our other half of Maple this past Spring. It was the same size(around 30-35" thick on the bottom and 70-80' feet tall). I told the Arborists for the city to leave it. Unfortunately since I wasn't paying them they left it on the sidewalk in 12' lengths. The bottom 12' was Hell to cut with 18" bar and move. My neighbors and me broke 3 flat dollys pushing them up the driveway to the back yard to cut further/split. See if they will buck the rounds for you! It will save you so much headache.

 

[Rob_Red]

I have a small firewood saw (stihl wood boss ) but I was planning to upgrade, I have 5 acres of forested property and have a handful big big dead oaks to take on.

 

[xman23]

Have them chip branches smaller than 3 inches. Buck the big stuff, If you do it roll the log to cut the other side before hitting the ground, But I prefer to work the tree from the top down, With keeping it off the ground, You will need a splitter that goes vertical. If your saw not up to it rent one. A lot of wood in that tree.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

When I had a couple trees (smaller than yours) cut, they were happy to cut it into 16" logs for me. I just asked them to leave it right there (to save me money). It was cheaper for me, quicker for them, than disposal costs. I stacked it, then split it 6 months later. Stuff smaller than 6" diameter I didn't split.

If you're splitting with a maul, as I do, it's crucial that their cuts be straight, so a log can be stood on end on the block. It doesn't really matter if some of their logs are 14" or 15".