Using rope when felling

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Studdlygoof

Studdlygoof

Member
Jan 26, 2014
136
Elkton MD
Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm new to heating with firewood and after installing a wood furnace I have found a lot of good information here to answer many questions. One that I have not been able to find however is the use of a rope when felling a tree to help in making it lay where you want. I know in a perfect world you should not need one if you notch it correctly; however being a novice I do not quiet trust my skills and want the added backup of rope tension. My question is this:

I'm not too keen on hooking a rope to my truck. Is there a proper way to do it without the truck? In my mind I envision some sort of setup with a spike driven in the ground with a rope and pulley setup to add tension. Maybe I'm over doing it, but like I said, as a novice I would like the backup plan aspect.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've done it once, so I may nt be of much help to you. It was a small (maybe ~12in) sweetgum and my brother was pulling on one end while I cut. First tree I ever felled, cut that thing down with a remington electric chainsaw ;lol. Thats what got me started in all this.

Anyways, if you're wanting to do it with larger trees, you may want to look in to cable rather than rope, and some sort of come-a-long system. I'll let those more experienced than I chime in further
 
Always remember that trees want to kill you back.

I would certainly not hook it to the truck without a pulley and a driver who isn't the cutter, and probably not even then. Too much chance of breaking the rope and having that whip around and hurt someone.

What I have done is to use an extension ladder to get 20 feet or so up the tree for some leverage, and then tied a rope in the desired direction of fall, with a garage door spring in the works, and a comealong to get the garage door spring well-extended. Be sure the garage door spring has a "safety wire" inside it (You want an extension spring as I'd hope would be obvious, not a torsion spring.) The joy of this system is that the garage door spring pulls (at 150 lbs or so) for a distance of several feet, which is generally enough to get the tree well and truly started where you want it to go, if you haven't got it going some other direction, or tried to fight what it wants to do too much. The hazard of it is that if you go at it too over-the top you could snap the rope with the comealong and hurt yourself - so don't do that. You also have to work around the rope, spring and comealong until you can extract them from the mess. And you cannot expect make a tree go opposite its preferred direction this way - 90 degrees either side of the way it wants to go is about the limit, and you need to cut with care to get that much - it's an influence, not pulling the tree over with a steel cable on a bulldozer. And sometimes those break (and are really dangerous when they do.)

If you have a helper, a pulley in the desired direction of fall and a long enough rope to put the helper in the clear should be enough. The helper must not be attached to the rope - if things go wrong, the helper needs to be able to drop the rope and get clear, not get dragged by it into trouble.

However. Since I got better with and got more of the nice chainsaw-safe orange plastic felling wedges, I have rarely, if ever bothered with a rope. Be sure to leave an adequate hinge - check your cuts from both sides of the tree to be sure you don't cut through the hinge on the other side. Losing the hinge loses control of the tree, and then you can get yourself hurt far too easily. Put the hinge where you can get a wedge in behind the saw on the back-cut, even if that means your face notch is not all that big - the face notch does not need to be all that big. Get wedges in the back-cut as soon as possible to maintain control of the tree and not get your saw pinched - if need be, bore the back-cut, set wedges and then cut the back-strap of the bored cut. When you get remotely close, turn off the saw and pound in the wedges - and when the tree starts to move, leave the vicinity before it gets going - when it hits the ground is the point where it will jump back and bite you, so don't be around then.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: WiscWoody and Fred Wright
Ropes and come alongs are very handy, great insurance. I've attached to the lower trunks of other trees in the area.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Missouri Frontier
If I have a helper(that is rare) we tie off the tree up as high as we can and then tie off on another tree out of the fel zone but in the geneeral direction of the intended fell. While 1 person is cutting the other is putting their weight into the rope...seems to work well. I have tied off onto my truck if needed but again be sure y0u are out of the felling zone. Remember that when using ropes you are only influencing the direction, the rope tension should not be doing the actual fell...that should be done by the person with the saw and wedges.
 
I use chains and comealongs all the time to help direct trees in a good direction in my yard. I have a 10ft. aluminum ladder to get up higher on the trunk to wrap the chain around. In the woods I just try to drop the tree with the lean. No experience with ropes however.
 
I use a combination of chain, tow straps and come-along, but this is mostly to ensure that I can get the tree clear of entanglements. You need a lot of experience to get a tree to fall in a direction contrary to its natural inclination. A friend (with more experience than I) has a couple of lengths of bull rope (over 10,000 lb. tensile) which we use, sometimes with a snatch block (pulley), and pull with his truck. This technique saved my azz when I nearly dropped a tree on my incoming power service lines. I've learned a lot since then.
 
I've often used a snatch block and rope to redirect the direction of the fall from where I'm pulling - usually with my neighbors tractor - good to get the rope up as high on the tree to be cut as you can and go easy with the pull. If you can get fairly high on the trunk, and the opposite lean isn't too bad, I've had real good luck. Just be damn careful and watch everything closely. Be sure that whatever is pulling can't be hit if the tree comes down in the wrong direction. And, as always, be sure to clear a good escape path once you've made the cuts and the tree starts to fall - you don't want any fallen limbs, rocks, other trees, etc. blocking your path and giving trip hazards. Think through all the possibilities of what might happen during the felling and have plans ready. Lastly, don't attempt anything you feel uncomfortable with - better safe than sorry - this kind of work is inherently dangerous and is not to be treated lightly. Cheers!
 
Wow...thanks a ton guys for all that information. It's definitely a ton to digest but helpful all the same. I'm really intrigued by Boil & Toil's idea of incorporating a spring for constant tension. I do something similar at work when honing valves but never even thought about it in the wood cutting realm. Thanks again for all the responses and I really look forward learning many more things from you guys
 
Similar to NH_Wood - but truck instead of tractor (since I don't have one :() I get a friend out (or 2 if I can), one has a 100' steel cable, + snatch block and pulley. We hook one end of the cable around the tree as high up as we can go with a ladder, tie the pulley off to another tree near the base (in the general direction of the fell) Then run the cable thru the pulley and back to the front of the truck (tow hooks). Truck is well away from the tree and not in the line of fire (thanks to pulley). A bit of tension (not a lot) just to take the slack out of the cable (as muncybob mentioned, you don't want the cable causing any surprises for the saw guy, that person needs to be in control). Truck is idling while saw guy starts to notch. Once the notch is cut, saw guy cuts into the other side, as soon as the tree starts to budge, saw guy moves well away, and truck guy gives it a bit of a "tug". If there's a 3rd body out there, it's an extra set of eyes (and another cutter once the tree is down :).

This is for anything within striking distance of a building, etc. where i want some extra insurance, and where I can get the vehicle close enough to hook on the cable. Stuff out in the back 40 we use a come-along just for insurance or if there's a leaner or something smaller or we can drop it in any direction we want, then we just fell it freehand. I have not dropped a lot of trees - guys who are really good at this probably don't ever need the overkill but so far the cable thing has worked well and kept us out of trouble. As mentioned, be extra careful, get rid of any obstacles, pay very close attention all the way through. Once a tree is really going somewhere, you're not going to change it's mind.
 
Using a bull rope to help direct a tree is very common, especially when felling a tree that is near a building or power line. It is not bad to tie off to a pickup, tractor or whatever. Doing it right, you first want to put tension on the rope. Then whoever is running the saw can tell what is happening with the tree and like most will watch the kerf really close. Some will look up and for sure that is not bad even if it were only to make sure the rope is held right. When the feller determines, he can motion to put a little more tension on the rope or even direct it to actually pull the tree down. It takes a little experience to know exactly when to do what and how much tension. For sure you need the right rope or cable. You can usually buy a good bull rope of 150' for from $150 to over $200, which is cheap if it does what you need done. Also as BEconklin stated, getting that bull rope up high in the tree (which it does need to be high) is made easier by first putting up a smaller rope, then tying the two together to get the heavier bull rope up.

In most situations a rope is not needed but if it helps the novice, it is a great insurance thing or something to give a bit more peace of mind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Thistle and BobUrban
1. Proper scarf cut.
2. Proper felling cut (biggest mistake rookies make is making this cut too high leaving a bad hinge)
3. Use wedges!
4. If you must use a rope, use a snatch block so you are no where near the tree falling direction
 
I took down a 24" pine 2 years ago using rope since it was right next to my house. Had a buddy and my brother help. We tied the rope as high as we could, hitched a winch to the back of my truck, and ran enough cable/rope so there was no way the tree could hit the truck. We then put a little tension on the rope and my buddy started cutting while I watched and directed my brother and ran the winch. I had wanted to drive but my brother has always loved my truck and jumped in before we had even finished the plan. I should have known better and made him get out. The plan was to keep just a small amount of tension on the tree with the winch and only drive the truck if the winch wasn't pulling fast enough, but as my buddy was in the cut my brother decided out of nowhere to floor the truck and yank the tree over. He scared the crap out of my buddy and got a severe tongue lashing from me. The tree came down, but because of him it knocked over a smaller decorative tree and bent some of my gutters. So even though I tried to be safe and used people I trusted, people still do dumb stuff.
 
Snatch block is okay for sure but is not totally necessary. Same with hitching to a truck. It will work if you have the right people. The key is that everyone should know what is happening. I still recall a tree trimming business coming to a neighbor's place to cut some really huge white pines. He used a good bull rope and a truck and everything worked great. I just watched and was very pleased to see them all know what to do and when to do it. He also had a bucket to take him up to fasten the rope high on the tree. I think his bull rope was over 200'. Sweet.
 
bigbarf48 said:
I've done it once, so I may nt be of much help to you. It was a small (maybe ~12in) sweetgum and my brother was pulling on one end while I cut. First tree I ever felled, cut that thing down with a remington electric chainsaw ;lol. Thats what got me started in all this.

Anyways, if you're wanting to do it with larger trees, you may want to look in to cable rather than rope, and some sort of come-a-long system. I'll let those more experienced than I chime in further
Click to expand...
Remington make rifles, razors and chainsaws. Who would have thought.
 
I just hate it when a tree falls the way you didn't want it to!

download.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

B
How to use vented gas fireplace when electricity goes out?
Replies
2
Views
522
It's a Gas!
Bz538
B
P
King KE40 as an insert?
Replies
36
Views
2K
Blaze King
bholler
B
P
PE Summit LE -vs- Hearthstone Mansfield, not as simple as it seems...
Replies
4
Views
914
The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces
begreen
begreen
Eggyolkio
Pacific Energy Neo 2.5 free standing wood stove construction and parts questions.
Replies
3
Views
1K
Pacific Energy
Eggyolkio
Eggyolkio
B
Classic case of being upsold, or actually an issue?
Replies
5
Views
1K
Vermont Castings
Woodsplitter67
Woodsplitter67
Top Bottom
Back